This is a situation I often find myself in:  mkdir /Some/really/long/path/to/a/directory/ cd /Some/really/long/path/to/a/directory/   I know that ideally you would cd /Some/...etc.../a/ and then mkdir directory, but I've often performed mkdir first and then had to cd to the end of the same lengthy file path I just created.  Short of doing...  var="/Some/...etc.../a/" mkdir $var/directory; cd $var   ...which is even worse, is there some way to reuse the parameter passed to the previous command? I'm aware of course of tab completion, but in a series of nested directories with similar names this doesn't always help that much. Ideally, I'm hoping for a shortcut like $# or $@.  Failing this, the next best time-saving solution would be equally appreciated!
I find myself repeating a lot of:  mkdir longtitleproject cd longtitleproject   Is there a way of doing it in one line without repeating the directory name? I'm on bash here.
Plotting complex numbers as an Argand Diagram How do I serialize a C# anonymous type to a JSON string? I'm attempting to use the following code to serialize an anonymous type to JSON:  var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(thing.GetType()); var ms = new MemoryStream(); serializer.WriteObject(ms, thing); var json = Encoding.Default.GetString(ms.ToArray());    However, I get the following exception when this is executed:     Type   '&lt;>f__AnonymousType1`3[System.Int32,System.Int32,System.Object[]]'   cannot be serialized. Consider marking   it with the DataContractAttribute   attribute, and marking all of its   members you want serialized with the   DataMemberAttribute attribute.  See   the Microsoft .NET Framework   documentation for other supported   types.   I can't apply attributes to an anonymous type (as far as I know).  Is there another way to do this serialization or am I missing something? Is it possible to produce a context free grammar for Tikz path? node? Even further, I would be happy to see a definition of the tikz language in the usual manner programming languages such as Java and Pascal are defined.   The reason I ask is that I keep getting mysterious error messages for the tiniest typos. Essentially, incorrect use of the underlying languages leads to a "crash" of the compiler. This crash sometimes gives useful error messages, but sometimes they are hard to decipher. Delete all files except files with the extension pdf in a directory Idiom or expression criticizing people who ignore you right after getting what they wanted/ were after How many physical degrees of freedom does the $\mathrm{SU(N)}$ Yang-Mills theory have? Sort and count number of occurrence of lines Why does the /winsxs folder grow so large, and can it be made smaller? A Vista virtual machine I use only has a 10 GB virtual hard disk -- and I'm worried about it running out of space over time. I used  to check for the culprits..  And the primary culprit is that /winsxs or &quot;Windows Side-By-Side&quot; folder.  What is the Windows Side By Side folder? Well, that's .  All of the components in the operating system are found in the WinSxS folder – in fact we call this location the component store.  Each component has a unique name that includes the version, language, and processor architecture that it was built for.  The WinSxS folder is the only location that the component is found on the system, all other instances of the files that you see on the system are “projected” by hard linking from the component store.  Let me repeat that last point – there is only one instance (or full data copy) of each version of each file in the OS, and that instance is located in the WinSxS folder.   So looked at from that perspective, the WinSxS folder is really the entirety of the whole OS, referred to as a &quot;flat&quot; in down-level operating systems.  This also accounts for why you will no longer be prompted for media when running operations such as System File Checker (SFC), or when installing additional features and roles. That explains why the folder starts off big, but not why it gets larger over time – the answer to that question is servicing.   In previous versions of Windows the atomic unit of servicing was the file, in Windows Vista it’s the component.  When we update a particular binary we release a new version of the whole component, and that new version is stored alongside the original one in the component store.  The higher version of the component is projected onto the system, but the older version in the store isn’t touched.  The reason for that is the third part of why the component store gets so large.  