NeonBlack

Isn't it the only way to go? I don't think there is any kind of hardware anti-virus out there. Making one would be pointless, as viruses evolve so quickly (which is why you should update your antivirus software weekly).

What is your question? As far as I know, just about every router has a built in hardware firewall. If you combine this with a good software firewall, it should stop the script kiddies from gaining access to your pc and will probably trojans from downloading more viruses. The best way to protect yourself is to act smart. Don't open suspicious files or e-mails and stay away from sketchy websites.

I suggest going to a computer specific forum for this. There are many good ones, but I know that http://www.bleepingcomputer.com is good. Go onto the forum, post a hijackthis log and they will help you out.

I'd say he's a chip off the old block.

This statement definitely proves that you should not be allowed anywhere near any dangerous substances or objects.

DBZ, how much calculus are you familiar with? Think of it like [math] f(x,y)=\sum{\sqrt{(x-x_i)^2+(y-y_i)^2}} [/math] You want to find the minimum of this function. You can do this in a number of ways; I think Newton's Method was the first I learned. There are other faster ways of doing this, but I think this way is the simplest and speed shouldn't be an issue. As to why you do not need to sort, consider this list of numbers: 12 7 8 5 9 How would you find the smallest number in real life? Sort it? I doubt it. Look at the first number, 12. So far it's the smallest number we've found. Now look at the next number. 7 is smaller than 12, so now the smallest is 7. Next 8. 7 is still smallest. You get the idea. Keep going until the end. This is easy to implement and only requires one pass through the list. The simplest sorting algorithms requires n^2 passes through the list. If you have 120000 pixels, it will require 14.4 billion passes through your list to sort!

What Aeternus said was precisely what I was getting at. Basically, you want to find x and y such to minimize the distances, which is [math]\sum{\sqrt{(x-x_i)^2+(y-y_i)^2}}[/math] You can use an iterative method to do so. If you implement this properly, it should run in under a second (or so- I'm guessing).

If you only want the smallest distance, why sort? Sorting takes a relatively long time depending on the sort method. Just search for the smallest value. I'm guessing that the majority of the time is not taken by the sort/search, but since the values are not in random order, you could improve the time slighty. However, this may become irrelevant soon as you will see. I suspected you brute forced yesterday when I tried the program, but I didn't have time to post. There is a better way which does not require brute force and does not require sorting or searching.

Wow. Where did you get the Ritalin? That was one of the longest, most incoherent sentences I've ever read. 1. It's Professor Hawkins. 2. Gravitational attraction is independant of material. 3. (I think) What you're basically trying to say is: A planet, with its gravitational field "sucks in" other matter, becoming more massive and sucking in more material. This is not exactly a revolutionary idea. However, a planet simply cannot become massive enough to be a black hole. A black hole requires a tremenous mass (I think orders of magnitude larger than the sun). Even if Jupiter, our most massive planet, sucked in the entire solar system (including the sun ) it still would not be a black hole.

When you say you don't know how to figure out the acceleration, do you mean you don't know the relevent equations, or you think you don't have enough information? I find that it's usually the 2nd case, so what I normally suggest is to write down everything you know, even if you don't think it's important. Keep Dr. Swanson's hint in mind and think about: What are the positions of the front of the train and the back of the train at each of the given times? How are the position of the front and back of the train related?

darkshade: The first language I learn was C (excluding the little bit of QBASIC when I was 13). And I would recommend C or C++ as a first language. If you know C, C++ and java (as well as many other languages) should be easy to learn since their syntax is based on C's. So I say give it another shot. Maybe the tutorial you read was not directed towards complete beginners to programming. Maybe some people here won't like this, but if you want to go into any science or engineering related field, java, python, and most of the other languages mentioned in this thread are completely worthless. The vast majority of code in my department is in C (there are a few very very old things still using FORTRAN and I know one person who has to use some perl occasionally). As for myself, I am going to go into some of the more low-level features of c++ and then start learning Windows API or MFC.

