I used sudo dpkg --configure -a to repair an incomplete update. It solved at least most of the problems, but says   dpkg: error processing package linux-libc-dev:amd64 (--configure): package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it brefore attemping to configure it.   I entered sudo apt-get remove linux-libc-dev:amd64 and it removed some parts of the package and said:  dpkg: error processing package linux-libc-dev:amd64 (--remove): package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it brefore attemping a removal   How can I reinstall it?
I can't update my system because it freezes while installing a third-party update (zramswap-enabler)! Sometimes I get the following message in Update manager:  Could not initialize the package information An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information. Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message: E:The package zramswap-enabler needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.  I tried to remove the zramswap-enabler, but it's impossible because I get the following message: dpkg: error processing zramswap-enabler (--remove):  Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should  reinstall it before attempting a removal. Errors were encountered while processing:  zramswap-enabler E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)  Actually I would really reinstall that package, but it is unable to do it! If I remove this third-party PPA then the system is warning me about a very very serious problem. So why can I not install/reinstall/remove/update this package and why freezes the updater if I try to update?
Ordered N-Tuples as Cartesian Products of Indexed Families In Introduction to Topology, Mendelson defines the Cartesian Product of an Indexed Family as follows:     DEFINITION  Let $\{X_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in I}$ be an indexed family of sets. The product  of the sets $\{X_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in I}$,    written  $\prod_{x\in I}X_\alpha$ consists of all functions $x$ with domain the indexing set $I$ having the property that for each $\alpha \in I$, $x(\alpha)\in X_\alpha$.    Halmos, in Naive Set Theory, makes the following observation about this sort of product:     Ordered triples, ordered quadruples, etc., may be defined as families whose index sets are unordered triples, quadruples, etc.   However, it is not immediately apparent to me why this is true. It makes sense if we understand the prior assertions in Halmos that $\prod_{i \in I} X_i = X_i$ and that $\prod_{i \in I} X_i = X_a \times X_b$ when $I = \{a, b\}$, but these already pose difficulty for me.  Let $I = \{0, 1\}$, let $X_0 = \{A, B\}$, and let $X_1 = \{C, D\}$. Then by Mendelson's (and Halmos's) definitions, it would seem to me that . . .  $$\prod_{i \in I} X_ i = \{\{(0, A), (1, C)\}, \{(0, A), (1, D)\}, \{(0, B), (1, C)\}, \{(0, B), (1, D)\}\}$$  This would appear to me to be the set of all functions matching the definition given, but it is not equal to $X_0 \times X_1$. Moreover, extending this to a case where the index set $I$ is a triple, we would not end up with ordered triples, but with each subset of the product containing three ordered pairs.  When Halmos posits the equalities he does, the idea seems easy to grasp, but the peculiar wording of Mendelson's definition suggests something different to me. Does either pill actually do anything? When Morpheus offers the pill choice to Neo, they are still in the Matrix. That leads me to belive that none of the pills are real thus having no particular effect in the real world. Was it some sort of placebo effect that freed Neo from the Matrix or do the pills have an actual effect? I've seen a couple questions around here like , which mentions:     Unfortunately that same browser won't allow me to test HTTP PUT, DELETE, and to a certain degree even HTTP POST.   I've also heard that browsers support only GET and POST, from some other sources like:        However, a few quick tests in Firefox show that sending PUT and DELETE requests works as expected -- the XMLHttpRequest completes successfully, and the request shows up in the server logs with the right method. Is there some aspect to this I'm missing, such as cross-browser compatibility or non-obvious limitations? Which English dialects have 2nd person plural? "Y'all" is the famous southern US form of the 2nd person plural.  The Brooklyn / Italian-American "youse" might be another.  While the existence and usage of "y'all" has been addressed somewhat thoroughly here:  , I've found nothing else on EL&amp;U regarding 2nd person plural forms in other English dialects.  I know there was a dual form in Old English () does that survive in any of the dialects in the Danelaw?  Do Scots / Gaelic / Welsh / Australian / other dialects retain any type of 2nd person plural / dual in modern usage? Cycles Emit Light from area on Texture So I have a giant object that is completely uv unwrapped. I would like to make areas of the object with a specific area of texture emit light.   