Even though that there are many recommended personal reading orders about Isaac Asimov's series, novels and short stories, is there any specific chronological order which was specified by Isaac Asimov about his books?
I believe that Asimov himself recommended reading them in chronological order, however I read them in the order that they were published and think that this is the best way to do it.  What is the correct order?
Big-O proof showing that t(n) is O(1) Let t(n) = $\sqrt{n^2+100n} - n$  Show that $t(n)$ is $O(1).$  I tried solving this using the formal definition of O( ) but am not getting anywhere. Quite confused on how to tackle this question. I often find myself in the following position: I've started typing a long command at the bash prompt, but half-way through I find out I need to check something with another command. This is a problem when I'm at the console (no X), which is often the case, because then I only have the following unsatisfactory ways to do it, that I know of:    Hit ctrl+alt+F2 and log in on another virtual console, and find out what I wanted, then go back and continue  ctrl+a, type echo + space + enter, find out what I wanted, press ↑ until I find my command, ctrl+a, del x 5, ctrl+e, and continue  Highlight what I've typed so far with my mouse (if gpm is running, which it usually is), press ctrl+c to interrupt, find out what I wanted while being careful not to use my mouse to highlight stuff, then press middle mouse button on a new prompt and continue  Pray to the command line gods that the half-written command will have no adverse effects but simply fail, and gingerly press enter, then find out what I wanted, press uparrow until I get my command back, and continue  Jump into my time machine, travel back in time and remind myself to start screen before starting to type command, travel back to the present, press ctrl+a c, find out what I wanted, press ctrl+a ctrl+a, and continue   So what I want to know is, is there some more elegant way of doing this? A sort of subshell-command or similar?  I'm most interested in methods that do not require any preparations or setup to work. How to only perform LTS upgrades? For a Google account, you are allowed to sync Contacts and People details. What is the difference between these two? Random weighted choice Consider the class below that represents a Broker:  public class Broker {     public string Name = string.Empty;     public int Weight = 0;      public Broker(string n, int w)     {         this.Name = n;         this.Weight = w;     } }   I'd like to randomly select a Broker from an array, taking into account their weights.  What do you think of the code below?  class Program     {         private static Random _rnd = new Random();          public static Broker GetBroker(List&lt;Broker&gt; brokers, int totalWeight)         {             // totalWeight is the sum of all brokers' weight              int randomNumber = _rnd.Next(0, totalWeight);              Broker selectedBroker = null;             foreach (Broker broker in brokers)             {                 if (randomNumber &lt;= broker.Weight)                 {                     selectedBroker = broker;                     break;                 }                  randomNumber = randomNumber - broker.Weight;             }              return selectedBroker;         }           static void Main(string[] args)         {             List&lt;Broker&gt; brokers = new List&lt;Broker&gt;();             brokers.Add(new Broker("A", 10));             brokers.Add(new Broker("B", 20));             brokers.Add(new Broker("C", 20));             brokers.Add(new Broker("D", 10));              // total the weigth             int totalWeight = 0;             foreach (Broker broker in brokers)             {                 totalWeight += broker.Weight;             }              while (true)             {                 Dictionary&lt;string, int&gt; result = new Dictionary&lt;string, int&gt;();                  Broker selectedBroker = null;                  for (int i = 0; i &lt; 1000; i++)                 {                     selectedBroker = GetBroker(brokers, totalWeight);                     if (selectedBroker != null)                     {                         if (result.ContainsKey(selectedBroker.Name))                         {                             result[selectedBroker.Name] = result[selectedBroker.Name] + 1;                         }                         else                         {                             result.Add(selectedBroker.Name, 1);                         }                     }                 }                   Console.WriteLine("A\t\t" + result["A"]);                 Console.WriteLine("B\t\t" + result["B"]);                 Console.WriteLine("C\t\t" + result["C"]);                 Console.WriteLine("D\t\t" + result["D"]);                  result.Clear();                 Console.WriteLine();                 Console.ReadLine();             }         }     }   I'm not so confident. When I run this, Broker A always gets more hits than Broker D, and they have the same weight.  