Word order with 'used to'
What's the negation of "I used to be"? Surely not "I didn't used to be"?
What is the electric charge of the Sun and its corona? LaTeX Editors/IDEs I made up an idiom that I think describes what I want to say quite nicely:     "If one shoots enough arrows at the target, one is sure to hit the bull's eye."   An actual English idiom I know of that is close in meaning is:     "Throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick"   However, the conceptual image is not as matching, and according to  it has a second meaning:     If enough (perhaps false or reckless) accusations are made against someone, his reputation will suffer, whether or not this is deserved.   But I want the idiom to paint a positive image. For example, I would say the idiom when I help someone remember something by giving it a shot in the dark and getting it right miraculously after some guesses.  What is the English idiom I'm looking for? Why would you use an assignment in a condition? In many languages assignments are legal in conditions. I never understood the reason behind this. Why would you write:  if (var1 = var2) {   ... }   instead of:  var1 = var2; if (var1) {   ... } What is the best format to capture addresses for a universal user-base? What is the best and most usable format to capture address information from a universal user base? I was thinking to have the system detect the country by IP address and have that selected by default, and then state/province droplist would be populated accordingly. But the issue is some countries have states and provinces and some do not. Some have postal codes and some do not. Is there a universal standard to capture complete address info to ensure efficiency for most users?  FYI: I did research on here and while there are some questions that are close, none are about this exact same question (unless I missed something) Is there any function that converts an escaped Url string to its unescaped form? System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlDecode() can do that job but I don't want to add a reference to System.Web.dll. Since my app is not a web application, I don't want to add a dependency for only using a function in an assembly.  UPDATE: Check  about the same issue. How to draw circle tangents and removing the inner lines? I'm new to Adobe Illustrator and I wanted to accomplish this task. How do I remove the inner lines in my drawings? I tried with all the pathfinders effect but it keeps removing my tangent lines (the lines connecting both my circles).    It works like a charm as I followed the selected's answer guide:  Here it is. How much does it cost to have a custom ASIC made? Why exactly do sometimes universal covers, and sometimes central extensions feature in the application of a symmetry group to quantum physics? There seem to be two different things one must consider when representing a symmetry group in quantum mechanics:   The universal cover: For instance, when representing the rotation group $\mathrm{SO}(3)$, it turns out that one must allow also $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ representations, since the negative sign a "$2\pi$ rotation" induces in $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ is an overall phase that doesn't change the physics. Equivalently, all representations of the Lie algebra are what we seek. ($\mathfrak{so}(3) = \mathfrak{su}(2)$, but although every representation of the algebra is one of the universal cover, not every representation of the algebra is one of $\mathrm{SO}(3)$.) Central extensions: In conformal field theory, one has classically the  of infinitesimal conformal transformations. From the universal cover treatment one is used to in most other cases, one would expect nothing changes in the quantum case, since we are already seeking only representation of an algebra. Nevertheless, in the quantization process, a  appears, which is often interpreted to arise as an "ordering constant" for the now no longer commuting fields, and we have to consider the  instead.   The question is: What is going on here? Is there a way to explain both the appearence of universal covers and central extensions in a unified way? How to reset the terminal properties and preferences? I fooled around with the colors and stuff, in the terminal, and now want to go back to the maroon and white default config of the the terminal. What files do I have to delete? Why couldn't the Jedi detect Senator Palpatine as having powers? In Return of the Jedi, when trying to sneak into the base on a shuttle, Luke said he senses Darth Vader's presence and said he shouldn't have come lest he jeopardize the mission. Darth Vader also sensed Luke, but let him in anyways. Also, Yoda and Obi-Wan could detect the Force in young Anakin.  So if Jedi and Sith can detect each other, why couldn't they detect Senator Palpatine to begin with? It seems like a giant plot hole. What is the difference between operator "=" and "==" in Bash? Why redirect output to 2>&1 and 1>&2? I have come across several commands that use 2&gt;&amp;1 and 1&gt;&amp;2, but I quite can't get my head around the purpose of using it and when I should be using it.  What I understand  I know that 1 represents standard out and 2 represents standard error. I understand that 2&gt;&amp;1 combines the output of 2 to 1 and vice versa.  What I don't get   When should I be using it? What purpose does it serve? Assuming $T_1$ is the force that acts on box $1$ and $T_2$ is the force that acts on box $2$.  Exactly what causes the Tension? Why does $T_1 = T_2$?  The problem is we are told to memorize that $T_1 = T_2$ for mass less ropes, but I do not understand why, especially in an Atwoods machine.  When I think about it, I know it has something to do with the force $m_2g$ which causes the box with mass $m_1$ to rise, and vice versa.  But I cannot apply physics terminology to this, or really understand whats going on. Compare given date with today There is a restriction on setting your birthday:     Oops! There was a problem updating your profile:   - Birthday must be after 1920/01/01   I realize the number of 90 year old users is small, but shouldn't the restriction be a bit more relaxed, such as larger than any ?  Either 120 or 150 seems appropriate.  For example, my grandfather turns 90 next year (and just barely misses the current cutoff), but I can't imagine he's the only one around that age who is computer literate and still active enough to be interested in (the increasingly broad range of) SE sites.  I don't think he has contributed yet (mostly because of the comment restriction, I'd see him commenting before asking or answering), but I have emailed him with links that I know he's read.  Incidentally, the error message is wrong: birthday must be after 1919/12/31 and using the next day is accepted. Android: Overlay on Android Camera Preview remove numbers from filenames in Mac OS X I have a directory full of files with names in this format (with numbers as the start of each filename):  102_file.txt 104_list.txt 242_another_file.txt   I would like to rename them as follows (i.e. removing the numbers):  file.txt list.txt another_file.txt   Can anyone suggest a way to do this (presumably from the terminal)? How to fake a package version installed? Being an early adopter and using 11.04 daily builds I sometimes meet a situation when some packages require earlier versions of other packages than those I have installed. Usually newer (but refused) versions of needed packages provide all the functionality of their older versions.  If I use dpkg -i --force-depends-version to install dependent packages everything works fine, I've never seen a problem.  Instead of manually downloading and installing every package, can I just make the system pretend there is a specific package version installed when there is a newer? Or is there a --force-depends-version key equivalent for apt-get? Admin privileges requiring for installing a package build though Packages Using osx 10.9 and packages for making package installer.  While installing a package made using Packages in /Applications location on a osx 10.9 machine, installer is asking for Admin password. Even though I had unchecked 'Require admin password for installation' while package making.  So, how to avoid this i.e a non-admin user should install this package. Package should install in /Applications location, so that non-admin user can use the app.  I check  and