I work for a global company and need to travel to US with a B1/B2 visa; however, I do not actually know what to answer for below question:     "Have you ever sought to obtain or assist others to obtain a visa,   entry into the United States, or any other United States immigration   benefit by fraud or willful misrepresentation or other unlawful   means?"   In 2009, I was refused and banned by UK for future applications for 10 years since they did not find my language requirement document genuine.  Does that mean I should answer YES to that question? I sought advice from my company's own visa department, and they told me that the question is only for United States applications and thus need to be answered as "No".  I would gladly answer “Yes” and explain my situation rather than misrepresent myself, but would like to get your advice about the situation as well as I am not comfortable giving unnecessary details if it is not mandatory.  Update: As of late 2019, I succesfully been granted a visa to US for my business travel. Answered the question "No" like suggested here if anyone's wondering. Please note that application been done after my ban for UK expired, though I am not sure if it is effected anything at all.

I'd like to know whether the question in DS-160 form implies other country refusals as well? In 2009, I was refused and banned by UK for future applications for 10 years since they did not find my language requirement document genuine.   I have been currently working for a global company and thus need to travel to US with B1/B2 visa; however, I do not actually know what to answer for below question:  "Have you ever sought to obtain or assist others to obtain a visa, entry into the United States, or any other United States immigration benefit by fraud or willful misrepresentation or other unlawful means?"  Does that question related with my current situation? I sought advice from my company's own visa department, and they told me that related question is only for United States applications and thus need be answered as "No".   I would gladly answer “Yes” and explain my situation rather than misrepresent myself, but would like to get your advice about the situation as well as I am not comfortable giving unnecessary details if it is not mandatory.   Regards,  Update: As of 2019, I succesfully been granted a visa to US for my business travel. Answered the question "No" like suggested here if anyone's wondering. Please note that application been done after my ban for UK expired, though I am not sure if it is effected anything at all.


I am working with a really messed up DB that has a a lot of tables and some of the tables have huge numbers of columns with bad naming making this impossible to find anything specific.  I need a select operation for finding the table that has one of the columns equal to one specific value, by checking the values from each column of every table. Is that possible?

Given a number, how do I discover in what table and column it could be found within? I don't care if it's fast, it just needs to work.


Hello I am trying split string in javascript. How to split string value append with' :  Mystring='123,234,345'   My expected output is like :  output='123','234','345'

I have this string  'john smith~123 Street~Apt 4~New York~NY~12345'   Using JavaScript, what is the fastest way to parse this into  var name = "john smith"; var street= "123 Street"; //etc...


There are a lot of answer here describing how to disable chrome update AFTER it is installed. What I couldn't figure out is how to stop Chrome from updating DURING installation. For example, I was trying to install 30.0.1599.10 for debugging but it always update me to the latest version.

I have downloaded the offline (consumer, i.e. not msi package) installer for Google Chrome. But when I run it, it tries to contact a Google server to check for a newer version. If it finds it, it will download that first, and then install that version. It doesn't use the version that is already there, as part of the EXE file. For me, that defeats the point of having an offline installer. I keep a repository of all the free and purchased software locally, so that I can install them quickly whenever I need to. But as more and more people get access to broadband Internet connections, many developers and companies are pushing for offline installers with new releases. Many software titles, like Google Chrome, are almost exclusively distributed with online installers.  File name: ChromeStandaloneSetup.exe File version: 1.3.21.115 Size: 36.6 MB (38 416 368 bytes) SHA-1: 2393BAB7F408DC8D30F039FCA5D6B45600A0C4E7   How do I install Chrome as is, without automatically checking for and getting a newer version?  Will  work with Chrome installer? Is there a switch to disable version check when running the installer?  Update:  The "duplicate" question linked to below points out File Hippo as a possible repository where you one can get previous versions of Chrome. They do have a healthy listing of pretty much every single Chrome version ever released on Windows, both beta, dev and stable versions. Unfortunately they don't host the installer files, they only redirect to Google servers for downloads, which only spits out the installers for the latest versions of Chrome. It's not just File Hippo, I also tried downloading an older version of Chrome from CNET Downloads, and they too just redirect you to Google servers for download.  For whatever the reason (security related probably), Google doesn't like anyone to install an older version of Chrome on any system. Apparently not even your common source for downloading an older version of a software, like the CNET Downloads, not even they are allowed to host the Chrome installer files on their own servers. The redirects to Google is probably dictated by Google.     Google is a dictator!   They don't even allow full standalone offline installers to be installed as is, without checking for newer version. I tried running the installer from cmd with some of the command line switches used for Chromium. I only ended up with errors.    The business oriented msi installer (GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise.msi) might have some additional command line options you can use, but I wouldn't know if there is one that disables the check for a newer version. I have yet to find a complete list of switches you can use. The only one I've found so far is /update but that only does the opposite thing. So I'll give up here and go back to the trusty Firefox.


I made a small benchmark, in which I compare Apache HTTP server deployed to the Virtualbox, and Apache HTTP in Docker (official Alpine and Debian based images) deployed to the Virtualbox. The results of average requests per second are in the following image .  The question is what cause the performance peaks?   For benchmark was used abc (GWAN) wrapper with weighttp. Settings of VM were updated according to   Benchmark run with [0-500:3000+10x3] => make 3000 request with concurrency from 0 to 500 (with step 10). Every test repeat for 3 times. Configurations of HTTP servers were untouched (default by install). Virtualbox instances were made via Vagrant (Debian Stretch).  I also expect, the default configuration caused that the native Apache HTTP server was slower (with higher concurrency) than the Docker instance. I made the same test for Nginx and results shown same performance stability of docker instance.  BTW, the conclusion of the comparison: performance differences between docker images based on Alpine and Debian are insignificant.

This is a  about capacity planning for web sites. Related:      What are some recommended tools and methods of capacity planning for web sites and web-applications? Please feel free to describe different tools and techniques for different web-servers, frameworks, etc., as well as best-practices that apply to web servers in general.


I am traveling from Doha to Faro in Portugal via Heathrow.   I have a Schengen visa but no UK visa. I will need to transit from Terminal 4 ain Heathrow to Terminal 5. Will I be able to do this airside?

Is there a website or some other way to find out if I need a transit visa for a short stop in the UK on my way somewhere else? Ideally this should give me the answer for all nationalities, and take into account any other visas I may have.


i have two tables named newlab and deadstock both are in same database and i want to copy some of the fields of newlab to deadstock for that i am using the follwing code   INSERT INTO deadstock (MAC,Lab_Code,PC_Name,Purchase_Order_No, Brand,Model,Price,Processor,Ram,HDD,HDD_Type)  SELECT (MAC,Lab_Code,PC_Name,Purchase_Order_No, Brand,Model_Name,Price,Processor,Ram,HDD,HDD_Type) FROM newlab WHERE PC_Name='".$PC_Name."';   but it gives operand should contain one column error

I tried running the following statement:  INSERT INTO VOUCHER (VOUCHER_NUMBER, BOOK_ID, DENOMINATION) SELECT (a.number, b.ID, b.DENOMINATION)  FROM temp_cheques a, BOOK b WHERE a.number BETWEEN b.START_NUMBER AND b.START_NUMBER+b.UNITS-1;   which, as I understand it, should insert into VOUCHER each record from temp_cheques with the ID and DENOMINATION fields corresponding to entries in the BOOK table (temp_cheques comes from a database backup, which I'm trying to recreate in a different format). However, when I run it, I get an error:  Error: Operand should contain 1 column(s) SQLState:  21000 ErrorCode: 1241   I'm running this in SQuirrel and have not had issues with any other queries. Is there something wrong with the syntax of my query?  EDIT:  The structure of BOOK is:  ID  int(11) START_NUMBER    int(11) UNITS   int(11) DENOMINATION    double(5,2)   The structure of temp_cheques is:  ID  int(11) number  varchar(20)


Suppose that $G$ is a group, and that the intersection over the non-trivial subgroups of $G$ is non-trivial, i.e., that $$\bigcap_{H<G\atop H\ne \{e\}} H\neq\{e\}.$$ I need to demonstrate that  every element of $G$ has finite order.  I tried showing that if the intersection is trivial, an element of infinite order would be there, but couldn't get anywhere.

I need help to prove this result:  "Let $G$ be a group such that the intersection of all its subgroups other than $\{1\}$ is a subgroup different from $\{1\}$. Then all its elements have a finite order".  I know I must think of an element $g$ of infinite order. That will imply that every subgroup has infinite order (because it will contain an element like $g^k$). After this, I don't know which step I can take. Can someone help?


I have the following two numpy arrays:  a = array([400., 403., 406.]); b = array([0.2,0.55,0.6]);   Now I would like to create a dictionary where the array a acts as keys and b as corresponding values:  dic = {    400: 0.2,   403: 0.55,   406: 0.6 }   How could I achieve this ?

Imagine that you have the following list. keys = ['name', 'age', 'food'] values = ['Monty', 42, 'spam']  What is the simplest way to produce the following dictionary? a_dict = {'name': 'Monty', 'age': 42, 'food': 'spam'}


At latest version 17.10, a suspend (hibernate)  function is not available.   Anyone welcome with an idea, how to make it available again,  without damaging the system at resume.

In 17.04 I could suspend\hibernate from the power off menu button.  I can't find how to do this in Ubuntu 17.10 GNOME Shell.


I am using Photoshop CC attempting to remove the background from a woman's hair. I've tried the background eraser tool and select mask but neither have worked. I've included the photo as an attachment. Any suggestions are welcome.

I use the Pen Tool for 90% of the situations where I need to cut someone or something from a photo but sometimes it gets tricky, especially when it comes to hair.  Let's take the following image for example:     Pen Tool - don't even think about it, it would take years to do an accurate cut so you usually do a more bulky cut. Magic Wand & Quick Selection Tool - in some cases these can work, especially if you know your way around with Tolerance and Refine Edge Blending modes are very useful in some situations also   When confronted with such an image I usually do use one of the tools from above + get something like 10 color samples from the hair, create a new brush that I adjust from photoshop's brush engine and start drawing hair.  From everything I've tried, redrawing hairs gave me the best results so far.     Q: Is there a better way to get an accurate selection when cutting hair? Or, how can I improve what I've got so far?   PS: Just wanted to add that a situation where the background behind the subject is in a single color like in the sample I offered is rare, therefore an answer based entirely on same color selection won't help that much.


