Synaptic failing to launch on 17.10 I have just done a clean install of 17.10 I am finding that synaptic package manager won't work:     synaptic-pkexec No protocol specified Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused  (synaptic:9019): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0   Also finding that after installing Shotcut from Snap I get the following error: 'This program requires SDL2' I wonder if it's related? Any help would be very welcome.  Thanks!
Why don't gksu/gksudo or launching a graphical application with sudo work with Wayland? I installed Ubuntu 17.10. Now I am having trouble with gksu:  $ gksu -dg synaptic No ask_pass set, using default! xauth: /tmp/libgksu-HgUjgQ/.Xauthority STARTUP_ID: gksu/synaptic/8760-0-alex-XPS-15-9530_TIME4974977 cmd[0]: /usr/bin/sudo cmd[1]: -H cmd[2]: -S cmd[3]: -p cmd[4]: GNOME_SUDO_PASS cmd[5]: -u cmd[6]: root cmd[7]: -- cmd[8]: synaptic buffer: -GNOME_SUDO_PASS- brute force GNOME_SUDO_PASS ended... Yeah, we're in... Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused (synaptic:8767): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :1 xauth: /tmp/libgksu-HgUjgQ/.Xauthority xauth_env: (null) dir: /tmp/libgksu-HgUjgQ   If I don't use -g, the password dialog is disabled. So looks like a problem with creating a tty for root.  Any advice?
Relevance of cycle detection in Pollard's rho integer factorization algorithm I've recently learned about Pollard's rho factorization algorithm, and the way I understand it, it works by using a pseudorandom sequence of integers $x_{k}$ ranging from $0$ to $n-1$, where $n$ is the number to be factored, to find repetitions in an unknown sequence $y_{k} = x_{k} \bmod p$, where $p$ is an unknown, non-trivial factor of $n$. Such a repetition $y_{i}=y_{j}$ occurs when $x_{i}\equiv x_{j} \bmod p$, which can be detected by checking whether $\gcd(x_{i}-x_{j}, n)\gt 1$.  From what I could find on the Internet, Floyd's cycle detection algorithm or a variant thereof is used to find such repetitions. And the reason for this is what I don't understand.   First, Floyd's algorithm requires that each element in the sequence depends solely on the element before it, which, even if it is the case for $x_{k}$, is not necessarily the case for $y_{k}=x_{k}\bmod p$. For example, assuming we want to factorize $6$, let's take the sequence $5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 0, 5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 0,\ldots$. The cycle period is $5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 0$, where every element is contained only once. However, if we take this sequence $\bmod 2$, we get $1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0,\ldots$. Floyd's algorithm cannot be applied here to find the cycle period $1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0$. Besides, we are not even interested in a cycle, only in repetitions. Whether we find the congruence $\bmod 2$ between $5$ and $3$, $5$ and $1$, or $4$ and $2$ in the first sequence is irrelevant.   Please correct me if my understanding of Pollard's rho algorithm as described above is wrong. But if it is not, it seems to me that one could just as well try out some random numbers between $2$ and $n-1$ and see if they share a divisor with $n$ other than $1$. So what is the benefit of using a cycle detection method like Floyd's algorithm?  I also found , but it is not answered, and the comment on the question does not really answer the question either. I've looked at the resumes of the type of candidates that get into computer science PhD programs at the top few universities (e.g. Stanford, MIT etc.) and a lot of them seem to have multiple publications (2-4) done during their undergraduate years. Is this representative of the entire pool? Or is this just a self-selected group that puts their resumes online.  I currently have one first-author workshop paper (5 pages), and I wonder how this might affect my chances at entry into these top universities. Avro Bengali keyboard switches to Malay (Jawi) after upgrade to Ubuntu 17.04 When is it better to use String.Format vs string concatenation? URLs: Should I use hyphens, underscores or plus symbols? Which is better for search engines?   example.com/my_cool_page.html example.com/my-cool-page.html  example.com/my+cool+page.html iMac with 8GB RAM -- memory always almost full I have a 27'' iMac (Late 2012, OS X 10.9.2) with 8GB RAM. The usage of memory is always above 7GB, even though I don't think I am running that much stuff. This leads to the occasional hanging of a program and occasional feeling of the computer being lagged.  The heaviest thing I am running is a Parallels virtualization of a defunct Windows laptop (for my Windows-only programs; work-related). Then I mostly surf with Chrome (10-20 tabs, some with youtube videos). Of course I have other things opened, like Mail, Evernote and a few more. But I don't think a 8GB RAM computer should be overwhelmed by that. I could be wrong.  