Suppose I wanted to refer to a colleague of mine, a young man aged between his teens and maybe his 30s - I would use the phrase:  So there's this guy at work who...  However I am struggling to determine an equivalent for a young woman that retains it's informality and gendered connotation. Here are some possibilities I have thought of:  Young Woman: By specifying the age it resolves one of the problems above but it seems to make it even more formal. Girl: This could work if I was referring to a woman below the age of 18, but it would be very condescending to refer to an adult woman as a girl. Female: Far too formal - it sounds like something a doctor would say, and what's more appears to be a phrasing that online misogynists favour. It seems preferable to use &quot;female&quot; as an adjective only Chick: Very condescending; possibly bordering on misogynistic. Gal: It suffers similar problems to chick, and - though this may be regional - it seems to be quite an antiquated word Woman: Too formal, and (at least to me) would conjure an image of a middle aged woman rather than a young woman. This does, however, seem to me to be the best option because it doesn't come off as condescending.
I commonly use the word 'guys' to refer to a group of males colloquially. It's colloquial but not rude, off putting, condescending, patronizing (though I wouldn't use it with a group of men at a board meeting (hypothetically of course), unless I knew them). So, some that I would not consider as replacements would be    buddies: too old-fashioned dudes: too informal boys: too patronizing men, gentlemen: too formal or false respect   I realized that I had also been using it for any group of people, males and females, even just females. It worked for me and I didn't think of the gender implications, that women might not care for it. No one ever complained, directly or indirectly (rule of life: sometimes people don't complain about things they should).   But it occurred to me (maybe by reading something that sparked realization) that the intended hearers might not all care for it.  What might be a female gendered or non-gendered version of 'guys'?  Some that I've considered don't feel right about (though these may be reasonable answers) are:   dolls: too old-fashioned babes: too informal  ladies: too formal or I've heard from women, too creepy women: too factual girls: too patronizing (as much as 'boys') everyone, you all: too bland y'all: perfectly non-sexist but too regional (might work, but not everywhere)   Hopefully I haven't eliminated all the possibilities -- any suggestions?
Average distance between two random points in a square A square with side $a$ is given. What is the average distance between two uniformly-distributed random points inside the square?  For more general "rectangle" case, see . The proof found there is fairly complex, and I am looking for a simpler proof for this special case. I expect it could be significantly simpler.  See also . Evaluating $\int P(\sin x, \cos x) \text{d}x$ Suppose $\displaystyle P(x,y)$ a polynomial in the variables $x,y$.   For example, $\displaystyle x^4$ or $\displaystyle x^3y^2 + 3xy + 1$.  Is there a general method which allows us to evaluate the indefinite integral     $$ \int P(\sin x, \cos x) \text{d} x$$   What about the case when $\displaystyle P(x,y)$ is a rational function (i.e. a ratio of two polynomials)?   Example of a rational function: $\displaystyle \frac{x^2y + y^3}{x+y}$.    This is being asked in an effort to cut down on duplicates, see here:   and here: Asume the following search queries: osx, cocoa, iphone, xcode, applescript, mac, carbon    Searching for osx, cocoa, iphone or xcode like:   http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=osx   Results into searching by tag:   http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/osx   While searching for applescript, mac and carbon like:   http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=applescript   Results into searching by string.  Yes, I know how to search by tags using brackets: [applescript] But why are the queries above interpreted differently? All queries are valid Stack Overflow tags! Why not convert all queries into search by string or search by tag? What is the logic behind? Tag popularity? It seems rather inconsistent to me. From a technical perspective, what exactly is RAW and how does it differ from JPG or bitmap images? I'm not asking about the pros/cons versus another format, but rather what constitutes RAW format, how is the data stored, how does it differ from JPG (other than lack of compression), and how is it different than bitmap? Take the function  $$ \begin{cases}f(x,y)=(x^2+y^2)/\sin(\sqrt{x^2+y^2}) &amp; \text{when } 0&lt;\lvert (x,y)\rvert&lt;\pi\\   0 &amp; \text{when } (x,y)=(0,0) \end{cases}$$  I got that this function is differentiable at $(0,0)$. I calculated the partial derivatives at $(0,0)$ of which both were $0$ and trying to show the definition of differentiability is not satisfied but I keep getting that it is. Plz help. Bash Brace Expansion & Variables I have a find command:  find Directory/{Alpha,Bravo,Charlie} arg1 arg2   I want to replace Alpha,Bravo,Charlie with $find_dir  find Directory/{$find_dir} arg1 arg2   however the latter expands to   find Directory/{Alpha,Bravo,Charlie} arg1 arg2   rather then   find Directory/Alpha Directory/Bravo Directory/Charlie arg1 arg2   Why? It's part of a fairly complex bash script that may have more or less directories, not all which are relevant (so globbing Upload/* would not work). So if I setup three now and add another, I'll have to manually add it in later. Plus I need it run from the root of directories to keep finds outputs perspective (./Upload/Dir/file as opposed to ./Dir/file).   