I read this in an anthology over 35 years ago.  The paperback was probably 10 to 15 years old.  Basic plot was a series of robot birds, AI that could learn, set free prevent murders.  They decided that more actions constituted murder far beyond what the designers intended.  Examples:  preventing surgery because the incision would harm the patient, not allowing a farmer to turn off his tractor.  Vaguely remember the robots giving electric shocks; in one instance, a person died from a weak heart, all because he was trying to swat a fly.   wasn't much help
Trying to find the original story (I read it in Russian translation, original was most likely English unless it was Lem).  The story plot had artificial birds designed to serve as cops. The birds started attacking humans who were percieved as being aggressive towards anything alive. So they created more advanced birds to protect against the first ones. This worked for a while until the second kind started attacking humans as well. It ended with the idea that they would need another generation to attack the second-generation birds.  The story wasn't very long. I read it a while back (mid-1980s, which means the original was written even earlier, probably before 1980).  Despite a somewhat Asimov-like "misbehaving robots" topic, I'm pretty sure it wasn't Asimov.
Why does the 'b' in absorb change to a 'p' in absorption? My laptop which had Windows 7 on it crashed today. Being unable to access any file kept within, I found about the LiveCD. So I created a LiveUSB with Ubuntu in it, and managed to access my Windows desktop. I'm now backing up files important to me, but I have a question:  Now I'm cutting and pasting the files I want to save, using Ubuntu. Are these files being moved in Windows as well, or do the alterations I make through Ubuntu not affect the Windows state?   So let's say,if I cut and paste all of the D drive, and then format C and reboot with Windows, would the files in D have been gone (since they were cut and not copied) or still be there?  Thanks. LINQ to SQL Where Clause Optional Criteria I am working with a LINQ to SQL query and have run into an issue where I have 4 optional fields to filter the data result on.  By optional, I mean has the choice to enter a value or not.  Specifically, a few text boxes that could have a value or have an empty string and a few drop down lists that could have had a value selected or maybe not...  For example:      using (TagsModelDataContext db = new TagsModelDataContext())      {         var query = from tags in db.TagsHeaders                     where tags.CST.Equals(this.SelectedCust.CustCode.ToUpper())                      &amp;&amp; Utility.GetDate(DateTime.Parse(this.txtOrderDateFrom.Text)) &lt;= tags.ORDDTE                     &amp;&amp; Utility.GetDate(DateTime.Parse(this.txtOrderDateTo.Text)) &gt;= tags.ORDDTE                     select tags;         this.Results = query.ToADOTable(rec =&gt; new object[] { query });     }   Now I need to add the following fields/filters, but only if they are supplied by the user.   Product Number - Comes from another table that can be joined to TagsHeaders. PO Number - a field within the TagsHeaders table. Order Number - Similar to PO #, just different column. Product Status - If the user selected this from a drop down, need to apply selected value here.   The query I already have is working great, but to complete the function, need to be able to add these 4 other items in the where clause, just don't know how! Available US State or National business (or employer) database lists? This question dovetails with this post on .  I am familiar with some of larger, paid-for business registry's like  and .  While the detailed information their business listings database include (like # of employees, annual sales, industry code, etc) is fantastic, if you are on a limited budget, sometimes the cost of purchasing the data outweighs the value you can get from it.  If you have geocoding capabilities in house, one could potentially create a reasonable surrogate by spatially-enabling (geocoding) a publicly available business listing on your own.    If you were looking to take on this type of project, where would you start your research? Do you know of US agencies at a State or National level that maintain this type of information, AND are publicly available for download or minimal purchase? Matrix $A^T A$ as sum of outer products $A$ is a $n\times n$ matrix such that $ A^m = 0 $ for some positive integer $m$.   Show that $A^n = 0$.   My attempt: For $n &gt; m$, it's obvious since matrix multiplication is associative.  For $n &lt; m$, $A^n\times A^{m-n} = 0$; not sure what to do next. Also I know that $\det A = 0$. Is it possible to have the dock in different positions in different desktop? Is it possible to have the dock in different positions in different desktops? In particular I'd like to change the settings between a normal desktop and a desktop where there's an app at full screen. In this way I'd keep the dock in lower side of the desktop when there's an app at full screen and vertically on the left side during normal use.  I have this problem that, sicne I usually have the dock vertically on the left, it pops out everytime i go to the far left in an app I'm using with full screen, and using this app I have to move the mouse to the left quite often. Possible to turn on Airplane mode with WiFi on only? I know the definition of Airplane mode is all communications and radio signals are blocked. But is it possible to turn off the "calling/receiving" part of the phone so your phone is not connecting to a cell tower and only allow Wifi? I've looked into a couple of apps in Google Play but they're either not working or out of date with newer versions of Android.   I know there is strong opinions on both sides of the issue but I'm worried about radiation from my phone since i use it a lot in bed and I hold the phone close to my head and face. At night I'm not worried about receiving calls, so I just want to turn off the phone part and  use WiFi. Is there a way? Or am i just crazy and paranoid? I want to create a 2D game but I'd like to have the character to wear tons of different equipments on different combinations, like a RPG or something.  