Are questions about local dialects necessarily "opinion-based"?

Question: Are questions about local dialects necessarily "opinion-based"? (If not, I believe my question was closed without proper justification)
Comment: I think this question is hard to answer by providing reliable reference, and as a consequence it will ultimately rest on personal opinions or hearsay.
Answer: Questions about local dialects are not necessarily opinion-based. However, you're in a looking-glass world here at ELU:

Questions are considered opinion-based if they're likely to attract answers based on personal, rather than 'expert' opinion.

Your question may be considered likely to attract answers based on personal opinions, primarily because you either haven't done any basic research to answer your own question, or if you have done such research, the question doesn't mention what (exactly and specifically) that research was and why it wasn't sufficient to answer your question.

I'm not the originator of the guidelines behind the 2 points I mention, nor am I able to justify or explain the reasons for them. I have merely observed the effects in operation.
The two points can only be considered guidelines. More or less obviously, some questions cannot be adequately researched by the people who have the questions. Equally, the points are only considered operative for a subset of questioners and answerers: some of the participants here are considered 'above the fray' and so are given special privileges and considerations. The members of that privileged subset appear to me to have been chosen by 'behind the scenes' activity, in the chatrooms and presumably elsewhere, along with longevity on the ELU site in conjunction with general acceptance of whatever elaborate fictions those privileged members choose to promote about themselves and their 'expert' status.
Anyway, I've voted to reopen your question because the research necessary to answer it is somewhat daunting, and the applicable resources are not generally or easily accessed.
Answer: As is, that question is totally on-topic. It is asking about the regional dialect meanings of a word. What's more on-topic about that? It is not asking for opinions (or if this question is then -all- questions on Stackoverflow are opinions - just because people might disagree doesn't mean they are opinions).
It might arguably be closable for not presenting say a dictionary definition of 'yankee' which includes the first two items and some claim that you cannot find any evidence for the last three. But that is a nit-picker's close reason... if you really feel that is necessary it'd be easy enough for the close-voter to instead do the edit themselves.
The text does sound like a fabrication though - the last line sounds too much like a punch line in its seeming absurdity. Either way, it is certainly so specific (and otherwise not publically documented) that it warrants a question on ELU.
Answer: It may be relevant that the existing menu of possible reasons for closing doesn't very well articulate all the reasons that may actually lead people to vote to close. It thus often happens that somebody feels that a question should be closed, clicks 'close', and then selects whichever reason seems to be the closest, even if it doesn't quite reflect the real reason. This leads to the posted reasons for closing being confusing and misleading.
In this case, it is possible that the last line of the quoted text led some people to perceive the whole text as a joke, and that they then voted to close the question because they treated it as a request that the joke be explained. As there is nothing on the menu that quite captures that reason, they selected 'opinion-based' as the closest available option.
Perhaps it is time for the established contributors to this site to reflect on how frustrating and alienating to questioners it is when they see their questions closed with posted reasons that make no sense. I realise, though that revising the menu of the reasons for closing may be a daunting project.
Comment: If a question was inspired by a joke on YouTube, is that a valid reason to close it?
Comment: @MaxB, in itself it isn't (the matter has been raised [elsewhere](https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1000) on this site). It is, however, not always easy to distinguish (1) questions that are **inspired** by a joke, but call for an explanation of some general feature of the language, and (2) questions that are **merely** requests to help one person 'get' one particular joke, and do not engage any general feature of the language. It may sometimes happen that questions of the first kind get closed, unfairly, because they are mistakenly perceived to be of the second.
Answer: I scanned the Oxford English Dictionary full definition of Yankee, and it supports the first several definitions given in the @MaxB question.  However, I did not see any mention of Vermont or pie.  The OP probably does not have to go to the OED to find the non-Vermont and non-pie answers.   So the question really reduces, after summarizing some research, to about Vermont and pie, and an answer from a bona fide long-time inhabitant of New England would be useful.
That is, answers based on authentic personal experience are useful even if not supported by a quotation.  I remember fascinating answers from people who reported on the dialects of their local areas or language spoken by their grandparents, although I cannot easily find an example.


UEC - Ubuntu 10.10 - node registration problem

Question: I am trying to setup a private cloud on two servers. All components register as expected except for my node. I've found one person who had the same exact problem using Ubuntu 10.10 during the beta, but none of the responses to that posting have fixed the issue. I've included below the text of the post I am referring to as well as a link to the entire post/responses.
POST:
"I have a two computer system where one server is CC + CLC + SC and the other server is NC. Both servers are dual core PCs with 4GB RAM.
I installed UEC 10.10 beta with the Eucalyptus 2.0 that comes with it and upgraded it from the repositories so that it is up to date as of 09/20/2010.
I was able to get everything working except that the node controller does not seem to be registered properly. Below are the command line results.
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --list-walruses
registered walruses:
Walrus 192.168.1.143
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --list-clusters
registered clusters:
cluster1 192.168.1.143
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --list-nodes
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --list-scs
registered storage controllers:
cluster1 192.168.1.143
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca-describe-availability-zones verbose
AVAILABILITYZONE cluster1 192.168.1.143
AVAILABILITYZONE |- vm types free / max cpu ram disk
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.small 0000 / 0000 1 512 4
AVAILABILITYZONE |- c1.medium 0000 / 0000 1 512 5
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.large 0000 / 0000 2 512 10
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.xlarge 0000 / 0000 2 1024 20
AVAILABILITYZONE |- c1.xlarge 0000 / 0000 4 2048 20
When I try to manually register the Node controller I get:
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --register-nodes 192.168.1.100
INFO: We expect all nodes to have eucalyptus installed in //var/lib/eucalyptus/keys for key synchronization.
Trying rsync to sync keys with "192.168.1.100"...done.
If I try to do the automatic discovery, I get the following issue with IPV6 formatted address.
root@cloudcontroller:/var/log/eucalyptus# euca_conf --discover-nodes
New node found on fe80::21e:4fff:febb:82a2; add it? [Yn] y
INFO: We expect all nodes to have eucalyptus installed in //var/lib/eucalyptus/keys for key synchronization.
Trying rsync to sync keys with "fe80::21e:4fff:febb:82a2"...ssh: Could not resolve hostname fe80: Name or service not known
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(601) [sender=3.0.7]
failed.
Trying scp to sync keys to: eucalyptus@fe80::21e:4fff:febb:82a2://var/lib/eucalyptus/keys/...
ssh: Could not resolve hostname fe80: Name or service not known
lost connection
failed.
ERROR: could not synchronize keys with fe80::21e:4fff:febb:82a2!
The configuration will not have this node.
Hint: to setup passwordless login to the nodes as user eucalyptus, you can
run the following commands on node fe80::21e:4fff:febb:82a2:
sudo -u eucalyptus mkdir -p ~eucalyptus/.ssh
sudo -u eucalyptus tee ~eucalyptus/.ssh/authorized_keys > /dev/null <"
URL:
http://open.eucalyptus.com/forum/uec-1010-beta-eucalyptus-20-node-controller-issues
I'm completely stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: UEC's automatic discovery ($euca_conf --discover-nodes) will discover your nodes twice; once with the IPv4 address and once for the IPv6 address.
Just say 'yes' to the IPv4 and 'no' to the IPv6.


How do I ask a good question about a topic I am not completely familiar with?

Question: In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have found people have a little less patience when dealing with questions like this. Often, I find myself being bombarded by irrelevant things in the comments below that have nothing to do with my question, no help to help me with where the problem is and such. It is kind of demotivating seeing all this negative feedback when posting a question while it would take the same amount of time to suggest a fix on the question its self and help me understand what I am doing wrong.
Comment: "What does down-voting bring me other than confusion?". The downvoting isn't so much for you but for the other users of the site, mainly those who answer questions. If you can't understand and work with the fact that there are other people here you probably won't have a good experience. One thing you could do is read other people's questions and see which ones get good answers, and try to model your posts on them.
Comment: Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
Comment: The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
Comment: The linked question does not contain enough context for a good answer. The purpose of this site is to help people having a particular question in a particular topic, but not for general advices that are necessarily opinion-based.
Comment: To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
Comment: you know, if someone would have commented that, I would have been able to give more detail. What does down-voting bring me other than confusion?
Comment: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/whats-the-best-way-to-write-mathematical-preliminaries-for-physics-papers
Comment: and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable  when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces.  And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
Comment: what does it need for good context? I showed effort by showing what I am currently doing.
Comment: The question is a bit of an oxymoron. If you are "completely familiar" with a subject then what's the point of asking questions in the first place? Of course this is a rhetorical question as a complete mastery of any given subject is arguably impossible.
Comment: The question you linked to, about how to write a physics paper, is simply off-topic. If you show us where to find the other question you mention, about irreducible blah-blah, people might be able to explain why it got the response it did.
Answer: First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions.  (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique:  listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:

Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
Ask about analogies (is this similar to X?  to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
Ask how some fact is used in the real world.  If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated.  Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...).  Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof."  Instead:  "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")

Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
Comment: @Peter:  See revised answer.  Teachers *answering* questions is not the matter at hand.  Likewise, reading articles do not *teach* how to ask good questions.  You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions.  Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
Comment: No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
Comment: A good answer (+1)
Comment: Good answer! One thing I've found to be very helpful is to see examples and counterexamples (why cases work or fail...). This could probably fall under the "extremal cases" point (understanding the limits of a theorem or given idea). Another is to find analogies between proofs (interesting steps in two proofs that work in similar ways). Unfamiliar poofs can often be understood better this way, and in any case, it's nice (and even enlightening) to think about connections between seemingly-unrelated theorems.
Answer: None of these are meant to directly relate to your own questions, but they're things I think about both when asking and answering questions online (although I can always do better).
Understand the social contract
This is a tricky one to express clearly, partially because it depends a lot on where you're asking the question. In some places, like this site, the social contract may be expressly written - there are guidelines in the help center that tell you about things like questions to avoid, or what to do if no-one answers your question.
In other contexts, you may have to interpret the social contract based on observation, questioning and/or experiment - you try asking a question in class, and your professor tells you to make an appointment to discuss it; or you notice that there's a green button on each desk and the professor somehow knows who wants to ask a question, you press the button and get called on so you realise it's a paging system.
Be humble
You've come to ask a question. That means that whoever answers it will, hopefully, know more about the subject than you. Or at least they know something about the subject that you don't, namely the answer to your question.
In a place like this, answers are given out of some weird combination of actual altruism and an addiction to meaningless internet points. The person answering the question doesn't normally gain much of real value by giving you the answer, so be polite when they answer and take their response in good faith - particularly noting some of the things I write later about cases where you might have gotten something wrong or expressed things unclearly, don't get annoyed at them for trying to understand your question better.
Additionally, if you're asking a question that relates to a more esoteric aspect of mathematical theory, don't expect an answer immediately (or possibly at all) - if there's only one person in the world who knows anything about doubly-invertible homeopathic hyperfields, what even are the odds that they frequent this site? (Actually, probably quite high if they're the kind of person who compulsively searches for things where they can jump in and show off their expertise, but you can't always count on it.)
Provide meaningful context
There are a few reasons why context is important to your question
Giving relevant answers
Think about the mathematical rules you learned in school, and how they evolved. At some point you were probably told "You can't subtract a bigger number from a smaller one", but then a few years later got told about negative numbers. Of course "You can't take the square root of a negative number", until you get introduced to the imaginary numbers and the complex plane. And while back in your formative years the question "Why is $1+1=2$ and $1 \times 1 = 1$?" gets little more than "Because that's the rule", several decades later you may be introduced to binary numbers, field theory, or the set construction of arithmetic (or maybe just the classic $1 + 1 = $ 田.
By providing sufficient context for your question, people can answer it within that context, so you get the answer you actually need.
Identifying mistaken or alternative assumptions
Think about the question "Why is $\pi = \frac{22}{7}$?". We know it's not actually true, but it's an approximation that is used often enough in schools that some people might reasonably think that it is. And so, while there's no answer to the question (since it's built on a false premise), if we know why the asker thinks that it's true we can help show them the truth, and possibly discuss the topic of how these approximations come about and what a good approximation is.
Answering the real question
This happens a lot in tech support type forums, but it can also happen in mathematics. You're trying to do X, and you've worked out that it looks like you can use Y to do so, but you keep hitting problem Z. So you go to the forum, and you say "Why doesn't Z work?". Sometimes, the answer is because Z never works, especially when you try to use it for X, because Y is the wrong tool for the problem.
If you come along and say "I'm trying to do X. I looked at approach Y, but keep hitting problem Z. Is there a way to get around Z or is there maybe a better approach to X?" then it's a lot more likely that you'll actually get a working solution to X, which is what you really wanted in the first place.
Demonstrating effort
This relates a little bit to the whole "People are doing this out of good will and/or a desire to show off knowledge" thing - we often want to reward people who have tried to figure the answer out for themselves first. Sometimes this is because answering no-effort questions breeds more no-effort questions and drowns out the actually interesting ones. Sometimes it comes from a belief that trying to solve a problem for yourself gives you a better understanding than spoon-feeding you the answer, and I think a lot of people here think of ourselves as being educators to some extent.
Comment: "*In a place like this, answers are given out of some weird combination of actual altruism and an addiction to meaningless internet points.*" Don't underestimate boredom as a factor.
Comment: True. Or putting off doing something else you're supposed to be doing.
Comment: I'd like to add to the second point that another reason why I answer questions is because that helps me revise some contents that I might otherwise forget if I haven't been using them lately. There are also times when I'm new to the subject but I'm able to understand the question after reading about it and come up with a solution. So I learn too when I answer questions.
Answer: I haven't looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don't say "Solve it for me!". It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don't know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don't) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can't see you and can't see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn't have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
Answer: This is by no means a full answer to your question, but I've asked a lot of bad questions in my time, so I have a pretty clear idea of what winds people up and leads to negative feedback:

failure to demonstrate any effort on one's own part
multiple misconceptions in the same question
being unclear what you're asking for
anything that wastes people's time (especially convoluted questions containing any of the above)
asking about unusual things
not using Mathjax
asking the xy problem
not searching for pre-existing questions and answers

Sadly, there are a few which probably shouldn't lead to negative feedback, but do nevertheless:

including evidence of what you have tried and where you are stuck, when your own efforts were completely wrong or incompetent (this is one of the biggest downvote/close magnets there is for some reason)
previous poor questions
being incapable of giving the clarification requested in comments
making the same mistake many others have made before

Avoid the above and you should be in good shape.  Above all, be humble and grateful for any help.


Why does 前 mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of direction?

Question: Why does 前 mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of direction?
So far I was able to find that 前 is constructed from Chinese: 舟 and 止, which can be interpreted as "leaving a footprint", hence the "past" meaning, but it seems kind of far-fetched.
Comment: Where did you find that 前 is constructed from 舟 and 止?
Comment: @istrasci I think that's the explanation given in most dictionaries; originally 歬 with 止 > 䒑 and 舟 > 月, with 刀 added later.  That doesn't necessarily tell us anything about the Japanese word まえ, though.
Comment: Interesting.  Never heard of that...
Comment: How does 前 mean "forward"? AFAIK, it describes a position (前, in front of) rather than a direction (真っすぐ, straight).
Answer: Probably for the same reason that someone who is "ahead" of someone else is both in front of them physically and also arrives earlier. For that matter, the English word "before" also shares the same meanings of "earlier" and "in front" (though the latter meaning is rarer in current usage).
Equating temporal directions with physical ones is a tricky matter that's more complicated than it might intuitively seem. 前 is actually the simpler Japanese example here, because it is at least very consistent in which direction it refers to in each context. 先 is so nebulous that it can actually refer to the past or future.
Comment: Right, I'm always confusing the meanings of 先日 and 前日.
Comment: So it's basically safe to summarise as "look up preceding in an English dictionary"?  The definitions read about the same heh
Comment: @BenRoffey Your last sentence is so zen ;)
Answer: As a Chinese native speaker who knows a little bit about Japanese, I would like to talk about this character on a Chinese perspective. I believe the origin of your question can be traced to the Chinese origin.

Picture source: http://www.fantizi5.com/ziyuan/ and then search "前".
Translation: Original character: (止 over 舟). This character is from 舟 and 止, where 舟 is a boat, and 止 is a foot, indicating the boat is going forward.........
Consider duck, which is an animal that uses its feet to pedal, 舟 with 止 should be considered as a person using his/her feet to pedal the boat to go forward.
In Chinese, 前 has almost the exactly same meaning as in Japanese - the first is something in front of something. E.g.: 面前, which literally means "in front of the face", or just "in front of (a person)"; 站前, which is used by many cities as "the area in front of the (main) train station". This can be considered as a priority queue (sorry, but I'm a computer scientist, and this is a computer science term, but I do think it is not hard to understand), 前 means A has a higher priority than B.
The second meaning is about time - which means "before". However, in Chinese, 前日 means "the day before something happens" (e.g.:结婚前日, "the day before wedding"). Interestingly, 前天 means "the day before yesterday", though people usually treat 日 and 天 as two characters with the same meaning. More interestingly, "先前几天/先前几日" in Chinese both have the same meaning: "preceded days before today (or someday)", "昨天/昨日" both mean "yesterday". Nevertheless, 前 means "preceding time". Time can also be considered as a queue - the preceded time can be considered as having a higher priority. Or front another perspective, the preceded time is "in front of" the following time.
Another meaning is "proceed". For example: "前进" literally means "proceed forward", which means "proceed". When proceeding, it means to get higher priority.
All in all, 前 means "a higher priority" as a state/time/etc, or "to get a higher priority". Therefore, it means going forward.

I saw someone said that he/she is "always confusing the meanings of 先日 and 前日" in Japanese - it's normal, as you can see from above, they are complicated from the root (which is Chinese itself) of this question.
P.S., for Chinese, the words with "天" that can be changed to "日" without changing the meaning (e.g. "昨天/昨日", "先前几天/先前几日", "三天/三日 (three days)", "星期天/星期日 or 周天/周日(Sunday, 周天 is rare, 星期天 and 周日 are most used, 星期日 is a little bit formal)", "工作天/工作日(Weekdays, though the first one is rare)"), the one with "天" is more informal, and the one with "日" is more formal. Even for most words with "日" that is not interpreted as "day" (e.g.: "日" itself can either mean "sun" or "day" (and sometimes can be used as f-word in Chinese), but "天" only means "day"), it's more formal than its synonyms (e.g.: 日 vs 太阳, both mean "the Sun", and the first one is more formal; same when interpreting "日" as a swear word, it is more formal than its synonyms).
It's hard to feel the inner meaning of a word when learning another language. I personally learn English (since 2001-2002, when I was 4-5) and German (since 2014), and I do speak better English than most of my Chinese friends - but still worse than real native speakers...... It is necessary to be soaked in that environment in order to be a better user of one language.
Answer: My understanding is that it's analogous to English usage of the word before.
In some cases, before in English has the connotation of something that occurs prior:

学校から帰る前に、図書館に行かなきゃ。
Before I go home from school, I have to go to the library.