When I run my game and collide with my object, I get a NullreferenceException error. I went through many posts I could find on Stackexchange and other websites, but nothing helped. When I did a Debug.Log, the Coroutine is triggered in both cases. I also checked my tags.  Coroutine:  public class Dialogue : MonoBehaviour { public TextMeshProUGUI textDisplay; public string[] sentences; private int index; public float typingSpeed;  public GameObject continueButton;  void Update() {     if (textDisplay.text == sentences[index])     {         continueButton.SetActive(true);     } }  public IEnumerator Type() {     foreach (char letter in sentences[index].ToCharArray())     {         textDisplay.text += letter;         yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.01f);     } }  public void NextSentence() {     continueButton.SetActive(false);      if (index < sentences.Length - 1)     {         index++;         textDisplay.text = "";         StartCoroutine(Type());     } else {         textDisplay.text = "";         continueButton.SetActive(false);             }     } }   Coroutine call:  public class Mace : MonoBehaviour { private Dialogue dialogue;  private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D otherCollider) {     if (otherCollider.CompareTag("Player"))     {         StartCoroutine(dialogue.Type());     }   } }   I did not cut my coroutine down more, as I think that all parts are at least somewhat relevant informations to my question.

Since many users are facing the NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object error in Unity, I thought that it would be a good idea to gather from multiple source some explanation and ways to fix this error.  Symptoms I am getting the error below appearing in my console, what does it mean and how do I fix it?  NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object


I have edited my explanation.  I hope this helps.  When a capacitor is charging where is the source of or where are the electrons coming from that deposit themselves on the capacitor surface on the positive end.  Do they come from the battery or are inside the wire?

There're some easy concepts which I don't get exactly in my mind. I'm afraid I've been studying these things for two years of my engineering but they still bother me. Capacitor is one of them. Can someone explain?    What does a capacitor do? Does it store charges? If so, then how does it do?   I have searched it on Google and Yahoo but didn't find any helpful thing there (for me). So I will be glad if I got my problem solved here.  P.S. I hope that the question would not again be an off-topic, as it always does and moreover people don't suggest then where to go. It's a real sad thing.


The proof can be found on this site.    I do not understand well for part(VI), why do we consider such integral would imply $\theta(x)$~$x$ ?  Any one can elaborate a bit for me? Thank you.

I am trying to understand this short proof by newmann. I faced some problems while grasping this very proof. Please help me out.  1 . I am not clear, why in step (1)'s proof he says that from unique factorization and the absolute convergence of zeta we have... [here factorization makes sense but where did he use absolute convergence to prove (1).]  2 . Step 2 is clear but where will he use it (may be I will out later as i am still working on next steps.  3 . My major problem is to understand step 3rd's last part that i put it in the red box. please elaborate it. I didn't understand anything in this box.  I am still working on the next steps of the proofs. If i get any problem in them i will ask you.  Thank you so much in advance.


Problem started July 11th 2014 when I got the update. Each time when booting up my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, I got a black screen with this message "Could not write Bytes: Broken Pipe" on the top Left hand corner. Today I reinstalled Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and now when I click on Software updater I see “New Hardware Support is Available”. Do I really need to get this update? Is there a way to avoid it? My PC is working fine without that update...

I haven't seen this message from Update Manager before, and I have not been able to google up any info.  What will be installed when I click Install?  (Clicking "Description of Update" got me nothing...)


I have certain doubts regarding file permissions.I am gonna list them one by one.  By the way I am logged in as root and using Red Hat Linux.  1.When I change the permission for a file to only read eg- chmod 400 file1,I can yet use cat command and add some content to it.Shouldn't I have the access only to read the file?  2.If I give read permission to a folder eg- chmod 400 folder1,I can still add files to it.So what exactly read permission means for a folder or a execute for that instance?  3.If I am logged in as root,do I always have all the permissions ie read,write and execute?Because that's what is happening.I am able to access any file and folder irrespective of the permissions set.  So is there any way to achieve my objectives?

I've made a file as root, and written a string in it. Now I've changed mode to "0" like this:  root# ls -al transit/ total 4.0K ---------- 1 root root 6 Jan  5 18:15 27050 root#   If I try to tail, head, or cat it, it works:  root# cat transit/27050 320646 root#    Why is it possible to read it?


I'm using TexWorks and am trying to use the following table:  \begin{table}[] \centering \begin{tabular}{ll} \( a+b=b+a \) & \( a \cdot b = b \cdot a \)   \\ a & a  \\ a & a  \end{tabular} \end{table}    The table renders in the beginning of the text for unknown reasons. See:        Perhaps it's a consequence of the header of my code? It is as follows:  \documentclass[11pt,twoside,a4paper]{article} \usepackage[a4paper, portrait, margin=0.5in]{geometry}  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage{cancel} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{amsfonts}   I didn't forget the \begin{document} and \end{document}. I just ommited it.

Is there any package or a method to force LaTeX to keep floating environments like table and figure closer to where they are declared?


I installed Ubuntu 18.04 from a USB using Rufus onto my old Dell from 2006 (CPU: Intel Pentium 4 RAM: 1 GB). I've booted it from the BIOS successfully and I've selected "Try Ubuntu", but once I'm on the desktop it runs extremely slow and it's borderline frozen. The mouse only moves ~90 seconds and it's too slow to actually coordinate the mouse onto any desktop icons. The system time has also only moved one minute despite the PC running for over an hour. Since this renders the computer basically useless what can I do to fix this? Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a pro at this (first time using Linux) but thanks for any help.

For a given hardware configuration, how do I find out if Ubuntu will run on it? What considerations should I take into account when choosing an Ubuntu version and  such as:    with a lighter desktop than the usual Gnome and Unity  with the even lighter LXDE desktop   Obviously Ubuntu does not run on some processor architectures. So how do I go about choosing the right version and derivate. How can I find out the minmal system requirements?


Suppose, I am building website. I want the user to be able to access the index.php file only. I also have other files like www.mydomain.com/aboutus.php files and user can access them if he types this in his address bar. I want the user to be able to access www.mydomain.com only.  How are such security features built?

I have a php file which I will be using as exclusively as an include. Therefore I would like to throw an error instead of executing it when it's accessed directly by typing in the URL instead of being included.  Basically I need to do a check as follows in the php file:  if ( $REQUEST_URL == $URL_OF_CURRENT_PAGE ) die ("Direct access not premitted");   Is there an easy way to do this?


I'm having a problem regarding my database connection not recognized on my functions.php even though i have included it already. here's the code.  dbconnect.php  <?php define ("DB_SERVER","localhost"); define ("DB_USER","root"); define ("DB_PASS",""); define ("DB_NAME","hookdb");  $conn  = mysqli_connect(DB_SERVER,DB_USER,DB_PASS,DB_NAME); //test connection if(mysqli_connect_errno()){     die("Database connection failed: " .mysqli_connect_error() . "( " . mysqli_connect_errno(). ")"); }?>   functions.php  <?php require_once("dbconnect.php"); function check_query($result_set){         if(!$result_set){             die("Database query failed. ");                  }    }  function random_banner(){     $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as total FROM manga_name";     $result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);           check_query($result);     $data = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);     return($data);     //echo $data['total'];   }?>   im still getting the "Notice: Undefined variable: conn" error when i use the function on my page.

A couple of the options are:  $connection = {my db connection/object};  function PassedIn($connection) { ... }  function PassedByReference(&$connection) { ... }  function UsingGlobal() {     global $connection;     ... }   So, passed in, passed by reference, or using global. I'm thinking in functions that are only used within 1 project that will only have 1 database connection. If there are multiple connections, the definitely passed in or passed by reference.  I'm thining passed by reference is not needed when you are in PHP5 using an object, so then passed in or using global are the 2 possibilities.  The reason I'm asking is because I'm getting tired of always putting in $connection into my function parameters.


I am given the following task: Calculate the first moment and variance of a log normal random variavle using the MGF. Well if it was as simple as using the normal procedure I'd be happy but my online searches tell me thhis MGF can only be approximated. How would you proceed ? Thanks

The computed moments of log normal distribution can be found . How to compute them?


There exists an EICAR anti-malware test file. It is basically just a short string and looks like this:  X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*   You can read more about it on . That linked page states that:     The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results   when run (it prints the message   "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!").   My question is how can I run it? First I have to disable my anti malware utility so that I can save it to a file. After that I'm not sure what to do with it in order to run it.    Obviously its not going to work as an exe file since it doesn't start with 'MZ', but I can't get it to work as a com file either. I get "This version of {filename} is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running". My flavor of windows (Win7 Pro) should be able to run both 32 and 64 bit programs.  I understand that its intended use is to verify that anti malware software is working as expected, but I want to understand what the file itself does.

Is there any antivirus test program like EICAR for 64 bit Windows?  I'm trying to check my antivirus protection downloading the  test program as usual. The antivirus pops up an alert on the download (that's ok), but I cannot run the EICAR.COM program because it's an 16-bit program and I'm running Win7 64bit.   I can run the program on  but it's not the same thing as running it directly from the OS.


IF(  ISBLANK(SIC_code__c ),0,8) is not working

I am trying to create a formula field to count if there are any blank values on Number field.  My formula is :      if(ISBLANK(Number Field),1,0)   However, it is always coming as '0' even if the number field is having some value in the record.  Please advise as to where I am going wrong.


I noticed on some shows on IMDB actors are listed, but as uncredited, especially for major actors.  Is this to do with the Screen Actors Guild, or for other reasons?  Peter Capaldi went uncredited for his first Doctor Who appearance (during the Matt Smith era, the Eleventh Doctor), but this was presumably to maintain suspense or something like that - I can't remember what.  It was interesting to note that Amy Acker appeared at least twice, uncredited, on the BBC's Holby City, once in 2015, once in 2016. However, she didn't get a listing in the end credits of Holby City. Since this show is a British production I'm not sure if SAG counts or not for this here. (I am from the United Kingdom, and watch a fair few BBC shows anyway)  Would this count as a cameo appearance, or as an extra?  I have no idea why the appearance was, but would be interested to know why some go uncredited.

