In the ifconfig man page I encountered:  metric N               This parameter sets the interface metric.   Searched the net, but didn't find clear explanation, only something like "it sets priority of the NIC interface".   Is there definitive definition of it?  When should one use it?  That question is not duplicate as SU indicates, because it asks about    metric term in context of NIC interfaces not in context of routing    tables, so one might consider it as a distinct question, as I do.
I'm a little confused about the output I'm seeing in my routing table, particularly the 'metric' column:  $ route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface 0.0.0.0         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 wlan0 172.16.35.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 vmnet1 192.168.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     9      0        0 wlan0 192.168.82.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 vmnet8   According to the man page, metric indicates the 'distance' to the target. I was a little confused about what exactly "target" was. I assumed it was my router (it goes to gateway 0.0.0.0, which then goes to my router at 192.168.0.1). Thus, I expected the metric to be a single hop to my router. However, it's 9! Why is this so number high?
I want to install OpenOffice. What can I do to install it on my computer? Is it wrong to say $ \sqrt{x} \times \sqrt{x} =\pm x,\forall x \in \mathbb{R}$? Is it wrong to say $$ \sqrt{x} \times \sqrt{x} =\sqrt{x^2}= \pm x$$ I am quite sure that  $\sqrt{(x)^2} = \pm(x)$  But, does $\sqrt{x } \times \sqrt{x} =- (x)$ doesn't holds in $\mathbb{R}$ but if we assume $\mathbb{C}$ it holds right? I am looking for a closed form (ideally expressed as elementary functions) of the function $\exp_n(x) = \sum_{k=0}^n x^k / k!$.  I am already aware of expressing it in terms of the gamma function. Background / Motivation When counting combinations of objects with generating functions, it is useful to be able to express the partial sum $1 + x + \cdots + x^n$ as $\frac{1-x^{n+1}}{1-x}$. For example, to count the number of ways to pick 5 marbles from a bag of blue, red, and green marbles where we pick at most 3 blue marbles and at most 2 red marbles, we can consider the generating function $f(x) = (1+x+x^2+x^3)(1+x+x^2)(1+x+x^2+\cdots)$. By using the partial sum identity, we can express it as $f(x) = \left(\frac{1-x^4}{1-x}\right)\left(\frac{1-x^3}{1-x}\right)\left(\frac{1}{1-x}\right)$.  Simplify, express as simpler product of series, and find the coefficient of the $x^5$ term. I want to be able to do the same for a generating function in the form $g(x) = \exp_{n_1}(x)^{p_1} \exp_{n_2}(x)^{p_2} \cdots \exp_{n_j}(x)^{p_j}$ The easiest way to extract the coefficient of a given term $x^p / p!$ would be to use a similar closed form expression for $\exp_n(x)$ and a similar technique to $f$. Attempted Solutions Differential equation Recall that the way to prove the identity $1+x+x^2+\cdots+x^n = \frac{1-x^{n+1}}{1-x}$ is to define $S = 1 + x + x^2 + \cdots + x^n$ and notice that: $S - Sx = 1 - x^{n+1}$. Likewise, notice that $y(x) = \exp_n(x)$ satisfies $y - y' = x^n/n!$.  Via SAGE, the solution is $y(x) = \frac{c+\Gamma(n+1,x)}{n!}e^x$.  Our initial condition $y(0) = 0$ so $c=0$.  By , $\Gamma(n+1,x) = n! e^{-x} \exp_n(x)$ so we have $y(x) = \exp_n(x)$. Recurrence Relation Notice that $\exp_n(x) = \exp_{n-1}(x) + x^n/n!$. Using the unilateral Z-Transform and related properties, we find that $\mathcal{Z}[\exp_n(x)] = (z e^{x/z})/(z-1)$. Therefore, $\exp_n(x) = \mathcal{Z}^{-1}\left[(z e^{x/z})/(z-1)\right] = \frac{1}{2 \pi i} \oint_C z^n e^{x/z}/(z-1)\;dz$. $(z^n e^{x/z})/(z-1)$ has two singularities: $z = 1$ and $z = 0$.  The point $z = 1$ is a pole of order one with residue $e^x$.  To find the residue at $z = 0$ consider the product $z^n e^{x/z} (-1/(1-z)) = -z^n \left( \sum_{m=0}^\infty x^m z^{-m} / m! \right) \left( \sum_{j=0}^\infty x^j \right)$.  The coefficient of the $z^{-1}$ term is given when $n - m + j = -1$. The residue of the point $z=0$ is then $-\sum_{m,j} x^m / m! = -\sum_{m=n+1}^\infty x^m / m!$. Let $C$ by the positively oriented unit circle centered at the origin.  By Cauchy's Residue Theorem, $\frac{1}{2 \pi i} \oint_C z^n e^{x/z}/(z-1)\;dz = \frac{1}{2 \pi i} 2 \pi i \left(e^x - \sum_{m=n+1}^\infty x^m / m!\right) = \exp_n(x)$. Finite Calculus I've tried to evaluate the sum using finite calculus, but can't seem to make much progress. Is there a characterization of the nonconstant entire functions $f$ that satisfy $|f(z)|=1$ for all $|z|=1$?   Clearly, $f(z)=z^n$ works for all $n$. Also, it's not difficult to show that if $f$ is such an entire function, then $f$ must vanish somewhere inside the unit disk. What else can be said about those functions?  Thank you. There are three ways I know to pronounce the -ed at the end of an adjective:   /t/ as in cracked. /d/ as in lined. /ɪd/ as in naked   I realise naked is a special case because, as , it comes for Old English nacod, so the suffix isn't added.   