In other cases, before has the meaning of something that is in front of you (i.e. standing before you):

急にアリスさんは僕の前に立ち上がって、「好きだよ、きみのこと」と言った。
  Suddenly, Alice stood up before (or, in front of) me, and said "I love you".
Answer: There are many issues with the question, because it doesn't differentiate between words and characters. Fully addressing the question requires a discussion of the following:

The glyph origin of「前」
Spatiotemporal metaphors
The Chinese word (Old Chinese: /*[dz]ˤen/) meaning front/forward, past and translating this Chinese word into the Japanese word「まえ」

Firstly, there is no demonstrable link between the character「前」and the meaning forward. The oracle bone version of「前」looked like

That is, a compound of「止」(foot) and「凡」(a tray, now written「盤」). The original meaning was to wash one's feet (e.g. in a basin), and sometimes to emphasise the meaning, drops of water「氵」were added around the foot, and「凡」was replaced with「用」(a tub/bucket, now written「桶」).

The original meaning was extended to mean wash in general, now written「湔」.「凡」is often confused with「舟」(seen in many characters such as「盤」, where the tray-shape is morphed into「舟」), because「凡」and「舟」looked very similar in many bronze inscriptions:

(Bronze script forms; Left: 舟, Right: 凡)
This leads to the form「歬」, and by this time「凡」and「用」were long gone from the character and「歬」was used for the meaning forward.
The character didn't stop changing, however, and eventually「刀」was added to represent the meaning cut, later written「剪」(to emphasise the meaning cut differentiated from forward via the addition of yet another「刀」). An overview of the change over the years looked something like this:

Hopefully this demonstrates the importance in separating the concepts of words and characters; the one series of characters「前」has been used to represent three completely different words (meaning wash, forward, cut) which merely sounded similar.

Now that we've determined that the character has nothing to do with the meaning, the second point of interest is the association of forward and past, and backward and future. Neurobiology/psycholinguistics terms the description of temporal directionality using spatial language as spatiotemporal metaphors, noting that words that describe spatial locations are borrowed in most languages around the world to also describe temporal sequencing. Studies relating to the English language typically categorises these as time-based and ego-based metaphors:

Time-based metaphor, viewing a sequence of events from past to present. Future is behind, past is in front.

English: after, before
Chinese:「後」,「前」

Ego-based metaphor, viewing a sequence of events as approaching you or leaving you. Future is in front, past is behind.

English: forwards (what's coming ahead), backwards (what's left behind)
Chinese:「未來」,「過去」

It is clear that English also has a metaphor equating front as past, which is directly translatable to「前」; however it is the time-based before rather than the ego-based forward.
Japanese「まえ」(etymology/historical spelling:「[目方]{まへ}」, the direction which the eyes are looking in), as a spatial term is an easy enough correspondence to Chinese /*[dz]ˤen/ (front), but did it carry a connotation of before, past prior to the importation of kanji? The presence of a few other Japanese vocabulary items specifying the past suggests a preference towards ego-based metaphors:

「[古]{いにしえ}」 - from「[往]{い}にし[方]{へ}」, in the direction of that which has left you;
「[昔]{むかし}」 - from「[向]{む}く」+「し」, in the direction of that opposite to the present (where you are located).

To summarise:

「前」has nothing to do with forward/past in terms of glyph origins;
Chinese uses「前」as a time-based metaphor indicating the past;
It is unknown whether「まえ」had the association to the meaning past before「前」was imported. Such a meaning would at least not be obvious from the etymology「[目方]{まへ}」, and we would expect an abundance of fossilised words containing a derivative or cognate of「[目方]{まへ}」referring to the past if「まえ」was associated with the past before the importation of「前」.
Comment: Excellent analysis. I would like to point out that English (and indeed many [most?] PIE daughter languages that I'm aware of) uses the same set of words (or roots at least) to mean the same set of ideas: _**before**_ refers to both "physically in front" and "temporally behind". Consider also [German _vor_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vor#German), Spanish [_ante_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ante#Spanish) and [_antes_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antes#Spanish), Czech [_před_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C5%99ed#Czech).
Comment: Even non-PIE Hungarian [_előtt_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/el%C5%91tt) and Hawaiian [_mua_](https://trussel2.com/HAW/haw-m.htm#46885).  Just in terms of how the ideas happen, if someone goes _before_ you, they are physically in front and temporally behind -- this seems to be intrinsic to the very concept, hence the broad agreement even among languages that aren't at all related.
Answer: Because one thing happens 'before' another thing in time. Actually it has the meaning of 'in front of' or 'before'.  So something can happen in front of you. Or something happens before another thing happens.


Wordpress Theme on Contribution pages

Question: I am having an issue with setting what theme/layout is being used on contribution pages. I assume it is using the defualt layout but that ends up allowing sidebars and a slider to display. how do i set the layout for civicrm pages and profiles?
Answer: Assuming you're adding the Civi content via a WP page (Pages > Add Page, use the CiviCRM button to add your chosen functionality), under Page Attributes there should be the option to select a template.  Depending on the theme you've selected, there may be a Full Width option.  If not, you may be able to add that option to your theme.
~ Lesley

Wordpress Theme on Contribution pages


iCloud sign out not possible on High Sierra

Question: I recently changed my Apple ID mail address. I was getting messages that I have to enter my password for my old iCloud address. Therefore I attempted to sign out on the system preferences. However every time I try this it gets stuck at some loading process. I have every iCloud service disabled. The internet-accounts panel says that this is not my primary iCloud account. I tried deleting the keychains folder and signed out and on again.
Answer: I was able to fix the issues by deleting the files in ~/Library/Accounts/ and ~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist then logging out and in again before opening the panels again. Warning: This also removes every other account you have listed in the accounts folder.
Comment: I have been trying for 10 days to sign out of iCloud with no luck. I will try your way and see if it works for me.
Comment: @jmh did you succeed?
Answer: you need to sign out from the primary account. If you can login to icloud.com and check for device registered, if it is registered under same apple ID. Then go to settings>check for that device> click on "x" mark for removing device.
Then reboot the device once and apple ID should able to signout from macos.
Second option, go to system preference under users and groups. Select the local administrator and right click for selecting advanced options, check for Apple ID configured, in case of different apple. Try to change to your current apple ID and sign out from system preference.
Comment: Under the user & groups panel no apple id is configured. Adding an address here does not result in any change. Still lists none. Removed it from iCloud but still signed in acc. to iCloud panel and internet-accounts.
Answer: The issue I ran into was that after a manual restore ownership of files in /var/db was incorrect. All the directories was incorrectly owned by root.
For 10.13.6 the correct owners seems to be:
drwxr-x---    6 _analyticsd         _analyticsd             192 Aug 16 19:18 /var/db/analyticsd
drwx------    3 _applepay           _applepay                96 Aug 13 17:06 /var/db/applepay
drwxr-xr-x    2 _astris             _astris                  64 Apr  9 21:28 /var/db/astris
drwxr-x---    2 _cmiodalassistants  _cmiodalassistants       64 Apr  9 21:28 /var/db/cmiodalassistants
drwx-----x    4 _datadetectors      _datadetectors          128 Aug 18 10:26 /var/db/datadetectors
drwxr-xr-x    4 _displaypolicyd     _displaypolicyd         128 Aug 18 18:57 /var/db/displaypolicyd
drwxr-xr-x    3 root                wheel                    96 Aug 13 18:02 /var/db/efw_cache
drwxr-xr-x    2 _findmydevice       _findmydevice            64 Apr  9 21:28 /var/db/findmydevice
drwxr-x---    4 _fpsd               _fpsd                   128 Aug 16 04:13 /var/db/fpsd
drwxr-x---    2 _geod               _geod                    64 Apr  9 21:28 /var/db/geod
drwxr-x---    3 _hidd               _hidd                    96 Aug  3 02:53 /var/db/hidd
drwxr-x---    4 _locationd          _locationd              128 Aug 18 18:56 /var/db/locationd
drwx------    3 _usbmuxd            _usbmuxd                 96 Aug 13 17:06 /var/db/lockdown
drwxr-x---    3 _nsurlsessiond      _nsurlsessiond           96 Aug  3 02:52 /var/db/nsurlsessiond
drwxr-xr-x    3 _nsurlstoraged      _nsurlstoraged           96 Aug 13 18:07 /var/db/nsurlstoraged
drwxr-xr-x    2 _ondemand           _ondemand                64 Apr  9 21:28 /var/db/ondemand
drwxr-x---    3 _securityagent      _securityagent           96 Aug 13 17:06 /var/db/securityagent
drwxr-xr-x    3 _softwareupdate     _softwareupdate          96 Aug 18 18:57 /var/db/softwareupdate
drwxr-x---    4 _timed              _timed                  128 Aug 18 18:57 /var/db/timed


When connecting to the Internet via Dial-Up, were computers directly accessible via their allocated IP address?