Lots of other people :  A coworker recently received his every two year work laptop refresh and was in the middle of loading his new laptop with Vista. For some reason, his hard drive C: was partitioned to only 25GB and the rest of the space reserved for a much larger drive D:. Anyway, after loading many Windows Updates, he was left with hardly any drive space left on C:, and for some reason, the WinSxS directory had ballooned to over 8GB. While I knew what the WinSxS (Windows Side-by-Side) directory was for, I wasn't quite sure why that directory would explode in size so fast with normal operating system updates.  I don't really care about having all these duplicate files for safety, but I do care about the VM exploding due to an out of disk space error. So.. can /winsxs be safely pared down in any way? ..  Administrators should not, for any reason, take it upon themselves to clean out the /winsxs directory - doing so may prevent Windows Update and MSI from functioning properly afterwards.  Preventing accidental deletion from the directory is accomplished by putting a strong security descriptor on the directory that inherits to its children.  If this /winsxs folder gets any larger, I'm going to have to re-image this virtual machine.. which I really don't want to do! Combinatorial proof of an identity with squared binomial coefficients Is it true that $\sum_kk\binom{n}{k}^2=n\binom{2n-1}{n-1}$? (I proved it using generating functions). Could you help me to prove it combinatorially? please Foreword  This question was inspired by initial mistakes in . I wanted to explore the strange circle with $A&gt;\pi r^2$ and got lost into geometrical jungle.  A  is usually described by it's height $h$, radius of the base $a$ and radius of the sphere $r$. Besides we have a relation $a^2+(r-h)^2=r^2$ so the cap actually only has two degrees of freedom.  When considering a case of circle on a sphere (like the Earth), it's the surface of a spherical cap, but we can't see the height or other classic parameters of this spherical cap. Instead we encounter parameters like area $A$, perimeter $C$ and diameter $d$. I will try to write formulae for these: $$A=2\pi rh$$ $$C=2\pi a$$ $$d=2r\theta$$  Where $\theta$ is introduced with $\sin\theta=\frac{a}{r}$ or $\cos\theta=(1-\frac{h}{r})$.  As the cap only has two degrees of freedom, it should be a good problem with unique solution if only two values are known.  A-C Problem  The simple example: $A$ and $C$ are given. I show this only as example before the other tasks.  We can easily find $a=\frac{C}{2\pi}$ and then solve:  $$A=2\pi rh = 2\pi r (r-\sqrt{r^2-a^2})$$  to obtain  $$r=\frac{A}{2\sqrt{\pi(A-\pi a^2)}}$$  Parameters $a$ and $r$ are now known and it is straightforward to find $h$, $d$, $\theta$ and anything else.  C-d Problem  $C$ and $d$ are given.  First step once again is easy: $a=\frac{C}{2\pi}$. The knowing of $a$ suggests that we might prefer the $\theta$ definition with the sine. We obtain: $$d=2r\theta=2r\arcsin\frac{a}{r}$$  That's where I got stuck. Is there an easy way to solve this? Is there a hard way to solve this?  I tried solving numerically with Wolfram Mathematica and it went into complex numbers. When solving the geometrically equivalent $\sin\frac{d}{2r}=\frac{a}{r}$ I got some roots, but the search seemed very unstable and not finding the root closest to initial value. Besides it was finding a lot of different roots while I am pretty sure that there should only be one $r$ for each pair of $d$ and $a$. What would be the right formulation to solve this problem numerically?  A-d problem  $A$ and $d$ are given. This seems the hardest one. We obtain a system of equations:  $$A=2\pi r h$$ $$d=2r\arccos\left(1-\frac{h}{r}\right)$$  (The first equation suggested solving the problem in $h$ and $r$).  Is this system solvable analytically? Or numerically? My experiments with Wolfram Mathematica never converged.   Of course, I could express $h$ or $r$ from the first equation and leave only the second in one of these forms: $$d = 2r\arccos\left(1-\frac{A}{2\pi r^2}\right)$$ $$d = \frac{A}{\pi h}\arccos\left(1-\frac{2\pi h^2}{A}\right)$$  But I have no idea how to solve these either. Knowing $|z|$ and $|w|$ (and possibly $z\overline{w}$), what are $|z+w|^2$, $|zw|^2$, $|z-w|^2$, $|z/w|^2$? Question 1: Let $z$ and $w$ be complex numbers satisfying $|z| = 4$ and $|w| = 2$. Then enter in the numbers $$ |z+w|^2, |zw|^2, |z-w|^2, \left| \dfrac{z}{w} \right|^2 $$ below, in the order listed above. If any of these cannot be uniquely determined from the information given, enter in a question mark.  