Prospective student’s first email to a potential advisor?
How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor?
$n$ choose $k$ where $n$ is less than $k$ I am working on parameter estimation and one of the estimators involves a summation of $_nC_k$ ($n$ choose $k$) expressions. For some iterations, I need to compute expressions like $_0C_1$, $_0C_2$, etc.  In general how do we compute $_nC_k$ when $n$ is less than $k$? Do we still use the formula $\frac{n!}{(n-k)!k!}$ and use the gamma function to compute the negative factorial?  Thanks! What is it called when you use many words to describe the word you want to use? What is it called when you use many words to describe the word you want to use?  I know there is a technical word that's used in foreign language acquisition that means using many words to describe a word you don't know.  I'm doing it now, just talking and beating around the bush until someone can tell me the word I'm looking for. How can I save the command and its execution output to file at the same time Suppose I have a command java -cp src/ nlp.lm.BigramModel wsj/ 0.1, I want to save the command itself and the command execution output to the file at the same time.  One way to do this is to   echo "$ java -cp src/ nlp.lm.BigramModel atis/ 0.1" &gt; trace/bigram-trace.txt     java -cp src/ nlp.lm.BigramModel atis/ 0.1 &gt;&gt; trace/bigram-trace.txt   Is there a better way to do this? Connected set in $\mathbb{S}^1$ Let $A$ be a connected set in $\mathbb{S}^1$. Show that $A^c$ is also connected.  My idea: suppose $A^c$ is not connected. Then, there exist $U,V \subset \mathbb{S}^1$ open and disjoint such that $U \cup V =A^c  $. Therefore $\mathbb{S}^1 = A \cup U \cup V$. If I had that $A\cup U$ was open I could arrive at  contradiction, since $\mathbb{S}^1$ is connected, but I can't say that... Why was Count Dooku not given the title "Darth"? I don't know the exact significance of the word "Darth" in the Sith world, but I think it was a word of honor for powerful Sith. That's why Anakin was given this word in his new name.  All powerful Sith in canon had this word in their names: Darth Plagueis, Darth Bane, Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, etc. As such name similarity can't be names given by their parents, I can assume they were given such words in names as a honor.   Now, look at Count Dooku... he was a powerful Sith too. So, why wasn't he given this title?    Darth word to address Dooku hasn't been used in the movies, as far as I know. If you are claiming that Darth and Lord words are same, give citations because my vocabulary rejects it. Android Seekbar with two thumbs Allow a user to read some other users' home directories Writing someone else's master's thesis: Unethical and illegal? It is really difficult for me to decide on this situation: when someone calls me and asks for work-for-hire for his/her thesis. I don't know what to do. I want to help and earn money but I think this way of earning money is unethical.  I think that receiving the title of thesis and giving back prepared manuscript is the intention that some people have, when asking for their thesis to be written.  There are plenty of websites offering such services!   The question is that: Is it legal and or ethical to write someone else's master's thesis as work-for-hire? TeXShop and Mac preview crashing when opening latex/beamer built pdfs After updating to Sierra 10.12.4 last week, TeXShop crashes:   when opening an existing .tex document that has a pdf associated to it immediately after compiling a new document, i.e. as soon as a pdf is created.   Furthermore, preview crashes opening almost any pdf that has been created with TeXShop. There is virtually nothing on the internet about it, and the only solution seems to be a complete reinstall of MacOSX (so as to reinstall the supposedly broken preview), which I'd like to avoid if at all possible.  Someone else has described a similar issue, but has not received any responses ().  I would be very grateful for some help, as I can neither produce work, nor look at any at the moment. Many thanks! java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range After the top bar changes in the , when a non logged-in user click the Sign Up button, instead of navigating to the corresponding page it displays the openid related code in the screen.  Screenshots for reference: limit of the sequence $a_n=1+\frac{1}{a_{n-1}}$ and $a_1=1$ Where did the world go? I was playing on my main world when my laptop ran out of power.  I found a charger and woke it up, but Minecraft had crashed.  Now, it doesn't appear in the world selection screen!  I have verified that it still exists in the Minecraft folder, and the directory contents look to be in order.  Does Minecraft save an internal flag somewhere when it crashes hard?  If so, how do I reset it? The below-mentioned question is asked in my exam, I think my answer is correct, please tell if I am right, I have to challenge the question in 2 days if its answer given is wrong.  correct answer is given by examiner. candidate answer is the answer I ticked as correct.  In the following question, a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.     They said, “We pray everyday.”   