shows the pattern of pronunciation of -ed in all other cases. However it doesn't explain why  ends with /ɪd/ (or /id/ or /əd/ depending on the dialect).   that wicked comes from OE wicca, so the d wasn't already there.  Why do we pronounce wicked as /ˈwɪkɪd/ and not /ˈwɪkt/? Find Java classes implementing an interface Some time ago, I came across a piece of code, that used some piece of standard Java functionality to locate the classes that implemented a given interface. I know the functions were hidden in some non-logical place, but they could be used for other classes as the package name implied. Back then I did not need it, so I forgot about it, but now I do, and I can't seem to find the functions again. Where can these functions be found?  Edit: I'm not looking for any IDE functions or anything, but rather something that can be executed within the Java application. I have embedded a Python interpreter in a C program.  Suppose the C program reads some bytes from a file into a char array and learns (somehow) that the bytes represent text with a certain encoding (e.g., ISO 8859-1, Windows-1252, or UTF-8).  How do I decode the contents of this char array into a Python string?  The Python string should in general be of type unicode—for instance, a 0x93 in Windows-1252 encoded input becomes a u'\u0201c'.  I have attempted to use PyString_Decode, but it always fails when there are non-ASCII characters in the string.  Here is an example that fails:  #include &lt;Python.h&gt; #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;  int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {      char c_string[] = { (char)0x93, 0 };      PyObject *py_string;       Py_Initialize();       py_string = PyString_Decode(c_string, 1, "windows_1252", "replace");      if (!py_string) {           PyErr_Print();           return 1;      }      return 0; }   The error message is UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u201c' in position 0: ordinal not in range(128), which indicates that the ascii encoding is used even though we specify windows_1252 in the call to PyString_Decode.  The following code works around the problem by using PyString_FromString to create a Python string of the undecoded bytes, then calling its decode method:  #include &lt;Python.h&gt; #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;  int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {      char c_string[] = { (char)0x93, 0 };      PyObject *raw, *decoded;       Py_Initialize();       raw = PyString_FromString(c_string);      printf("Undecoded: ");      PyObject_Print(raw, stdout, 0);      printf("\n");      decoded = PyObject_CallMethod(raw, "decode", "s", "windows_1252");      Py_DECREF(raw);      printf("Decoded: ");      PyObject_Print(decoded, stdout, 0);      printf("\n");      return 0; } A word to describe someone or something that is not last? I'm looking for a word that describes the state of not being last. A word that would apply to everything in an ordered list that is not the last thing in that list.  From     I wasn't the last person to finish the race.   to (the phrasing is off, but it seems to illustrate my point)     I was .. person to finish the race.   One word that comes to mind is "intermediate", but I don't think that includes the first item in a list. In D&amp;D 4E as with many RPGs, characters have a fixed armour value or AC. When attacking, the attacker must roll a die to overcome the target's AC. In 4E offensive magic works the same way: the target has a fixed Fortitude/Reflex/Will defence determined by their stats, and in order to hit, the attacker rolls to overcome whichever defence is relevant.   However it was not always like this. Some spells in 3E and now again in 5E work the opposite way. In those editions the target is the one who rolls against a fixed value determined by the caster's stats, in order to avoid spell-damage.  Both methods compare the attacker and target's stats, and have an element of randomness. I personally like the 4E system as it simplifies combat without leaving anything out. Why was the decision made, when designing the early D&amp;D editions (and still when iterating upwards into (A)D&amp;D 1e&ndash;3e), to use saving throws to control spells?  Answers should consist of designer quotes and not personal opinions. Could Hermione really free the Hogwarts house-elves with her knitted hats? I usually render my animation into image sequence format, It usually takes a lot of time, so I turn off my monitor and come back later to check the rendered result then find that blender crashed before rendering all the frames.  Since rendering can be done from the command prompt I thought about writing a script (running in my OS) to automatically restart rendering from the last successful rendered frame until all frames are finished*.  But I believe this problem is facing a lot of people out there, is there a way to deal with it? instead of reinventing the wheel?     