Could someone please suggest an algorithm for selecting a number from a
list of n numbers such that the i-th number is chosen with a given
initial probability p_i and the p_i's change according to a piece of
code that works after every selection.

Why to use packages and when we have to use them?

I have spent a good deal of time looking for how to connect an applet
to a remote database (MS Access) using JDBC, as yet I have found no
solid solution!!
According to some books I have read the url takes the format of

Hi, i am not sure how to describe this, so i will give an example of
what i am trying to do:
Name  Descr   Price  Name  Descr   Price
XXX   XXXX    10     WWW   TTTT    12

I want to replace all
\   with    \\        and all
"   with    \"
in a String.

Looking for a class that will allow the underlying disk hardware to
be queried for the amount of free space available.
RTFM'ing like crazy.  Newbie, so it's taking longer.

Anyone know of a prefereably open source RSS feed generator library? I'm not
looking for an aggregator. I'm looking for something that I can give information
to and have it generate the XML feed. It seems like it would be fairly easy to
write, but if I can save a few days or so ...

Sometimes I'll make a very simple request while working in the Eclipse
IDE and it will just go off and pound on the hard drive for FOREVER!
I'm talking minutes!
So I take a peek under the covers and figure it MUST be all of that

I don't know how to compile a '.java' file on WinXP Home Servicepack 2
I don't have Microsoft's JVM.
Can someone help.

Is there a class in JDK1.5 or 1.4.xxx  that I can call to run a traceroute
on an IP address?

Is there any way to programmatically kill an applet? I've tried adding
an exit button, which invokes a web page with javascript that closes
the invoking window, but to no avail - the applet window keeps on
coming back! Surely, there must be an easy way not involving java

I just started using Eclipse. Very quickly I hit a problem. I started what I thought was a
new project, but it ended up in a workspace that I thought I was no longer using. So I
selected the old (toy test) project in the workspace browser and deleted it. I got a
question about ...

How do you take java wherever you go, mainly the JRE.  Can you just
simply take a 'jre' or possibly 'jdk' directory and copy the binary
tools and then include it your application and then write a batch
script to launch java?  I want to do this for users who don't have java

I am creating an ongoing process that will convert incoming XML files
to different formats using Cocoon.  It looks like the name of the XML
file and the output file need to be hard-coded in sitemap.xmap.  I'd
like to avoid hard-coding this so I can convert more than 1 file at a

Why exactely is x= a ^ b ^ x; (on my system much) faster than
if (x == a) x= b;
 else x= a;
?