According to , $@ and $* do pretty much the same thing:   The $@ holds list of all arguments passed to the script.  The $* holds list of all arguments passed to the script.   After searching all the top hits in google, I'm not able to find any explanation why there would be 2 seemingly duplicate syntaxes.   They appear to work the same in my scripts.   cat foo.sh #!/bin/bash echo The parameters passed in are $@ echo The parameters passed in are $*  ./foo.sh herp derp The parameters passed in are herp derp The parameters passed in are herp derp    Is one preferred over the other?  Why are there 2 builtin variables to do the exact same thing?     Additional sources
Consider the following code:  foo () {     echo $* }  bar () {     echo $@ }  foo 1 2 3 4 bar 1 2 3 4   It outputs:     1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4   I am using Ksh88, but I am interested in other common shells as well. If you happen to know any particularity for specific shells, please do mention them.  I found the follwing in the Ksh man page on Solaris:     The meaning of $* and  $@  is   identical  when  not  quoted  or  when  used  as a parameter   assignment value or as a file name. However, when used as  a   command argument, $* is equivalent to ``$1d$2d...'', where d   is the first character of the IFS variable,  whereas  $@  is   equivalent  to  $1 $2 ....   I tried modifying the IFS variable, but it doesn't modify the output. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
In the , the icon color for the various sites seems* incorrect: Whenever I select a main site, the icon is greyed out, and when ever I select the corresponding meta site, the icon is colored. My initial instinct was to think that the colors of the main/meta sites following the &quot;Switch sites:&quot; prompt should be switched. (Actually, it seems like it's just a UI thing. See the edit below.)  *Edit: Actually, the colors are technically not incorrect, since (as Jeremy Banks has pointed out) the icon shows &quot;the other&quot; site of the main/meta pair, and clicking on it is for switching to the respective other site. See the comment thread for some UI improvement ideas. How do I format my code blocks? In "Settings" > "SD card &amp; phone storage settings" under "Internal Phone Storage" it lists "Available Space" as 13.78MB.  I'm trying to install an app that is 2.38MB.  Why do I get the "Insufficient storage available" error message?  I clearly have enough space.  If it's relevant, my phone is an LG Optimus V. Why does Spring MVC respond with a 404 and report "No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [...] in DispatcherServlet"? Can I list-initialize a vector of move-only type? Pivot rows into multiple columns Please tell me which choice below (or rather a better choice that I need to know) works better in my sentences in informal English:     I got myself out on a limb. I need to clear my check by tomorrow. No matter how, I must ............ 2 million bucks by tomorrow.   a) line up [to prepare, organize, or arrange something]  b) hook up [hook somebody up with something to help someone get something that they need or want]  c) fix up [to arrange for someone to have something that they need]  For me, all three options work in this sense with the same meaning and informality degree. How can I force a program to open in a specific desktop? I've created an environment where I use 3 different desktop configurations, but every time I reboot, I have to manually open each program in that target desktop to make it look like it did before.   So, I'd like to write a .bat file that can get all my programs running in their appropriate desktops. I'm wondering if something like this is possible:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -desktop:2 "C:\Program Files\My\Other\Software.exe" -desktop:3 ...etc.   Obviously, this example is not real, but I hope there's something similar. I don't care if it's hacky :) I'm building a Core  system which supports dual-channel memory (up to 16&nbsp;GB in four DIMMs), my target is 8&nbsp;GB. From the performance perspective, is it better to have two times 4&nbsp;GB or four times 2&nbsp;GB? When I cut a layer using marquee tool, I get blur edges to cut side. How do I get sharp edges after cut? I am using rectangular marquee tool to cut a portion of the layer in photoshop cs5, but after cutting, the edges are not sharp, I get blur edges.      how can I get sharp edges? Harry Potter: Why 7? While rereading the entire Harry Potter series I noticed that the number 7 occurs quite often, for instance:    Seven books Seven Horcruxes planned by Tom Riddle Seven Weasley kids Seven years at Hogwarts Seven Harry Potters Seven people in a Quidditch team   Did J.K. Rowling ever mention why 7 was so important in Harry Potter? How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars I have a script that reads a text stream and generates a file of sed commands that is later run with sed -f. The generated sed commands are like:  s/cid:image002\.gif@01CC3D46\.926E77E0/https:\/\/mysite.com\/files\/1922/g s/cid:image003\.gif@01CC3D46\.926E77E0/https:\/\/mysite.com\/files\/1923/g s/cid:image004\.jpg@01CC3D46\.926E77E0/https:\/\/mysite.com\/files\/1924/g   Assume the script which generates the sed commands is something like:  while read cid fileid do     cidpat="$(echo $cid | sed -e s/\\./\\\\./g)"     echo 's/'"$cidpat"'/https:\/\/mysite.com\/files\/'"$fileid"'/g' &gt;&gt; sedscr done   How can I improve the script to ensure all regex metacharacters in the cid string are escaped and interpolated properly? Open maps which are not continuous If $\left(1+\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1+\cos \phi\right) = \frac{5}{4}\;,$ Then $\left(1-\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1-\cos \phi\right)$ If $\displaystyle \left(1+\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1+\cos \phi\right) = \frac{5}{4}\;,$ Then $\left(1-\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1-\cos \phi\right) = $  $\bf{My\; Try::}$ Given $\displaystyle \left(1+\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1+\cos \phi\right) = \frac{5}{4}\Rightarrow 1+\sin \phi\cdot \cos \phi+\sin \phi+\cos \phi = \frac{5}{4}.