Options:   1) They said that they have been praying every day.   2) They said that they pray every day.   3) They said that they prayed every day.   4) They said that we prayed every day.   Correct Answer: They said that they prayed every day.   Candidate Answer: They said that they pray every day.      as praying is a habitual action ,confirmed by everyday , so prayed is incorrect , i think. I have a question that says "Show that there is a bounded sequence $x_n$ which is not convergent but has the property that $x_n - x_{n+1} \to 0$ as $n \to 0$.  What does this mean? Do I need to come up with an example or does the problem actually want me to prove such proposition?  By the way, I see that this sequence looks like Cauchy because of $x_n - x_{n+1} \to 0$ as $n \to 0$, but it is obviously not. Kolmogorov's sufficient and necessary condition for SLLN - What about pairwise uncorrelated RV? Kolmogorov proved, that, as one considers independent (not necessary equally distributed) Random Variables: $\{X_n\}_{n\ge0}\subseteq \mathcal L^2$   With $\mathrm{Var} (X_n)=\sigma^2_n$ and without loss of generality $E[X_n]=0$.  If $\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{\sigma^2_n}{n^2} \lt \infty$ then SLLN holds, that is:  $$\frac1n\sum_{k=0}^n X_k \rightarrow 0 \,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\text{a.s.}$$  Something different:  Also it is known, that if $\sup_{n\ge0}\sigma^2_n =: v \lt \infty$ pairwise uncorrelated $(X_n)_{n\ge0}$ will suffice for SLLN to hold.  My question in view of this situation: Is it possible to weaken the condition of $(X_n)_{n\ge0}$ beeing independent and instead merely consider pairwise uncorrelated $(X_n)_{n\ge0}$? Can I make an ender portal on creative? I've updated Minecraft PE, and in the update notes it states that they've added the End. But when I made a new creative world and built a portal, it didn't work.  I've been looking online at tutorials, but cannot get the portal to open. So how do you create an Ender Portal? What is a reasonable depth and diameter for postholes dug in clay soil to support an 8' fence? What is a reasonable depth and diameter for postholes dug in clay soil where the frost line is no more than 12” and that will support an 8 foot tall solid wood fence that uses PostMaster metal posts?  I hope to have someone else install an 8 foot high PT wood fence.  There will be no light or air passing through or under the fence and it will be heavier than average, given the additional height and board weight.  One side will run for 135’.  The attached diagram provides more detail.  The PostMaster Installation Instructions describe a 30” deep, sloped, 10” diameter hole, filled with 6” of gravel plus 24” of concrete for a 6 foot high fence.  They caveat that the “exact diameter and depth will be determined by local weather and soil conditions.”  Got it.  Huntsville, AL; very clay soil.  Maximum wind gusts of 65 mph.  (This is not in the normal tornado path and is not intended to withstand a tornado.)  In reviewing the StackExchange posts on fencing and post holes I came across the concept that the diameter of the pier may be increased to compensate for a shallower post hole.  I would like to know the recommended depth and diameter without relying on the 2 buttress posts, which are my small overbuild idea.  We will be able to walk under them.  26 APR 18 update: I just found a Master Halco youtube video specifying 6-8" diameter holes dug 36" deep for an 8' board-on-board fence, such as I would like to have.   - I also spoke to a fence builder experienced using PostMaster posts who opined that the 10" diameter and 30 deep holes were more than adequate, but that the gravel was of no value in our climate.  So, 30" x 10" dia inches of concrete vs. 36" x 8" dia of concrete. How to kill the process using the name of the program instead of PID? I started my Python program in the background using nohup as mentioned below -   nohup zook.py &amp;   Now I am trying to kill this process so I did the ps command as mentioned below  root@phxdbx1145:/home/david/zook# ps ax | grep zook.py 16352 pts/6    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zook.py   But somehow, everytime its PID getting changed, I don't know why. Whenever I do like this -   kill -9 16352   It always say, No Such Process.  And when I do px command again, I see that PID got changed automatically..  So I am not sure how do I kill this process?  Is there any way I can kill the process with the name somehow?  UPDATE:-  This is what I am getting. I did pkill -9 zook.py and then I did ps command as mentioned below and it is shwoing zook.py constantly?  root@dbx1145:/home/david/zook# pkill -9 zook.py  root@dbx1145:/home/david/zook# ps ax | grep zook.py 23870 pts/6    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zook.py  root@dbx1145:/home/david/zook# ps ax | grep zook.py 23872 pts/6    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zook.py  root@dbx1145:/home/david/zook# ps ax | grep zook.py 23874 pts/6    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zook.py  root@dbx1145:/home/david/zook# ps ax | grep zook.py 23876 pts/6    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zook.py I'm new to Ubuntu. What's the application extension for development reasons? I know Windows is mainly .exe and Mac is .dmg or .app. Does Linux have an unique one?