But using a variable would permit me to change that as needed and keep it relevant to other parts of the script. In comments, moderators have their diamonds in the OP rectangle:        And in the review (suggested edits), mods have their diamonds outside the blue OP background highlight rectangle:        Of course, it Doesn't Really Matter At All, but it is a small discrepancy (I am not saying that in the review, OP rectangles have a bigger padding). What are some practical examples of a constant current source? Please don't state the obvious that nothing is a perfect constant current source.  And please do not give examples of how to create them from components.  I looked at this  which stated the obvious - that you can not have a perfect current source.  So when I say constant current source, I am not referring to the mathematical concept used in circuits, but "natural" components that provide a close approximation to this. Key word is approximation.  A bit of research pulled up one interesting example which was a solar cell.  Is this a valid example?  A google search pulls up a similar Quora question . Which gave the example of a solar cell.  This is a more technical site and I was looking for a more engineering answer not a mathematical or laymen's answer.  Thanks. Ruby can add methods to the Number class and other core types to get effects like this:  1.should_equal(1)   But it seems like Python cannot do this. Is this true? And if so, why? Does it have something to do with the fact that type can't be modified?  Update: Rather than talking about different definitions of monkey patching, I would like to just focus on the example above. I have already concluded that it cannot be done as a few of you have answered. But I would like a more detailed explanation of why it cannot be done, and maybe what feature, if available in Python, would allow this.  To answer some of you: The reason I might want to do this is simply aesthetics/readability.    item.price.should_equal(19.99)   This reads more like English and clearly indicates which is the tested value and which is the expected value, as supposed to:  should_equal(item.price, 19.99)   This concept is what  and some other Ruby frameworks are based on. Modify TikZ coil decoration Can I modify the existing tikz coil decoration, so that the downstrokes are not drawn in a certain interval, to produce a picture like this?    Edit: Previous attempts, code and MWE has been moved to or superseded by my own answer. Is there a way to turn off an external Apple Cinema Display remotely and continue to use the computer? Here's the situation: I often access my Mac Pro remotely using Screen Sharing and sometimes TeamViewer. The problem is that when I do this, everything I'm doing can be seen by those near the physical computer. It also uses a considerable amount unnecessary power to have the displays on but not actually being used.  Is there a way to turn them off and not just blank if possible, while still using Screen Sharing or TeamViewer Free? Why would a company like Apple be buying back its own shares? What is the reason that a company like AAPL is buying back its own shares? Does it have too much cash and it doesn't know what to do with it? So it is returning the cash back to investors? In Delphi, is TDataSet thread safe? I'd like to be able to open a TDataSet asynchronously in its own thread so that the main VCL thread can continue until that's done, and then have the main VCL thread read from that TDataSet afterwards. I've done some experimenting and have gotten into some very weird situations, so I'm wondering if anyone has done this before.  I've seen some sample apps where a TDataSet is created in a separate thread, it's opened and then data is read from it, but that's all done in the separate thread. I'm wondering if it's safe to read from the TDataSet from the main VCL thread after the other thread opens the data source.  I'm doing Win32 programming in Delphi 7, using TmySQLQuery from  as my TDataSet descendant. Why doesn't this perpetual motion machine using the buoyant force work? Compile TeX (directly) into SVG using the command line Is there a way to directly compile TeX code into the SVG image format (rather than going the detour over TeX => PDF => SVG)?  I found this question:   But I don't want to do it online - it should be a command-line call. caching JavaScript files Which is the best method to make the browser use cached versions of js files (from the serverside)? Problem with TP-Link TL-WN823N Recently I installed Ubuntu 16.04 but cant get the usb wifi adapter to work properly , can anyone help me?  When wifi adpater is plugged , the lsusb output:  Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:0109 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0e0f:000b VMware, Inc.  Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub  Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0e0f:0008 VMware, Inc.  Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0e0f:0003 VMware, Inc. Virtual Mouse Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub   When wifi adapter is unplugged , the lsusb output:  Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0e0f:000b VMware, Inc.  Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0e0f:0008 VMware, Inc.  Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0e0f:0003 VMware, Inc. Virtual Mouse Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Why are lamps and mesh lights not illuminating anything? How does ssh run a command? I'm using Bash on both client and server. When running a command over SSH:   ssh &lt;host&gt; 'declare' gives a list of shell variables. ssh &lt;host&gt; 'mount' gives a list of mountpoints.   However, declare is a Bash builtin, while mount is an external command. How does SSH know which to run if there is a shell builtin and an external command with the same name on the server? Should there be a place to ask about programming libraries and technologies?