So let's say the user changes his/her shoulders and pants, this must be shown to the player and all these different equipments must follow the different characters action (hitting, being hit, spelling magic, etc.).  I see a few problems that I'd like to know the best approach/algorithm/architecture to solve.  1 - Sprites or Animations  Should I create different sprites for each equipment in each action animation?  Is it better to just have the equipment sprite and animate it directly on code like rotating and translating (using something like tween on Flash)?  Is there any other better option? (I really don't like the ideas above)  2 - Positions  Let's say during one of the character's move he starts looking directly in front to the player's view but ends his movement showing his right side to the player (like if he swings his sword from one side to the other).  If we consider one part of the user, like his head for example, it starts in front and then turns left.  It means at least 3 different positions for each head equipment (helmet, cap, whatever).  This surely influence the answer of #1 question. How is the best way to achieve that?  3 - Layers  Let's consider a character move where he spins 360 degrees with his arms open. At the beginning of the animation, his right hand is close to the user's view and then, at the middle of the movement, this is probably behind the character's body on the animation.  Whatever is the option on #1 question, you surely needs to use some kind of layer model to make this sprite or animation to starts closer to the player's view and later change to far away from player's view.  Is there any good way to do that?  I know the question is quite long and difficult to understand. Let me know if you think it's better to have some drawings to try to explain which one and I'll try to do that. How to show to the user a progression in a script? Is it possible to install MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 on Ubuntu 16.04? I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04. Unfortunately I need to work MySQL 5.5 or 5.6. I tried many solutions to have MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 run on Ubuntu 16.04 like this  . But none of them is working. Ubuntu detect the unmet dependencies but says "but it is not going to be installed" for 5.5 or says Package 'mysql-server-5.6' has no installation candidate...  Is it not possible to force an earlier version of MySQL on Ubuntu? Why is that? PHP & MySQL: mysqli_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, boolean given Storable Action - System.LimitException: Too many DML statements: 1 @AuraEnabled(cacheable=true) public static String  deleteContacts(List&lt;String&gt; contactIds) {     List&lt;Contact&gt; returnList = new List&lt;Contact&gt; ();     String query = ' SELECT Id,Name, LastName,Department,MobilePhone, Email FROM Contact WHERE id IN : contactIds ';     for (Contact thisContact:  Database.Query(query)) {          returnList.add(thisContact);     }     try {       delete returnList;       return'deleted successfully';     }     catch(Exception ex){        return 'Problem occoured';     }  }  JS Method deleteSelected(){     deleteContacts({         contactIds :this.selectedIds     })      .then(result =&gt; {         this.dispatchEvent(             new ShowToastEvent({                 title: 'Success',                 message: result,                 variant: 'success',             }),         );         return refreshApex(this.getContactList, { searchKeyWord: '$searchKeyWord' });     })     .catch(error =&gt; {         this.error = error;     }); Comment character counter does not trim, while the server does What is the fate of the Asgardians at the start of Avengers: Infinity War? Thor: Ragnarok ends with the remaining people of Asgard aboard a refugee ship that meets Thanos' ship. Avengers: Infinity War opens with      Thanos and his minions having commandeered the ship and several bodies can be seen on the floor.   This begs the question, what happened to these characters:   Korg Miek Asguardian extra #3 Valkyrie My question is from Apostol's Vol. 1 One-variable calculus with introduction to linear algebra textbook.  Page 57. Exercise 12. Show that the following are polynomials by converting them to the form $\sum_{k=0}^{m}a_kx^k$ for a suitable $m$. In each case $n$ is a positive integer. $a)$ $(1+x)^{2n}.$ $b)$ $\frac{1-x^{n+1}}{1-x}, x\not=1.$ $c)$ $\prod_{k=0}^{n}(1+x^{2^k}).$  The attempt at a solution: a) part of the problem is pretty easy I guess, it is example of binomial theorem, so the answer would be $(1+x)^{2n}=\sum_{k=0}^{2n}(^{2n}_{k})x^k.$ Answer to part b) would be the following: $$\frac{1-x^{n+1}}{1-x}=\frac{(1-x)(1+x+x^2+\cdots+x^n)}{1-x}=1+x+x^2+\cdots+x^n=‌​\sum_{k=0}^{n}x^k.$$thanks to @DiegoMath's hint. As for part c), we have $$\prod_{k=0}^{n}(1+x^{2^k})=(1+x)(1+x^2)(1+x^4)(1+x^8)\cdots(1+x^{2^n})$$ and I have trouble &quot;converting&quot; this to sum which would be of a form of polynomial. Bibliography in Texmaker I'm having some problems with my bibliography in Texmaker. My code is:  \documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{natbib} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}     \usepackage{natbib} \usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor} \usepackage[left=2cm,right=2cm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm]{geometry} \begin{document}  ....  \cite{Johnson} \bibliographystyle{plain} \bibliography{mybib}  \end{document}   I also created a new file (File > New) that I saved as mybib.bib:  @Article{Johnson, author = {Edgar G. Johnson and Alfred O. Nier}, title = {Angular Aberrations in Sector Shaped Electromagnetic Lenses for Focusing Beams of  Charged Particles}, journal = {Physical Review}, year = {1953}, volume = {91}, number = {1}, }  @phdthesis{Zoran, author = {Zoran Racic}, title = {\'Etude et essais du spectromÃ¨tre Ã  plasma {DYMIO} de la  mission {MARS 96}}, publisher = {UniversitÃ© Pierre et Marie Curie}, year = {1996} }   When I compile my .tex file, I only have a [?] appearing.  Could you tell me what my mistake is? Date and Time only partially visible in Big Sur Prove that $ a $ divides $1^{a^{n}} + 2^{a^{n}} + ... + (a-1)^{a^{n}}$? How to draw circle, square, and triangle marks in TikZ picture?