I am willing to provide an export of processes from the Activity Monitor. I tried looking into it, of course, and I am running A LOT of small processes (unknown to me) -- system stuff I presume. I am a long-time PC user and I know my way around process management in PCs, but not on Mac.  What do you think? Do I just need more RAM or it doesn't feel like it?  Regards, what do it mean by "A real nxn matrix always has a real eigenvalue when n is odd?" Shouldnt it be that regardless of odd or even there will always have a real root?  hope to hear from you guys soon:) Can I take clear night sky photographs with my smartphone? is it possible to take clear night sky shots with stars/ planets visible from Redmi Note 4? what settings do I use? when I try to take it just comes black, unless on full moon day with HDR, though stars like Orion's belt won't get captured. Would using a telescope make celestial objects much clear to capture? When rolling percentages, do 1d100 and two d10s (percentiles) share the same probabilities? I know d100s are shunned because they take too much time to roll, and 1d10+1percentile is really fun, but do they share the same probabilities? Is it better to use a (digital) d100?  Also, do d100s have 0? You can't roll a 0 with percentiles, I think. How to change a default application in Ice Cream Sandwich? I used the ADWLauncher EX by default while having Gingerbread 2.3.6.  Today I have manually updated my Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3, and I wanted to give the new default launcher a shot, but I cannot find anymore where to select / forget the default application for an action.  I've turned the settings of my phone inside out, googled and crawled the forums, but without success. If anybody can tell me how to change a default application in ICS, I'd be grateful!      Yeah, I never thought I'd want to see that Complete action using... window again! :D On the photos where the lens flare is present, my Nikon D7000 is drawing strange labyrinth-looking artifacts. Here's an example.  The first image is a screenshot of a little part of the original photo zoomed 2:1 in Lightroom.  The second image is the same photo with Lightroom's contrast, clarity and sharpening set to the maximum to make the labyrinth pattern more visible.      This affects only some of the photos presenting lens flare. Here, for instance, the lens flare is present and light conditions are very close to the first photo, but there is no labyrinth pattern, only usual noise (screenshot of a part of a photo at 1:1 with contrast, clarity and sharpening set to the maximum):    Notes:   I can see this pattern only on some of the photos when the sun is in the frame or nearly in the frame. It is present with any lens I tested. The actual photo was shot at f/8, ISO 200, 1/640 s. I've seen this pattern in photos shot at ISO 100 as well. The photo is in RAW format, so this is not a JPEG artifact.   What is that? How do I avoid it? Syntax of Using Math Mode: Empty Lines (Beginner Question) I'm just starting to learn LaTeX. I tried typing \begin{equation*}  (math goes here)  \end{equation*}  and I got a whole bunch of errors. It seems LaTeX interpreted the empty line as the equation: when it saw nothing there, I guess it just ended math mode? It then said my other commands needed $'s so I assume that's what happened. When I typed \begin{equation*} (math goes here) \end{equation*}  everything was fine. So I'm confused. If LaTeX sees an empty line in an environment, does it just interpret this as me changing my mind, and deciding not to use the declared environment? Should I format /sdcard and /data if I want to wipe all personal data with Cyanogenmod? I'm trying to completely wipe all personal data from my Nexus 4 with CM installed. I've seen different advice on different sites for making sure all my data is gone:   Just do 'Factory Reset'. Do 'Factory Reset' at least 3 times. Do 'Factory Reset' and wipe dalvik cache. ...   and so on... I'm interested in erasing all traces of my personal data from the device. It's a Nexus 4, so there is no removable storage to worry about.  My guess would be to 'wipe data/factory reset' and 'wipe cache partition' in the main recovery menu. In the mount/storage menu, I would choose 'format /cache', 'format /data', and 'format /data and /data/media (/sdcard)'. Finally, in the advanced menu, I would choose 'wipe dalvik cache'.   Is this thorough enough? Should I also choose 'format /system', 'format /firmware', etc? Are there any options I should steer clear from? I would like the phone to boot to a fresh Cyanogenmod after clearing all data. What is the meaning of the axes in t-SNE? I'm currently trying to wrap my head around the  math. Unfortunately, there is still one question I can't answer satisfactorily: What is the actual meaning of the axes in a t-SNE graph? If I were to give a presentation on this topic or include it in any publication: How would I label the axes appropriately?  