The problem is that this object (and it is only one object) only has one material. I would like the lava to emit light, but I cannot move it to a separate material without breaking something.  I'd like to find a method where I can select a part of the texture and tell blender that whatever has that part of the texture emits light.  Is this possible?  Thanks. How do I get Power Armor training in Fallout New Vegas? I've found some power armor, but I can't use it yet without training. I assumed that the Brotherhood of Steel would train me, if they like me enough.  I've completed the Brotherhood of Steel quest series for the overseer (the original one, I did not overthrow him), but I did not get any Power Armor training. What do I have to do to be able to wear Power Armor? multisite: allow only specific users to update sites story on forest timescale I'm looking for the title of a short story by Ursula Le Guin about a scientist (?) who is given a drug that slows the timescale of his perception enormously, so that he can perceive that an alien (?) forest is actually behaving as a sentient being, reacting to current events, but at an enormously slow (from a normal human point of view) timescale. It might be in , but I don't remember the title (and it doesn't jump out at me from the list of titles) and don't have access to that collection right now. It is not &quot;The Word for World is Forest&quot;, nor &quot;Direction of the Road&quot; (from ), nor &quot;Vaster than Empires and More Slow&quot;, the latter two of which look at similar plant perception/time-scale issues. Update: it turns out that the description was right, but I had most of the details wrong: not Le Guin, not alien, not a scientist ... How do I display a decimal value to 2 decimal places? Do $T$-invariant subspaces necessarily have a $T$-invariant complement? Let R be a commutative ring with an identity such that for all $r\in$ R, there exists some $n&gt;1$ such that $r^n = r$. Show that any prime ideal is  maximal. (Atiyah and MacDonald, Introduction to Commutative Algebra, Chapter 1, Exercise 7.)    Any hints? vs. . Which to use? I'd like some suggestions for good reading materials on the Keldysh formalism in the condensed matter physics community. I'm familiar with the imaginary time, coherent state, and path integral formalisms, but lately, I've been seeing Keldysh more and more in papers. My understanding is that it is superior to the imaginary time formalism at least in that one can evaluate non-equilibrium expectations. Word with the same meaning as "good moments" or "pleasant memories"? Is there a single word with the same meaning as "good moments" or "pleasant memories"? I'm looking for a word which describes good thing(s) that happened to someone. The only word I can think of is "joy".  Some examples might be:   Wayne has many pleasant memories of the days spent with the family. She could remember many good moments from the last weekend. Is a capacitor in an open circuit charged? Say I have a circuit consisting of a battery, a wire, an open switch, and a capacitor. The circuit is open since the switch is open.  My book says that the capacitor will only be charged when the switch is closed, but I don't see why this is true. I would expect the capacitor to be charged a little - not as much as if the circuit is closed, but still charged none the less.  To further illustrate my point consider this: If the circuit is open, the current must be zero. Consequently the field must be zero. For the field to be zero, the capacitor's field must cancel out the battery's field. Therefore the capacitor must be charged.  Generalizing this concept, shouldn't capacitors be charged (to a lesser degree) in open circuits?  EDIT: In other words, if the field is zero, the capacitor must be charged to cancel out the field of the battery. Show that the set of all finite subsets of $\mathbb{N}$ is countable. What is $1^k+2^k+\cdots+ (p-1)^k$ modulo $p$? (From Ireland and Rosen). I've been working through a bit of Ireland and Rosen's Number Theory for fun. Problem 4.11 of Ireland and Rosen asks     Prove that $1^k+2^k+\cdots+(p-1)^k\equiv 0\pmod{p}$ if $p-1\nmid k$, and $-1\pmod{p}$ if $p-1\mid k$.    My work is leading where I didn't expect to go. Here I assume $p$ id odd. First, if $p-1\mid k$, then we can wrike $k=(p-1)j$ for some $j$. But then $$ 1^k+\cdots+(p-1)^k\equiv 1^{(p-1)j}+\cdots+(p-1)^{(p-1)j}\equiv \underbrace{1+\cdots+1}_{p-1\text{ times}}=\frac{(p-1)p}{2}\equiv 0\pmod{p} $$ since $p-1$ is even.   Secondly, I suppose $p-1\nmid k$. WLOG, I can assume $0&lt;k&lt;p-1$, Since if $k=(p-1)j+r$ with $0&lt;r&lt;p-1$, then  $$ a^k\equiv a^{(p-1)j+r}\equiv a^r\pmod{p}. $$  Then if $g$ is a primitive root, $$ 1^k+\cdots+(p-1)^k=\sum_{i=1}^{p-1}(g^k)^i=\frac{g^k(1-g^{k(p-1)})}{1-g^k}. $$ Since $g$ is primitive, $p\nmid 1-g^k$, but $p\mid 1-g^{k(p-1)}$, so the above sum is again congruent to $0\pmod{p}$.  So in all cases, I get the sum is congruent to $0$ regardless. Have I messed up, or is there a typo? Thanks. Is it acceptable to say "We'll get back to you as quick as we can"? Is "quick" a flat adverb in this case? What is the difference between apt and apt-get? Difference in number of communities on main site