Eli Wallach  in Mystic River. Olivia Williams  in X-Men: The Last Stand. However, neither of them (according to IMDb) is credited in the movie. These two instances are simply examples.  Why are some actors, who are oftentimes quite well known, not credited in certain features?


Unfortunately, $(x^2)$ is not a prime ideal, so I can't use the trick of "quotient of a PID by a prime ideal is a field". However, I do know that $\mathbb{R}[x]$ is itself a PID, and the Lattice Isomorphism Theorem says that ideals of $\mathbb{R}[x]/(x^2)$ correspond to ideals of $\mathbb{R}[x]$ containing $(x^2)$ via the map $J\mapsto J+(x^2)$. Can I use this to show every ideal of $\mathbb{R}[x]/(x^2)$ is principal?

Let $F$ be a field and $F[x]$ the univariate polynomial ring over $F$. Is it the case that every quotient ring ${F[x]}/{(p(x))}$, where $p(x) \in F[x]$, is a PID (principal ideal domain)?    This is just a minor issue that's been bothering me for the last couple of hours. I'm aware that when the ideal $(p(x))$ is prime (i.e. $p(x)$ irreducible) then ${F[x]}/{(p(x))}$ is a PID.


There is a keypad in the secret office. In the secret office is 2 doors, 1 vent, 3 tv's, 1 poster, and 1 keypad.

I was playing Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location when I found a little number pad in the elevator. I tried several number sequences (1983, 1987, 1234, 2320245) but none of them worked. If anyone knows the number sequence that'd be very useful to me.


I'm novice @Java Programming. I have been working for SaveFile, for my game. Load and Save data. I got 2 following errors:   java.io.EOFException at java.io.ObjectInputStream$BlockDataInputStream.peekByte(Unknown Source) at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(Unknown Source) at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(Unknown Source) at Clicker.LoadFile.<init>(LoadFile.java:17) at Clicker.mainClass.main(mainClass.java:21)   java.lang.NullPointerException     at Clicker.SaveFile.<init>(SaveFile.java:17)     at Clicker.mainClass$1.run(mainClass.java:26)     at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)   I have got MainClass, where i put in SaveClass and LoadClass :  package Clicker;   import javax.swing.JFrame;  public class mainClass {   public static void main(String[] args) {       ClickerGame game = new ClickerGame();          JFrame frame = new JFrame("CarCollectionarV1");         frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);          game.addComponentToPane(frame.getContentPane());          frame.pack();         frame.setVisible(true);         frame.setResizable(true);         frame.setSize(1000, 700);          LoadFile load = new LoadFile();   Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(new Runnable() {          public void run() {         SaveFile save = new SaveFile();         }     }));  }   Full "SaveClass" code:    package Clicker;  import java.io.*;  public class SaveFile{      ClickerGame CG = new ClickerGame();{  try{     File SaveFile = new File("SaveFile.sav");     if(!SaveFile.exists()) {         SaveFile.createNewFile();     }      FileOutputStream saveFileSub = new FileOutputStream(SaveFile);     ObjectOutputStream save = new ObjectOutputStream(saveFileSub);      save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.Money);     save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.MoneyClicks);     save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.Boxes);     save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.BoxesClicks);     save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.PlayerLevel);     save.writeObject(CG.CarMain.BoxLevel);  save.close();     }     catch(Exception exc){     exc.printStackTrace();     }     } }   And Full "LoadClass" code:  package Clicker;  import java.io.*;  public class LoadFile {      ClickerGame CG =new ClickerGame();{          try{             File SaveFile = new File("SaveFile.sav");             if(!SaveFile.exists()) {                 SaveFile.createNewFile();             }              FileInputStream SaveFileSub = new FileInputStream(SaveFile);             ObjectInputStream load = new ObjectInputStream(SaveFileSub);              CG.CarMain.Money = (int) load.readObject();             CG.CarMain.MoneyClicks = (int) load.readObject();             CG.CarMain.Boxes = (int) load.readObject();             CG.CarMain.BoxesClicks = (int) load.readObject();             CG.CarMain.PlayerLevel = (int) load.readObject();             CG.CarMain.BoxLevel = (int) load.readObject();              load.close();             }             catch(Exception exc){             exc.printStackTrace();             }             }

What are Null Pointer Exceptions (java.lang.NullPointerException) and what causes them?  What methods/tools can be used to determine the cause so that you stop the exception from causing the program to terminate prematurely?


I never had a single issue with yosemite, until yestersday after updating to 10.10.2.  Now I press a key and hold it and it is not repeating anymore.  but the problem is selective. Spaces repeat. Symbols, punctuation mark repeats but numbers and letters don't.  Any way to make that work again?  Nope, that is set (look pic).

I just wanted to make some input where I press a key and the auto-repeat function engages so I don't have to press the 0 key many times to make a long number.  10000000000000000000000000000  This has always worked without fail in the past, but it's not something I do often and I'm not sure where to look next to figure out what might be preventing this.     I've toggled the sliders to change the delay for key repeat, but the only thing I can hang my hat on is that perhaps Lion disables this with the new feature where you hold down some keys (like the vowels, but also some consonants) to get alternate accented characters.  s turns into ß or ś or š and so on....  Am I missing an obvious setting, or is this something that has moved to a hidden setting or is simply a bug that these controls are still around since key repeat is now deprecated?  Comments welcome if anyone doesn't have an answer, but can provide specifics where this does work for them. I've checked two Macs so I'm guessing it's not related to keyboard type or connection method.


I was wondering if windows 10 will install as 32 bit or 64 bit, because one of my computers has a x64 processor with 32 bit windows 7 on it, but I want it to install 64 bit windows 10, will it already do that? Thanks!

We get a lot of questions on Super User about Windows activation and licensing. This question is an attempt to answer the most common questions in one place with a .   When reinstalling Windows, the following questions often come up:   Can I transfer the copy of Windows from my old computer to a new one? Does the license key on the sticker on my computer work on any computer? If I have a 32-bit version, can I install a 64-bit version? I have an OEM version of Windows, but only a retail disk. Can I still use it? I want to install Windows with a different language. Do I need a new license in that language? I changed some hardware. Will I be able to reactivate my computer? Can I back up my activation before doing a reinstall? How many computers can I install my license on? Do I have to deactivate my old installation before transferring a license? If so, how? How does licensing work in Windows ? What are the restrictions on transferring, reinstalling, and changing versions of Windows?


In $S_5$, consider $\langle \sigma \rangle = \langle (12)(345) \rangle$. Find the normalizer of $\langle g \rangle$ in $S_5$.  Since $\langle \sigma \rangle$ is cyclic, it is abelian, so its normalizer equales its centralizer, and the center of $S_5$ is a subgroup of the centralizer. I can therefore state that $$Z(S_5) \leq C_{S_5} (\langle \sigma \rangle) = N_{S_5} (\langle \sigma \rangle) \leq S_5$$ and that $$\langle \sigma \rangle \leq N_{S_5} (\langle \sigma \rangle).$$ By Lagrange's theorem, I have that $6$ divides the order of the normalizer and that the normalizer divides $120$, the order of $S_5$. So the order is some positive integer multiple of $6$. The only elements that are obviously in it are the identity (the center of $S_5$), $(12)(345)$ itself, and its inverse. Is there a way to find the normalizer other than brute force?

I'm considering the normalizer of the subgroup generated by the element $(12)(345)$. I know that this is exactly the elements of $S_5$ that commute with it and it's a subgroup of $S_5$, but not necessarily of the subgroup generated by $(12)(345)$ itself. I certainly have the identity permutation, $(12)(345)$ itself, and its inverse. However, I do not know if there are any others or an efficient algorithm to use. Is there a way to use the conjugacy class of $(12)(345)$?


I'm trying to install Ubuntu 16.04.3 (latest downloadable LTS) on my Acer V17 Nitro. It has a 256 Gb SSD, where I want the Ubuntu and the swap to live and a 1Tb HDD, where I will have long-term storage and probably a Windows partition for my wife to use from time to time (she doesn't like Ubuntu no matter what I do).   So I cleared out the SSD and am trying to install Ubuntu from the bootable drive I created from another Ubuntu 16.04 machine.   But no matter what combination of parameters I try (installing updates or not, installing 3rd-party software or not), when it comes to rebooting after the install it gives me this (and does not reboot):     I have tried what was proposed in  and that way it does reboot, but sais can't find a bootable medium.  I have also tried booting from the USB drive with nomodeset instead of quiet splash as suggested  but then it does not load and the screen just goes black.  UPDATE  Decided to take a different route and install Windows first and then put Ubuntu next to it.   I divided the SSD partition into 3 parts - swap, 140Gb for Ubuntu and 80Gb for Windows (using Windows 10 Home).   I installed Windows on its partition and it happily took its place and is running smoothly.  I then tried to install Ubuntu with nouveau.setmode=0 as discribed in . It did install and went on reboot fine, but I am not able to boot Ubuntu, it boots directly to Windows.   And yes, I have tried Boot-Repair and moved the Windows Boot Manager to the bottom of the BIOS Boot sequence. Still it's not working.

I am trying to boot Ubuntu on my computer.  When I boot Ubuntu, it boots to a black screen.  How can I fix this? Table of Contents:


The CPU usage on my  hasn't gone below 25% in days, and I realized that it’s because my 4th core is constantly at 100% load.  I have spent quite a while trying to figure out why, and the only suggestion I could find that I hadn’t tried already is to turn off sound effects, and this caused my CPU usage to go right down and then spike back up. Now it just spikes up and down, and it’s still System Interrupts that’s causing it.  What could be happening here, and is there anything I could do to stop it? This wasn’t happening before the last time I did a full wipe.

Under Process Explorer, I noticed that System -- and occasionally Interrupts -- are taking between 5% and 20% CPU constantly, for hours on end. This is resulting in weird video playback problems. (Audio files have 'gaps' and YouTube videos have pauses in them.)  This problem has been happening for a while. Sometimes, a restart fixes it, IIRC. I also recently upgraded to a 1920x1080 monitor... But this shouldn't have any affect on audio. I also just disabled ReadyBoost (which I also got recently).  I killed PeerBlock and uTorrent, and this still continues to happen; previously, killing them was enough to get my CPU back down to ~0%.  My CPU temperature is ~55 C and my HDD is at <40 C.      So it is uTorrent's fault (or PeerBlock or Comodo).


