I am wondering which is grammatically correct out of 'If there were more time' and 'If there was more time' or, if both are correct, whether one is preferred?  I believe it ought to be 'were' as the clause is in the subjunctive mood, however 'was' sounds significantly more correct to me (as a native English speaker from England). So which is it?  Searching an exact match in Google for each gives 4 million results for 'were' and 10 million results for 'was', though Google searches are not the basis for proper grammar.  While other questions cover 'If there were' vs 'If there was', this example seems to be a special case for me and I am interested in the choice specifically in the construction relating to 'time'.
Which of these sentences is correct, and why?   "What if the Moon was a Disco ball?" or  "What if the Moon were a Disco ball?"
Combine the first two commits of a Git repository? Suppose you have a history containing the three commits A, B and C:  A-B-C   I would like to combine the two commits A and B to one commit AB:  AB-C   I tried  git rebase -i A   which opens up my editor with the following contents:  pick e97a17b B pick asd314f C   I change this to  squash e97a17b B pick asd314f C   Then Git 1.6.0.4 says:  Cannot 'squash' without a previous commit   Is there a way or is this just impossible? Proof of when is $A=X^TX$ invertible? I have an Excel file that has a bunch of VBA and macro code in it.  When I open the file in Excel I can choose not to 'enable' them - so the values in the fields all stay as they were during the last save.  I need to manipulate the values as they were last saved - so I don't want the macros (which look at the current date and update values accordingly) to run.  When I open it via our dot net code:   Dim oxlRep As Excel.Application Dim oWBRep As Excel.Workbook Dim oSheetRep As Excel.Worksheet Dim oRngRep As Excel.Range oxlRep.Open(path)   the vb code runs - throwing off the values.  I've been looking for a way to open it without macros, or in 'secure' mode where the macros aren't run.  If I simply double click the file and don't choose to enable macros the values are all there as I want them.    Usually we run this code within the month that the files are created, so we haven't seen this problem in the 3 or 4 years that it has been working.  Now I need to go back to some of the old files and run some archival code...    Anyone have a suggestion? What is meant by a shell is in "vi" mode or "emacs" mode? This question follows directly from . In this case I am specifically unable to understand the part which says:     In that regard, its behaviour is closer to emacs' than with   bash(readline)/ksh/zsh emacs mode, but departs from the terminal   driver embedded line editor (in canonical mode), where Ctrl-W deletes   the previous word (werase, also in vi).   Here we are talking about shells and not editors which are two completely different programs. What does it mean to say shell is in some editor mode?  P.S: You can base your answer on the premise that I understand what a shell is and how to use vim for basic editing. So what does Cyanogen Inc shutting down mean for CyanogenMod and similar ROMs? So Cyanogen Inc (cyngn), known for their support for their support for CyanogenMod and their efforts to integrate Cyanogen OS into devices such as the OnePlus One, Alcatel POP Mirage, and . Cyanogen Inc just recently .  What does this mean for CyanogenMod, Cyanogen OS, and the devices which originally shipped with Cyanogen OS? Will they no longer receive OTA updates? Difficult variation of the committee problem How do I choose between "while" and "whilst"? When should whilst be used instead of while?  For example, should I use the first or the second sentence?      They don't do this whilst they do that.   They don't do this while they do that.   Which would be correct? $$ \lim \limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 1} $$  According to my textbook the limit equals $2$.  What I have tried:  Using the squeeze theorem:  $$ \lim \limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1}} \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 1} \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 2} $$ $$ 0 \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 1} \le 0 $$  I have also tried to use the squeeze theorem with two other equations and obtained different values:  $$ \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2 - 1}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1}} \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 1} \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2 + 1}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 2} $$ $$ -1 \le \lim\limits_{(x,y)\to (0,0)} \frac {x^2 + y^2}{\sqrt{x^2 +y^2 + 1} - 1} \le -1 $$ uwsgi errno 24 too many open files on CentOS / nginx Easy is to beginner as medium is to I want to display three levels in my game...but I don't know what the text should say.  easy -&gt; Beginner  medium -&gt; ?  