LazerFazer

Cheers for the replies. In the end I just got Quicktime 7 pro and converted my videos using the sorenson3 codec. It's good enough for my purposes. cheers, LF

Me at prom... this past Friday evening. Was a total waste of time.

Well, look on the bright side. At least you'll have an opportunity in later life with this girl. The two of you are at least going to the same college. No such luck for me... the girl I like will be practically on the other side of the world, enver mind different country in under a month. We've never gone out either, just hung out as friends, but I'm content with that (well, not content. Just happy I at least had that opportunity) So, I would say just try to spend as much time with her as possible. Not necessarily a date, but maybe go with a bunch of friends to the movies. Make plans for a few of your friends and a few of hers to get together, go to the movies, and maybe have lunch/dinner/whatever. That way, you get to spend time with her, but there's no awkwardness of a date. Truthfully, I've never been on a date, yet I'm quite content to remain that way. As for your little issue of never going to prom... if it's anything like what ours was, you didn't miss much at all. Trust me, some people are just not made for going to these social events, you and I included. So just act yourself, try to figure out what's turning people away from you and making you unsociable, and try to change that. If not, despair not, I'm sure you'll find people like you, and soon you'll make great friends. Until 9th grade, I never had close friends... and I'll be starting again from scratch in 6 months. So it's better to make the best of a bad situation than try to change them into better ones. Much easier also. Keeping in touch may be difficult, but if you're serious about it, you'll make the effort to keep in touch. Ask her to keep in touch with you, and to inform you about change's in her email address. Maybe set some time each week where you, her, and some other friends go out and just have fun. Maybe even, as was suggested, get her phone number. But don't let her slip away. You never know how things may turn out. And even if you do notice that you're drifting apart, do little things for her. Send her a birthday card on her birthday, Christmas cards, that kind of thing. Just small things to let her know that you haven't forgotten about her, and to remind her that you still exist. I guess if she doesn't respond, then you've got a bigger problem on your hands, but it's worth the try. Best of luck, LF

I read the book, or most of it at least, and I found it pretty interesting and informative. Sadly, more informative than my High School Physics class, at least with relation to quantum physics. So ya, I would recommend that you DO read it... the movie is more of a showcase for special effects. LF

Well, I'm doing the IB Diploma Programme (check out http://www.ibo.org for more info on that). It's basically 3 Higher level (HL) and 3 Standard Level (SL) classes, plus an extended essay (4000 words max... topic of your choice) and Theory of Knowledge (a year of a philosophy class... of sorts. Done in 2nd semester of your second last year, and first semester of your last year). My HL's were: Physics Math English Language A1 and my SL's were: Chemistry History of the Islamic World Arabic Language B Finished on the 15th, but was still quite a challenge. To tell you the truth, Math was my biggest worry, but I think it turned out ok. Paper 3 was a pain tho... oh well. As for the rest, I did fine I think. Basically dealt with stress/jitters by gaming about 30 mins every night, no matter what. Just to give my mind a bit of a break. Mostly gamed Serious Sam II. Amazing mindless game, and some mindless humor to lighten the mood.

Thanks. True, the format is .mov, but what video codec is it using? I read somewhere it was MPEG4, but when searching on google I also found references to MSMPEG4... are any of these accurate? Also, how can I convert a video file into the format supported by quicktime? LazerFazer

Hi all, Not sure where to post this, so I'm just putting it here. I was wondering what codecs quicktime uses natively? The reason is, I need to take some video from home, and I want to compress it with a codec thats supported by quicktime at school. The school's use iMacs, and I don't have access to a PC there... also, I would like the size to be as small as possible. Cheers, LazerFazer

LOL. 'Judging the book by it's cover', it seems like Vista is gonna be another waste of time. Who the heck needs all those fancy graphics just in the Windows GUI? How many people actually sit there staring at Explorer windows for hours on end? Seriously, with a minimum requirement of 512MB of RAM, people are not gonna be too happy with the OS once it comes out. As to my other issue, I found out the problem. But before I did that, I found even more problems that I created for myself in the process of fixing the non-booting OS. You see, the first thing I tried to fix the initial problem was to recopy the hal.dll file from the windowsXP SP2 integrated CD. Turns out I copied the wrong hal.dll file. Apparently there are different versions depending on the specifications of your PC, and since mine is an HT capable one, I was supposed to use halmacpi.dl_ instead of hal.dl_ from the XP CD. So, when I was checking out my devices and stuff yesterday, I disovered that HT wasn't enabled on my PC. Did some tests, and they confirmed that HT wasn't enabled. So, I did some research and finally found a way to 'replace' the hal.dll with the correct version without having to boot into my backup OS. But what I also found out that when you change the hal.dll file, it reinstalls all your devices, supposedly because of the way each different version deals with the hardware and how the hardware is accessed. So, ya, that's just my experience, thought I'd share in case anybody ever runs into the same problem. Cheers, LazerFazer