for example if the total render time is 8 hours I don't want come back to check my computer every 20 minutes (some times this is not available I'm asleep or away from my PC) What does the term saturating nonlinearities mean? I was reading the paper  and in section 3 were they explain the architecture of their Convolutional Neural Network they explain how they preferred using:     non-saturating nonlinearity $f(x) = max(0, x). $   because it was faster to train. In that paper they seem to refer to saturating nonlinearities as the more traditional functions used in CNNs, the sigmoid and the hyperbolic tangent functions (i.e. $f(x) = tanh(x)$ and $f(x) = \frac{1}{1 + e^{-x}} = (1 + e^{-x})^{-1}$ as saturating).   Why do they refer to these functions as "saturating" or "non-saturating"? In what sense are these function "saturating" or "non-saturating"? What do those terms mean in the context of convolutional neural networks? Are they used in other areas of machine learning (and statistics)? Apt-get update with an @ in password error I want to update ubuntu 11.04 throught apt-get. So I added the following lines in apt.conf  export http_proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver.net:port/ export ftp_proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver.netport/  export http_proxy=http://deepak:Deepak@123@12.1.1.1:3128   My question is: how do I insert special characters to a username or password?  For instance: my password for proxy is Deepak@123 and it is getting an error. When to use icons vs. icons with text vs. just text links? Social Login adoption vs Traditional Login I have implemented  on my website. I am wondering how important it is to include a traditional login (email/password) system.  I believe there may be a significant percentage of potential users that are either uncomfortable or unfamiliar with social login. These users may not sign up for my site if social login is the only option.  Does anyone know of any data comparing social login vs traditional login and the corresponding adoption rate?  Is there a current best practice? Do I need to give the user an option to sign up using username/password? Or is facebook/google/openID/twitter/MS/Yahoo enough? Sending packets captured with Wireshark How can we get "Developer" bugs logged with Technical Support? I recently found a bug, which I mentioned on , as well as submitting a case, and after a few days fumbling around with the case, they closed it by saying that they only provide this type of support for Premier Support customers.  Is there a better channel for reporting bugs than by submitting a case, or is there something "special" we have to do? I realize this question is similar to , except that I've already gone the route of , as suggested by the answer there (i.e. submitting a case), to no avail.  How can I make sure that a bug like this can find its way to someone capable of at least confirming that the behavior was expected? This behavior isn't documented anywhere, and so I assume that it's a bug that needs to be addressed. What is the word for the order of succession in which son assumes the throne after father? It can be any son-younger son after elder son after father. Also, what can be the term for only a single family in power? Please answer. I am trying to understand how to see the total size of my hard drive &amp; how much is left. It was recommended on various searches to use the command below   df -h Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev tmpfs           1.6G  9.6M  1.6G   1% /run /dev/sda1       219G   29G  180G  14% / tmpfs           7.8G   18M  7.8G   1% /dev/shm tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup cgmfs           100K     0  100K   0% /run/cgmanager/fs tmpfs           1.6G   64K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000   However I don't understand any of these directories. I mean what are they, are these all directories or partitions or what? And why do they appear under "mounted on"? How does that bit work. I assume the /dev/sda1 is my solid state drive? So now if I install applications, which one of these directories does my software get installed  into? I assume it just gets installs in the / directory (I haven't even got a clue what the / directory is). Can someone explain what the other directories are and what they are used for? So in the first 5 or 6 books, it was very clear that the wand chooses the wizard and the power/level of the spells the wizard produces is based on the knowledge and skill of the wizard.  This is referenced by people constantly being telling Harry that he wasn't skilled enough to perform certain spells, or Bellatrix telling Harry that he needed to mean the Cruciatus curse for it to be effective.  However, in the 7th book, this entire idea is changed to the wand being the thing that's powerful and regardless of the wizard's/witch's skill or knowledge, he/she could still perform a very advanced spell if it's something the wand could handle.  Goyle accidentally creating a fire serpent is something that instantly comes to mind from the movies(I don't remember if that happened in the book).  So, my question is, what actually holds the power, the wizard/witch, or the wand?