hard -&gt; Expert   Basically, I want the form that describes the person playing the game, instead of the game itself. What adjective is best?  I have considered adept.  I doubt my users will know what adept means. Also, I need something in between expert and beginner. Adept falls into the expert category. Is there anything more common that I can use, that has the same impact as the other two words I mentioned?  Proficient would work, theoretically, but in day-to-day term, the levels "beginner - proficient - expert" won't sound great. Book recommendation for Atomic & Molecular physics What are some interesting books for a sophomore undergrad about Atomic &amp; Molecular Physics? I'v found this proposition.  If $G$ is a finite  group , $ A \subset G $ a subset and $|A| &gt; \frac{|G|}{2} $ then $AA = G $.  Why this is true ? "Oriented" vs. "orientated" Why does the base-emitter voltage of a BJT decrease with temperature? According to Sedra/Smith Microelectronic Circuits, \$v_{BE}\$ changes by \$-2\text{mV}/\text{°C}\$. I cannot understand how this could possibly be the case given the equations I am familiar with.  With all currents kept constant, we have:  \$\large{i_E = \frac{I_s}{\alpha}e^{v_{BE}/V_T}}\$  To keep \$i_E\$ constant, any change in \$V_T\$ would have to be accompanied by a change of the same factor in \$v_{BE}\$, otherwise \$\alpha\$ or \$I_s\$ would have to change, which as far as I understand is not possible.  So, how can \$v_{BE}\$ be inversely proportional to \$V_T\$? Replace environment variables in a file with their actual values? Is there an easy way to substitute/evaluate environment variables in a file? Like let's say I have a file config.xml that contains:  &lt;property&gt;     &lt;name&gt;instanceId&lt;/name&gt;     &lt;value&gt;$INSTANCE_ID&lt;/value&gt; &lt;/property&gt; &lt;property&gt;     &lt;name&gt;rootPath&lt;/name&gt;     &lt;value&gt;/services/$SERVICE_NAME&lt;/value&gt; &lt;/property&gt;   ...etc. I want to replace $INSTANCE_ID in the file with the value of the INSTANCE_ID environment variable, $SERVICE_NAME with the value of the SERVICE_NAME env var. I won't know a priori which environment vars are needed (or rather, I don't want to have to update the script if someone adds a new environment variable to the config file). Thanks! I'm trying to get a Schengen Visa from my first port of entry, France. I am trying to book an appointment with the French Consulate in SF, and the URL I am using is the following:   I've been checking this page periodically for the past few weeks, and I always see a dialog that that says "We are currently at full capacity. Please try again later." Their calendar provides no direct option for going to the next month. (Using the in-browser developer tools, I noticed that the button for next month is hidden. Un-hiding it and clicking on the Next Month button displays no available appointments either. I checked all the way until September 2016).  My guess is that there are absolutely no appointments for the next 6 months. Or, more likely, their page isn't functioning properly. I'll be traveling in July. Does anybody have any alternate suggestions to book an appointment? This is supposed to be related to the  (my justification for the independence tag). In Williams' Probability with Martingales, 2BCL is proven and then the following is given as an exercise:  Prove $S \doteq \sum_{n=1}^\infty p_n &lt; \infty \implies \prod_{n=1}^\infty (1-p_n) &gt; 0$ assuming $0 \leq p_n &lt; 1$. Hint: Show that $S &lt; 1 \implies \prod_{n=1}^\infty (1-p_n) \geq 1 - S$.   Proving the hint: I tried to find $\{a_n\}$ s.t. $$\prod_{n=1}^\infty (1-p_n) \geq \prod_{n=1}^\infty e^{a_n} = e^{\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n} \geq 1 - \sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n \geq 1 - S &gt; 0$$ That is, find $\{a_n\}$ s.t.: 1a. $1 - p_n \geq e^{a_n}$ 1b. $a_n \leq p_n$ I thought of $a_n = \ln(1-p_n)$ (a reason why $p_n &lt; 1$, I guess) Is that right? Edit: Actually, assuming my proof is right, is $S &lt; 1$ used in the proof? If so, where?  From Williams book: How do I apply a gradient across multiple objects in Illustrator? I have two separate objects that I have applied gradient fill to.  The gradient fill seems to only apply to the objects as individuals. I tried grouping the shapes, but that doesn't seem to change the gradient.    How do I get one gradient to cover all my shapes? Should I use 'was' or 'were' in this example?     I was always delighted when my brother or one of my sisters was/were asked to do them. In a bash script sometimes you need the user to wait some seconds for a background process to finish.  I usually use for example:  sleep 10   How can I add a kind of progressbar to the script, so the user knows how long to wait?  I installed the command bar but I don't understand the manual.