Just how much time do you mean by "quickly"? Assuming this is not meant to be a programming challenge and 1 letter is replaced by one other letter: 'E' is the most common letter in English, and is commonly found at the end of words. Try to guess what the small words might be. For example, I notice that there is a two-letter word at the end of the first sentence. Normally, a preposition (in, on, at, to, of...) or the words "if" and "or" would not be found at the end of a sentence. This should considerably narrow down the possiblities. This string contains a question. Therefore, there's a good chance that this sentence will contain a question word- who, what, where, when, why. The letter combinations may be clues. Try to find patterns for common letter combinations such as 'th'. Also look at the word FFRBV. Try to think of a 5-letter word which begins with a double letter. I can't think of any right now, and I'm sure there aren't many. If you can guess this word it will give you four letters, which will be a good start.

darkshade: yes, the complex set of numbers is the most general. Imaginary numbers are complex and so are reals. Every (finite) number is complex. TL: I know you must be getting frustrated by now, but we cannot give you the answer. Which part is giving you trouble? Do you know how to find the roots of a general quadratic?

Imaginary and complex numbers are not the same. "Imaginary" refers to a multiple of i and "complex" refers to a combination of imaginary and real numbers. Complex numbers can be written in the form [math]\alpha i + \beta [/math] , where alpha and beta are real.

Purple (violette) and yellow are "complementary" colors. That is, they kind of cancel each other out and make kind of a dark neutral shade. Try the same thing with other complements. they are: red-green orange-blue yellow-violette

You didn't listen to him. What the hell is he talking about then?

What level class is this homework for? In my opinion, this is definitely way too hard for highschool and probably too hard for freshman physics. As most people would, I naively expected kinetic energy [math]E=\frac{1}{2} mv^2[/math] and the power [math]P= \frac{d}{dt}E= \frac{1}{2} \frac{dm}{dt} v^2[/math] This is not quite right and here is (I think) why: (I will not be bothered with vector notation and since we are in 1 dimension anyway, it doesn't matter too much) Just using definitions: [math]F= \frac{d}{dt}p = \frac{d}{dt}mv[/math] since here, velocity is constant and mass is changing we do not have out famous result, but rather [math]F= \frac{dm}{dt} v[/math] The work: [math] W= \int{F dx}[/math] Throw in our previous expression for force: [math] W= \int{\frac{dm}{dt} v dx}[/math] Since [math]v=\frac{dx}{dt}[/math] we have [math]W=mv^2[/math] Notice that if we had the usual constant mass and changing velocity, we could integrate mv dv to get our usual result. Now using the definition of power, remembering that mass changes but velocity is constant: [math]P= \frac{d}{dt}E= \frac{dm}{dt} v^2[/math] Now the [math]E=mv^2[/math] part seems a little fishy, even to me. However, 1. I have derived it from definitions and can find no flaw in the argument. 2. (Perhaps more importantly) This gives what is supposedly the right answer. So in this democracy, we have 2 points against one. Hopefully somone else can give some input on this. Edit: It looks like Swanson posted while I was typing and confirmed that 12 Watts is correct.

The link is broken, but if it's what I think it is, then you are wasting your time; it's a trick video.

Homer Simpson?

So the oceans were some kind of aqueous iron metal solution before stromatolites? I know almost nothing about evolution or geology, but the little chemistry I know tells me that that's not quite right. What I heard was that there was iron oxide in the ocean and bacteria reduced the iron, which allowed it to precipitate. I also agree with I_a that this guy did present some misleading statements.

Also, I would say that evolution cannot "go backwards" as YD said, evolution is just a change in a population's genes.

Dr DNA, you don't happen to know a good way to clean vomit out of carpet do you?

Forget about friction. I don't see how it moves. Can you give an explanation of how it works and draw a better picture (maybe with high quality graphics program like ms paint)?

Incandescent bulbs? Don't worry. We'll be long gone before anything happens to the sun.