I plugged in $4$ and $2$ to each equation and got $36$, $64$, $4$, $4$, for question one. It was wrong.  Question 2: Let $z$ and $w$ be complex numbers satisfying $|z| = 5, |w| = 2,$ and $z\overline{w} = 6+8i.$ Then enter in the numbers $$ |z+w|^2, |zw|^2, |z-w|^2, \left| \dfrac{z}{w} \right|^2 $$ below, in the order listed above. If any of these cannot be uniquely determined from the information given, enter in a question mark.  I don't know how to even start on question 2 because of the $z\overline{w}$. Main page of StackOverflow на Русском Meta gives error The data for the tag search is still loading; please retry in a moment. I'm currently making a Minesweeper in C#. I've already done the basics (generating minefield, rules and ui) but I don't know how I should implement when the user clicks a cell and the cell has no mines nearby and clicks nearby cells with also no mines nearby, like this:    And after click    This is my current code on this:  if (MineField(x,y) == false) // If the clicked cell isn't a mine {     if (GetNeighbours(x,y) == 0) // GetNeighbours returns the amount of mines in the closest 8 cells     {         // To be honest, no idea...     } } Problem in installing Python 3.3 in Ubuntu 12.04 How do I complete "Find the Bitizen"? In tiny Death Star, Palpatine has given me the mission "Find the Bitizen" with the text "Working for tips is acceptable. Find 1 Bitizen(s)."  I assumed I had to wait for one of the events where you have to find a "rebel scum" and tap on it to get rid of. One of those events finally popped up but it did not complete the mission.   How do I complete this mission? So, my friend just implemented a bunch of new mods into his SMP server, which meant a host of new commands to play with.  I thought I'd give the /mobspawn command a few goes, and see what I could achieve.  So I headed off to the server's jail (I forget why this particular location compelled me), and gave it a few spins.    I seem to have made a bit of an error in judgement.     What can I do to get rid of this mess?  Is there a command or some other technique I can use to clear out any mobs in my immediate vicinity? How to duplicate sys.stdout to a log file? Edit: Since it appears that there's either no solution, or I'm doing something so non-standard that nobody knows - I'll revise my question to also ask: What is the best way to accomplish logging when a python app is making a lot of system calls?  My app has two modes.  In interactive mode, I want all output to go to the screen as well as to a log file, including output from any system calls.  In daemon mode, all output goes to the log.  Daemon mode works great using os.dup2().  I can't find a way to "tee" all output to a log in interactive mode, without modifying each and every system call.    In other words, I want the functionality of the command line 'tee' for any output generated by a python app, including system call output.  To clarify:   To redirect all output I do something like this, and it works great:  # open our log file so = se = open("%s.log" % self.name, 'w', 0)  # re-open stdout without buffering sys.stdout = os.fdopen(sys.stdout.fileno(), 'w', 0)  # redirect stdout and stderr to the log file opened above os.dup2(so.fileno(), sys.stdout.fileno()) os.dup2(se.fileno(), sys.stderr.fileno())   The nice thing about this is that it requires no special print calls from the rest of the code.  The code also runs some shell commands, so it's nice not having to deal with each of their output individually as well.  Simply, I want to do the same, except duplicating instead of redirecting.  At first thought, I thought that simply reversing the dup2's should work.  Why doesn't it?  Here's my test:   import os, sys  ### my broken solution: so = se = open("a.log", 'w', 0) sys.stdout = os.fdopen(sys.stdout.fileno(), 'w', 0)  os.dup2(sys.stdout.fileno(), so.fileno()) os.dup2(sys.stderr.fileno(), se.fileno()) ###  print("foo bar")  os.spawnve("P_WAIT", "/bin/ls", ["/bin/ls"], {}) os.execve("/bin/ls", ["/bin/ls"], os.environ)   The file "a.log" should be identical to what was displayed on the screen. What has the greatest chance of being in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase? This button is in the new Firefox, but what is the name of it? SSH tunneling error: "channel 1: open failed: administratively prohibited: open failed" When I open this ssh tunnel:  ssh -nXNT -p 22 localhost -L 0.0.0.0:8984:remote:8983   I get this error when trying to access the HTTP server running on localhost:8984:  channel 1: open failed: administratively prohibited: open failed   What does this error mean, and on which machine can you fix the problem?