I've been searching for two days straight but can't find the answer. Is there any advantage to using a function expression over a function declaration?  The book I'm reading (Head First JavaScript) introduces function expressions and the explanation sounds to me like it's identical to a function declaration, but then it goes on to say that they are "subtly different" -- but doesn't explain the difference!  The ONLY difference I have been able to find is that you risk getting an error when using an expression if you call the function before defining it but not if you use a declaration (due to hoisting). Declaration, 1. Expression, 0.  However, from what I understand, a declaration creates a variable using the function's name and stores a reference to the function in that variable.  Using an expression, you store a reference to an anonymous function in the variable of your choice.  If that's the case, then aren't these two examples identical in every way except the aforementioned risk of an error when using an expression due to hoisting?  Declaration:  function myFunction(name) {     alert("Hello " + name); }   Expression:  var myFunction = function(name) {     alert("Hello " + name);     }   I can call the either one with:  myFunction("John");   I can also assign either one to a different variable and then call that variable so the following would be valid in either case:  var myFunctionDammit = myFunction; myFunctionDammit("Steve");   I can't figure out why you would EVER create a function expression when the only difference I can find is actually a disadvantage.  What situations would warrant an expression and why? What is considered best practice? Should I get into the habit of using one over the other?  There is a similar question () but most of the answers there focus on addressing the technical difference (hoisting) but fails to explain WHY I would ever want to choose a function expression over declaration. Either that or I am simply failing to understand the answers.  Can someone lay it out in simple terms a beginner would understand?

I've recently started maintaining someone else's JavaScript code. I'm fixing bugs, adding features and also trying to tidy up the code and make it more consistent.  The previous developer used two ways of declaring functions and I can't work out if there is a reason behind it or not.  The two ways are:  var functionOne = function() {     // Some code };     function functionTwo() {     // Some code }   What are the reasons for using these two different methods and what are the pros and cons of each? Is there anything that can be done with one method that can't be done with the other?


function awsl {   echo "arg: $1"   prfx='arn:aws:sts::'   pstfx="$1:assumed-role/FOO/justin@bar.com"   role="$prfx$pstfx"   echo "role $role"   saml2aws login --force --profile=default --role=$role }  $ awsl 414204160037   arg: 414204160037 awsl:4: no such file or directory: arn:aws:sts::$1:assumed-role/FOO/justin@bar.com=arn:aws:sts::/Users/justin.collum/work/stp-flow/v1/414204160037ssumed-role/FOO/justin@bar.com role arn:aws:sts::$1:assumed-role/FOO/justin@bar.com   /Users/justin.collum/work/stp-flow/v1/ is my current directory. I don't want it in that string. I thought splitting it up into two strings, one not interpolated, would do it. Tried escaping the :: with :: but that didn't work either.   Zshell on OSX.

Run these commands:  [$] echo 'export VAR="qwertyuiop" export VAR="$VAR:asdf=ghjkl"' > /tmp/vars.sh [$] source /tmp/vars.sh [$] echo $VAR /home/saga/qwertyuiopsdf=ghjkl   As you can see, the variable substitution does not do what we expected. What is the issue here?


Is there any information out there on how to start creating scripts using Python and QGIS 2.10? I only have a little coding experience and an very unsure of how to start.  My first script would probably be something like a process for creating a buffer from a point, setting the properties of the buffer too if possible (e.g. orange, 0.8 line). I do simple tasks in QGIS often and I think scripts would help me a lot.

I wish to familiarize myself with the capabilities of QGIS up to and beyond QGIS version 3.0.   Can you recommend some good web resources and tutorials that would show me QGIS' capabilities?   I am interested in both using QGIS through its GUI and in developing applications using QGIS.


I have a function that returns two variables. However, sometimes I just want to get the output of one variable. What's the most shorthand/concise way to do that? If I just try to set one variable I get a 'Too many values to unpack error'  I tried just leaving the first or second field blank. Look at the code below. Get the same error as before.  Problem:  def function:  return 1, 2  var1=function()  var1 == 1   Tried:   var1,=function()   I want a notation similar to:   var1,var2=function()  var1,=function()   so in this case var 1 should equal 1

Say I have a Python function that returns multiple values in a tuple:  def func():     return 1, 2   Is there a nice way to ignore one of the results rather than just assigning to a temporary variable? Say if I was only interested in the first value, is there a better way than this:  x, temp = func()


I'm sorry for asking such a basic question, but I haven't found anything that could help me with this issue. I'm trying to do something as simple as starting a new activity through a button click, but my application crashes whenever I click that button. Here is my code:  Button aboutButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.aboutButton);     aboutButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener()     {         @Override         public void onClick(View view)         {             Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, About.class);             startActivity(intent);         }     });   This code is inside a function, which is in turn inside the onCreate function. I've already tried putting this code straight into the onCreate function, but I got the same result. Could you please tell me what I have done wrong?  PS.: My target activity is already declared at the manifest.  Error log :   java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.ukdev.TestApp/com.ukdev.TestApp.About}: java.lang.NullPointerException

What are Null Pointer Exceptions (java.lang.NullPointerException) and what causes them?  What methods/tools can be used to determine the cause so that you stop the exception from causing the program to terminate prematurely?


Does Google scholar pick up references to self published ebooks?

A couple of colleagues and I were thinking about publishing a book in engineering. I have heard repeatedly that people who go with a traditional publisher don't get any royalties, they transfer the copyrights, and on top of that, the book ends up being sold for a lot of money (which is something we're against as people from developing countries don't have access to them). Thus, after a short discussion we all agreed that going through the traditional means is no longer necessary. We're all skilled in LaTeX so we don't need the services that publishers usually provide for formatting the book. As a matter of fact, we're not planning on making any profit either, so we're very excited about the opportunity to provide the book as an open electronic document.   The main question we have is how do we make sure that  people can cite our book and that we have a way to count the citations?


How do I output batch file output to console and file?  I tried using > like this but it only outputs to file.  Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File %psFile% %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 > LOG.txt

I have a batch script that executes a task and sends the output to a text file.  Is there a way to have the output show on the console window as well?  For Example:  c:\Windows>dir > windows-dir.txt   Is there a way to have the output of dir display in the console window as well as put it into the text file?


I'm a complete newbie to this section: book are quite complicated in terms. Also, there is a problem with formal building homeomorphism. So, I need to prove that $CP^1 \simeq S^2 $. How to do it formally?  By the way, as I understand, that $RP^1 \simeq S^1 $ as identification of diametrically opposite points. Maybe my problem use similar solution.

I just read on wikipedia that the the complex projective line is homeomorphic to the riemann sphere. How do I prove this? But, before that I have an extremely silly doubt that has been eating me. In the complex projective line, antipodal points are identified, but in the Riemann sphere they are clearly distinct. Then how can the two be homeomorphic.   I found out the following map from the complex projective line to $S^2$. But how do I prove this is a homeomorphism? Finding the inverse of this functions seems complicated, and then how do I prove that the inverse map of a open subset is a open subset, and vice versa?  $f:\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1 \to S^2 = [z:w] \to \frac{(2Re(w\bar{z}), 2Im(w\bar{z}),|w|^2-|z|^2)}{(|w|^2+|z|^2)} $


Problem  Let $X$ be a set ; let $\tau_c$ be the collection of all subsets $U$ of $X$ such that $X-U$ either is countable or is all of $X$. Prove that $\tau_c$ is a topology on $X$.  Attempt  1) $X,\phi \in \tau_c $  2) for any set $ {U_\alpha} \subset \tau_c $ where $I$ is the indexed set, $X- \bigcup \limits_{\alpha \in I} U_\alpha $ = $ \bigcap \limits_{\alpha \in I } X- U_\alpha$. If for all $\alpha \in I ,U_\alpha=\phi$ ,we are done. If there are at least one $U_\alpha \neq \phi$, say $U_o$.Then $X-U_o$ is countable. Then  $ \bigcap \limits_{\alpha \in I } X- U_\alpha \subset X-U_o$  3) similarly for intersection.   Doubt  Why $X-U_o$ is considered countable?  What if X is some uncountable set.   Any help or suggestion will be appreciated .

I'm teaching my self topology with the aid of a book. I'm trying to prove the following is a topology:     Let X be an infinite set. Show that $\mathscr{T}_2=\{U \subseteq X : U = \emptyset $ or $ X\setminus U $ is countable$ \} $ is a topology.   My book calls this set the ""  Please let me know if my proof is valid.     corollary [A]: The union of countable sets are countable.    proof: I'm going to take as a given that that the union of finite set are finite, and just prove the case of . A set is countable infinite if there is a bijection between the set and the natural numbers. Let $A$ and $B$ be a countable infinite sets. Now let $f$ be the bijection between $A$ and $\mathbb{N}$ and $g$ be $B$'s bijection.  $f:\mathbb{N}  \rightarrow  A$  $g:  \mathbb{N}  \rightarrow B$  There can always exist a bijection $h$ that maps $A \cup B $ to $\mathbb{N}$. To account for non disjoint sets, let $B' = B \setminus A$; (note: $A \cup B = A \cup B'$)  $h:  \mathbb{N}   \rightarrow  A \cup B'$  $ h(x) = \left\{         \begin{array}{ll}             f(\frac{1}{2}x); & \quad x \in 2\mathbb{N} \\             g(\frac{x+1}{2}); & \quad x \in 2\mathbb{N}+1         \end{array}     \right. $   $h^{-1}(x)$ would map $A$ to the even numbers, and $B'$ to the odd numbers.  Therefore, The union of countable sets are countable. (QED)  Now to verify the definition.     (i) X and Ø are elements of $\mathscr{T}$.   Ø is given in the definition of $\mathscr{T}_2$. Also, the empty set is considered finite, with cardinality zero. Thus $X$ is in $\mathscr{T}_1$ because its complement is finite, and finite numbers are countable.      (ii) $\mathscr{T}$ is closed under finite intersections.   Let:$V_k \subseteq X$ be any countable set. (ie: $V_1, V_2...$ are all countable sets)  So Then, $U_k = X \setminus V_k$, would be the subsets of $\mathscr{T}_2$.  $U_k \cap U_j = X \setminus (V_k \cup V_j) $, due to De Morgan's law.   Thus, $U_k \cap U_j \in  \mathscr{T}_2$, since the Union of two countable sets is also countable[A]. And This reasoning can be extended to any finite amount of intersections.       (iii) $\mathscr{T}$ is closed under arbitrary unions.   Let $A=\bigcup_{i \in I} U_i$ be an arbitrary union of sets whose complements are are countable.Then by De Morgan's law, $A=X \setminus (\bigcap_{i \in I}V_i)$, for some countable sets $V_i$. By the definition of intersection, $\bigcap_{i \in I}V_i \subseteq V_i$ for all $i \in I$. Since $V_i$ is countable so is any of its subsets.  Hence the complement of $A$ is countable.


