When we pass an Object[] to method, do we actually copy included objects or we just pass the array of references to those objects?
I always thought Java uses pass-by-reference. However, I've seen a couple of blog posts (for example, ) that claim that it isn't (the blog post says that Java uses pass-by-value). I don't think I understand the distinction they're making. What is the explanation?
Can “zealot” have a positive connotation? A zealot is a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.  I have never seen this word used with positive connotation, but could it (without causing raised eyebrows)? For example, “Gandhi was a zealot and should be admired by all who believe in non-violence.”  Also, do “zealous” and “zeal” carry the same connotation as “zealot”? Firefox application associations not working in the 'Downloads' window Let $S = \bigoplus_{n\ge 0} S_n$ be a graded commutative ring. Let $f$ be a homogeneous element of $S$ of degree $&gt; 0$. Let $S_{(f)}$ be the degree $0$ part of the graded ring $S_f$, where $S_f$ is the localization with respect to the multiplicative set $\{1, f, f^2,\dots\}$. Suppose $S$ is finitely generated algebra over $S_0$. Then $S_{(f)}$ is a finitely generated algebra over $S_0$. Where should I start in tracking down Firefox malware fontenc vs inputenc Decode escaped Url without using HttpUtility.UrlDecode Do people sometimes get blocked by a webservice for things someone else has done with their dynamic IP-Address It is common practice for operators of web services (e.g. web sites) to block IP addresses when there was malicious traffic originating from that address.  It is also common practice that internet users don't have a static IP address but get one assigned by their ISP via DHCP.  Now I would expect that it sometimes happens that a specific IP address gets banned from a service and later that address gets assigned to another user, leaving the new user (temporarily) banned from the service for no apparent reason. However, I never had this problem or heard of someone having that problem.  Does this sometimes happen? If not, what prevents this from happening? How do I get money back for my foreign coins? Tonight I just cleaned my room and while doing this I found some money. I counted it and I found out that there are a lot of coins from 25 different countries.  I know that normally banks don't exchange foreign currencies in coins, but is there a way so that I can still get some money for my foreign coins? What software is used to generate the reputation graphs on Stack Exchange? I'm particularly interested in the zooming functionality which is done very well. Were these graphs generated using off the shelf software or were they coded from scratch? Code in beamer presentation Good day! So, I need to present my disertation code to my thesis advisors, but I'm quite unsure how to actually do it in a proper way. I found  showing some ideas.  Is there a way of making the slides 48-67 in beamer without using tikz? Any ideas to implement the whole ideas the author propose?  Thanks in advance. SO Blog icon has partial white background when tab is inactive When you open a tab on the , and switch to another tab, the icon has a partial white background: Firefox (Most obvious) - note the difference between that and the normal Stack Overflow logo  IE  Edge  Tested on Windows 10 with Firefox 41.0.2, Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge v20.10240.16384.0. (If someone could test this on chrome that would be great) How to synchronize clocks for computers that are not online? Downcasting in Java Upcasting is allowed in Java, however downcasting gives a compile error.   The compile error can be removed by adding a cast but would anyway break at the runtime.   In this case why Java allows downcasting if it cannot be executed at the runtime? Is there any practical use for this concept?   public class demo {   public static void main(String a[]) {       B b = (B) new A(); // compiles with the cast,                           // but runtime exception - java.lang.ClassCastException   } }  class A {   public void draw() {     System.out.println("1");   }    public void draw1() {     System.out.println("2");   } }  class B extends A {   public void draw() {     System.out.println("3");   }   public void draw2() {     System.out.println("4");   } } Why is it dangerous use a coiled extension cord Sort an Array by keys based on another Array? Is it possible in PHP to do something like this? How would you go about writing a function? Here is an example. The order is the most important thing.  $customer['address'] = '123 fake st'; $customer['name'] = 'Tim'; $customer['dob'] = '12/08/1986'; $customer['dontSortMe'] = 'this value doesnt need to be sorted';   And I'd like to do something like   $properOrderedArray = sortArrayByArray($customer, array('name', 'dob', 'address'));   Because at the end I use a foreach() and they're not in the right order (because I append the values to a string which needs to be in the correct order and I don't know in advance all of the array keys/values).  I've looked through PHP's internal array functions but it seems you can only sort alphabetically or numerically. Examples of patterns that eventually fail Often, when I try to describe mathematics to the layman, I find myself struggling to convince them of the importance and consequence of "proof". I receive responses like: "surely if Collatz is true up to $20×2^{58}$, then it must always be true?"; and "the sequence of number of edges on a complete graph starts $0,1,3,6,10$, so the next term must be 15 etc."  Granted, this second statement is less logically unsound than the first since it's not difficult to see the reason why the sequence must continue as such; nevertheless, the statement was made on a premise that boils down to "interesting patterns must always continue".  I try to counter this logic by creating a ridiculous argument like "the numbers $1,2,3,4,5$ are less than $100$, so surely all numbers are", but this usually fails to be convincing.  So, are there any examples of non-trivial patterns that appear to be true for a large number of small cases, but then fail for some larger case? A good answer to this question should:   be one which could be explained to the layman without having to subject them to a 24 lecture course of background material, and have as a minimal counterexample a case which cannot (feasibly) be checked without the use of a computer.   I believe conditions 1. and 2. make my question specific enough to have in some sense a "right" (or at least a "not wrong") answer; but I'd be happy to clarify if this is not the case. I suppose I'm expecting an answer to come from number theory, but can see that areas like graph theory, combinatorics more generally and set theory could potentially offer suitable answers. New phone: How to transfer game progress? Prove no existing a smooth function satisfying ... related to Morse Theory \ref, make figure/table reference automatically toggle between "above" or "below" Is it possible to automatically include a reference to the position of a labeled object (Table, Figure) in text? By this I mean the following:  Say I have labeled a figure in chapter 1:  \label{fig:one}   Then I refer to it in text by using:  See Figure~\ref{fig:one}   Which produces "See Figure 1.1" as desired. I'd like to be able to have it produce: "See Figure 1.1, above" or "See Figure 1.1, below", automatically detecting whether to produce "above" or "below" depending on whether the figure will be placed above that position on the final page. Quadratic substitution question: applying substitution $p=x+\frac1x$ to $2x^4+x^3-6x^2+x+2=0$ By using the substitution $p=x+\frac{1}{x}$, show that the equation $$2x^4+x^3-6x^2+x+2=0$$ reduces to $2p^2+p-10=0$.  I can't think of anything that produces a useful result, I tried writing p as $p=\frac{x^2+1}{x}$ and finding areas to substitute but have come with no progress. Could someone offer a slight hint on how to proceed?  Thanks