Getting first element of ArrayList takes longer than getting other elements
How do I write a correct micro-benchmark in Java?
Does a photon exert a gravitational pull? I know a photon has zero rest mass, but it does have plenty of energy. Since energy and mass are equivalent does this mean that a photon (or more practically, a light beam) exerts a gravitational pull on other objects? If so, does it depend on the frequency of the photon? Delete all files except files with the extension pdf in a directory How to convert hex string to float in Java? Proof using Prüfer encoding The question is as below:      Show that each vertex $v$ of a tree $T$ appears $deg(v)-1$ times in the Prüfer encoding of $T$, where $deg(v)$ is the degree of $v$ in $T$.   For this, I think there are 3 scenarios a leaf should be considered for: (1) when it is a leaf as part of a tree; (2) a leaf that has been discarded; (3) the remaining edge. I feel like this will result in a short proof which is only two (or so) statements long, but at the same time, feel it is too simple.   EDIT: I've had a look at this again and narrowed it down to 2 cases:   Case 1: The vertex $v$ in question has $deg(v)\ge2$. $v$ then loses its neighbours as the algorithm is applied repeatedly until $v$ becomes a leaf itseelf. At this point, $v$ is attached to another neighbour, leaving an edge. This means the algorithm can no longer be applied and we have obtained the final Prüfer Encoding for the tree $T$.  Case 2: The vertex $v$ has $deg(v)\ge 2$. It loses its neighbours as the algorithm is applied repeatedly but is deleted itself at some point in the process.   Have I gone about this wrong?  Thank you. If I take the $k \in \mathbb{N}$ power of 10 and mod it by a large prime, I notice that the remainders repeat at some point.  For instance $10^k mod~7$ seems to repeat every $8$th value of $k$.  Given $k$ (the power of ten), and a large prime number $p$, how can I compute the size of the cycle?  I tried writing a python script that computes the first instance of a repeat. However, I don't know if this works since a single instance of a repeat may not necessarily mean a full cycle. Is it possible to turn off the Two-Factor Authentication for an Apple ID? Is it possible to turn off the Two-Factor Authentication for an Apple ID?  I have more than one device linked to this Apple ID and I know the password and security questions. Multiple Inheritance in C# Since multiple inheritance is bad (it makes the source more complicated) C# does not provide such a pattern directly. But sometimes it would be helpful to have this ability. For instance I'm able to implement the missing multiple inheritance pattern using interfaces and three classes like that: public interface IFirst { void FirstMethod(); } public interface ISecond { void SecondMethod(); }  public class First:IFirst  {      public void FirstMethod() { Console.WriteLine(&quot;First&quot;); }  }  public class Second:ISecond  {      public void SecondMethod() { Console.WriteLine(&quot;Second&quot;); }  }  public class FirstAndSecond: IFirst, ISecond {     First first = new First();     Second second = new Second();     public void FirstMethod() { first.FirstMethod(); }     public void SecondMethod() { second.SecondMethod(); } }  Every time I add a method to one of the interfaces I need to change the class FirstAndSecond as well. Is there a way to inject multiple existing classes into one new class like it is possible in C++? Maybe there is a solution using some kind of code generation? Or it may look like this (imaginary c# syntax): public class FirstAndSecond: IFirst from First, ISecond from Second { }  So that there won't be a need to update the class FirstAndSecond when I modify one of the interfaces.  EDIT Maybe it would be better to consider a practical example: You have an existing class (e.g. a text based TCP client based on ITextTcpClient) which you do already use at different locations inside your project.  Now you feel the need to create a component of your class to be easy accessible for windows forms developers. As far as I know you currently have two ways to do this:  Write a new class that is inherited from components and implements the interface of the TextTcpClient class using an instance of the class itself as shown with FirstAndSecond.  Write a new class that inherits from TextTcpClient and somehow implements IComponent (haven't actually tried this yet).   In both cases you need to do work per method and not per class. Since you know that we will need all the methods of TextTcpClient and Component it would be the easiest solution to just combine those two into one class. To avoid conflicts this may be done by code generation where the result could be altered afterwards but typing this by hand is a pure pain in the ass. Standard error of a ratio I have a linear regression and two estimates, say A and B and their standard errors. I need to find the standard error of a ratio A/B [or A/(1-B)].  I guess the main problem is that I don't know the correlation between A and B. I also guess that makes this unsolvable, since the correlation plays a major role. Is this correct?  If I knew it, what would be the way to calculate the standard error? How can I upgrade from Mac OS X Tiger 10.4? If I buy a regular retail Snow Leopard disc (i.e. the £25 version), can I use it to upgrade a Mac from Tiger (10.4)?   on the Apple Store’s Q&amp;A site suggests it’ll work, but Apple seem to imply that you need the (significantly more expensive) Mac Box Set (“”). Ubuntu desktop suddenly points to home folder Why do people omit the definite article? I'm used to always hearing or seeing a  before certain nouns.  Yet on certain occasions the article is totally omitted, and it bothers me.  I'm wondering what the justification for omitting the article is, especially when the definite article would seem to be required, or if it is just bad English either on the part of the individual in question or more likely by tradition.  The most frequent place I hear this is at the doctor or dentist's office. In every one I have ever visited, the receptionist or assistant always says things like "Doctor will see you shortly" instead of "The doctor will see you shortly."  The wikipedia article linked above says this: "A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener".  In the case of a clinical setting, I know who the doctor is, especially if this is not my first visit.  