Is there a more accurate algorithm?  Thanks! Is there a website with historical temperatures and weather data? I am interested in hiking this fall in France and camping along the way. In order to figure what gear I need to pack to camp (particularly for the sleeping bag), I would like to know what temperatures to expect.  I am interested in historical temperatures to figure the usual temperature and I might look at them for other seasons. If that matters, I am thinking about hiking in the Pays Basque (South West of France), the mountainous part.  Where (ideally online and for free) can I find such data? Are there resources that cover Europe, or even the whole world? Aligning multiple points to line in QGIS? I would like to align multiple points to a line, or lines within a layer, using a specified tolerance or buffer around the line objects. Please refer to the sample sketch attached.  For the sake of this example, the points closest to the line in the BEFORE picture are within 5 map units of the line, while the outermost points are over 10 map units away. I would like to snap the closest points onto the nearest line, using a tolerance of 5 map units to achieve the result in the AFTER picture. How to get width of the video and scale another video to that width using ffmpeg? I'm using ffmpeg to stack two videos vertically. They might be different size so I need to scale them to same size. I have found following commands.  First one works for different sizes (but won't scale to proper size):  ffmpeg -i input1 -i input2 -filter_complex '[0:v]pad=iw:ih*2[int];[int][1:v]overlay=0:H/2[vid]' -map [vid] -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast output   Second one works if videos have same width and same pixel format:  ffmpeg -i input1 -i input2 -filter_complex vstack output   How to get width of first input inside complex filter argument so second input could be scaled to same width? What would be the command to do so? I would prefer vstack filter since it should be faster than combination of pad and overlay. Proof that a sequence is convergent This is a homework problem for my real analysis class. It is problem 13.1 from Mattuck's Introdution to Analysis. The question reads:       Suppose F(x) is continuous on some open interval I and c is a maximum point inside this interval. Is it true that f(x) must be increasing immediately to the left of c and decreasing immediately to the right of c? Proof or counterexample. (Note: A constant function is considered to be both increasing and decreasing.)      My friend and I have been attempting to find a counterexample. We figured a function that begins oscillating infinitely many times near c but converges to c would work. We're having difficulty constructing such a function out of elementary functions so we think we will have to define it in another way, piece-wise using receding intervals. I have no clue how this would look. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Show the post's comments on the "Suggested Edits" review interface This actually triggered me in my mind from . After some playing around I notice that the relation $a^{\log_b x} = x^{\log_b a}$ is true for any valid value of $a,b$ and $x$. I am very inquisitive to see how this holds ? Do I say "I study computer science," or "I study Computer Science"? Similarly, "I really liked that computer science course," vs. "I really liked that Computer Science course." Correct formula for LED current-limiting resistor? How to use pagenumbering in the document? In my Master thesis, I would like to have the title page without any page number and an acknowledgments section and the table of contents with roman numbers. The rest of the document should be numbered arabic.  I have tried this, to have roman numbers for the Table of contents and normal numbers for the rest.  \documentclass[12pt,ngerman,openany]{report} \usepackage{titlesec} \usepackage{titletoc} \usepackage{cite} \usepackage[a4paper]{geometry} %\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage[ngerman]{babel} %\usepackage{ngerman}{babel} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{float} \selectlanguage{ngerman} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{url} \usepackage{epstopdf} \usepackage{scrhack} \usepackage{listings} \usepackage{caption} \titleformat{\chapter}{\rmfamily\huge}{\textbf\thechapter.}{25pt}{\huge\textbf} \defcaptionname{ngerman}{\lstlistingname}{Code} \defcaptionname{ngerman}{\lstlistlistingname }{Codeverzeichnis}  \lstloadlanguages{R}  \lstset{% general command to set parameter(s)    basicstyle=\sffamily\footnotesize, % print whole listing small    keywordstyle=\sffamily\footnotesize\bfseries, % ubold black keywords    identifierstyle=, % nothing happens    commentstyle=\sffamily\footnotesize\slshape, % green comments    stringstyle=\sffamily\footnotesize, % typewriter type for strings    showstringspaces=false, % no special string spaces    numbers=left,    numberstyle=\sffamily\footnotesize,    stepnumber=1,    numbersep=10pt,    showspaces=false,    showtabs=false,    frame=lines,    morecomment=[l]{\%},    float=htbp,    numberbychapter=true  }   \begin{document} \let\cleardoublepage\clearpage   \pagenumbering{roman}  \tableofcontents  \clearpage  \vspace*{75mm} \chapter{Einleitung} \section{Motivation} bla bla bla \section{Ziel}  bla bla \chapter{Stand der Technik zur Mustererkennung} \section{Die Zeitreihen} bla bla \subsection{Beschreibung} bla bla \subsection{Erklärung}  bla bla  \subsection{Vorhersage} bla bla \subsection{Kontrolle} bla bla \section{Feature Extraktion} bla bla \subsection{Autokorrelation} \subsection{Was ist Autokorrelation?