Question: From carrying out some brief research, it appears that as is the case today, when using Dial-Up to access the Internet customers were often allocated a dynamic IP address by their ISP. Typically, when connecting via a Broadband connection today via a router, some protection is offered from externally-facing attacks; the router only allows traffic to reach internally-connected clients if a rule has explicitly been defined to allow packets to be forwarded to a specific internal IP via a port number. Was this the case when using Dial-Up, or in theory was a machine accessible to anyone - either unless a user had installed and configured a software-based firewall on their computer, or the ISP implemented some kind of NAT?
Comment: It's not directly a matter of dialup or otherwise, it's whether there's a NAT layer in the way.   The typical home router implements NAT as a way of having multiple devices share on ISP-assigned IP address, and a beneficial side-effect is that incoming TCP connections aren't forwarded unless forwarding has been explicitly set up. In the dial-up era, routers were not common,
Comment: From my experience here (Brazil), they were directly acessible by IP address. NAT didn't come into use until people had multiple devices at home.
Comment: Semi-related: https://fadden.com/gaming/natgames.html
Comment: Most private internet customers had a modem in their computer used for connecting, and no other internet capable devices, so the single IP-number assigned was enough for most users.  Unless they paid premium they got a private network IP-address and therefore the ISP had to do the NAT-layering.
Comment: Of course! Why wouldn't they be?
Comment: They used to be, and that explains things like Blaster or Sasser worms, IRC nukes, using ZoneAlarm or similar programs, and not having to open ports to play online
Answer: In the UK my dial-up connection (from 1996) was accessible to anyone whilst connected. I didn't use a firewall on my MS-DOS computer. However, due to paying per-minute phone charges to dial in (in addition to a fixed monthly charge from my ISP), I only used the connection in batch mode for email and Usenet news (no Web) so I wasn't online for very long. (I would dial in and my Internet software would automatically transfer any email or news then logoff. I would read it offline and any replies would be sent on the next login.)
When I changed to a broadband connection (in 2006) with a cable modem and a MS-Windows PC I used a firewall (ZoneAlarm) which did detect external attacks. I added a router, to get wifi. The combination of NAT and an internal firewall in the router meant that ZoneAlarm no longer saw any attacks.
Comment: Seems reasonable to me for two reasons. The first is that while an ISP could have used NATting at his "point of presence" (modem rack etc.), I don't think that I saw anything like that being done until carriers such as Vodafone started offering IP-based data over GSM. Second, the Wikipedia NAT article cites RFC 2663 which is dated 1999, so while its intention is to standardise terminology rather than provide a "HOWTO" for the technology it's reasonable to assume that NATting was still a comparatively new idea.
Comment: I had a lot of experience over many years with ZoneAlarm. It was popular in the day, free, and very effective. Easy to use too. Checking my database, I see the earliest install of it I was using is dated February 2005, and I used it until I got a Windows 7 compatible broadband router in 2011.
Answer: In the USA, most ISPs did NOT use NAT with dialup. Inbound port numbers were generally unblocked, but 25 (SMTP) was often blocked as a way to prevent spam.
Comment: In the early days it was important for a dialup ISP to avoid NAT because that would prevent FTP from working.  This was before PASV mode and FTP proxies became widely used, so for FTP to work your computer *had* to be directly accessible via its IP address.
Comment: "Not always online" may also have provided a measure of protection, especially when background-noise port scans were less frequent.
Answer:
When connecting to the Internet via Dial-Up, were computers directly accessible via their allocated IP address?

Sometimes.
For example, my first internet connection was via a small ISP that used static address allocation from public address space.
(This was mid-1990s; at that time "you can't attack a service that isn't running" seemed to be sufficient)
Comment: "seemed to be" != "was"
Comment: "(This was mid-1990s; at that time "you can't attack a service that isn't running" seemed to be sufficient)" - https://insecure.org/sploits/ping-o-death.html is a vulnerability from 96 that is exploitable on most OSs of the era with no extra servives running...
Answer: This is one of those "it depends" answers. Source, I used to work as a network engineer, focusing primarily on "the internal backbone" and "dialup termination" at an ISP.
We would, by default, provide a publicly routable IP based on the POP you dialled into (assigned by the chassis your call terminated in).
We also had "single statically allocated IP" or "small statically allocated netblock" as an up-sell service (assigned by RADIUS as you authenticated).
Other ISPs would allocate a non-public IP, relying on proxies and NAT to provide internet connectivity.
Answer: At least some dial-up connections were directly connected to the Internet.  Back in the late '90s I would often SSH in to my modem-connected home computer.  Given that the addresses were dynamically assigned I'm not sure how I knew the IP to connect to.  I suspect I either noted the address before leaving home or had a cron job attempt a connection to my work computer hourly or somesuch; checking its logs would show my home IP.  I don't recall any port blocking going on but NETBIOS (ports 137-9) probably were blocked, especially in later years.
Answer: As another example of how open things were "back in the day"...
In January 1996 I registered a domain and set up a Linux box on dial-up with my local ISP just outside the greater Chicago area.  Not only did I have static IP, but because of the way they were set up I received a whole 30-IP block of public addresses!  The Linux box ran SMTPD, NNTPD, IRCD, HTTPD, FTPD, Telnetd, etc. and also set up the PC as a router, so all three PCs in the house were publicly accessible on a 10base2 network.  I was even giving accounts on the machine to friends for hosting their own web and FTP sites.
That lasted about 8 months before the ISP clawed back most of those but I still had 6 public IPs until I moved to a more rural area in late 1998, still in upstate Illinois.  Even then I had a Static IP dialup with a couple of different providers, first with 2 public IPs and finally just one but I was still able to run all the daemons.  I had NAT set up in my house so I could be at work and telnet to my home server or print to my home printer.
In 2003 I moved to upstate New York and moved to a cable modem with Earthlink.  I stopped running NNTP but nothing was blocked.  It wasn't until I moved to Delaware in 2012 and had experience with Comcast and FIOS that SMTP was blocked at the ISP level.


Possible vandalism from moderator on an answer

Question: The question here has a clear answer I gave to an author, but it was converted to a comment.
Answer: Your answer contained just a link to another website. This is not considered a good answer, instead it is one of the reason to delete an answer.
In the past I often tried to comment on your answer and to give a hint how to write good answers. Please take a minute to review the sites above and to think about how your answers could be improved. I really appreciate your work in this site and hope this will help to improve your answers.
Comment: The page has some good sample commands. You could include those in your answer whilst still linking to the original source for reference; that's what makes a good answer.
Comment: I understand your concern - but in that *particular* case there's nothing more to say than just point a person to an original and first-hand documentation of the authors of Firefox, which is used as a base for a Tor Browser. There's - literally - nothing more to say or add to my answer. The request was for doc's/manuals - and there they are, a first-hand source
Comment: OK, but maybe I can present a one more true vandalism-like action from moderator? My comments/answers *have actually helped* the asker, but the troubleshooting process was "affected" by - in my opinion - **very improper** moderation technique. I'm not chasing for rating/score/anything-like-that, it just *can* help others to solve similar problems, and I'd like to help them
Comment: Your answer may have helped the asker (and will continue to help the asker as a comment), but will it help someone who finds this question via a search in 10 years time? Not if the link is dead. This is not improper moderator technique, it is encouraged behavior on stack exchange sites. Please read the links Jens linked you too. Let me remind you again: Jens did not delete your answer, he simply moved it to amore appropriate setting for a one line answer that contains no information (just a link to a place where information can be found).
Comment: a weird thing - I remember accepting this answer, but now I have to re-accept it because it's not marked as an accepted one...
Answer: When posting an answer, it's worth thinking beyond the current askers needs. Stack Exchange sites are designed to be repositories of information for many people, not just the original poster. How often have you done a search for keywords related to a problem you were trying to solve, and the first result was a link to a stack exchange site that answered your question?
Now imagine in 10 years time you do a search for this problem or one similar, and the only answer is a link to a site that has taken that particular page down, or moved, or no longer exists. This will not be helpful, and you'll think twice before clicking through to another answer on the same site. This is not just a moderator inventing rules either, the help center for all Stack Exchange sites spells it out quite clearly:

Provide context for links
Links to external resources are encouraged, but please add context
  around the link so your fellow users will have some idea what it is
  and why it's there. Always quote the most relevant part of an
  important link, in case the target site is unreachable or goes
  permanently offline.

Try to make your answers future proof by copying bullet points or other useful information from any links you might post.
Comment: Agree, but one remark: if FF/Mozilla will be down in 10 years, so the Tor Browser will be at least based on a different code.
Answer: Link-only answers are almost never really enough. Give visitors an idea of what the page will tell them; in some cases that may be enough to trigger "oh, I know how to do that" or "no, that won't work for me" before they even have to click away.


How do I run an app in Full Screen mode on OS X Lion on my second monitor?

Question: How do I get an app to run in Full Screen mode on OS X Lion on my second monitor? It seems to be stuck on my first monitor, and I'd like to move it.
Answer: This is an excerpt of Apple's AppKit Release Note for Lion regarding full screen apps & multiple desktops.

Multiple Monitors and Full Screen (New since early 2011 seed)
We have made some simplifying assumptions for Lion Full Screen
  behavior on multiple monitors. Multiple monitors are treated as a
  single unit by Spaces, and therefore are also treated as a single unit
  in Full Screen. This means that all monitors will be dedicated to
  windows belonging to the full screen application, and there can be
  only one primary full screen window visible at a time. A secondary
  monitor is useful for inspector windows.
Secondly, because the menu bar is located on the main monitor, the
  primary full screen window will be located on the main monitor as
  well. This allows the menu bar, floating toolbar, and full screen
  window to maintain their interrelationship on the same monitor.

