I've seen this notation pop up in some Bayesian statistics notes but despite my best efforts with Google I've not had any luck discovering the meaning. The only helpful context that I have is that $y$ is the observed data and $\theta$ is some sort of parameter. As for giving an example of this notation in use, I've seen De Finetti's theorem summarized as "$Y_1 , ... , Y_n | \theta$ are i.i.d. and $\theta \sim p(\theta)$ if and only if $Y_1 , ... , Y_n$ are exchangeable for all $n$".  EDIT: Note, I'm not asking how something like $Y \sim N(\mu, \sigma^2)$ is read, I know exactly what that means. It's the $p$ parts that are confusing me.
How is the notation $X\sim N(\mu,\sigma^2)$ read? Is it $X$ follows a normal distribution? Or $X$ is a normal distribution? Or perhaps $X$ is approximately normal..  What if there are several variables that follow (or whatever the words is) the same distribution? How is it written?
How is Selenium RC different from Selenium Web driver and some good pointers for a naive beginner to learn to scripting please? Thanks! Oracle: how to UPSERT (update or insert into a table?) The UPSERT operation either updates or inserts a row in a table, depending if the table already has a row that matches the data:  if table t has a row exists that has key X:     update t set mystuff... where mykey=X else     insert into t mystuff...   Since Oracle doesn't have a specific UPSERT statement, what's the best way to do this? I've been studying the postulates of QM and seeing how to derive important ideas from them. One thing that I haven't been able to derive from them, however, is the identity of the momentum operator.  For simplicity, I'm only thinking about no relativistic effects, no spin, no time-dependent potentials, and one spatial dimension. Also I'm assuming the position operator is simply multiplication by $x$, as in, I'm in position space. So the Hamiltonian operator is  $ H = -\frac{\hbar^2}{2m}\nabla^2+V$.  I know that the momentum operator is $p = -i\hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial x}$.  But how do I get there from the postulates? I know that it makes sense, as it results in the Ehrenfest Theorem, the De Broglie wavelength hypothesis, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (for $x$ and $p$), the momentum operator being the generator of the translation operator, and possibly many other desirable theorems, and correlations with classical momentum.  But none of these are postulates (at least, not in the various formalisms I encountered), so you can't derive $p = -i\hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial x}$ from them. Rather, they are consequences of it. You need to know the operator beforehand to see that they are correct. Yes, this is just semantics, but that is the core issue for me:  Regardless of how much sense it makes, is the identity $p = -i\hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial x}$ (under the assumptions I made) a Postulate, meaning that you can't derive it from other postulates, or can it in fact be obtained from them? And in the latter case, could you show me how?  Note: I know that there are many different and equivalent sets of postulates for QM. But in none that I saw did they name it as a postulate nor properly derived it. Can we use media9 to show a video on a PDF but the video is not embedded to the PDF? I have video tutorials that I want to show in my presentation with beamer class. I don't want the video files get embedded to the PDF because they will make the PDF size very very huge.  If you know how the videos can be played on the HTML with a reference rather than embedding the video file to the HTML file, I want something like this to be applied to my PDF presentation. I just want to reference the video URL from my PDF presentation.   Shortly speaking, can we use media9 to show a video on a PDF but the video is not embedded to the PDF?  Uploading those videos to a web server might be difficult for me because internet connection is very slow and sometimes not available in the presentation room. :-) Difference between char *str="STRING" and char str[] = "STRING"? What happens if I buy a game I already own through Steam a second time? I am debating whether or not to get the Potato Sack (yes, I realize I've been debating for several weeks now) bundle through steam.  I already own: Defense Grid: The Awakening, Super Meat Boy, and Audiosurf, all of which are part of the sack pack. What happens if I buy the Potato Sack?  Do I get 2nd copies of the three above mentioned games to gift elsewhere?  Is the price of the bundle reduced by the games I already have?  Do I get nothing special for already owning those 3 games? Is "I'm being angry" ungrammatical? I am trying to find a way with QGIS to get the intersection area of more than 2 layers.  All the tools in QGIS take just the 2 input layers.  For example in the image below, I have 4 layers and I want to retrieve just the black area.   Furthermore, I need to retrieve the count attribute and add it to the intersected area attribute table (in this case 4)    I know there is a tool that does the trick in ArcGIS, but is there a QGIS solution? Why Process Builder doesn't work on Delete Scenario? As most of the time we have to think of requirement to accomplished using out-of-Box feature like e.g process builder which we think of an alternative to trigger, but suppose I have to handle scenario of Delete using Process Builder then there is limitation!(e.g calculation of roll-up on Delete) so I am curious about what is that limitation because of which Delete scenario is not handled in Process Builder. I'm using Ubuntu Maverick and Virtual Box 3+. I have Windows 7 Ultimate. The problem is that it doesn't detect USB drives in Windows 7, but USB peripherals (mouse + keybord) are working.  I followed , but I can't find the user group vboxusers. How can I continue? I would also like to upgrade to the latest version without any risk (without losing my virtual hard disk drive). Example (note the case):  string s = "Hello world!"; String s = "Hello world!";   What are the guidelines for the use of each? And what are the differences? What's a way to implement a flexible buff/debuff system? I want to create an image like below, so a balloon with text on it.     I have been googling for ideas (text, sphere, ....) and came on  earlier question. So I tried Shrinkwrap and Cast modifier.   Here is the situation before applying the modifiers.    This was after trying Shrinkwrap    And this after Cast modifier.    For me it does not look like it is going to work with one of these modifiers.  Question How to create the image of a balloon with text on it ? With one of these modifiers or should I try a complete other approach ?? How to do this ? Recently I have installed an older version of Ubuntu on my old machine. Whenever I try to install any software, I get an error saying it couldn't be found:  $ sudo apt-get install vlc Reading package lists... Done                Building dependency tree        Reading state information... Done     E: Couldn't find package vlc Given two sets$$A=\{1,3,5\}\quad,\quad B=\{1,3,8\}.$$ Then I compute the $A\setminus B=\{5\}.$   But my book$^\dagger$said: ... . Also, observe that $x\notin A\setminus B$ does not mean that $x\notin A\lor x\in B$. Why?  I don't know how to explain the Why, please give me some example.    $^\dagger$, second edition, page $4$.  EDIT: My intuition tells me that it does mean that. I guess there is some special case about null-set or about the restriction of the universal set. Why can't I connect to Pokemon Go via mobile data? I am trying to understand the permission usage for the cp command in unix.   What are the permissions required for copying a file into a directory What are the permissions required for copying out of a directory?   I'm assuming for my first question, the directory will need execute permissions to perform the operation and the file will need read permissions to read the binary of the file and then the output file will need write permissions.  For the second the directory itself would need execute permissions to perform the copy operation and the file would need read permissions to extract the data from the file.  Can anyone tell me if my logic is flawed? How to code an automated bot that can browse and do operations on a webpage Can the Flash do things like build muscle faster than normal (do his muscles grow right after a work-out or meal)? Can he heal faster than normal? Does he have a faster immune system to stop all illness or at least make the flu last 2 minutes or something along those lines? Why do Star Trek vessels always approach each other on parallel planes? Space is just open 3D space, right? In Star Trek, ships are always coming from somewhere else: different solar systems, galaxies, etc. However, when they meet, they always seem to be on parallel planes (facing each other).  In some episodes I recall seeing ships that were adrift (and they appeared facing a different trajectory). How can there possibly be some standardized reference plane in space? Do ships just choose to align with each other to be polite? Or perhaps when entering a solar system, the pilot, or navigation system aligns orthogonally with the local orbital axis?