Software recommendations on SO
Changed response to Recommendation questions now that there's a site for them?
How do you choose Spells Known when creating a new character above 1st level? It's not clear to me how to choose Spells Known when creating a new character at a higher level.  Let's take the Bard as a working example first:  Bard level 2:   Spells Known: 5 Slots per Spell level: 1st &times; 3   Bard level 3:   Spells Known: 6 Slots per Spell level: 1st &times; 4, 2nd &times; 2   I'm interpreting this to mean that, if an existing 2nd-level Bard gains a new level (level 3), he's gaining 1 (one) new spell known. He can then choose the new spell known to be either 1st or 2nd, correct?  What I don't understand then, is the case of creating a new character starting at a higher level; say, creating a new Bard at level 3.  In that case you're forced to choose 6 spells, which must be from the list of 1st- and 2nd-level spells, correct?  When making this 3rd-level Bard from scratch, though, can I select 2nd level spells for all 6 spells known?  As another example, say you're creating a very high level Bard from scratch, starting at level 15. The book says your Spells Known is 19, and your spell slots are 1st × 4, 2nd × 3, 3rd × 3, 4th × 3, 5th × 2, 6th × 1, 7th × 1, and 8th × 1.  So, for those 19 Spells Known, you can choose any spells from 1st through 8th spell level. Am I free then to select as many spells as I can at 8th spell level (5 in number), working backwards, and in the end ignoring the 1st, 2nd, 3rd level spells entirely?  As another example, the Ranger doesn't know any spells at 1st level, nor have any spell slots, but the book says “You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list.” Does it mean at 2nd level and above?  Long story short: When choosing Spells Known for a spellcasting character created above 1st level, am I allowed to choose my Spells Known at whatever spell level I like, just so long as I have at least one spell slot of that level?  I'm working on a D&amp;D 5e character generator and need to clarify this. How do I write a correct micro-benchmark in Java? How do you write (and run) a correct micro-benchmark in Java?  I'm looking for some code samples and comments illustrating various things to think about.  Example: Should the benchmark measure time/iteration or iterations/time, and why?  Related: How to use the keyboard to drag and drop? How to find out who called a method? Passing a variable to sed Syntax error while defining an array as a property of a class Compress a folder with tar? I'm trying to compress a folder (/var/www/) to ~/www_backups/$time.tar where $time is the current date.  This is what I have:  cd /var/www &amp;&amp; sudo tar -czf ~/www_backups $time"   I am completely lost and I've been at this for hours now. Not sure if -czf is correct. I simply want to copy all of the content in /var/www into a $time.tar file, and I want to maintain the file permissions for all of the files. Can anyone help me out? Will my passport number change when I renew it? I'm travelling soon but need to renew my passport.  Given that I have to provide my passport number to the airline to book a flight, I was wondering if my passport number would change if I renew it.  Or would the number stay the same and the expiry date just change?  I'm asking specifically as an Australian citizen, although I suspect a 'common' answer (if there is a general way this works) might be useful too. Adding materials to more than one object Is it possible to add a texture or material to more than one object at a time? Given this HTML:  &lt;div&gt;foo&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;bar&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;baz&lt;/div&gt;   How do you make them display inline like this:     foo bar baz   not like this:     foo   bar   baz How do I keep Python print from adding newlines or spaces? In python, if I say  print 'h'   I get the letter h and a newline.  If I say   print 'h',   I get the letter h and no newline.  If I say  print 'h', print 'm',   I get the letter h, a space, and the letter m.  How can I prevent Python from printing the space?  The print statements are different iterations of the same loop so I can't just use the + operator. Should the mean be used when data are skewed? Often introductory applied statistics texts distinguish the mean from the median (often in the the context of descriptive statistics and motivating the summarization of central tendency using the mean, median and mode) by explaining that the mean is sensitive to outliers in sample data and/or to skewed population distributions, and this is used as a justification for an assertion that the median is to be preferred when the data are not symmetrical.  For example:     The best measure of central tendency for a given set of data often depends on the way in which the values are distributed.... When data are not symmetric, the median is often the best measure of central tendency. Because the mean is sensitive to extreme observations, it is pulled in the direction of the outlying data values, and as a result might end up excessively inflated or excessively deflated."   —Pagano and Gauvreau, (2000) Principles of Biostatistics, 2nd ed. (P&amp;G were at hand, BTW, not singling them out per se.)   