The only vivid memory I have of this book is that the citizens of the story's world are all associated with a certain element, such as air or water, etc. This association brings them powers that can control that particular element. The powers, though, can only be enhanced/ used if 'special stones' are implanted in their spine after birth.   The stones themselves are plain, but once implanted in a baby's back, they turn a certain color. The stones are implanted in a special ritual performed by alien-like creatures, who are very powerful.   I have a feeling it was a part of a series, but I am unsure.  I just remembered something else. The stones are very expensive and the parents have to save up in order to afford them. Multiple stones can be implanted in one person and the number of stones implanted in a person indicates the amount of power they have.
I've been trying to find this darn series of books for ages, I read them back in early 2001-02 and can't really remember much of them. I think there were 10-ish books, it was an easy read but a long series. On early publications, the covers, were mainly yellow, with small pictures of whatever happens in that book.  The book began with two siblings, a brother and a sister, running in a forest. She conjures up what can only be remembered as a golem type creature. He then uses a high magic 'blast' and wipes out the golem, knackering himself. His sister laughs at him for being 'powerful' but expending himself too much on one big magic blast. The beginning I remember vividly, the rest, not so much.  The story continues as a conflict happens, I believe two worlds are involved? The brother and sister are split up, but this is where my memory becomes vague.  The mechanics of the world seems that there are gems, or stones, set in the backbone, which in turn give access to magic. When the person uses them, they can draw too much, which ends up exhausting them. The 'big bad evil king' kills their father, and destroys their farm early on in the story.
What is the best way to initialize a private, static data member in C++?  I tried this in my header file, but it gives me weird linker errors:  class foo {     private:         static int i; };  int foo::i = 0;   I'm guessing this is because I can't initialize a private member from outside the class.  So what's the best way to do this? How to pronounce '-ing' followed by a vowel I'm getting into English recently and I'm a little confused by the way people pronounce a word that starts in a vowel right after a word ending in -ing.  For example:      You have to bring it up now?   I don't know if I should pronounce it as:   bring /ŋit/ brin' /nit/ bring /git/   Another example would be "I'm coming out".  Likewise, what about the ending -ang? For example:      We can just hang out and have a good time.    And to round it all up, what about a combination of the two? For example,      He got sick of hanging around waiting for you and went home.   I've been asking myself these questions for weeks. I have seen many programs consisting of structures like the one below  typedef struct  {     int i;     char k; } elem;  elem user;   Why is it needed so often? Any specific reason or applicable area? I  that there are two folders for unit files (not in user mode). /usr/lib/systemd/system/: units provided by installed packages /etc/systemd/system/: units installed by the system administrator  Conflicting with this understanding is the answer to this question: . Can someone fill in the missing information so that I understand what is going on? (UPDATE: The answer has been updated, and my understanding no longer conflicts with it.) Also, it seems that the scripts are organized in subfolders within the /etc/systemd/system/ folder: getty.target.wants multi-user.target.wants  In another location I read that there are other locations. It seems these are for user-specific services. /usr/lib/systemd/user/ where services provided by installed packages go. /etc/systemd/user/ where system-wide user services are placed by the system administrator. ~/.config/systemd/user/ where the user puts its own services.   Update 2015-08-31: For the sake of others, here is a link to a related question I recently asked: iPhone App CrashReport Update Windows 10 to 1809 manually Software to synchronize two directories (local/remote) I need software that would detect changes in directory (A) every 5 seconds or so and upload/delete changed files from/at (B) remote directory.  I found non-commercial software, . I am wondering if there are any commercial alternatives? When I ping I have this display:  &gt; ping -i 4 www.google.fr  64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=503 ttl=46 time=45.5 ms ....... ....... 64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=508 ttl=46 time=44.9 ms 64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=509 ttl=46 time=45.1 ms   I'd like to have the time of the ping before.   