Usage of articles: getting flu / getting a flu
I got a stomach flu or I got the stomach flu or I got stomach flu?
Absolute path & Relative Path What's the difference between absolute path &amp; relative path when using any web server or Tomcat? 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 I know I'm late with this; this could be the last bug report about the old topbar. But the text on the privilege progress indicator (on your profile page) appears above the dropdown menu coming from the Stack Exchange button, as can be seen in the picture below.     Changing the z-index property of .s-progress-bar._badge .-info, .s-progress-bar._privilege .-info from 2 to 1 solves the problem.    The new menu seems to have a high enough z-index so that this is no longer a problem anymore: How to run my own program without specifying its path Let's suppose I have compiled something and I run it like so:  $ /path/to/my/executable/mycmd Hello World   What do I need to do to run it like   $ mycmd Hello World    from everywhere in my computer? Footnote citations in biblatex ignore spacing before the citation command; how can I have the same behavior for all footnotes in a document?  Here's a MWE demonstrating the issue:  \documentclass{article} \usepackage[style=verbose-trad2]{biblatex} \addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib} \begin{document} Spacing is fine before citations     \autocite{kant:kpv}  but not before footnotes    \footnote{A footnote \autocite{kant:ku}}. \end{document} Allow questions to be saved as drafts prior to posting Why $e^x$ is always greater than $x^e$? I find it very strange that $$ e^x \geq x^e \, \quad \forall x \in \mathbb{R}^+.$$   I have scratched my head for a long time, but could not find any logical reason. Can anybody explain what is the reason behind the above inequality? I know this is math community, but I'd appreciate a more intuitive explanation than a technical one. What's the standard "roadmap" to learning quantum physics? Are the memories still there? win 10 home how to rename my home directory and account login How long can I store soaked beans before cooking? Fontspec causes long underscores My collaborator added \usepackage[no-math]{fontspec} to a document we're working on. The result is that \_ underscores become v. long: cf. pictures below.   \documentclass{article} \usepackage[no-math]{fontspec} \pagestyle{empty}  \begin{document} \textrm{metric\_space} \end{document}   With fontspec:    Without fontspec:   The underscores are about twice as long with fontspec, and also much thinner. My question is, how do I get back to the original width? (Ideally I would like to preserve the thinness -- it looks much nicer than the original.)  In case someone asks, "why are you using \_?", the short answer is that I need to typeset identifiers involving an underscore. See  for an example in context. I'd be happy with using something other than \textrm, if it looks decent in the context of that example. Writing string at the same position using Console.Write in C# 2.0 I have a console application project in C# 2.0 that needs to write something to the screen in a while loop. I do not want the screen to scroll because using Console.Write or Console.Writeline method will keep displaying text on console screen incremently and thus it starts scrolling.  I want to have the string written at the same position. How can i do this?  Thanks Why does the symbol for the multiplication operation change shape? Why does the "$\times$" used in arithmetic change to a "$\cdot$" as we progress through education? The symbol seems to only be ambiguous because of the variable $x$; however, we wouldn't have chosen the variable $x$ unless we were already removing $\times$ as the symbol for multiplication. So why do we? I am very curious. It seems like $\times$ is already quite sufficient as a descriptive symbol. Which is correct: "drive safe" or "drive safely"? Bibtex link word "AND" with different translations in a single bibliography What is Skynet's ultimate goal after defeating the resistance? Can wizards really cast spells in armor? Explain Root Mean Square Error to non-technical audience Assigning CRS to Lat/Lon in R giving error: "Geographical CRS given to non-conformant data"