The authors define "central tendency" thus: "The most commonly investigated characteristic of a set of data is its center, or the point about which observations tend to cluster."  This strikes me as a less-than forthright way of saying only use the median, period, because only using the mean when the data/distributions are symmetrical is the same thing as saying only use the mean when it equals the median. Edit: whuber rightly points out that I am conflating robust measures of central tendency with the median. So it is important to keep in mind that I am discussing the specific framing of the arithmetic mean versus the median in introductory applied statistics (where, mode aside, other measures of central tendency are not motivated).  Rather than judging the utility of the mean by how much it departs from the behavior of the median, ought we not simply understand these as two different measures of centrality? In other words being sensitive to skewness is a feature of the mean. One could just as validly argue "well the median is no good because it is largely insensitive to skewness, so only use it when it equals the mean."  (The mode is quite sensibly not getting involved with this question.) I am struggling with this question from Halmos's text, please ignore the imperative language.  "Suppose that $L, M$  and $N$ are subspaces of a vector space. Show that the equation    $$L \cap (M + N) = (L \cap M) + (L \cap N)$$   is not necessarily true.  Since each of these subspaces has origin in them, clearly there intersections could not be empty. I wasn't able to formulate an example where this result did n't hold. Any help would be highly appreciated. Is the "Final Release" a "Development Release"? Update  appear to have been updated recently (as of writing this the last update appears to have taken place on 3rd of June) to include the following statement:  The -d switch is necessary to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as upgrades have not yet been enabled and will only be enabled after the first point release of 20.04 LTS.  Also note that .  TLDR (as of 15 Aug 2020):   is the canonical tracking document for the first Focal Fossa point-release (20.04.1). It’s a live document. The Ubuntu release team will be updating it as we work on releasing 20.04.1. […] Upgrades from 18.04 to 20.04.1 are still disabled as we are working through a few upgrade blockers   Edit The answers (so far) do not answer the question. The question is pretty simple. Ubuntu.com points to a &quot;FinalRelease&quot;, which turns out to be a &quot;Development Release&quot;, see evidence below. I'm not asking how and when to upgrade. I'm pointing out what seems to me to be an apparent inconcistency (in semantics, linguistics, logic) in the way Ubuntu names or labels its releases. From an answer to the question I'd except someone to pick up and acknowledge this inconsistency. An answer could start with a &quot;Yes, ...&quot; or a &quot;No, ...&quot;, for starters. (Moreover, a good answer could distinguish between the release being in dev stage and/or the upgrade process (e.g. from LTS to LTS) being in dev stage, if appropriate.) This question, as I see it, is not a duplicate. Futher, I think it is a question which deserves a non-patronizing answer. Thanks.   indicates that today (23rd April 2020) the new Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is to be released.  See &quot;condensed screenshot&quot; here:  Indeed, it seems that that's what happened, see  and :  However, when following the instructions to upgrade (from 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS) found  and elsewhere (edit: actually , too!), even prior to the July point release, I'm a bit confused to see that the instruction is to use update-manager -d which also points to the &quot;Development Release&quot; (see screenshot below) rather than the &quot;FinalRelease&quot; (see screenshot and link above). Is the &quot;Final Release&quot; (which I'm after) the/a &quot;Development Release&quot;? Why isn't it called something like &quot;Production Release&quot; or &quot;Final Release&quot;? When will it no longer be referred to as &quot;Development Release&quot;? In July? I'm confused :( Google chrome is reading characters backwards Google Chrome is my favorite browser, and I can't imagine going on without it. Suddenly (without closing and re-opening) the browser; chrome has been reading characters upside down, very weird:    Chrome version:    I tried restarting my browser and my MAC (running OS X Yosemite 10.10), but the error keeps on coming. 14.04 LTS No Dash / Launcher after update through Software Updater Can you nest html forms? Is a continuous function on a bounded set bounded itself? If $f\colon A\to\mathbb R$ is continuous and $A$ is a bounded set, does it necessarily follow that $f$ is bounded? How to prove sum of powers property of roots of unity? Stack Exchange sites need a universal clock that is visible! Since the Stack Exchange sites run on one clock, and a clock that is not common to most of us (such as those of us in the US), can we display a clock with the site time (UTC) displayed somewhere on every page, such as at the bottom with the other text?  That way we are more aware of when the days turn over, and ecetera...  close votes, delete votes, flags, and normal votes would also benefit from this as well (thanks @Grace Note!)...    What do you guys think? yea or nay? thoughts?