Something like:  &gt; (right functions) + ping -i 7 www.google.fr  mardi 15 mai 2012, 10:29:06 (UTC+0200) - 64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=503 ttl=46 time=45.5 ms ....... ....... mardi 15 mai 2012, 10:29:13 (UTC+0200) - 64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=508 ttl=46 time=44.9 ms mardi 15 mai 2012, 10:29:20 (UTC+0200) - 64 bytes from wi-in-f94.1e100.net (173.194.67.94): icmp_seq=509 ttl=46 time=45.1 ms   How would you do this in a command line (if it's possible)? root folder access via gui I'm new to linux and the terminal. As I learn how to use the terminal to navigate through directories, I like to use the gui file explorer to mirror my terminal navigation. The icons and file extension info in the gui file explorer help me figure out what everything is. However, I can't access the root folder via the gui, I can only access it via the terminal. Is there a way to enable access to the root folder outside of the terminal? How can I set the value of auto property backing fields in a struct constructor? Given a struct like this:  public struct SomeStruct {     public SomeStruct(String stringProperty, Int32 intProperty)     {         this.StringProperty = stringProperty;         this.IntProperty = intProperty;     }      public String StringProperty { get; set; }     public Int32 IntProperty { get; set; } }   Of course, a compiler error is generated that reads The 'this' object cannot be used before all of its fields are assigned to.  Is there a way to assign values to the backing fields or the properties themselves, or do I have to implement properties the old-fashioned way with my own explicit backing fields? Can't delete folder in Windows 7 Is smell a bad way of determining whether meat is still good? None of the physics sensors in my game work, I'm trying to create an AI man that chases after a player, but for whatever reason, he just won't sense the player, I've tried copying and pasting the property name just to be sure, but that's not it. Does the logistic map have an attractor for a particular value of the parameter? Background:  Currently I am studying a course on non-linear dynamics. We have been studying about attractors only intuitively, so I do not have a definition for an attractor. Let me give you a couple of examples.  Consider a problem where a ball is slipping in a parabolic valley. It is clear intuitively and quantitatively that the lowermost point of the parabola is the attractor for it.   Say we are talking about a . We may not guess intuitively that there is an attractor, a priori, but using simulations for different values of initial conditions, we may qualitatively (and maybe quantitatively too) compare the trajectories for different initial conditions and convince ourselves that we have an attractor.  Problem:  Consider the  given as   $$x_n = ax_{n-1}{(1-x_{n-1})}.$$  Let us fix a value of the parameter where we "know" that the logistic map exhibits chaos. Say $a=3.9$.  Let us take the definition for the term attractor from :  An attractor is a subset $A$ of the phase space characterized by the following three conditions:   $A$ is forward invariant under $f$: if $a$ is an element of $A$ then so is $f(t,a)$, for all $t &gt; 0$. There exists a neighborhood of $A$, called the basin of attraction for $A$ and denoted $B(A)$, which consists of all points $b$ that "enter $A$ in the limit $t → ∞$". More formally, $B(A)$ is the set of all points $b$ in the phase space with the following property: For any open neighborhood $N$ of $A$, there is a positive constant $T$ such that $f(t,b) ∈ N$ for all real $t &gt; T$. There is no proper subset of $A$ having the first two properties.   How might we demonstrate/convince ourselves of/disprove the statement that the logistic map does have an attractor for a particular choice of the parameter at which the map exhibits chaos? How can I restrict a user on the SSH server to allow them only the privileges for ? i.e. So they cannot run commands even if they log in via SSH.  My Linux servers are Ubuntu 11.04 and OpenWrt. Hosting options for people that have Imgur blocked by their ISP 101 positive integers placed on a circle A Pigeonhole Principle problem:     101 positive integers are placed on a circle whose sum is 300. Prove   that it is possible to choose from these numbers some consecutive   numbers whose sum is equal to 200.   (I don't know if the word 'consecutive' is appropriate in this case ,I mean that these numbers follow each other on that circle) Show that $(p \to q) \lor (q \to p)$ is a tautology I tried to prove that $(p \to q) \lor (q \to p)$ is a tautology.  I used $p$ and $¬q$ as conditions. (Premises 1 and 5)  I managed to get to a solution, but I'm not sure if it's right.  Can you please check it?   Thank you!!!:) Let $X$ be an infinite cofinite space and let $A \subset X$ be infinite. Then $\overline A = X$  I am having a tough time in trying to understand this. Why is every infinite set in an infinite cofinite space dense ? I noticed that Synonymizer is only a bronze badge. Yet in order to obtain this badge you need to have 2500 reputation or more to even create tag synonyms. Then, on top of that you also need to be able to find a tag synonym.  Only 514 of these have been awarded... This makes the BRONZE badge Synonymizer rarer to have than most the gold medal badges. So my question is, why is this a bronze badge?