I am working as Senior web developer with 5 years of experience. I also create wireframe mockups and have good experience in photoshop.  I am looking to pursue HFI's CUA certification.  Is this certification of any value from a front-end developer's perspective?

I see a lot of people taking this  nowadays and I wonder if its actually worth it and how is it received by the industry and does it really help in bringing you up to speed with UX and usability best practices. Can anyone who has taken the exam before provide inputs on its benefits and also its cons if any.  I did see the question  and David's answer did mention that he found it useful but I would like to get more context in what sense people might find it useful and how it could potentially supplement or enhance a career.


a = '3' and b = 011 public static void main(String[] args) { char a ='3'; int b  = 011; System.out.println(a + b); // prints 60 }  a = '3' and b = 11 public static void main(String[] args) { char a ='3'; int b  = 11; System.out.println(a + b); // prints 62 }   So what is happening when b = 11 and b = 011; Y is it giving different results ?? someone please explain

This prints 83  System.out.println(0123)   However this prints 123  System.out.println(123)   Why does it work that way?


EDIT: This is a . Please don't vote to close this as a duplicate of questions which ask how to re-vote; I know you cannot and that's the whole point of this feature request.  Currently it's impossible to re-vote if you retract a vote, but I feel this is insufficient under certain conditions, especially but not only when voting to close as unclear what you're asking. E.g.:   User A posts gibberish nobody understands User B votes to close as unclear what you're asking User A edits and improves the question. It turns out to be a clever question but needs to be closed anyway but for a different and more specific reason, e.g. off-topic or too broad.   I assume that it's frustrating when your question gets closed for the wrong reason and I feel that once a question does get closed all cast votes should be as accurate as possible (if we didn't strive for this there would be no reason to offer different closing reasons to choose from in the first place).

tl;dr Users that have retracted a close vote should be able to vote again on that same question. I don't believe there is any danger in allowing this, provided some controls are in place (see below). Long Version As a 3k+ user, I want to look at a question at any point in time and determine whether it belongs on this site and, if not, state exactly why it doesn't in a close vote. People who write questions are free to edit them at any time. As a result, close votes can become invalid and the new  was introduced as a response to this. While I welcome the new feature, I wonder why we have stuck with the "you can only vote once" paradigm. If I'm monitoring a question to the extent that I withdraw my close vote, why shouldn't I be allowed to vote again if subsequent edits render the question unsuitable? I propose that if you retract your close vote on a question, you should be allowed to vote again. Note that by implementing this feature, one would also be able to change a close vote (by retracting and then selecting a different close reason). To combat willy-nilly vote changing (which may confuse other users), I propose one of the following defences:  An edit must occur between retraction and re-voting. This ensures something has changed in order to make the user want to vote to close again.  A time limit ensures that X minutes must pass between retraction and re-voting.  No specific restrictions are enforced, but the reputation required to re-vote is raised to something higher than 3k. The idea being that more experienced close voters are unlikely to change close reasons lightly. Perhaps this could be a tantalising rep target at 7.5k (to fill the void between 5-10k).   A  was asked previously, but I'm hoping some of my defences listed above will negate the fears listed in the accepted answer. Example Use Case #1 A poor question is raised and the OP receives several close votes and comments. Being a good user, the OP then adjusts the question to meet the quality standards of the site. One or more close-voters retract their vote now that the question is good enough. But wait! A duplicate has now been found, which wasn't spotted originally due to the poor quality of the question. None of the retracting close-voters can vote to close as a duplicate and are forced to leave a comment. Hopefully passing 3K+ users will spot the comment and act accordingly, but unnecessary time is wasted. This question should be on the close queue and heading for death. Example Use Case #2 Commonly on Stack Overflow, a user will present insufficient information to diagnose a problem. Perhaps their code example doesn't compile or they haven't provided definitions of all the referenced methods. I will leave a comment to indicate this and, after a small grace period, will vote to close with "This question appears to be off-topic because it lacks sufficient information to diagnose the problem.". If the user edits their question and adds the info, I retract my close vote. But I often realise the question should be closed for another reason, e.g. a duplicate or the new(ish) reason: "This question was caused by a problem that can no longer be reproduced or a simple typographical error.". Example Use Case #3 Perhaps the most common: you find a reasonable duplicate and vote to close. But then... you find the most wonderful, exact duplicate you could imagine. Too late, your vote is cast. You can retract it, but you can't then easily kick the ball rolling on a new closure with the real duplicate. Sure, a comment might cause things to start, but often it doesn't. Flagging for diamond attention isn't appropriate. This can also happen when the OP refutes the original duplicate and provides some extra information that steers you towards a related but different duplicate.


In a discussion with some of my close friends in other academic institutes, we noticed the common experience* in which it seems that well over 80% of the advertised job postings for permanent or tenure track positions at the departments close to our working environment where we are working are rigged or fixed. It seems that in Europe there are many people facing similar problems [1,2].  In this context "rigged" is meant to describe that many people at the involved institution already know who will get the position when or even before the position is publicly advertised. And with "knowing" it's meant that if it would be possible to place bets on the outcome, the people familiar with the situation (but not in the selection commission) would place all-in bets for the same person without any regard of the other candidates who applied.    In some cases the job description was even tuned to match the CV of particular candidates. And sometimes, it's already known years ahead that a particular person will get that position. In some cases those persons are also well qualified for the job, but in many cases external candidates with better credentials were not objectively evaluated. The other candidates were invited for interviews, and talks, giving sample lectures, spending time energy and financial resources for their applications and traveling.  This practice seems unethical, but it seems so common that it seems to be an accepted norm. When I spoke with a professor about this, he thought it was perfectly normal to give the job to people who you know well, instead of someone who might seem to be qualified better but who you do not know well. From a risk management point of view he might be right. But to me the situation seems similar to people in the mafia, those people who are part of it do not consider it as a mafia, and they do not consider the activities to be unethical, they even consider it beneficial for the society.   *EDIT: Based on the answers in a similar question on a particular instance [3], it seems that many people are OK, with that this is how the things go, it has become part of academic culture.   But some aspects of the question stay open:   How to deal with it in the search for a permanent faculty position?  How to find those job adverts which are really open? How to deal with this if you are an insider and are observing this behavior on a regular basis?   I gave department and campus tours to applicants, of who i knew they had no chance, even if their credentials were better than that of some of the professors in the selection commission.    Should i have told them, that the whole vacancy and invitation for the interview was a charade?  If one notices such rigged position job advertisements in its environment, should one report it somewhere? Where could such conduct be reported?    Proof is not so much of an issue: We could easily set up a list of names and positions posting them on the web before the job was advertised get a time stamp. And confront some institute who cares with the statistics of hiring behavior.   But the most important central question is:   What could be changed in the hiring procedures or rules to mitigate rigged job postings?   *These experiences are based on 7 people from various institutions in Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, France) during the last 10 years.   EDIT: The associated question is definitely similar, but i think there are some fundamental differences.    That question was about a single particular case this question is about systematic ongoing behavior with which I and my friends and many others [1,2] are dealing on a daily basis.  That question asks about a solution for a particular insider and potential whistleblower only. This question asks for solutions for insiders and outsiders (applicants).    Further more considering some of the answers on the other question which were relevant to the other case i changed the question a bit. How to solve this problem in the big picture.

There is a rather attractive position to be filled at my department. The heads of department are already quite sure about who should fill this position. Jobs being filled with preselected candidates are not exactly legal, but common practice in my country. Thus, there legally has to be a job announcement, as everybody has to be given the chance to apply for the job. There further is an equal opportunities office that ensures that all candidates are being judged by the same categories and no one gets preferential treatment.  I never found this practice of preselecting candidates particularly fair or ethical, but let's just say that up until now I had to deal with other challenges. Then I recently stumbled across the list of applicants for that position by accident (was still lying in the printer) and saw that I know one of the applicants who apparently will have no chance against the preselected candidate. It's not that I desperately want this acquaintance ("friend" is too much) to fill the job, but knowing a name on the "you're never gonna get the job"-list made the unfair treatment so much more real. I don't find it acceptable.    Things that speak for me to do nothing:   Most importantly: My contract will be finished soon and I was, am and will be dependent on my boss's willingness to  give me a contract or rather (because there is no funding) her cooperation on further projects. The head of department is my direct boss and (in my opinion) a very likeable person. I highly appreciate her concern for her staff, she nevertheless needs to make strategic decisions at some points, which comes with the job and is only professional - I understand. Furthermore, as much as I know the preselected candidate seems to be a very good, high impact candidate who will fit in the department.   Things that speak for me to do something   Most importantly: It's a unfair/ unethical system and I don't want to stand by and watch There is no funding for a future contract anyway (although my boss tried) There may be many other candidates just as good or better than the preselected one   What should I do? I'm not gonna lie: talking to my boss (head of department) scares me quite a bit. But then again I don't want to go to higher levels, be the whistleblower and ruin parts of my boss's career...    [Update] Based on your answers I did/will do the following:   I talked to a colleague, turns out she had the same impression and wanted to talk to me about it as well. So concerning the question "do you have proof?": at least I have another witness now. But then again, as Anonymous Physicist wrote: up until now, no rule was broken. However, we decided to closely follow the application process in hope that our concerns were exaggerated (which I highly doubt) "maybe it was just a statement about the quality of the candidate?" It very much exceeded this, as my boss was talking about how important it is that they get the participant through the application process and what possible pitfalls could be. Nevertheless I'll talk to her in order to find out, what her behavior would look like if "someone better" shows up and if that'd be a case of nepotism (see answer of xLeitix).