P.S: I read  Reddit question but the answers given there (such as "it depends on interpretation and domain knowledge"), don't really help me to understand this. I'm currently developing a script for Blender to handle Mesh Frequency Decomposition.  The script is nearly complete, but i need one more thing: The SciPy library to compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors.  Following the installation instructions on , I'm able to install it as well as Numpy. Numpy works fine, but I can't even import SciPy:  Traceback (most recent call last): File "/CAF_FD.py", line 4, in &lt;module&gt; ImportError: No module named 'scipy' Error: Python script fail, look in the console for now...   By the way, I'm working on Linux 64 bit and I've installed SciPy and Numpy with my package manager.  Edit: When I try to use SciPy with a terminal prompt, it works. Knitr: opts_chunk$set() not working in Rscript command I've heard that in the study of finite fields, and other concepts related to finite fields, mathematicians have found a sort of gap: there are various results and things that seem like they correspond to a field with one element, $\mathbf{F}_1$, even though there is no such field. Of course, there is an object which seems similar to a field with one element: the zero ring, $\mathbf{Z}_1$, defined as having one element, $0$, obeying the equations $$0 + 0 = 0 - 0 = 0 \cdot 0 = 1 = 0.$$ The zero ring seems to behave like a field in every respect, except for the fact that it fails to satisfy $0 \ne 1$. (But the importance of the axiom $0 \ne 1$ isn't clear to me.) However, in any case, there seems to be consensus that the zero ring is not the field with one element. People say that the zero ring &quot;does not behave like a finite field&quot; () or that it &quot;does not have the features that mathematicians need&quot; (). I'm not familiar enough with algebraic geometry to understand the properties that $\mathbf{F}_1$ is expected to have. Is there an elementary, undergraduate-level explanation of  why it seems like a field with one element &quot;ought to exist&quot; in the first place, what properties we expect it to have and why, and how the zero ring fails to satisfy these properties?  Or do I need to study algebraic geometry if I want to have an understanding of any of this? (A side question: do we have a good answer to the question of whether the single element of $\mathbf{F}_1$ ought to be $0$, $1$, both, or neither?) I'm an elected diamond moderator on one site, and a user of several others. I think it would be extremely helpful for our flagging process if users had the option to enter freeform text explaining their flag on types of flags other than the "in need of moderator attention" flag.  An example of when this is relevant: Sometimes posts have had rude/abusive flags, but the rude/abusive part might be difficult to notice, or it might be a single word or sentence buried somewhere in the middle of the post. Users have to choose between "flag it as rude with no explanation" or "flag it as misc and explain what's going on". Often they'll pick the first because of course it seems like what they should do (e.g. they know the system has special handling attached to rude/abusive flags) but it means they can't explain what's going on to us, so we have to reach out directly in private to find out.  Sometimes it also helps to be able to explain why a comment is no longer needed, because past experience tells me the "no longer needed" flag on its own might be declined on a particular site -- so I pick the custom reason instead of "no longer needed" just so I can provide explanation.  I'd prefer users be able to understand they can pick the appropriate reason and be able to attach any explanation they deem necessary to further direct moderators to the issue. If not for all kinds of flags, then at least for spam or rude/abusive flags. How to find the build / version of Windows 10 During the beta of Windows 10 it was hard know what version you were running unless it had it posted to the desktop. Once that wasn't there - how do you tell what version / build you are running?   This will become more of an issue as Microsoft starts releasing more builds with the new update mechanism. Article "communicated by" What does it mean when it says under a journal article that it has been communicated by "XYZ" where XYZ is not the author but some other scholar with a very strong reputation? What is the relationship to the actual author and/or the content? Is this some sort of seal of approval to get results out and known quickly? (I am specifically wondering in the context of mathematics and mathematical physics.)