We're looking into using the  class using C#, and everything seems to work as expected. However, the class is part of the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly, and I wonder why? Surely there must be a reason why the class is in a language-specific (at least by name) assembly? Any non-obvious side-effects from using it in a non-VB project?
My dev team is getting ready to start a new project. The shop has been a "VB shop" since the days of VB3, but the prevailing opinion now is that we're a ".NET shop" and since C# was created specifically for .NET, whereas VB.NET was a retrofit, we've decided to move forward writing C# only. The controversy revolves around the question of whether the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace has a legitimate place in new development or if it is only for backward compatibility for VB6 (and older) code. A further, and more interesting question is whether the code "under" the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace is even .NET code of if it is really the old VB runtime carefully packaged in a .NET wrapper, making it in fact a COM interop control (similar to how WinForms wraps the non-.NET Win32 windowing API but exposes only .NET APIs for consumption).  To make this even more confusing, our dev team has a Microsoft Consulting Services consultant telling us Microsoft no longer supports Visual Basic, including the VB runtime underlying the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace.  What I'm looking for are links -- preferably to unimpeachable Microsoft sources -- to documentation that definitively answers this question one way or the other. I've already tried several search permutations on Google and not gotten any closer to getting to the bottom of this question.  EDIT: Apparently I didn't make my question clear. I'm not asking if VB.NET is true .NET code. I'm trying to determine if whatever is "under" the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace is .NET code or if it's the old VB6 runtime carefully packaged and exposed as .NET code. Someone already said that 9/10 of the namespace simply wraps code from elsewhere in .NET; what about that other 1/10?
Find equation of a plane that passes through point and contains the intersection line of 2 other planes Find equation of a plane that passes through point P $(-1,4,2)$ that contains the intersection line of the planes  $$\begin{align*} 4x-y+z-2&amp;=0\\ 2x+y-2z-3&amp;=0 \end{align*}$$  Attempt: I found the the direction vector of the intersection line by taking the cross product of vectors normal to the known planes. I got $\langle 1,10,6\rangle$. Now, I need to find a vector normal to the plane I am looking for. To do that I need one more point on that plane. So how do I proceed? Subfiles failing with custom class What do I need to consider to choose between dSLR, mirrorless, or a compact as my first "serious" camera? I am thinking of buying a camera to learn photography. Most of the time I'll be shooting portraits and landscapes. But I am not sure where I should start. Most of my friends tell me that I should get an entry level DSLR, but I am not sure if I have the persistence and enthusiasm to carry it all day in a backpack. But the camera on my cellphone doesn't seem to be enough to begin with.  So what I want is some expert advice (preferably with professional experience). Can most compact fixed-lens or mirrorless cameras fit the situations I mentioned? Or do I really need to go to a DSLR to get a tool to learn photography? on StackOverflow, I asked a . There are many good answers but I can not accept just one of it. I would prefer to create my own answer where I summarize all answers. Is that allowed? Novel where pyramids "grow" and change Earth's magnetic field? I read this in (most likely) the 1980s or 1990s. The protagonists found what they believed were alien spacecraft; over time, they &quot;morphed&quot; into Mesoamerican-style pyramids (stepped, not smooth like Egyptian pyramids). Each time they &quot;grew&quot;, an area where electrical equipment either failed or was unreliable grew; the pyramid itself became a new magnetic pole. It turned out that there were a dozen of these objects, spaced to cover the entire world from the corners of an icosahedron; the final morph of the pyramids caused the fields of electrical &quot;disablement&quot; to cover the entire world. Installing to SDCard by default I computed the homology groups of the torus, can someone tell me if this is correct? The calculation, not the result that is. Thanks!  The cells of $T^2$ are $e^0, e^1_a, e^1_b, e^2$  The chain groups are  $$ C_0(T^2) = \{ k e^0 |&#160;k \in \mathbb{Z} \} = \mathbb{Z}$$  $$ C_1(T^2) = \{&#160;k_1 e^1_a + k_2 e^1_b |&#160;k_1 , k_2 \in \mathbb{Z} \} = \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z}$$  $$ C_2(T^2) = \mathbb{Z}$$  $$ C_k(T^2) = \{ 0 \} , k &gt; 2$$  Now the homology groups:  $$ H_0(T^2) = \ker \partial_0 / im \partial_1 = \mathbb{Z} / 0 = \mathbb{Z}$$  where $im \partial_1 = 0$ because there is no chain in $C_1(T^2)$ whose boundary is a zero-chain in $C_0(T^2)$. (Is this reasoning correct?)  $$ H_1(T^2) = \ker \partial_1 / im \partial_2 = \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z}$$  where $\ker \partial_1 =  \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z} $, i.e. again everything maps to zero because there is no element in $C_1$ whose boundary maps to an element in $C_0$.  $im \partial_2 = 0$ again because there is no element in $C_2$ whose boundary is an element of $C_1$.  I don't want to use Hurewicz to do $H_1$.  $$ H_2(T^2) = \mathbb{Z}$$ using similar arguments as above.  Thanks for your help.  Edit  I posted the computations as an answer below. I got two up votes but I don't know by who so I'm not yet sure I can trust them... Getting Started to Xetex for Devangari? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the GAC? And on top of that, are there cases where one has to use the global assembly cache or where one cannot use it? If I run along the aisle of a bus traveling at (almost) the speed of light, can I travel faster than the speed of light? Let's say I fire a bus through space at (almost) the speed of light in vacuum. If I'm inside the bus (sitting on the back seat) and I run up the aisle of the bus toward the front, does that mean I'm traveling faster than the speed of light? (Relative to Earth that I just took off from.) Cancellation of Direct Products Take the following class as an example:  class Sometype {     int someValue;      public Sometype(int someValue)     {         this.someValue = someValue;     } }   I then want to create an instance of this type using reflection:  Type t = typeof(Sometype); object o = Activator.CreateInstance(t);   Normally this will work, however because SomeType has not defined a parameterless constructor, the call to Activator.CreateInstance will throw an exception of type MissingMethodException with the message "No parameterless constructor defined for this object." Is there an alternative way to still create an instance of this type? It'd be kinda sucky to add parameterless constructors to all my classes. Let $A$ be a ring with $0 \neq 1 $, which has $2^n-1$ invertible elements and less non-invertible elements. Prove that $A$ is a field. To be clear on this, I know what is the definition of an inner product space and some properties and theorems about them. What I am asking for is an intuition for this definition in the complex case. In the real case, the intuition (or at least one of them) is  geometric: The inner product of two vectors is the length of the projection of the first to the second scaled by the norms of both vectors so that it is symmetric (modulo some details). In particular I (and everybody else) think of "inner product zero" as geometric orthogonality and of orthonormal bases as, well, orthonormal bases and so on. The question is, what should I think about when working with complex (or should I say hermitian?) inner product spaces? what is the "meaning" of the complex number associated to two vectors called their inner product?  I will be happy to hear all kinds of answers. For example, what physical phenomena does it model or in what mathematical situations does in "naturally" appear. Answers that stress the "nice structure" resulting are also welcome, yet I feel that by itself  it is a bit unsatisfying. Not able to see links to chat, logout, or privileges UIRefreshControl without UITableViewController How to execute a program or call a system command from Python How do you call an external command (as if I'd typed it at the Unix shell or Windows command prompt) from within a Python script? CK2 is a big game with lots of variables, so I'll stick to adding them upon being requested to minimize the hassle.  Anyway, let's say that you have a lot of children and the oldest one claims all the land according to laws of succession. After the father dies, the circumstances will obviously piss off a lot of people (in my case that would be 6 out of 8 vassals and 4 siblings with an opinion of -50 and below one of which is a sister married to the Basileus of the Byzantine friggin' Empire, a case of excommunication, 4 failed assassination attempts under 3 years... and lots and lots of vikings). Let's also say that the current playable character is completely incompetent compare to the next sibling in line.  So, what would be the most optimal methods to off myself without further screwing over the countryside so the next heir in line has to fix it (if we assume that said heir is actually capable of doing so)?  This is my list of DLCs (not including music and unit packs):   Charlemange Legacy of Rome Sword of Islam The Republic Way of Life $F(x)$ versus $F[x]$ where $F$ is a field Many econometrics textbooks (e.g. Wooldridge, "Econometric analysis...") simply write something similar to: "If the population model is $y = xB + u$ and (1) $\text{Cov}(X,U) = 0$; (2) $X'X$ is full rank, then OLS consistently estimate parameters $B$". I've worked out the math behind consistency but I'm a bit lost in interpreting the meaning.  We're talking about consistent estimation, but estimation of what? Please tell me if the following points are correct:   If we have random sample $X,Y$ and $X'X$ is invertible, then we can always define Best Linear Predictor of $y$ given $x$. And then OLS always consistently estimates coefficients of Best Linear Predictor (because in BLP we have $\text{Cov}(u,x)=0$ from the definition). Bottom line: we can always interpret OLS estimates as coefficients of BLP The only question is whether BLP corresponds to conditional expectation $\text{E}(y|x)$. If it does (for which we need $\text{E}(u|x) = 0$), then we can interpret OLS estimates as partial effects.   What is wrong with this or what am I missing? I don't get the point of stating the assumption of $\text{Cov}(u,x) = 0$, if this assumption is by definition fulfilled in case of Best Linear Predictor. And if we want to give structural interpretation to BLP coefficients (partial effects) we need stronger assumption of $\text{E}(u|x) = 0$ anyway. Is there any other interpretation we may have with zero covariance?