Marking a method parameter as final is needed to allow for variable access by inner anonymous classes and is a useful coding-tool for enforcing certain variable use conventions within the method.  Apart from that, is there some other compilation-related motivation to use the final-keyword? Specifically, does it give the compiler any hints which facilitate some specific optimization that would otherwise not be performed? Or is the compiler smart enough to always recognize if a variable is never modified anyways?  For example, I'm thinking whether there is any difference how the variables are passed into the method. E.g. a variable of primitive type (int, byte, etc.) needs to be copied when passed into the method to prevent any modifications to trickle out into the calling code, whereas if the parameter is marked final, it could be "passed by reference" without such concerns, i.e. no copy-operation would be needed.  But let's keep the question more general than this example:  Are there scenarios where adding final to a method parameter will change the generated byte-code?
Is there any performance reason to declare method parameters final in Java?  As in:  public void foo(int bar) { ... }   Versus:  public void foo(final int bar) { ... }   Assuming that bar is only read and never modified in foo().
Thought Experiment - Poking a stick across a Black Hole's Event Horizon The classical explanation of a black hole says that if you get to close, you reach a point - the event horizon radius - from which you cannot escape even travelling at the speed of light. Then they normally talk about spaghetti.  But here's a thought experiment. What if I have a BH with event horizon radius R such that the gravitational gradient at the event horizon is far too weak for creating pasta. I build a Ring with radius R+x around the BH. Then I lower a pole of length x+d from my ring towards the BH, so that the tip passes beyond the event horizon.  Now what happens when I try to pull the pole back? Check for Process if Same is Running Is there a script or a way in linux that when I try to execute a shell script/process, if the same is running, it will prompt that same is running and will exit otherwise it will continue. Excel automatic hyperlinks Finding the fallacy in this broken proof Today, a friend gave me a "proof" of $1=2$ and challenged me to find the fallacy.     $1 = 1$      $1 = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 ...$      $1 = 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 ...$      $1 = 2 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 ...$      $1 = 2 + 0 + 0 ...$      $1 = 2$   My answer was that once you turn the initial $1 + 1$ into a 2, everything is offset so a $-1$ is always left at the end no matter how many times it is repeated. This negative one balances out the $2$ at the beginning so $1=1$ still holds true. I.e.  $$1 = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 ... = 1 + (1 - 1) + (1 - 1) + (1 - 1) = 2 + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) - 1$$  However, my friend claimed that my answer only applies if the $+ 1 - 1$ repeats for a finite number of times. He argues that because the sequence repeats infinitely and things work differently when working with infinity, my answer is not valid.  Can anyone enlighten me to the true fallacy in this proof? When something gets wet, it usually appears darker. This can be observed with soil, sand, cloth, paper, concrete, bricks...  What is the reason for this? How does water soaking into the material change its optical properties? Find the exact value of the infinite sum $\sum_{n=1}^\infty \big\{\mathrm{e}-\big(1+\frac1n\big)^{n}\big\}$ How can we find the exact value of the infinite sum  $$ \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^\infty \left\{\mathrm{e}-\Big(1+\frac1n\Big)^n\right\}? $$  This problem appears in:  , p.114. My local hackerspace has a CNC machine.  I can give them my Gerbers and they can print out the PCB.  The machine does not plate VIAs.  I need to do this after the CNC machine is finished.  What is the best process and materials to use? I was reading a  where the author mentions: "The coefficient of variation is primarily a descriptive statistic, but it is amenable to statistical inferences such as null hypothesis testing or confidence intervals. Standard procedures are often very dependent of the normality assumption and current work is exploring alternative procedures which are less dependent on this normality assumption."  The paper is from 2010. So my question is: has there been any recent "advancements" in terms of a coefficient of variation statistic that is not dependent upon the normality assumption? And, is this what one may call a non-parametric CV? Powerset of set with empty sets I am working on a problem with the following set:  $$S =  \{\varnothing,\{\varnothing\}\}$$  My solution was: $P(S) = \{\varnothing, \{\varnothing\},\{ \varnothing , \{ \varnothing \}\}\}$, but the solution on the textbook shows: $P(S) = \{ \varnothing , \{ \varnothing \}, \{\{\varnothing\}\}, \{ \varnothing , \{ \varnothing \}\}$  Where does the $\{\{\varnothing\}\}$ come from?  Thanks Evaluate $\lim_{n \to \infty} \int_{0}^1 [x^n + (1-x)^n ]^{1/n} \ \mathrm{d}x$ What is the use for non-inverting input resistance in a negative feedback opamp? Here in the Figure R5=50K. This resistor value is not in the equations to obtain output voltage, and in many tutorials non-inverting input is directly grounded without a resistor. What might be the reason to use it here? I'd like to use a background image for my world, but I'm not sure how to do it.   Right now I am using the sun as a lightpoint and it looks like sky and a flat plane (not realistic). I was thinking of just using a mountain background image for the world.  I've done that through textures etc. but I don't see ANYTHING in render even though it shows in worlds?  What am I doing wrong?    Also what's a cheap quick fix for cases like mine so it looks like the world isn't JUST blue sky?  Thanks guys! Is it possible to browse the internet from a laptop so that the web sites you visit think you are browsing from a mobile device?  Say I need to connect via a very low bandwidth connection and just using the mobile version of the site is sufficient?  Currently I'm using Vista and Firefox 3.5 Why does friction play the role of centripetal force during the turning of a car? Why doesn't Java have compound assignment versions of the conditional-and and conditional-or operators? (&&=, ||=) Durrett Example 1.9 - Pairwise independence does not imply mutual independence? How can I stop Nautilus from dereferencing symlinks? I use symbolic links to tidy my home folder. This works well in the terminal, since the links create the illusion of normal folders:    In Nautilus, however, the links behave more like , immediately teleporting me to their target:    This is particularly troubling when¹ I later want to navigate "up" to the parent folder, as it strands me somewhere outside of the tree I've carefully tidied.  How can I make Nautilus show symbolic links as normal folders, like the terminal does?  Details   Nautilus did not dereference symlinks in Ubuntu 12.10:   Maybe this new behavior is just a bug? I'm not sure how to tell. Here's what I know:   It's not on the . I've skimmed the  and didn't see anything related. The Nautilus mailing list archive . I received no response from about 120 idlers when posing the question on the GNOME IRC channel. A change was made in Nautilus 3.6 to .  ¹ This is an example. A workaround for this particular scenario does not constitute an answer to my question. Since people seem to be interested in discussing it, though:   Using the Back button is not a suitable workaround; it does not always take me to the parent folder. You can navigate up by pressing Alt+Up. The desired behavior in this example is for "up" to navigate to the parent folder of the symbolic link. The current behavior is to navigate to the parent folder of the target of the symbolic link. This bug was found on a couch in . The couch, and the two beds in the room show no signs of other bugs. Is this a bed bug that I should worry about or something harmless? It was slightly larger than a common tick. I want to create posters for my poster presentation on a conference. What tools or LaTeX classes are available for preparing posters ? How to tell what length of chain to get?