So say you have a Rubik's cube in a certain state (you can make your own assumptions about what state, I'm guessing the majority of states give about the same answer) and you alter it by randomly and uniformly choosing moves, one after another. Here a move is defined as rotation of a face of the cube either 1, 2, or 3 times (you can't leave the cube the way it is). How many moves on average would it take to solve it? Also, how would you generalize this problem, or what are some general techniques to handle it?

After playing a little with a Rubik cube I thought of the following problem :      Suppose we start with a solved Rubik cube (a general one , with $n^3$ cubes) . Then we choose one of the moves , each having a probability of $\frac{1}{6n}$ of being chosen , and apply it on our cube . We continue doing so ( choosing a new move randomly and then applying it and so on...) , until we reach the solved position again . What is the expected number of moves needed to solve the cube in this way ?   I thought about it and I think the answer should be $\infty$ (at least for $n \geq 3$) because there are a lot of random sequences of moves that will take a long time to solve the cube but I don't have a rigorous way to prove it.  For $n=2$ I'm not that sure if the answer should be finite or infinite (but I still tend to think it's infinite).  Thank you for your time to help me!


I want to plot a function x^3/(x^2-1) but it doesn't work.  \documentclass{article}     \usepackage{tikz}  \begin{document}    \begin{tikzpicture}[domain=-5:5,smooth]     \draw[->] (-5,0) -- (5,0) node[right] {$x$};      \draw[->] (0,-5) -- (0,5) node[above] {$y$};     \draw [color=blue, thick] plot ({\x},{pow(\x,3)/(pow(\x,2)-1)});   \end{tikzpicture}  \end{document}   It does something like this. It should be non-continuous function, not this.    How to fix it? Thanks.

I need to plot f(x) = 1 / x in LaTeX and am trying to with Tikz. I haven't found a way to set the vertical range, so the values go out of bound around x=0.  Using gnuplot directly doesn't seem to be an option because the fix presented  fails.  \begin{frame}     \begin{tikzpicture}         \draw[->] (-10, 0) -- (10, 0) node[right] {$x$};         \draw[->] (0, -10) -- (0, 10) node[above] {$y$};         \draw[color=red, domain=-10:10] plot[id=x] function{1/x} node[right] { $f(x) = x$ };     \end{tikzpicture} \end{frame}   I'm not set on Tikz, if there are other options I am open to them.


Whenever I try to Login to start the HomeActivity, I get this error even though I double-checked the Getters and Setters in Users. I think this may have to something with this fragment of code mentioned below. It shows the the .getNumber may produce NullPointerException.  if(usersData.getNumber().equals(number)){   Here is a fragment of my LoginActivity              if(dataSnapshot.child(parentDbName).child(number).exists())             {                 Users usersData = dataSnapshot.child(parentDbName)                         .child(number).getValue(Users.class);                  if(usersData.getNumber().equals(number))                 {                         if(usersData.getPw().equals(pw))                         {                         Toast.makeText(Login.this, "Logged In Successfuly!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();                         prog1.dismiss();   Every time I try to Login using the existing account stored in Firebase, it says   java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'boolean java.lang.String.equals(java.lang.Object)' on a null object reference   This is what I've generated in Users.java  package com.robihidquicaygabinvalencia.ecommerce.shopmore.Model;  public class Users {     private String name, number, pw;      public Users()     {      }      public Users(String name, String number, String pw) {         this.name = name;         this.number = number;         this.pw = pw;     }      public String getName() {         return name;     }      public void setName(String name) {         this.name = name;     }      public String getNumber() {         return number;     }      public void setNumber(String number) {         this.number = number;     }      public String getPw() {         return pw;     }      public void setPw(String pw) {         this.pw = pw;     } }   And here's what I've got in Logcat.   java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'boolean java.lang.String.equals(java.lang.Object)' on a null object reference         at com.robihidquicaygabinvalencia.ecommerce.shopmore.Login$2.onDataChange(Login.java:83)         at com.google.firebase.database.Query$1.onDataChange(com.google.firebase:firebase-database@@19.1.0:179)         at com.google.firebase.database.core.ValueEventRegistration.fireEvent(com.google.firebase:firebase-database@@19.1.0:75)         at com.google.firebase.database.core.view.DataEvent.fire(com.google.firebase:firebase-database@@19.1.0:63)         at com.google.firebase.database.core.view.EventRaiser$1.run(com.google.firebase:firebase-database@@19.1.0:55)         at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:751)         at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)         at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:154)         at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6682)         at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)         at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1520)         at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1410)

What are Null Pointer Exceptions (java.lang.NullPointerException) and what causes them?  What methods/tools can be used to determine the cause so that you stop the exception from causing the program to terminate prematurely?


Scratching my head on this. I have an old URL:       http://myserver/blog/archive?openview&type=Category&key=Demo   and a new URL       http://myserver/blog/categories/Demo   I'm trying to get a rewrite rule for this. I thought it would be:       ^/blog/archive\?openview&type=Category&key=(.*) /blog/categories/$1.html [NC,R=301,L]   But that doesn't do anything. I tried the URL and rule (replace the ? with /):       http://myserver/blog/archive/openview&type=Category&key=Demo      ^/blog/archive/openview&type=Category&key=(.*) /blog/categories/$1.html [NC,R=301,L]   And that works as expected. So I'm a bit dumbfolded how to handle the ? for matching in the old URL. All the samples I found describe the opposite case. Sending the "pretty" URL to the ugly one. In my case the "ugly" URL is what people in the past had bookmarked and I want to make sure they get to the new data properly

This is a  about Apache's mod_rewrite.   Changing a request URL or redirecting users to a different URL than the one they originally requested is done using mod_rewrite. This includes such things as:   Changing HTTP to HTTPS (or the other way around) Changing a request to a page which no longer exist to a new replacement. Modifying a URL format (such as ?id=3433 to /id/3433 ) Presenting a different page based on the browser, based on the referrer, based on anything possible under the moon and sun. Anything you want to mess around with URL   Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mod_Rewrite Rules but Were Afraid to Ask!  How can I become an expert at writing mod_rewrite rules?   What is the fundamental format and structure of mod_rewrite rules? What form/flavor of regular expressions do I need to have a solid grasp of? What are the most common mistakes/pitfalls when writing rewrite rules? What is a good method for testing and verifying mod_rewrite rules? Are there SEO or performance implications of mod_rewrite rules I should be aware of? Are there common situations where mod_rewrite might seem like the right tool for the job but isn't? What are some common examples?   A place to test your rules  The  web site is a great place to play around with your rules and test them. It even shows the debug output so you can see what matched and what did not.


I am new to Azure and have run into a issue were I think azure is trying to tell me that my tableEntity model that I am using does no inherit TableEntity, but it does. I am not sure what is going on and would appreaciate some advise to correct this. Here is the code and model used. this line var query = seems to be the issue I think. faulting out on the next line var segment = Code public class CustDataTableEntity:TableEntity      {                public DateTime CreatedTime { get; set; }         public int CustomerID { get; set; }         public int LocationID { get; set; }         public int SystemID { get; set; }         public Single TorqueAKPI { get; set; }         public Single AirAssistKPI { get; set; }         public string CustomerName { get; set; }         public string LocationName { get; set; }         public string Name { get; set; }         public string Location { get; set; }         public string TotalCycles { get; set; }     }      [FunctionName("GetCustData")]     public static async Task<IActionResult> GetCustData(         [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous,"get",Route ="custData")]HttpRequest req,         [Table("custdata", Connection = "AxureWebJobsStorage")] CloudTable custTable,         ILogger log)     {         log.LogInformation("Getting customer data list items");         var query = new TableQuery<CustDataTableEntity>();          var segment = await custTable.ExecuteQuerySegmentedAsync(query, null);         return new OkObjectResult(segment.Select(Mappngs.ToCustomerdata));       }

It seems that a List object cannot be stored in a List variable in C#, and can't even be explicitly cast that way.  List<string> sl = new List<string>(); List<object> ol; ol = sl;   results in Cannot implicitly convert type System.Collections.Generic.List<string> to System.Collections.Generic.List<object>  And then...  List<string> sl = new List<string>(); List<object> ol; ol = (List<object>)sl;   results in Cannot convert type System.Collections.Generic.List<string> to System.Collections.Generic.List<object>  Of course, you can do it by pulling everything out of the string list and putting it back in one at a time, but it is a rather convoluted solution.


I've seen something in Enumerable.cs like this: private static IEnumerable<TSource> TakeWhileIterator<TSource>(   IEnumerable<TSource> source,   Func<TSource, bool> predicate) {   foreach (TSource source1 in source)   {     if (predicate(source1))       yield return source1;     else       break; // break   } }  So I write something like this: private static IEnumerable<TSource> TakeWhileIteratorWithYield<TSource>(   IEnumerable<TSource> source,   Func<TSource, bool> predicate) {   foreach (TSource source1 in source)   {     if (predicate(source1))       yield return source1;     else       yield break; // yield break   } }  I've tried these two methods and it seems like they have quite the same function. So I go to  and decomplie these codes. The main differences are in MoveNext() I think, like this: No Yield private bool MoveNext() {     try     {         switch (_state)         {             default:                 return false;             case 0:                 _state = -1;                 _s__1 = source.GetEnumerator();                 _state = -3;                 break;             case 1:                 _state = -3;                 _source5__2 = default(TSource);                 break;         }          // From Here         if (_s__1.MoveNext())         {             _source5__2 = _s__1.Current;             if (predicate(_source5__2))             {                 _current = _source5__2;                 _state = 1;                 return true;             }         }          Finally1();         _s__1 = null;         return false;         // To Here     }     catch     {         //try-fault         ((IDisposable) this).Dispose();         throw;     } }  Have Yield private bool MoveNext() {     try     {         switch (_state)         {             default:                 return false;             case 0:                 _state = -1;                 _s__1 = source.GetEnumerator();                 _state = -3;                 break;             case 1:                 _state = -3;                 _source5__2 = default(TSource);                 break;         }          // From Here         if (!_s__1.MoveNext())         {             Finally1();             _s__1 = null;             return false;         }          _source5__2 = _s__1.Current;         if (predicate(_source5__2))         {             _current = _source5__2;             _state = 1;             return true;         }          bool result = false;         Finally1();         return result;         // To Here     }     catch     {         //try-fault         ((IDisposable) this).Dispose();         throw;     } }  I can't see the functional differences between them. Could someone tell me the differences between break and yield break in iterator blocks?