} bla bla   \subsection{Autokorrelation und Zeitreihen} bla bla  \subsubsection{Zeitreihe-Diagramm}  bla bla \subsubsection{Lagged Streudiagramm} bla bla  \subsubsection{Autocorrelation-Function (Korrelogramm)} bla bla \subsection{Spektralanalyse} \subsection{Was ist Spektral-Analyse} bla bla \end{document} Suppose I sold an option on stock X, with strike price Y, and expiry date Z. Suppose I later buy an option on the same stock, with the same strike price, and the same expiry date. Do these two positions cancel out each other (i.e. both contracts cease to exist anywhere), or will I end up with two separate contracts?  Is it the same with the reverse situation? e.g. I bought an option on stock A, with strike price B, and expiry date C. If I later sell an option on the same stock, with the same strike price and expiry date, will I end up with two contracts (one long position, one short position)? Failed upgrade from Ubuntu 19.10 to 20.04 "Please update the microcode" While installing the Ubuntu 20.04 updates during upgrade from 19.10 to 20.04, my screen suddenly went completely white and displayed a message saying  Please logout and try again.  But I could not locate my cursor and so I switched off my laptop. After restarting it again, it was showing an error message saying  Please update the microcode  Why did this happen? How can I solve this problem? In-universe explanation for single line of planetary entry/departure in Star Wars Why are planetary blockades confined to a single point of a planet instead of being sphere shell shaped around the planet? (I know, it would take an awful lot of spaceships.)  Also, when a rebel ship wants to escape from a planet and there is a single star destroyer hovering in the atmosphere (or some more of them further up, like in the Empire Strikes Back) how come it's not a viable maneuver to fly low altitude for a couple of hundred kilometers horizontally (they would be out of the single-point blockade), then make a vertical dash upwards? What is JavaScript's highest integer value that a number can go to without losing precision? The essential gist of my question relates to what the real, unvarnished realities are of graduate, post-graduate, research, fellowship, and professorship attainment - when you aren't a single person with no pressing demands other than feeding yourself.   [EDIT: I am humbled by the incredibly helpful and thoughtful responses so far, all of which are +1 from me. I'll leave the question open a few more days before clicking 'accept' on any one, but you all have my gratitude and I hope others will benefit anywhere near as much as I have. ]  What I don't know is what succeeding in this path truly requires in time committment and family support.   Right now I can handle a 12-14 credit course schedule with 3.7-4.0 GPA (in the top 5-10% for college and program, dean's list, etc), work part-time, and still have time to be home and not have a burn-out/breakdown - and the academics are the easy part by far! I could do more, but I need to work more too.   What I really need to know is how sharply different is the time/dedication curve of graduate work and above. I realize each step is a filter that removes most of the entrants (most people don't get a degree, most who do don't attend/finish graduate school, most who do don't seek a PhD,  most who do don't seek/gain professorship...and on and on). But I don't know how severe the stepping is - I'm not talking "tenured professor at MIT or bust" - I realize that bar is many orders of magnitude higher.  Background Details: As an "adult, returning" undergraduate student with a (disabled) wife and kids, I'm halfway through a bachelor degree now. I've located a field of study (in a focus of Industrial Engineering) that has made me very interested in altering my life path to include seeking a Masters and maybe even a PhD/professorship (my father was a professor, so its not a purely novel concept to me). I've met and spoken with my advisor and 2 other professors with experience in related fields, and all is encouraging; I have a graduate school in mind, I've received lots of great advice on preparing for school (on this forum and in person), I test well (no GRE fears remain), good grades/class rank, good prospects for future strong referal letters, etc - a comparitively charmed existence for which I am very grateful! I just have to investigate whether I can make it through with an intact, cared for family!  Any guidance you could provide me, and other aspiring "non-traditional" students alike, would be appreciated immensely - thank you!