The full document can be found here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/releasenotes/AppKit/RN-AppKitOlderNotes/index.html#10_7FullScreen
According to this document, your full screen apps will always be shown on your primary monitor, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Comment: +1 for digging this up. But –1 to Apple. This is a ridiculous rationale.
Comment: Oh wow. This is a major workflow breaking "assumption" on Apple's part. Do their employees not use multiple monitors at Apple?
Comment: This is Apple's fancy way of saying we weren't capable of making it better, we're still working on it >.<
Were're (developers) having all kinds of problems with regards to anything fullscreen TT.TT
Comment: It looks like Apple is working on this. Their ML release notes state "We now allow a fullscreen window to occupy an external display… Much of the underlying Spaces architecture has changed in 10.8". I think they're working on it, and maybe by 10.9 we'll have each display as an independent full-screen app container.
Comment: It's a horrendous mess on Apple's part;  they've effectively destroyed multiple monitor support.  Even using a single monitor is sub-standard as you can't have another window over the maximised application,  e.g. grab, email, etc.  Almost a year on and nothing's been done.
Answer: You can switch which monitor is the "Primary" monitor by opening the Displays in Preferences and dragging and dropping the menu bar to your secondary monitor.  That should make fullscreen apps use your other monitor.
Comment: As much as this helps, I can hardly call this an answer if this is what Apple expects you to do.
Comment: Would be nice, though, if you could have two fullscreen apps simultaneously that way.
Answer: At present there is no way you can. I filed a bug on this during the developer previews and it was marked as a duplicate and the duplicate is still open. (rdar://9741058 and rdar://8056880 for the Apple folk)
My assumption is that Full Screen mode is designed for single monitor setups and it does work especially well on single small monitor setups (read any MacBook or MacBook Pro).
Comment: This is a seriously flaw, however, as QuickTime X for example can now *ONLY* use the primary display as fullscreen.
Answer: An upgrade to Mountain Lion will resolve the issue as it finally enables using full screen mode on multiple displays.
You can "take an app full screen on either display. Drag the window to the desired display and click the full-screen button."
Comment: You can, but that still leaves your other display sitting there doing nothing but displaying that ersatz-brushed-metal linen background.
Comment: @FrankSchmitt Yes, it's sad that Apple is providing only the first half to a complete solution. "While I save screen space using the fullscreen mode, I have to give up a whole other monitor with valuable screen real estate."
Answer: I find the easiest way to fix this problem when trying to watch Youtube videos fullscreen on my 47" 1080p TV, was to use Fullscreen Mode in Firefox, as this stays on the 2nd screen.
ie Only the Apple supplied software has the annoying fullscreen bug/feature.
Hope they fix this
Comment: I've found that Google Chrome when using HTML 5 video with YouTube put the video on the main monitor (my laptop screen) when I tried to full screen the video on my HDMI connected TV. In my opinion, videos should /always/ full screen to the second monitor, leaving you still able to work on the first one. This kind of configuration can still be set up in VLC, but that doesn't help YouTube.


Should we allow questions asking for resources?

Question: For this question (Intl. Flights - Which are the Flight Level rules differences?), it appears to be asking for resources that have collated information of various altitudes for direction of flight in different countires, which are plentiful. Should these types of questions be allowed on Aviation.SE?
Answer: I don't think questions asking for sources of information are bad as long as the type of information being sought is fairly specific, and there are definitive sources of that information which can be given as answers.
The problem with that question is that it's worded poorly. He's heard there may be differences in cruising altitude rules, and I think what he really wants to know are any examples of this being true, how flight planning works when crossing these types of "rule" boundaries, and how a pilot would go about finding this out. But all that really comes across is the last part. We could probably try editing the question to make it better.
Answer: I would say probably not.
One of the main goals of the SE network is to become a relatively time independent repository of useful questions with answers.
Asking for resources can often turn into a "let's go shopping" question (where there is no one correct answer)
Also, resource questions often elicit link-only answers (which, even though they answer the original user's question, tend to become useless with time).
Comment: Yes, they _can_, but it's also a consideration of what they _tend_ to do on this site, through this community. If they generally stay well contained and are reasonably scoped, then you don't really have a problem. New sites inherit our cumulative knowledge that we've gathered during the course of building over a hundred sites - but each individual community needs to tweak that knowledge _just a bit_ in order to fit their needs and topic.
Answer: In my opinion, questions along the lines of "where do I find detailed information about X?" or "where is this term/rule/procedure defined?" are sometimes useful because there are scenarios where the answer is really the information source, not the information itself:

It's not always obvious if something 'well-known' is part of the FARs and therefore legally required; a recommended (but not legally required) procedure from the AIM; or simply a best practice from an instructor. (Replace FAR and AIM with your local equivalents, of course.)
A US pilot may not be familiar with European information sources and vice versa, so someone planning his first international flight may genuinely need pointers to information rather than the information itself.

On the other hand, people who ask "where do I find X?" are presumably really interested in knowing what X actually is, so in most cases it would be better to just ask "what is X?" directly and let us answer it in an appropriate way. This is something to handle via comments on the question, I would say.
One other point we need to watch out for is providing answers that are too specific in an effort to avoid referring to other sources. Regulations change over time and NOTAMs can pop up any time, so we should be aware that in many cases - especially for flight operations - the only safe, legal and reasonable reference is the official sources. But this is something that will probably become clearer over time as we see what sort of questions are asked, and obviously no one should consider this site as a valid flight planning reference.
Answer: One benefit to having questions and answers like this is that it will bring people to the site via search engine results. Overall I think lots of reference information on the site would be a valuable resource, and if it helps increase the visibility of the site to people searching for Aviation related information, all the better.
Answer: Yes, these should be allowed because members will save time for the community with their curation efforts.
Just "Googling" it often sends you into a rabbit hole for hours of having to vet the source, scan the articles to make sure that they are actually relevant, etc.
This reduces time lost on articles made by SEO experts that are just driving traffic to their clients site.
However, the people listing articles should list why they liked those resources. So not just link only questions. But do not downvote, instead suggest edits to those answers.
Comment: While Bret Copeland has made a good justification for well worded resource requests, the justification that you have provided is not exactly a good one for this site. Stack Exchange is not purely a time saving device to bypass doing your own research; it is intended to be a site for asking clearly defined questions that have clearly defined answers. Some resource requests will result in vague lists that could go on indefinitely or no clear best answer(s). These types of questions are not good for the Stack Exchange model.
Comment: Also, the downvote is a critical part of the Stack Exchange model, and is not meant as an offense. Often it is best to leave an explanation for a downvote, but none is required.


Homing the 3D printer

Question: I have just built my first 3D printer, and I am having some problems. It is a Cartesian based 3D printer, using Marlin firmware and Pronterface software. My problem is homing the 3D printer. I do not have a probe to calibrate the z offset but I have all 6 endstops. The problem is that the "ZMIN" endstop isn't precise enough and my hotend is always either too far from or too close to the heatbed. Is there a way to manually set the home position, so when I start the printer, It just starts printing and it doesn't have to home again; Or maybe some other way to set the correct offset. It would also be helpful if I could use just the "ZMAX" plug, and then manually set the minimum Z position using a piece of paper.
Comment: In most models without an auto-leveling sensor it is done by a set of screws with which you can adjust the height of the build platform.
Comment: That does sound like your ZMIN endstop might just be faulty, or attached to the frame very weakly.

It is possible to home towards ZMAX - simply specify "1" as homing direction instead of "-1" in Marlin and set the "MANUAL_HOME_POS_Z" (or similar) to the distance between bed and ZMAX.
First, I'd try just swapping the mechanical endstop between ZMIN and ZMAX or any other working endstop.
Answer: It is possible to "home a printer" without having endstops, technically, you don't require endstops, but it makes your job a lot easier if you want to print something!
Basically, when you don't have endstops or limit switches, you need to define where the head of the printer is located. E.g. you can set the nozzle at [0, 0, 0] (origin in [x, y, z]) and add the command G92 to your print G-code file that it is at that position using G92 X0 Y0 Z0 (or any other location you use, e.g. you could engineer a parking position and refer to that position instead, note that you also need to write the movement commands to get out of that location safely). Don't forget to remove the homing command from your start code in your slicer, replace G28 with the G92 command with appropriate X, Y and Z values.
Regarding the inaccurate repetitive accuracy of your Z min endstop, it might be worth to find out why this is causing such a spread in triggering, maybe you need to invest in some new endstop switches or look more closely to the heated bed attachment to the frame.
Using Z max as a reference point is e.g. used by Ultimaker machines. The heated platform lowers to Z max; the printer knows from calibration and geometry how far it needs to rise to get to Z=0.
Comment: I already tried that. I got the printer to the position above the heat bed. I put the piece of paper in between to set the z offset, and I set the x and y axis so the hot end is at the center of heat bed, But when I press print, it just calibrates using endstops...
Comment: Is there a way to home it using  Zmax endstop and distance from zmax to heatbed?
Comment: @ToniDuspara You do need to remove the `G28` (homing command) from your print file! Replace that with `G92 X100 Y100 Z0` (that is if your bed is 200x200 mm). In reply on your Zmax comment, yes you can, this is how Ultimaker does it; an Ultimaker platform drops to the bottom to trigger Zmax. But it is better to put your efforts in fixing your current Zmin endstop.
Answer: You can reconfigure marlin to use the MAXZ endstop instead of MINZ in Configuration.h, and then reflash it to your printer.
https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/blob/1.1.x/Marlin/Configuration.h#L877
Now this is highly unusual, as most printers only have MIN endstops. If you post a pic of your faulty MINZ endstop, we can probably figure out how you could fix it. Zipties come to mind as a likely solution.