I have seen this syntax in MSDN: , but I don't know what it does.  Does anyone know?


I decided to take a look at my  on SO, and I get the impression that "I'm doing it wrong" with regard to up/down votes.  I feel like, if I have 6,000+ answers, 1,500 total votes seems like a lousy amount to have.  Now, while I do have a few more upvotes than downvotes, I tend to find myself looking at the vote buttons and either going "this is a crap question, downvote it", or "eh... it's a decent question, but is it upvote-worthy?"  I feel like I'm being overly conservative with my votes.  Is there any way to find out how my voting compares to that of users in general? And what, if anything, should I change about my voting attitude to improve?

Let me say first that I am fairly new here (about 3 weeks) and absolutely love Stack Overflow. At first I let some of the negative attitudes get to me a little, left a few snarky comments, but that phase has passed. I see the tremendous value for this site in the long run and sincerely do want to help make it a better place.  I find myself going for  the downvote very frequently -- currently about 35% of my votes are downvotes. I even make an extra effort to upvote good content to offset this a bit, so the number should probably be more like 60%. I always try to leave constructive comments and try to help out the confused ones who are really trying.  I truly can't tell if it is just me, or if these folks deserve it. I don't know if you guys noticed, but there are a lot of really bad questions being posted, and a lot of people trying to pass off things like "use jQuery", "use Firebug", and "use Google" as good answers (and getting upvotes!). I even saw someone copy/paste my "What does Firebug say?" comment as an answer and get 3 votes within moments. Sometimes This answer is unclear or not useful just doesn't do it justice.  I feel like some of the people just drive me nuts, but then again I feel this way IRL :) Am I being too harsh, or is it really that bad on SO? Has there recently been a surge of new users, and the quality of content is degrading, or was it like this in the "good old days"? Have I perhaps misunderstood the expected behavior on Stack Overflow -- should I just ignore these crappy questions and answers rather than downvote them?


At least in macOS 10.13, if my iMac reboots due to a kernel panic or when a software update requires a reboot, the system restarts the applications that were running immediately before the shutdown even if I have unchecked the "restore windows when logging back in" checkbox in the restart dialog the last time I was shown that dialog.  (Of course, upon a hard reboot, this dialog is not shown anyway.) Restarting all applications automatically is exactly the wrong thing to do if the problem was caused by the applications running at the time.   I want to turn off this application restoration feature completely. How can I achieve this?  Note that I do not want to prevent the system from restoring the windows of the aplications that I start and stop deliberately. My settings in Systems Preferences ➜ General are the following:    I never want the applications I was running to be restarted automatically for me, apart from those that are in the list of "Login Items" in my User & Groups system preferences.

How do I disable  both the "relaunch apps after reboot" feature as well as the "reopen windows at relaunch" feature?  When I reboot (be it after a hard reset or reboot command) I want to be presented with a blank desktop and not everything I had open before.  Also, when I open an application, I don't want the dozen things I was working on previously to open all at once.


I am new to linux environment.I am using windows. Recenty I downloaded the google chrome and tried to install it but failed.Then I saw a tutorial which had this command  wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb   It will download the package again but I have already downloaded it using mozilla. Is there any terminal window command that I can use in place of this above command to access an install package from a specified path and install it?  The Tutorial link is:

How do I install a .deb file via the command line?


I'm working on a site that has been hacked through SQL Injection (at first glance only db entries are corrupted with cross-site scripting) the potential vulnerability I found after looking at the code is that there's a lot of mysql_query call whose inputs are not escaped at all.  The good old :  $query = "SELECT * FROM mytable where name LIKE '%".$_GET['name']."%'"; /*HACK HERE*/ mysql_query($query, $connection);   Nevertheless I can't find how can we do something cool from that injection vulnerability (by cool I mean something like an INSERT or an UPDATE). I've tried to build a statement like this one :  SELECT * FROM mytable where name LIKE '%' AND WHERE id IN (INSERT INTO secondtable (id,description) VALUES (15, 'Fifteenth description');--%'   No success. I guess that the INSERT has nothing to do here.  I'm escaping all user's inputs in the code right now but I've not really get how hackers have penetrated this site, then I'm not 100% sure that my fix will do the job. Any brilliant suggestions ?  Thanks

If user input is inserted without modification into an SQL query, then the application becomes vulnerable to , like in the following example:  $unsafe_variable = $_POST['user_input'];   mysql_query("INSERT INTO `table` (`column`) VALUES ('$unsafe_variable')");   That's because the user can input something like value'); DROP TABLE table;--, and the query becomes:  INSERT INTO `table` (`column`) VALUES('value'); DROP TABLE table;--')   What can be done to prevent this from happening?


We are re-designing our corporate website and we need to cater to two distinct audiences: small business owners and large enterprises. The products we offer are the same for both audiences - but how we message the value of these products vary by audience. Management suggests making visitors choose who they are on the homepage, directing them to a personalized products page. But I'm skeptical of this approach. Is there a better way to "split" our website to address both audiences?

We are working on a service that is quite new and unknown to people. It's is oriented on small business. The target audience is divided into 3 specific different groups. As for now, we have one landing page, which communicates to 3 groups.   We have very low conversion mainly because people don't understand how they can use the service and benefit from it.  So, we decided to change the logic:  There will be one entrance page, where user will have to choose his group (1 of 3) and then he will be forwarded to the page of the group he chose before, where all the explanations how to use the service are provided.  So instead of one page we will have four pages. Will it improve the communication with users and are there any suggestions how to deal with 3 different target audiences?


Triangle numbers are  $0,1,3,6,10...$  And square numbers are $0,1,4,9,16...$  $N$'th triangle no. = $N(N+1)/2$ $N$'th square no. = $N\cdot N$  So I was wondering are there any numbers which are in both these lists apart from $0,1$??  I found one using trial and error that is $36$ which is the $8$'th triangular number and $6$'th square number. Are there more? What is the algebraic method to calculate them?? thanks in advance.

I am trying to find a general formula for triangular square numbers. I have calculated some terms of the triangular-square sequence ($TS_n$):  $TS_n=$1, 36, 1225, 41616, 1413721, 48024900, 1631432881, 55420693056 1882672131025, 63955431761796, 2172602007770041, 73804512832419600  I have managed to find that:  $m^2 = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}$  where $m$ is the $m^{th}$ term of the square number sequence, and $n$ is the $n^{th}$ term of the triangular numbers sequence.  Would anyone be able to point out anything that could help me derive a formula for the square-triangular sequence?


Is it possible to use a windows install on a hard disk or something (windows 8) to get required data to run windows apps on linux (kubuntu 18.10) somewhat natively? Wine does not work fully for my needs, i want to add, if anything, the propriety stuff from windows into it.

Can .exe and .msi files (Windows software) be installed in Ubuntu?


I receive a string, for example "save". And i have a method save with paramethers. How can i convert the string save in a call to save(). I tried with eval and exec.  Edit: Solved here -->

What is the best way to go about calling a function given a string with the function's name in a Python program.  For example, let's say that I have a module foo, and I have a string whose content is "bar". What is the best way to call foo.bar()?  I need to get the return value of the function, which is why I don't just use eval. I figured out how to do it by using eval to define a temp function that returns the result of that function call, but I'm hoping that there is a more elegant way to do this.


I usually use text mining, graph mining, Information retrieval, and natural lanuage processing. Also i will use the fundamental concepts of data mining like classification, association and clustering. Please suggest me solution and study material( text books).

I'm trying to put together a self-directed math curriculum to prepare for learning data mining and machine learning. This is motivated by starting  on Coursera and feeling that before proceeding I needed to improve my math skills. I graduated from college a while ago so my algebra and statistics (specifically from political science/psychology classes) are rusty.  The answers in the thread  only suggest books or classes directly related to machine learning; I have already looked into some of those classes and books and do not know exactly what math subject to study (for instance: what field[s] of math address deriving an equation to "minimize a cost function"?). The other thread suggested ()   only mentions broad categories of skills needed for analyzing data. The thread  does not apply because I do not already have a degree in math; a similar thread  has an incredible list of stats books, but again, I'm looking at starting math from a rusty recollection of algebra and moving up from there.  So, for those that work in machine learning and data mining, what fields of math do you find essential to do your job? What math subjects would you suggest to prepare for data mining and machine learning, and in what order? Here is the list and order I have so far:   Algebra Pre-calculus Calculus Linear algebra Probability Statistics (many different sub-fields here, but don't know how to break them out)   As for the data mining and machine learning, through my current job I have access to records on website/app activity, customer/subscription transactions, and real estate data (both static and time-series). I'm hoping to apply the data mining and machine learning to these datasets.  Thank you!  EDIT:  For posterity's sake, I wanted to share a helpful  for Geoffrey Gordon's/Alex Smola's  class at CMU.


I found the following problem in our problembook and I am clueless how to start     Transform to a fraction form:      $3.\overline{123}$   This is the first time I am trying to solve such a problem and I don't know how to start.  Could you please help me?  Thanks

So I'm supposed to express:  $$1.24\overline{123}=1.24\;123\;123\;123\;\ldots$$ as the ratio of two integers.  So I got $$1+\frac{24}{100}+\frac{123}{10^5}+\cdots$$  I don't know if this is correct, and if it is, I also don't know how I would get the common ratio from this. Would the common ratio just be $\frac{1}{10^5}$? Am I doing this wrong?


I am planning to drive from Kaunas to Riga between Christmas and New Years Eve. I would like to know how the road conditions usually are in this time of the year? Especially on the smaller roads. And is there anything special to consider when driving this route?

