If I cast disintegrate and the enemy casts counterspell, would I wait to see the outcome of the enemy's counterspell before I cast counterspell? Or would I have to just cast it without knowing (like when a Divination wizard uses their divination die with their Portent feature to replace a roll before it's made)?  Do I (the player) choose to cast counterspell before or after the other player or DM has made the ability check for their counterspell?
I'm not entirely clear on how Counterspell works, when trying to counter higher-level spells: the CS description only talks about disrupting a creature you can see, within 60 feet, casting a spell.   However, when trying to counter a higher level spell:   Do I know what spell is being cast?  Do I at least know (somehow intuit, based on VSM components) the level of the spell? Or can I tell the spell/level of the spell by sensing a disturbance in The Weave? (I.e., if the spell is being cast using Subtle Spell, can I still tell what's going on?)   The point of the question is to determine how fruitful CS can be in combat--if I know what the other guy/gal is casting (or at least the level), I can decide whether I want to spend my L8 slot to counter his/her L8 slot. But if I have no idea, and I end up using a L8 slot to counter a L3 spell... seems a bit painful.  Hope this made sense!
Prove that for any positive integer $n$,       $$n^{1/n}  &lt; 1 + \sqrt{\frac{2}{n}}.$$   This due to Victor Linis, Eureka, Vol. 2, No. 2, February 1976, p. 29.   Hint:      Use the binomial theorem. I have scripts calling other script files but I need to get the filepath of the file that is currently running within the process.   For example, let's say I have three files. Using :   script_1.py calls script_2.py.  In turn, script_2.py calls script_3.py.    How can I get the file name and path of script_3.py, from code within script_3.py, without having to pass that information as arguments from script_2.py?  (Executing os.getcwd() returns the original starting script's filepath not the current file's.) How would you go about finding out how much memory is being used by an object? I know it is possible to find out how much is used by a block of code, but not by an instantiated object (anytime during its life), which is what I want. echo "-e" doesn't print anything I'm using GNU bash, version 3.00.15(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu). And this command:  echo "-e"    doesn't print anything. I guess this is because "-e" is one of a valid options of echo command because echo "-n" and echo "-E" (the other two options) also produce empty strings.  The question is how to escape the sequence "-e" for echo to get the natural output ("-e"). How can I stream the same music to multiple computers? Is there a way to stream the same playlist on multiple computers at the same time? I want to be able to sync what's playing on multiple computers (for parties etc). How to loop through a HashMap in JSP? I want to do calculations with dates and use 'current year' in a formula condition. When I tried to manipulate dates in a formula I always receive an error of incompatibles types; NUMBER AND DATE.   Because of that I had to convert the date fields into numbers in the dataflow. It worked but I didn't resolve the issue of current year because it is impossible to convert a field that change with time. The condition and the formula is the following:  case     when  'Date_Month'+'Date_Year'*12&gt; 2+'current year'*12 then 0 when ('current-'Date_Year')*12+(2-'Date_Month')) % max('Billing_Periodicity') == 0 then 'Parcel_Bill' else 0    Many Thanks for your attention and help Can you flash any android device with "fastbood flash" command (of the adb)? What is the default 'backup' user for? I am setting up multiple-machine backup plan and I was hoping to use a user called 'backup' on each machine as the backup destination.   My problem is, there is already a user called 'backup' on my machine.  What is it for, and can I hijack it for my own purposes?  root@frodo:~# useradd backup useradd: user 'backup' already exists Url rewriting in Amazon S3 I have a webapp hosted in Amazon S3, the webapp is build with jQuery Mobile and I use changePage lo navigate between pages, I'm not using the hash operator(#) when I change the page.  I'm having problems when the user copy the url and paste it in a new tab  For example:    loads the page page1.html that is in amazon s3 with only the jquery page structure...  The behavior that I want is that load index.html and with js read the url, detect the page and load the correct page.  With Apache I solve this with URL Rewriting... but for Amazon S3 I didn't find any similar...  NOTE: I know that if I activate the hash operator (#) in my urls the problem is solved but I need clean urls without #. DSolve gets stuck on system of differential equations with unassigned variable The bevel depth (the radius of the tube) is set to 9cm but it actually isn't when compared to the background grid. This is is confirmed by importing it into sketchup and scaling it to the proper units it turns out the radius is only around 2.286cm. This problem only shows up on certain projects. What's wrong and how do I fix it?  (sorry that I can't upload the file, it's a long story) Avoid synchronized(this) in Java? Whenever a question pops up on SO about Java synchronization, some people are very eager to point out that synchronized(this) should be avoided. Instead, they claim, a lock on a private reference is to be preferred.  Some of the given reasons are:    (very popular this one, also has an "accidentally" variant)     Other people, including me, argue that synchronized(this) is an idiom that is used a lot (also in Java libraries), is safe and well understood. It should not be avoided because you have a bug and you don't have a clue of what is going on in your multithreaded program. In other words: if it is applicable, then use it.  I am interested in seeing some real-world examples (no foobar stuff) where avoiding a lock on this is preferable when synchronized(this) would also do the job.  Therefore: should you always avoid synchronized(this) and replace it with a lock on a private reference?      Some further info (updated as answers are given):   we are talking about instance synchronization both implicit (synchronized methods) and explicit form of synchronized(this) are considered if you quote Bloch or other authorities on the subject, don't leave out the parts you don't like (e.g. Effective Java, item on Thread Safety: Typically it is the lock on the instance itself, but there are exceptions.) if you need granularity in your locking other than synchronized(this) provides, then synchronized(this) is not applicable so that's not the issue Not sure if there is a cultural difference. In our family it is considered normal to frighten the child so that he behaves the way we want.  Example- Parent: Eat that quickly or the God will punish you! Parent: Don't go on the stairs. The ghost is hiding there and it'll catch you! Parent: Be quiet or the police will grab you!  Does this kind of behavior from the parent's side has any abnormal effects on the baby in the longer run? Can this behavior be accepted as normal?  Has any research been done on this aspect? Copying applications from applications folder to external and reinstalling osx Is it possible to copy all my applications from the applications folder onto an external, format my mac, reinstall OS X and finally copy the applications back into the applications folder for installing them?  Will that work? I am asking because my macbook seems to be behaving in a very odd manner, has become excessively sluggish and is preventing me from recording anything in logic.. I have tried the usual freeing up space, clean desktop, fixing permissions, verifying and repairing disk as well as resetting pram and making sure I have all the latest software and firmware updates. The macbook is only 8 months old and is running Lion with 8gb of ram, I really cannot understand what is wrong with it. Even when trying to watch a movie, the player will get serious audio/video synchronisation issues and I noticed that every time my wifi is on the fans speed up like a plane taking off. I even checked and it is clean from any dust. I am perplexed :(   If anyone could help me please, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks in advance! Why does $\log(n!)$ and $\log(n^n)$ have the same big-O complexity? In an example that I found, it is said that $\log(n!)$ has the same big-O complexity as $\log(n^n)$. Please explain why this is the case. I have a VF page built on Lightning Design system (LDS) framework. When I add the renderAs="PDF" attribute, pdf does not show the content with LDS CSS/Style.  Reference Link:   Note1: apex:page tag has all the usual attributes which is required for pdf *     (showHeader="false" sidebar="false" standardStylesheets="false"   docType="html-5.0" applyHtmlTag="false" applyBodyTag="false")   Note2: Salesforce supports external stylesheet. That is, CSS file stored in Static resource. Link of example:   I also copied the whole css content from the LDS CSS file (Path: 'assets/styles/salesforce-lightning-design-system-vf.min.css') and applied as inline CSS in VF page. But still, there is no luck.  My styleSheet is referred in VF page as below  apex:stylesheet value="{!URLFOR($Resource.SLDS221,      'assets/styles/salesforce-lightning-design-system-vf.min.css')}"   Page works absolutely fine if it is not rendered as PDF.  Any suggestions? About an hour ago, from my account, an inappropriate message was posted as a reply to a Stack Overflow question.  I have noticed it, because I started getting downvotes. To my understanding my Gmail account wasn't compromised (I reviewed my account security settings and login history). I am from a secure WPA2 connection. I cannot find enough information on how to investigate this. Although I changed my passwords everywhere, I still seem confused and I would like to ask how to investigate this issue myself. Size and density of neutron stars Most of the books which I looked at give approximately 10 km as the radius of a neutron star. Just yesterday I looked at a book by Dave Goldberg titled The Universe In the Rearview Mirror (2013) which says that they're "only about 5 km in radius" [p.225]. Is this true, [i.e., is there some recent evidence for this], or did he make a mistake here? jQuery Ajax POST example with PHP