Homing the 3D printer


How to connect two BME280 sensors via I2C to a Raspberry Pi 3B+

Question: I have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and I bought two BME280 sensors (specifically these) and I would like to connect them via I2C. I read that you can do software multiplexing but all the information I am finding is incomplete, makes assumptions, or people are commenting that it doesn't work. Can anyone please let me know what I need to do? For the record, I've already hooked up one of them and am getting the readings correctly, but I need both of them connected.
Comment: Yes, AdaFruit's hardware is almost always open source.  Actually I never buy anything from her.  But I am grateful to her (and SparkFun) , so I always recommend AdaFruit.  AliExpress is usually OK, though I always buy from TaoBao which is even cheaper than AliExpress but also OK.
Comment: Quick comment.  Rpi4B has 4 I2C channels.  Does it help?  There is another I2C switcher which can handle more than one I2C device with same address.
Comment: @tlfong01, I have the 3B+, and have no background on electronics. I would love to be told what to connect to which GPIOs and what commands to run to get it working, if at all possible, unless I'm asking for too much...
Comment: Hi @Mark Cilia Vincenti, but only Rpi4B have more than one I2C bus.  Perhaps you can try Lady Ada's goody: Adafruit TCA9548A 1-to-8 I2C Multiplexer Breakout
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-tca9548a-1-to-8-i2c-multiplexer-breakout.  AdaFruit's tutorial is usually newbie friendly.
Comment: @tlfong01 would something like this work? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32970670815.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.1f757d94OM3g4T&algo_pvid=61b2e807-8a65-4d9a-9711-0599636fb6a2&algo_expid=61b2e807-8a65-4d9a-9711-0599636fb6a2-0&btsid=c83af27b-dcc7-4f21-aa80-76711b96b332&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_52
Comment: How to connect the same device multiple times via I2C has been asked and answered multiple times.
Comment: And yet I failed to find a definite and comprehensive answer anywhere, @joan.
Comment: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/94194/enable-software-i2c-on-raspberry-pi-gpio/94196#94196
Answer: In general, every I2C device has its own address, and one can connect many devices to the same port e.g. of the PI. Individual communication is possible via those addresses. (This is something you set in your program code)
Now, it should be clear that this only works if each device has its own, unique address on the port. If you buy a hand full of those sensors, each has the same address, and hence, you can not connect them to the same I2C port on the PI.
As written in the comments, you can

use two I2C ports - if you have two ports
use an I2C multiplexer, which is kind of a relay allowing to switch between devices.

But there is a build-in solution. The address of I2C devices is often hard coded, sometimes completely configurable, and sometimes, the last one or two bits can be configured.
If you read the datasheet of the BME280 sensor, the pin SDO defines lowest bit of the Adress. By default, it is connected to GND, resulting in address 76. When connected to 3.3V, the address is 77. This allows to connect two BME280 sensors to the same I2C port of the PI at the same time, and to communicate with each via its unique address.
The link you provide shows the schematic of the PCB, which contains a switch S1 for exactly this:

There is no physical switch on the PCB, instead, there is a solder jumper
consisting of the three pads in a row next to the sensor:

The center pad is connected to the SDO pin of the sensor, the upper left to GND, and the lower right to 3.3V.
By default, the center pad should be connected to the upper left pad, but you need it to be connected to the lower right one instead! (But only for ONE of your two sensors). This simply needs a soldering iron and a little solder.
Now, there should be a blob of solder connecting the center and upper left pad, similar as on the left side on this picture:

I do not see this blob on the picture of your PCB, may be, your real PCBs have them,  maybe, not.
If not, the two pads are for sure connected by a thin copper track, as on the right side in the image from me above. If this is the case, this thin copper track must be removed with a sharp knife. I don't see such track on the photo of your PCB. It might be covered with the violet paint, so you should carefully check it.
(FYI: The reason for the small copper track is that the blob needs lots of solder, while industrial soldering processes use very little solder. So, such blobs need to be placed by hand. To avoid this, that small copper tracks are used, so the few people which ever want to modify something here, would need to cut that track, first.)
As you uploaded a high resolution image of the PCB:

It is exactly what I wrote. There is a track between the central and the left pad, covered with violet solder mask.

Remove the track between the pads with a sharp knife.
Connect central pad with right pad with some solder.
Attach the sensor to the PI, and run sudo i2cdetect -y 1.
This will scan for I2C devices and display the addresses of the found ones in a table.
Do the same for the unmodified sensor. Its address should differ by one from the other address.
Attach both sensors. That is: Pin 1 of both together to the correct pin of the PI, pin 2 of both together to the correct pin, and so on...
Run the command again. It should now find both devices!

That's all from the hardware side. Your software will still talk to the unmodified sensor. Alter the address by 1 in the software to communicate with the other.
Comment: @MarkCiliaVincenti: I have added some pictures and simplifed the answer.
Comment: Yes, the pins of the two sensors share the same pins of the Pi! That's exactly what this all is about. You don't address different devices by different electrical connections, you do it by software and the data over the lines.
Comment: @Mark Cilia Vincenti, I am glad that sweber gives you the correct answer.  The two answers of using two I2C channels and TCA9548A are careless, and wasting your money.  My apologies.  sweber's suggestion of using the one hardware address bits is very common among I2C devices.  I have been using it many many times.  I am ashamed that I made such a silly mistake of forgetting it and not recommended it to you. If there is a punishment scheme, I  should be deducted at least 50 reputation points.  Or another way of thanking sweber perhaps is to search his other good answers and upvote them. :)
Comment: Maybe you want to buy a TCA9548A, @tlfong01? :P No worries mate :)
Comment: @tlfong01 mate it was just 4 euros including shipping :) and had it arrived already I would still have preferred to use that option because I had to ask someone else to modify the sensor because my soldering skills are probably bested by my pet dog.
Comment: Well, one more thing, before I answered you question, I read that you mentioned "multiplexing" and they don't work, so I wrongly thought that you must be ninja level, and did research before asking.  But now I know you are just another friendly newbie: :)
Comment: Thanks for your lengthy answer. Unfortunately, I don't understand the majority of what you said and I need to do some research to understand what you mean. I'll do that later. Yesterday, I already ordered the TCA9548A, but if I can do without it it means I can finish the project earlier. Unfortunately, I still cannot understand what I need to connect to what.
Comment: Nice thanks! Do these further images help? https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51q5LphKVyL._SL1001_.jpg and https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PidE-pJiIXY/maxresdefault.jpg and https://www.makershop.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/bme280-arduino-raspberry-pi-neu-1.jpg
Comment: @MarkCiliaVincenti Great! See the last section of my answer!
Comment: This is a brilliant answer, @sweber. I'll test it out and if it works you deserve some bounty as well.
Comment: I did steps 1 and 2 for now. Could you kindly rephrase step 5? Do you mean I strip off the ribbon cable and connect the ribbon cable of the other sensor in parallel, such that both sensors share the same GPIO pins?
Comment: I will be able to award you with a bounty in 24 hours time.
Comment: @Mark Cilia Vincenti, Ha, thank you. Actually I have more than 10 TCAs in my junk box.  BTW, I may tell you why I feel guilty.  When I was studying engineering, I was told that one day if I become an engineer, I cannot OVERSELL any product or service by taking advantage of my knowledge that other don't know.  Later I taught in a community college with many poor students who could not afford expensive toys.  I used to send newsletters to over 500 students of a course, telling them what components they should buy to save money, /to continue, ...
Comment: Now If I told them to buy the stupid TCA but in fact they can just use a hobby knife to make a cut, :(. You see, is it not just about saving money, it is about careless misconduct.  And you may find my profile saying I am a hobbyist programmer, instead of telling them that I was once an "professional" engineer, misleading them to trust me more than they should, ... In short, my careless mistake is not just damaging my own reputation or credit, but also the  engineering society I registered, and my employer, ...
Answer: Update: in newer version of BME 280 chip, the track connecting the left and center pads is not between them, but goes up directly to the chip, as you can see in this photo.
I succesfully changed the address to 0x77 by cutting that track and connecting the right and central pads.