$  So $\displaystyle \sin \phi+\cos \phi+\sin \phi \cdot \cos \phi = \frac{1}{4}\Rightarrow \left(\sin \phi+\cos \phi\right) = \frac{1}{4}-\sin \phi \cdot \cos \phi.$  Now $\displaystyle \left(1-\sin \phi\right)\cdot \left(1-\cos \phi\right) = 1-\left(\sin \phi+\cos \phi\right)+\sin \phi \cdot \cos \phi =\frac{3}{4}+\sin 2\phi$  Now How can I calculate $\sin 2\phi.$  Help me, Thanks Moment generating function of the inner product of two gaussian random vectors Can anybody please suggest how I can compute the moment generating function of the inner product of two Gaussian random vectors, each distributed as $\mathcal N(0,\sigma^2)$, independent of each other? Is there some standard result available for this? Any pointer is highly appreciated. Should I put myself last? "me and my friends" vs. "my friends and me" or "my friends and I" I've always been taught to put myself last when referring to myself in the same sentence as others but the usage of "me and..." seems to be everywhere these days. The misuse of the word "me" instead of "I" aside, is there some new rule I haven't heard of? Shouldn't we put ourselves last regardless of the "me"/"I" usage?  Examples of "correct" usage:      My friends and I went for some ice   cream. Did you see my friends and me   at the ice cream stand?   Examples of "incorrect" usage:     Me and my friends went for some ice   cream. Did you see me and my friends   at the ice cream stand?   Note: I was also taught that the only person who could put themselves first was the queen. Suppose I look at a parallel plate capacitor in its rest frame and calculate the electrostatic energy, $E$.  Next, I look at the same capacitor in a primed frame boosted in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the plates. In this frame, the $E$-field is the same strength, there is no magnetic field, and the volume over which the $E$-field extends is less by a factor $1/\gamma$. This suggests $E' = \frac{1}{\gamma} E$, but relativity states that energy transforms as $E' = \gamma E$.   Where is the missing energy? the root of $N$th transpose matrix For $n=3,$ $L$ matrix is as below:  $$ \left[\begin{matrix} 1&amp;0&amp;0\\ -1&amp;1&amp;0\\ -0.5&amp;-0.5&amp;1\\ \end{matrix}\right] $$  for $n=4$ we have:  $$ \left[\begin{matrix} 1&amp;0&amp;0&amp;0\\ -1&amp;1&amp;0&amp;0\\ -0.5&amp;-0.5&amp;1&amp;0\\ -1/3&amp;-1/3&amp;-1/3&amp;1 \end{matrix} \right] $$  and for $N$th we have: $$ \left[ \begin{matrix} 1&amp;0&amp;0&amp;0&amp;\cdots&amp;0&amp;0\\ -1&amp;1&amp;0&amp;0&amp;\cdots&amp;0&amp;0\\ -0.5&amp;-0.5&amp;1&amp;0&amp;\cdots&amp;0&amp;0\\ \vdots&amp;\vdots&amp;\vdots&amp;\vdots&amp; &amp; \vdots&amp;\vdots\\ -1/(N-2)&amp;-1/(N-2)&amp;-1/(N-2)&amp;-1/(N-2)&amp;\cdots&amp;1&amp;0\\ -1/(N-1)&amp;-1/(N-1)&amp;-1/(N-1)&amp;-1/(N-1)&amp;\cdots&amp;-1/(N-1)&amp;1 \end{matrix} \right] $$  How to get the roots (eigenvalues) of the $N$th order of the $L+L^T$ matrix? is there a specific logic between the roots of this matrix? Consequences of a master thesis with errors I finished my master thesis 6 years ago, since then I gained a lot of experience on my field and also in academia. I can say that in that time I was a "child" , very inexperienced. I think that also my advisor did not help a lot, and I tried to do  a lot of things by my own, without someone to really review my things. Despite that, I still received a good mention by the master committee on final results.   Some days ago, I just decided to read part of master thesis, and I just realized a big nightmare coming. I identified a lot of typos, some references errors, and some improvements that I should do, but I did not. The worst thing is that I wrote a paper to a conference with my master thesis results (and some errors are there). The conference is not a high impact conference, but still the paper has my name and is available for everyone...   As I am finishing my PhD studies for now, I am concerning a lot that situation. My dream and goal is to pursue a Professor career. So, my questions are: What are (or could be) the consequences of a master thesis and paper with errors (some minor and some major) in academia? Revoke degree after years by errors in master is possible ( I am concerning a lot this situation that I thought on it)? How can I minimize it (I thought that I can put a fixed version of my thesis and paper in the future, for instance on my personal website)? How those errors can impact me in a Professor recruitment process?  Sorry for the long text, I am blaming myself all the time, and really afraid about the possibilities since I know that Academia career is really competitive. Prove that every idempotent element is not nilpotent element. Let $R$ be a ring. Prove that every idempotent element is not nilpotent element.  I've got a problem with proving this question. I was be grateful, if somebody would be help me.