The people in the office know the doctor even better than I, so it would seem to be inappropriate to omit the article. Even the indefinite article would be incorrect. It further says, under "Zero article":  "In languages having a definite article, the lack of an article specifically indicates that the noun is indefinite."  Since the noun is not indefinite, why are they omitting the article?  Another place I see the article omitted is with the word "bar".  Bartenders apparently don't say "I tend the bar" they say "I tend bar".  Unless a bartender works in multiple bars, it would seem like an article would be required.  Furthermore, "the bar" can mean any bar a person goes to, so even in a case like , it seems like the word "the" should be in the sentence.  The only thing I can think of in this case is maybe the speaker doesn't want to confuse the listener into thinking they work in the legal field.  Is this just a bad habit, a historical corruption or tradition, or is there really a valid reason (or perhaps more than one) for these omissions? I've seen references to curried functions in several articles and blogs but I can't find a good explanation (or at least one that makes sense!) How can I format to show text inside ""? I've posted a lot to StackOverflow, and I've noticed something kind of irritating with the formatting in writing questions and comments. If I need to put something inside a &lt; and a >, without spaces in the middle (like right there), it will think it's code and not show up, like this   (obviously it won't come up what I wrote there, or else this wouldn't be an issue, but if you open up the question to edit you can see what's written there.)  If I want it to show up, right now I have to add an extra set of brackets inside of the originals with a junk variable, like right &lt;here> (again, open in edit window to see).  This is really annoying when trying to show variables like lists that require those brackets, and I feel like the junk variables could confuse people looking at the edits. Is there a way to get around this formatting? Thanks! In a finite cyclic group, the generator has the order of the group Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group of order $n$ generated by an element $g$. I want to show that the order of $g$ is exactly the order of $G$.   My try:   We can write $G=\{g^i\;|\;i\in \mathbb Z\}$. Since $G$ is finite, we know that there will be identifications $g^i=g^j$ that will make $G$ finite. By the multiplication law on $G$ we must have $g^0=1$. Also if $i&lt;j$ and if $g^i=g^j$ then $g^{j-i}=1$. I can see all these but not see why $g^n=1$ and not $g^k=1$ for all $0&lt;k&lt;n$? Thank your for your help!! Comaximal ideals in a commutative ring Let $R$ be a commutative ring and $I_1, \dots, I_n$ pairwise comaximal ideals in $R$, i.e., $I_i + I_j = R$ for $i \neq j$. Why are the ideals $I_1^{n_1}, ... , I_r^{n_r}$ (for any $n_1,...,n_r \in\mathbb N$) also comaximal? How TDD-oriented is the SE team? Stack Exchange is my role-model for application development.  I've tried to learn as much as possible from the blog and podcasts, from thought process to design, architecture, convention, etc etc.  I'm just about to wrap my head around TDD and am curious about how the SE team approaches it.  Is there a methodology that all team members follow, or is it more developer-driven testing where you pick complex bits to unit test as needed, or is it more about catch-all integration testing once a piece of functionality is done, or... ?  Any input would be fantastic. I'm trying to amass a list of physics books with open-source licenses, like Creative Commons, GPL, etc. The books can be about a particular field in physics or about physics  in general.  What are some freely available great physics books on the Internet? edit: I'm aware that there are tons of freely available lecture notes online. Still, it'd be nice to be able to know the best available free resources around.  As a starter:         Table of contents sorted by field (in alphabetical order): What is aperture, and how does it affect my photographs? How does aperture affect my photographs?  Why should I care about the aperture with which a photo was taken? When to use a GAM vs GLM I realize this may be a potentially broad question, but I was wondering whether there are assumptions that indicate the use of a GAM (Generalized additive model) over a GLM (Generalized linear model)? Someone recently told me that GAMs should only be used when I assume the data structure to be &quot;additive&quot;, i.e. I expect additions of x to predict y. Another person pointed out that a GAM does a different type of regression analysis than a GLM, and that a GLM is preferred when linearity can be assumed. In the past I have been using a GAM for ecological data, e.g.:  continuous time-series when the data did not have a linear shape I had multiple x to predict my y that I thought to have some nonlinear interaction that I could visualize using &quot;surface plots&quot; together with a statistical test  I obviously don't have a great understanding of what a GAM does different than a GLM. I believe it's a valid statistical test, (and I see an increase in the use GAMs, at least in ecological journals), but I need to know better when its use is indicated over other regression analyses. Statistics  () In Q1 of 2012 - 0.0134 such comments per question (~1.33%) In Q2 of 2012 - 0.0167 such comments per question (~1.66%) In Q3 of 2012 - 0.0169 such comments per question (~1.68%) In Q4 of 2012 - 0.0193 such comments per question (~1.92%) In Q1 of 2013 - 0.0223 such comments per question (~2.22%)  The vast majority of these questions need serious help.  Unfortunately, there is a growing trend towards abuse Along with the good, comes some bad -- as usual in life. These comments are bad when  Posting &quot;what have you tried&quot; multiple times per question is severely obnoxious Posting &quot;what have you tried&quot; when the user has clearly shown that they have tried to solve it on their own  It is becoming increasingly common to see &quot;what have you tried?&quot; comments in these scenarios. Some examples     Workarounds Flagging Comments - It is considered a good thing to be liberal with comment flagging -- that helps us clean up after the fact. &quot;Too Chatty&quot; is a no-brainer here. Unfortunately, that only cleans up after the damage has been done. All signs point toward the continued increase of the trend of using &quot;what have you tried&quot; comments. I spend a lot of time editing and cleaning up bad questions. This trend came up on my radar toward the end of last year and it is getting worse. So, I thought at the very least that I'd raise some awareness.