Using Raspberry Pi as USB bridge

Question: I wanted to use my Raspberry Pi as USB bridge between multiple devices. We can assume that I want to connect my iPad which has POS software on it to my thermal printer. Most of star or Epson thermal printers can be recognized by iOS since they have MFi certification (It doesn't mean they have to be AirPrint compatible because they are not, they can be detected when they will be connected to iOS by lightning cable). I want to put my Raspberry Pi in the middle and act as they cannot see there is a device between them so technically iOS will detect printer as usual. In this case, I wanted to use USB monitoring packages to see what is happening between iPad and printer in terms of transferring data. I would be very happy if you can share your experience and ideas on this subject.
Comment: This is close to being off topic, but I think it has relevance in the space of identifying when  you can use the 'usb device' mode in order to build an interface.
Answer: A Full sized Raspberry Pi ( not a Pi Zero or Pi A) with more than 1 USB port can not act as a USB device. This is because to get 4 USB ports the USB controller is hard wired to a USB hub on the board.
This means that when you plug the iPad into the Pi the iPad will act as the peripheral, not the host a it would when you plugged a printer directly into the iPad.
Pi Zero's (and Pi A's) can act as peripherals, but because that uses the only USB port they have this doesn't really help as there is no where to plug the printer in.
A better approach might be to look at using the Raspberry Pi as a AirPrint server and printing over Wifi from the iPad. A quick search suggests that it might be a bit flaky with anything other than straight A4/Letter style printing, but it might be worth having a try.
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/AirPrint
https://wiki.debian.org/AirPrint#Upstream_CUPS_and_Airprint
Comment: Thank you @hardillb for your detailed answer. I have tried other options like AirPrint but I wanted to know specifically about this solution. I'm using raspberry pi zero, do you think that maybe connecting OTG to Rpi USB port and then connecting both iPad and printer is something that would work? or maybe something like this?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3298?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwvvC8Ji63QIViIbACh3AeAMlEAQYASABEgIrJPD_BwE https://www.amazon.com/wawpi-Micro-Charge-Adapter-Connector/dp/B01AU8E25A/ref=pd_
Comment: No that won't work, because you've added a USB hub back into the system, which is why the larger Pi's don't work.

Using Raspberry Pi as USB bridge


Spirits over 50%. Taste v effect

Question: I like a gin or 2, but tend to stick to the 37.5% stuff opposed to the stronger stuff.  I don't get any extra taste, just fall over quicker!  I understand that for some of the better whiskeys a little bit of water will bring out the taste.  At what point does the % become a problem for taste?
Comment: Could you clarify? If you're drinking a G&T the tonic will clearly dilute the mixture... but then you seem to refer to drinking the spirit straight?
Comment: Good point, what I am trying to ask, possibly awkwardly, is, After what % does the taste stay the same...  I will look at my question again and maybe edit, thanks for the comment.
Comment: @David does that edit make things clearer?  Hope so, sorry if I misled...
Comment: I do think it's clearer. I'm not sure there's a hard and fast answer though, and it's probably on a sliding scale that includes not just ABV but also flavors and mouthfeel (tannins, etc.) and your BAC: if you've polished off a bottle of wine, the next glass is probably going to taste blander than your first.
Comment: Good point.  We have just enjoyed a rather nice white from Lanzarote (Canary Islands), was the last glass different, strangely enough no, but I get your point.  However, that is wine not spirits.
Comment: Well, I think there may be two different questions: 1) at what point does ethanol impede rather than enhance the flavor of the current sip, and 2) what factors cause taste perception to diminish or skew for subsequent sips. I have anecdotal thoughts on both of these, but no real numbers. I think it will probably be "it depends".
Answer: Your question is a bit broad because the flavour of high ABV spirits, and the intention of the spirits themselves vary widely.
Some alcohols with a high ABV, such as Hungarian Palinka, are sometimes drunk purely for inebriation. They have a high alcohol content mainly to cause the intended effects, not to produce a pleasing drink. These types of spirits are also often flavourless and used to make cocktails with alcohol content.
On the other hand, I've had Scotches that were as high as 60% but very easily drunk neat, and quite pleasing.
So in sum: whether and how someone enjoys a high ABV spirit really depends on the spirit and it's individual qualities.
Comment: When you drink scotch do you add a touch of water to bring out the flavor?
Comment: I don't but know many who swear by it. I'm not convinced it doesn't just dilute the whisky and make it less 'harsh'.
Answer: The best advice is to adjust the quantity of the spirit to the percentage of alcohol it contains.
Assuming you drink responsibly, i can assure you that even a 91% spirit can be tasted and enjoyed like a pint of beer.
EDIT: As always, i think i can let the personal experience talks, i tried one of the most powerful alcoholemic recipe i can in Italy, Gocce imperiali and i can assure that if the sip is like 4/5 drops, is enjoyable
Comment: UM, let me think the cocoroco from bolivia, if I took that with a bit of water then I would 'enjoy' it?
Comment: While I agree in principle, if you have a sip of 91% spirit (even much lower), you should probably wait for your taste buds and nasal passages to recover, which may take a decent while, before tasting anything else that requires any discernment. This taste impairment is quite apart from any intoxication, and I would say that it qualifies as a "problem for taste" that the original question asks for.
Comment: @David in my opinion, some bottles are well known "bombs" and they are produced to be tasted exactly that way, no matter how you have to wait to recover your throat, productors certainly doesn't require you to finish one bottle in half an hour.
If you want something softer, there are plenty of other choiches

Spirits over 50%. Taste v effect


What is the sunnah of cutting nails?

Question: What is the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in cutting nails of hand and foot toes?
Answer: All Praise to Allah Subhanahu wa Taala and blessings of Him be on Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him His family and companion
'A'isha reported:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) loved to start from the right-hand side in his every act i. e. in wearing shoes, in combing (his hair) and in performing ablution.(Muslim)
Sunnah method is to start from the right hand and Ali may Allah swt be pleased with him has narrated the method of cutting nails as to start with the Index finger of the Right hand then middle  finger then ring finger and little finger then little finger of the left hand then ring finger then middle finger then index finger then thumb of the left hand then thumb of the right hand,wash the hands after clipping the nails.
There is no specific method mentioned for cutting nails of the feet but prescribed method is to cut in the same manner as doing khilaal of the feet in wudu means starting from the little finger of the right foot upto the thumb then thumb of the left foot moving to the little finger of the left foot.

Allah swt and His Messenger knows best.
Comment: JazakALLAH khair for your help.
Comment: I think also adding situations when the left hand side was used. And then maybe an explanation of the two.
Answer:
Narrated `Aisha:
  The Prophet (ﷺ) used to like to start from the right side on wearing shoes, combing his hair and cleaning or washing himself and on doing anything else.

so it's better to start cutting nails of the right hand first then the left hand ..

It was narrated that Anas bin Malik said:
  "We were given a time limit with regard to trimming the mustache, shaving the pubic hairs, plucking the armpit hairs and clipping the nails. We were not to leave that for more than forty days."

so we should try not to let our nails more than 40 days without cutting them ..

What is the sunnah of cutting nails?


Can caffeine be separated from coffee?

Question: Is there a way to extract caffeine from coffee completely?
Comment: In addition to Richard Terrett's nice answer, this little [article](https://www.mpg.de/7426016/S005_Flashback_084-085.pdf) from my former neighbouring research institute gives some historical background information on decaffeination with supercritical carbon dioxide.
Answer: Yes, this is how decaffeinated coffee is made. If I recall correctly, this is done commercially by dissolving the caffeine in dichloromethane (DCM), or more recently in supercritical carbon dioxide. This switch is probably over concerns regarding chronic industrial exposure to DCM, which is mildly toxic.
From personal experience, I have extracted caffeine from instant coffee using a separatory funnel with a system of water and dichloromethane. Purification by sublimation finished the job.
Comment: And how did the coffee taste afterwards? :3
Comment: @Aesin I'm assuming there would be loss of other organic compounds in the process, thus potentially changing the taste so one can discriminate between caffeine-free and the real deal. I've never tasted it either!
Answer: Regarding "completely":
The short answer is no.
But for all intents and purposes, yes.
By submitting coffee to several small volume extractions, one can drastically reduce the concentration of caffeine present in the grains. This method of extraction (multiple small volume aliquots) is more effective than a single large volume extraction. The link I shared provides a good discussion.

Can caffeine be separated from coffee?


Why is my text being cut off in IE7?

Question: The text on my web page looks fine in Firefox & Safari, but in IE7 certain portions are cut off. It looks like (but it hasn't) it has been placed in a smaller element with overflow: hidden;.
Anyone know how to remedy this?
Answer: You need to specify the line height to match the font size...
CSS
h1 {
   font-size: 2em;
   line-height: 2em; /* or 100% */
}

See also IE7 is clipping my text. How do I adjust its attitude?
Answer: I had the same problem for IE9 and spent a lot of time fiddling around with the attributes for "height", "line-height" and "padding". Here's what I came up with:
(a) "height" does not affect what's happening inside the textbox;
(b) "line-height" does affect the display of the text and will cause it to be higher or lower in the text box, but the number is important. In the end the first answer seems to be correct i.e. set "line-height" to the same number as your font size;
(c) "padding" also affects the display of text because it creates the space between the borders of the textbox and the text itself;
(d) "vertical-align" provides a reference point for the text inside the textbox.
So, as an example, I got the text to display in the mid-line of the textbox on my site (with no cut off) and a nice distance from the textbox borders by using the following CSS in relation to the "input=text" area of my CSS style sheet:
   line-height: 14px; padding: 6px 2px 6px 2px; vertical-align: middle;

The 14px was the size of the font used in my template (stated elsewhere in the CSS style sheet), the 6px is top and bottom padding respectively and the 2px is the left and right padding respectively. The vertical align attribute places a notional middle line through the text. Obviously you can change any of those numbers to suit your requirements.
BTW, for newbies, use the firefox "firebug" plugin to find the code in your CSS syle sheet that needs changing. Just highlight the text box in question and on the right it will give the name of the CSS style sheet its location and line number where the code appears. You can even use "firebug" to do a live test run which will show you the effect of the changes, but which will not be saved when you close your browser : )
Hope this helps.
Answer: Try changing the overflow attribute for the element the text is in.
Overflow: auto;

Or
Overflow: Visible;

Comment: When I said it 'looks like' I meant it looks like but ISN'T, sorry to be confusing.
Comment: No worries. If I had noticed that you had already answered your own post I may have known not to still try and fix the issue!

