Collapsing a series of comma separated numbers in a sequence to Beginning-End
Convert a comma delimited list of numbers to a hyphenated list or range
According to HTML specs, the select tag in HTML doesn't have a readonly attribute, only a disabled attribute. So if you want to keep the user from changing the dropdown, you have to use disabled.  The only problem is that disabled HTML form inputs don't get included in the POST / GET data.  What's the best way to emulate the readonly attribute for a select tag, and still get the POST data? put (a) and (b) to one in subfigures Recently I needed to do weighted random selection of elements from a list, both with and without replacement. While there are well known and good algorithms for unweighted selection, and some for weighted selection without replacement (such as modifications of the resevoir algorithm), I couldn't find any good algorithms for weighted selection with replacement. I also wanted to avoid the resevoir method, as I was selecting a significant fraction of the list, which is small enough to hold in memory.  Does anyone have any suggestions on the best approach in this situation? I have my own solutions, but I'm hoping to find something more efficient, simpler, or both. "Distribution not supported" when trying to install Intel Graphics Installer in Ubuntu How do I backup and restore SMS Messages? How do I backup and restore SMS Messages? What graphics packages are there for creating graphics in LaTeX documents? Limits of dead reckoning using MEMS sensors I'm trying to track body parts relative to a person's torso. I see quite a few questions about using MEMS accelerometers and gyros for dead reckoning, and they confirm my suspicions that various factors greatly limit their usefulness for these sorts of applications, but I'm seeking clarification of these limits:   What exactly are these limits?  Other answers have addressed why these limits exist. Naturally the specifications the parts in the system in question and what is considered "acceptable error" for the system will both change the exact limits, but is there a single order of magnitude in time, or distance that I can expect dead reckoning to work? I'm well aware that over long distances (a few yards or so) the error becomes too large for most practical purposes, but what about within a few feet?  What can I do to improve these limits?  I'm currently looking at using an accelerometer and a gyro. What other sensors can I add to the system to improve the error rate? I know over longer distances a GPS can be used, but I doubt any consumer electronics grade GPS has fine enough resolution to help in my case.  Additionally, a general consensus seems to the only way to improve these limits past the point of improved sensors is to provide a reference not subject to error. Some systems solve this using cameras and markers.  What kind of reference points can a portable/wearable device provide?   I've seen the usage of radio waves to measure long distances accurately, but I can't tell if such a system could be accurate on such small scale (in terms of distance measured) using "off-the-shelf" components. Show that for any $k$-cycle $(a_1 a_2...a_k) \in S_n$, and for any permutation $\pi \in S_n$, $\pi(a_1...a_k)\pi^{-1}=(\pi(a_1)..\pi(a_k))$ Prove that $\binom{m+n}{m}=\sum\limits_{i=0}^m \binom{m}{i}\binom{n}{i}$ Positioning relative to page in TikZ Newton's cradle Why, when one releases 2 balls in , two balls on the opposite side bounce out at approximately the same speed as the 1st pair, rather than one ball at higher speed, or 3 balls at lower speed? How to find $\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{1!+2!+\cdots+n!}{n!}$? Within a set of directories, how do I find a file whose name includes a given string, such as "abcde"? Cannot install Ubuntu in VirtualBox due to "this kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detects an i686 CPU, unable to boot" error I'm trying to install , an open-source Microblogging application on my Windows development server using XAMPP as per the . The website cannot find PEAR, and throws the below errors:  Warning: require_once(PEAR.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampplite\htdocs\laconica\lib\common.php on line 31 Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'PEAR.php' (include_path='.;\xampplite\php\pear\PEAR') in C:\xampplite\htdocs\laconica\lib\common.php on line 31   PEAR is located in C:\xampplite\php\pear phpinfo() shows me that the include path is .;\xampplite\php\pear  What am I doing wrong? Why isn't the PEAR folder being included? Possible Beamer bug: Frame number has different color than date in infolines footer I use TeX Live on Mac and I get my weekly updates through the TeX Live Utility. I am working on some slides for an upcoming talk. I am using the same Beamer templates and settings that I always use, so I was surprised to see that the page numbers that I always include at the bottom of my slides suddenly appeared in a different color. Here's an MWE:  \documentclass{beamer} \useoutertheme{infolines} \usecolortheme{beaver} \title{Title} \date{\today} %\setbeamercolor{page number in head/foot}{fg=darkred!60!black} \begin{document} \begin{frame} \end{frame} \end{document}     As you can see in the bottom right corner of the slide the page number appears but its color looks off. Until recently it would look exactly the same color as the date appearing next to it.  By Googling around a bit I managed to figure out how to get this to look normal again using the line commented out in the code above:  \setbeamercolor{page number in head/foot}{fg=darkred!60!black}   By uncommenting this line I got back the desired behavior:    So my question is not so much about how to fix this problem, but about why this is happening in the first place. Is this a bug that was introduced in a recent update, and if so will it be fixed? Is this a deliberate choice on the part of the developers (if so I can't imagine why)? Or am I doing something wrong or is something broken in my TeX setup?  I'd appreciate any insight on this. Thanks in advance! "This webpage has a redirect loop" in Chrome but working fine on FF and IE? Looking for the title of a book about alien invasion, mining asteroids and using lasers to defend earth What I remember of this novel/series is that the main character creates solar laser satellites and mines asteroids to create more satellites to defend Earth from aliens. Later on, he uses the hollowed out asteroids as a base and eventually as an armored fortress to repulse the alien fleets. I last remember the main character attempting to hollow out more asteroids to defend and attack the aliens eventually. How do I use subprocess.Popen to connect multiple processes by pipes? How do I execute the following shell command using the Python  module?  echo "input data" | awk -f script.awk | sort &gt; outfile.txt   The input data will come from a string, so I don't actually need echo.  I've got this far, can anyone explain how I get it to pipe through sort too?  p_awk = subprocess.Popen(["awk","-f","script.awk"],                           stdin=subprocess.PIPE,                           stdout=file("outfile.txt", "w")) p_awk.communicate( "input data" )   UPDATE:  Note that while the accepted answer below doesn't actually answer the question as asked, I believe S.Lott is right and it's better to avoid having to solve that problem in the first place! Using contracted forms ("don't", "let's") in a formal text How compelled should I feel to use non-contracted forms (do not rather than don't and so on) when writing in a rather formal text, say an academic paper? In one case I am afraid to seem too stilted, in the other, too casual. Are there good guidelines?  And are there differences in this regard between British and American English?  (In this  there was not much more than "Contractions are more frequent in informal than formal contexts".)