I am planning to drive from Vilnius to Riga between Christmas and New Years Eve. I would like to know how the road conditions usually are in this time of the year? Especially on the smaller roads.  And is there anything special to consider when driving this route? Here is the . (Recommendations for stops/sights would also be very welcome)


I've looked around and can't find a solution which works, using the software updater trying to update Ubuntu, I get the following error: If you are using third party repositories then disable them, since they are a common source of problems. Now run the following command in a terminal: apt-get install -f Transaction failed: The package system is broken  The following packages have unmet dependencies:  libc6-dbg: Depends: libc6 (= 2.31-0ubuntu9.2) but 2.31-0ubuntu9.1 is installed libc6-dev: Depends: libc6 (= 2.31-0ubuntu9.2) but 2.31-0ubuntu9.1 is installed            Depends: libc-dev-bin (= 2.31-0ubuntu9.2) but 2.31-0ubuntu9.2 is installed  I get this error whenever using apt-install as well, what do I do?

There are now errors when updating and I cannot install most software due to a corrupted  /etc/apt/sources.list   file. Is there a copy I can download to replace it?  The file would be for Ubuntu 12.04 (Final Beta) in the United States.


I installed MikTex on my PC.  Now I want to create a document. Always if I want to include tikz I get the following Error:     File `tikz.sty' not found. \author   But MikTex didn't tried to install tikz. Because of that I tried to install tikz with the console manually.  MikTex says it worked. But If I trie to compile the document the same error apears. So I searched in my filesystem. But I can't find tikz.  There is the same problem If I want to use pgfplot.  Why does MikTex doesn't install pgf and tikz anymore? And how to solve this problem?

I use Texstudio and Miktex on Win 7 as a portable version.  Today i updated my miktex-packages and everything worked fine except the "\usepackage{tikz}" command.  I made a fresh reinstall with the newest versions of miktex and texstudio, opened my latex-document and compiled it. Miktex installed all missing packages on-the-fly except pgf/tikz, wich gave an error instead. I installed it manually in the package manager but texstudio still says "File "tikz.sty" not found".  Unfortunately I have to use the portable version, because I don't have any admin rights. The last time I worked on that document, everything worked fine.  Any ideas?


Short version: Do melee spell attacks take into account armor when the range is Touch?    Longer version: Assuming a prepare an  (PHB253) spell, that has the following properties:   Range: Touch Description: Make a melee spell attack against a creature you can reach. On a hit [..]   Assuming that the opponent that I choose as a target has a total 15AC:   10 Base 3 Armor (possibly natural armor) 2 Dexterity   What should my attack roll be to successfully hit? 15 (the whole above) or 12 (since just touching, armor offers no protection)?

Does D&D 5E have a mechanic similar to  or  as it exists in D&D 3.5?  To put it simply, in D&D 3.5, touch AC excludes armor bonuses when armor can't help against an attack, and flatfooted AC excludes your Dexterity bonus when you haven't acted yet in combat.


How do I copy the ArcPy code from a process I have run in ArcMap where I have run a process with specific environment settings etc (density of, distance to etc) so that I can run the same code iteratively on a number of other features?

Is it possible to get the exact Python code corresponding to a specific run of a tool in ArcToolbox? The reason I ask is that I want to replicate the function in a Tool in Python, and adapt it to my needs. I have tried some md tool for ncdf, which works in the GUI but not in python if I write the Python code by hand.


In the typical youtube animations/drawings of the electric and magnetic field fluctuations, the magnetic field peaks at the same time the electric field peaks. Since a magnetic field is created with a “changing” electric field, shouldnt the magnetic field peak when the electric field is changing most rapidly, namely, when the electric field is crossing from positive to negative? As the animations show, the magnetic field is peaked when the electric field is slowing to a stop then changing direction, and this doesnt seem correct to me. Are these animations just simplifying the actual dynamic?  Edit: so if dB/dt = dE/dt, a change in electric field causes a CHANGE in magnetic field? So when change of electric field is zero the change in magnetic field is zero?

Here are some depictions of electromagnetic wave, similar to the depictions in other places:      Isn't there an error? It is logical to presume that the electric field should have maximum when magnetic field is at zero and vise versa, so that there is no moment when the both vectors are zero at the same time. Otherwise one comes to a conclusion that the total energy of the system becomes zero, then grows to maximum, then becomes zero again which contradicts the conservation law.


I have Ubuntu installed, with some small apps and scripts running on it. I need to deploy this current setup to other PCs.  Until now whenever I needed this setup I just installed it manually to other PCs.  Is there any way I could make an image or a clone or something of this PC and just deploy it? Something like a clean install but with the scripts and apps added there

I am going to change my machine: from a laptop with Ubuntu to another laptop where I am going to install Ubuntu...  I am quite happy with the current system, what I am afraid of is having to rebuild everything from 0.  So what do people often do to clone an Ubuntu system? That may include the data, packages, shortcut settings, etc...


What's the probability of getting heads on an even-numbered flip? What I would think is that getting heads on the second, fourth, etc. flip remains $1/2$.

A summary of the given question:   A biased coin has a probability ($p$) of getting heads. Whats the probability of getting the 1st heads on an even numbered flip. $H_1$ is head of first flip. $E$ is first head on even numbered flip. $X^c$ means event $X$ didn't occur. For example: $H_1^c$ means tails on first flip      I don't understand the part  $$P(E | H_1^c) = P(E^c)$$  I seem to think in fact, $P(E | H_1^c) = P(E)$ since the only way $P(E)$ can occur is when $H_1^c$ has occurred.   Moving forward, how do I get   $$P(E) = (1-p)(1-P(E)) = \frac{1-p}{2-p}$$


0% [Connecting to in.archive.ubuntu.com (2001:67c:1560:8001::14)] [Connecting to security.ubuntu.com (2001:67c:1360:8001::17)]

When I do upgrade it gets stuck here:  user@plato:~# sudo apt-get upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree        Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done The following packages will be upgraded:   bind9-host coreutils cpio curl dnsutils libbind9-90 libc-bin libc-dev-bin   libc6 libc6-dev libcgmanager0 libcurl3 libcurl3-gnutls libdns100   libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libisc95 libisccc90   libisccfg90 libjasper1 liblwres90 libplymouth2 libsepol1 libssl-dev   libssl-doc libssl1.0.0 linux-libc-dev mime-support multiarch-support ntp   ntpdate openssl plymouth plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text python3-distupgrade   ubuntu-release-upgrader-core unzip 39 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 16.0 MB of archives. After this operation, 12.3 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y 0% [Connecting to us.archive.ubuntu.com (2001:67c:1562::15)] ░   When I do update it gets stuck here:  user@plato:~# apt-get update 0% [Connecting to us.archive.ubuntu.com (2001:67c:1562::14)] [Connecting to sec░   I'm able to ping us.archive.ubuntu.com just fine:  user@plato:~# ping us.archive.ubuntu.com PING us.archive.ubuntu.com (91.189.91.23) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from economy.canonical.com (91.189.91.23): icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=81.5 ms 64 bytes from economy.canonical.com (91.189.91.23): icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=81.5 ms 64 bytes from economy.canonical.com (91.189.91.23): icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=81.5 ms 64 bytes from economy.canonical.com (91.189.91.23): icmp_seq=4 ttl=54 time=81.4 ms ^C --- us.archive.ubuntu.com ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3004ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 81.425/81.528/81.582/0.355 ms   What can i do to fix this?    What I have tried so far.  I've tried following directions on this blog:   To force apt-get to use IPv4 exclusively   Create a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99force-ipv4 Add this line to newly created file Acquire::ForceIPv4 false; Apt-get will now use IPv4 exclusively


How to syllabify may be certain in many words. But some words have several ways, I think.  For example, "extra" can be divided into "ek" + "stra" and "eks" + "tra".  Does this mean that people remember a word in several different ways? Or do people usually have a fixed manner individually to utter a word which can be divided in several ways, with more easiness?

I am trying to break a word down into syllables and am not quite sure how to do it for English. Some problems I face:     The letter-to-sound rules are not one-to-one. As an example, notice that z"ea"l and "ee"l are different in orthography but map to the same sounds.   English has a large number of foreign words incorporated into it, which makes "sticking" to a certain set of rules all the more difficult.    So my question is: 1. Are there any definite rules for breaking a word in English down into its constituent syllables (CV, CVV, CCV etc.?). 2. What is the "gold-standard" (something used by a majority of the community) on this?


I know this is not a big issue but could be fixed:    I guess it was not expected a user to  get 100 000 points about given tag. The screenshot is made from this profile -

The following picture was taken from  on Stack Overflow.    As you can see, the 54k count fits centered in its container, but for counts greater than 99k, the count is no longer centered.  I'm requesting that div.answer-votes tags be made flexible width to allow for votes totaling 100k or greater.


I' ve written the following function to apply a shrinkwrap modifier def shrinkwrap(obs): for ob in obs:     if not ob.type == 'MESH':         continue     msw = ob.modifiers.new("shrink", type = 'SHRINKWRAP')     bpy.data.objects["body_2"].modifiers["shrink"].target = bpy.data.objects["body_1"]     bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as = 'DATA')  I've problems with the last row (it is the function that should let me push the apply button shown in the following image )  In this image the target has not been selected, the function selects it correctly.

I've seen a couple of good examples of creating modifiers and applying them to objects, but they don't seem to be working for me. Or at least are only working part way.  My function takes a modifier type (in my test case, 'UNION') and a list of objects. The first object is the target and the rest are going to be the modifications.  When this executes, my target still has the stack of modifiers attached to it. I have to manually push the Apply button in the UI for each one. How can I make that happen in my script?  def applyModifier (self, mod, items):     target = items[0]     for i in range(1, len(items)):         objB = items[i]         boo = target.modifiers.new('Booh', 'BOOLEAN')         boo.object = objB         boo.operation = mod         bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier="Booh")         bpy.context.scene.objects.unlink(objB)     return target   The subordinate objects do unlink from the scene, so I know that bit of code is executing properly.


This seems to be a good way to get the transpose of a matrix. But I'm not sure what exactly is happening when the * operator is invoked. Can someone unpack that?   >>> zip(*[[1,2,3], [4,5,6]])  [(1,4), (2,5), (3,6)]

In the following method definitions, what does the * and ** do for param2?  def foo(param1, *param2): def bar(param1, **param2):