Why is my text being cut off in IE7?


Is there a writing software that you can sort scenes like slides in PowerPoint?

Question: I generally use PowerPoint for outlining my scenes (prose, not script). I put a general description of what the scene is on the slide, and then give more details in the notes section. I like that I can see all the scenes and the flow of the story in the slide sorter view. I can then easily move scenes around to better fit the pace or development of the story. However, this program has some drawbacks, especially when the number of scenes gets up above 25 or so. I end up doing separate PPts for different arcs. Is there any kind of writing software where you can view and shift scenes around like this?
Comment: Nice question!  I think something like that would be useful.  My spouse uses index cards!  He's organizing a 20 issue comic book series with as many characters and plotlines as a huge soap opera.   I can imagine many other places this could be very helpful.
Comment: Oh, that's clever -- I never thought to use PowerPoint like that.  And I agree it's not ideal for larger works, so I hope you get some good answers here.
Comment: You used to be able to do this in outline view in Microsoft Word; I've not used it for a while.
Answer: At the least, just the ones I know about are Scrivener and Organon.  More generally, these are called "plot management" or "scene management" software.  Either one will easily handle enough scene entries for a very, very long novel.
Comment: Scrivener, Scrivener, Scrivener. You want the Corkboard view, which makes your documents into notecard icons on a cork background. Put anything you want on the notecard and rearrange to your heart's content.
Comment: Organon runs on OS that don't support Scrivener.
Answer: You could try campfire, it's marketed as a worldbuilding and planning tool.
I've also looked at Scrivener, which may have a more familiar interface to that of PowerPoint.
WorldAnvil is another tool, although this one may or may not handle scene management as easily (I've not used this one extensively enough to figure that out yet), WorldAnvil will allow you to build a sort of Wiki for your novel and create links between characters, locations, events and all sorts of other details.
Answer: ARCHIVOS might be what you want. (Free account lets you build a world!)  It allows you to create scenes, establish relationships between them.  Characters (and relationships with them), plus a timeline.  Lots of ways to link up info, but I don't know if it specifically links them to "scenes."
One feature I've asked for is multiple timelines in a single story setting -- so if I'm writing about the Adventures of Superman radio show, I can have an in-story timeline, and a broadcast-date timeline (for context).
So for you, 2-timelines may also allow you to have "storyline" timeline (what HAPPENS when) and "novel" timeline (when is the info presented).  (I repeat, this doesn't seem to exist (yet) as a feature.)
This may work for you if scene-occurrence and scene-presentation match.  Archivos is ALL about the relationships between and within people, events, locations.
from https://archivos.digital/about-archivos/:

First, ARCHIVOS helps Storytellers document the characters, places, and events of their stories, detailing the basic framework for the tale.
Then, Storytellers connect those story elements by defining the relationships between them that articulate not just the existence of the connection but also its nature (professional, personal, political, geographical, etc.).
The relationships in ARCHIVOS also support a hierarchy, like that of a parent to a child, or a manager to an employee. This framework will help identify and organize the structures within the story world.
As those structures become clear, Storytellers become true story architects, able to refine the and enhance the impact of their stories.

Here's info on how to create/arrange things:
https://archivos.digital/getting-started-archivos/  (scroll to "adding story elements"

You can choose from the following list to define the Type of Story Element you're creating:
  Person* – from protagonists to the smallest walk-on role
  Region* – worlds, continents, countries, counties, mountain ranges, forests, etc.
  Location* – towns, buildings, landmarks, ruins, etc.
  Organization – governments, guilds, religions, cabals, corporations, etc.
  Item – relics, artifacts, unique tools, cars, ships, etc.
  Event* – battles, treaties, plagues, births, deaths, graduations, etc.
  Culture– ethnicity, as well as speculative cultures (elves, dwarves, giants, aliens, etc.)
  Discipline – magic, kung-fu, cloak fighting, psionics, etc.

This link has information about the relationships you can see and manipulate: https://archivos.digital/story-web-archivos/

Disclosure - I became facebook friends with the guy who created this after I saw a demo at BaltiCon last year.  When/if I have enough time/energy, I definitely want to play with it more.  No actual connections to it, and I haven't used it in depth. Again - it's FREE to set up a single world and use all features!
Answer: I think Manuskript (http://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/) might be what you want. It's a free and python based software so it runs on any system that can execute python.
It has a dashboard that shows you the scene title and summary and you can drag them around as you choose. This screenshot is from their sample project:

You can also enable a story line mode at the bottom if you assign tags to your scenes so I image this can be useful for your described scenario.

I use it for all my projects. It's also in continuous development so if you have a specific feature in mind you would like you can suggest it and maybe the devs will add it.
Comment: Thanks for the welcome :). I was looking to replace ywriter since I've switched to Ubuntu and even though it's running with wine it's quite clunky so I went looking for alternatives at alternativeto.net.
Comment: Sounds great -- nice screenshots.  How did you find it?  (W.SE prefers answers that recommend products to indicate their connection:  if they have any links to the devs, or if you found it during nanowrimo, or have been just using it so long you've forgotten. )  :)  Welcome to W.SE!
Answer: If you just want to try something out then YWriter does exactly that and it is AFAIK the only novel writing software designed and developed by a working novelist, and best of it's completely 100% free, gratis and for nothing. You can download it from here:
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter6.html
Answer: I would check out Plottr, which is a newer program dedicated to plotting and planning out your stories. A lot of my friends prefer it to Scrivener for organizing scenes and ideas, etc. They have a free trial you can download, too.


SDL Web8: Empty publish transactions result in a warning

Question: I got error this "Empty publish transactions result in a warning" error, when i published the page from the parent publication and select the "Also Publish/Unpublish in Child Publications" publishing. any suggestion to resolve this issue.
Answer: This means that for some reason the publish instruction resulted in 0 items to publish. Maybe the structure group is set to not be publishable, or some other reason. Pre Web 8 this would have been reported as a success, with 0 items published, which I think is worse :)
Might be worth running your publisher in debug (stop the publisher service then run tcmpublisher /debug) to find out why it is resulting in a 0 item transaction.
Comment: Did you have the option which only re-publishes items that are already published checked? If you di, and nothing had been published previously, you'd end up with 0 items
Comment: verified the structure group is set as publishable. parent publishing page published successful, but same page is failed in child publication.
Comment: Bear in mind that if the Structure group is localised, it can have a different setting for Publishable in the child.
Comment: Dear Dominic, any idea different setting for Publishable in the child?


Server 2003 not pinging and remotely connecting

Question: I have a windows server 2003 configured as DC web server, file server, and anti virus server using Kaspersky security center. I have configure one manageable switch, one N/W printer and 13 clients on the N/W. I also configured the server for NAT. Everything was working fine suddenly my server not getting pinged from client side and also not able to connect the server using RDC. My web site is (Http) working fine. my ftp is working fine. i can access my switch and N/W printer from sever as well as clients. My server is not pinging from any client and some of my client is not pinging from server. i can ping the switch, Printer and some clients. my shared folder in server is not visible/accessible from client as i was using it as a maped N/W drive on clients. when i am opening the shared folder by using serverip/folder name it is getting open but the folders in it are not visible.
pls give me a solution for this
i want to share the folder
i want to use the remote desktop Connection of server from client side
Thank you
Comment: are you pinging by IP address or name?
Comment: tried with both ip and name
Answer: Check your firewall rules.  I remember that RDP and ICMP were blocked by the default Kaspersky policy last time I set it up.


Why doesn't chainmail ruin a cast iron's seasoning but metal scouring pad will?

Question: I've often seen small swatches of stainless steel chainmail sold for the purpose of cleaning a cast iron pan. How is that this does not scratch/ruin my cast iron's seasoning, when a metal scouring pad (also metal against metal) will ruin it?
Answer: Steel wool, or other scouring pads, are made of quite small, rougher metal fibers or ribbons that will get into much smaller spaces, and clean away much smaller bits of matter, which includes the "seasoning" that coats your pan and/or the metal surface itself.
In contrast, the chainmail links are much larger, and each link's surface is relatively smooth overall.  This is great for removing bits of food and other foreign matter, but does not abrade on the much smaller level would be required to do permanent damage to the seasoning and/or the metal of the pan.
See these close up views of magnified steel wool and magnified titanium chainmail.  While the chainmail pictured is not steel, the smoothness would be rather similar between the two.  As you can see, the surface of the two materials is much different.  The smoother surface of the chainmail would therefore do far less to erode the surface of the pan, while still being quite effective at cleaning away food particulates.
Comment: Personally, I prefer to use diagonal cutters when making links.  I can get a much tighter close as I can squeeze from the sides rotate the ends into place.  And if I offset it slightly, I can reduce the chance of a burr sticking out. (Burrs ruin clothes, gaps pull your hair as your're putting it on / taking it off). But burrs would also scratch the seasoning
Comment: But personally, I use those plastic scrapers that Lodge sells. They have different radiuses on each corner, so you can get into the corners on just about any pan or Dutch oven