I had a similar problem lately, only different circumstances leading up to it. My boot partition was a logical partition, so using PartitionMagic I converted it to a primary partition. Then, when I tried booting up windows, it told me something along the lines of hal.dll could not be found, reinstall the file. So, I copied the file from the windows CD (booted from the CD into the recovery console, and worked from there) but still no luck. I ended up installing a 'backup OS' on my secondary harddrive, and then fixed the problem with the primary OS (the boot.ini needed changing...apparently when PartitionMagic converted the boot partition, it didn't take into account that it was a boot partition and thus would need to change the boot.ini as well). Anyways, when I went to boot into my primary OS, the thing froze after nine scrolls of the little blue bar thingy. Booted into safe mode, and it all of a sudden started reinstalling all my device drivers... very strange. Then, I booted into 'normal' mode and it worked fine, only now my floppy controller has not enough resources (not a problem, don't even have a floppy drive in my system). So ya, just saying you should try booting into safe-mode and then into 'normal' again (if you haven't already). Also, any idea why my device drivers were being reinstalled after fixing the problem? My guess is that since I copied an old(er) hal.dll, somehow the record of all devices was changed/removed. Cheers, LazerFazer

RyanJ, that would work, but I guess I didn't give enough information as to the entire problem. You see, I'm trying to determine the strength of a cylindrical magnet using a solenoid. The way I'll do this is by suspending the solenoid above the cylindrical magnet, hooking it up to a variable voltage power supply and an ammeter, and turning it on. Then, I'll increase the voltage and thus the current (since R will stay relatively constant) until the magnet is 'sucked up' into the solenoid. At the instant the magnet is pulled off the surface, the Magnetic force (Fb) will be equal to the gravitational force (Fg). So, by setting Fg=mg, and setting the two forces equal to each other, I'll be able to calculate the value of the B-field of the magnet. This is possible because I can calculate the strength of the solenoid B-field because I know N,L, and I, and therefore can use B=(MEW-zero)(NI/L). So, in summary, I would appreciate a formula relating the magnetic force to the two magnetic fields. I found somewhere that it follows the same format as the gravitation force, i.e. Fb=(B1*B2)/(MEW*r^2) Is this in any way correct? Thanks, LazerFazer

How would you calculate the force of repulsion between the two magnets? LF

Hi all, This isn't a homework problem as such, but it's a Lab question instead. First off, is it possible, using a solenoid with current passing through it, to levitate a second magnet? If so, how do you calculate the force of magnetic repulsion between two magnets? EDIT: OK, I found out it IS possible to do what I wanted. Now, I would appreciate it if somebody could tell me how to determine the force of attraction/repulsion between the magnet and the solenoid? Thanks in advance, LazerFazer

Well, good points have been brought up here lately. I disagree with military action completely though. I believe that wars only hurt the general population. Maybe the Israeli policy of targeted assasination is a better approach, but then there are probably some statutes in some international agreements against that. Not entirely sure tho. It DOES appear that the Iranian population doesn't completely agree with the stance that their leader is taking, and this could open the possibility for an internal overthrowing of the government... hopefully peacefully. As for the issue of being allowed to refine and/or enrich Uranium, Iran believes that they do have the right to refine uranium for peaceful purposes. According to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes is allowed. Iran views not being allowed to refine their own fuel as an attack on their sovereignty. What I'm really concerned about is their threat to end inspections if referred to the Security Council. That could prove to be a big mistake on the part of the Iranian government. LazerFazer

Alright, those of you who've read my other posts might have noticed I'm especially vocal towards action against ANY Arab state, but on this one, I have to agree with the 'rest of the world', as it may be. Iran has proven they cannot be trusted to just do as they say they will, and with the comments made by their President (who, even though he IS one person, he is ALSO in control of their military), they do pose a threat. Perhaps the Iranian president has changed, or perhaps he put up a facade just to get elected, but from what I can see not all Iranians agree with him, especially not on this issue. For ths reason, I DON'T agree on imposing sanctions. Generally, they hurt the population more than the government. Afterall, if the government was able to get nuclear secrets without people knowing, then how the hell can we expect them NOT to get other things which are 'banned' by sanctions? From what I've read, and from what I've gathered by living in the Middle East for almost 10 years of my life, it seems like this is just a power-play by Iran, but nonetheless should be taken seriously. The best deal, in my opinion, would be to allow Iran to continue nuclear enrichment, in their own country, but only at specified sites, and under the watchfull eye of the IAEA. At least that way Iran doesn't feel slighted at not being allowed to enrich uranium on their own land, Iran gets their nuclear 'power' and we, the International Community, can be assured that they are not persuing bomb-level enrichment. Again, this seems like Iran trying to assert itself in the international community, and perhaps we need to concede a bit, and just allow them to do their damn enrichment in their own country, but in accordance with the stipulations set out above. LazerFazer

@ecoli:

Well, the voltage isn't really much of an indicator of current. V=IR, so even though the potential difference (voltage) might be the same, the current can be completely different because of the resistance of the object. For example, the resistance between two points on opposite sides of the body, when dry, is about 10^4 ohms, which I would assume is pretty high compared to that of your AC/DC adapter. And it would be about 16.6A flowing through those wires, making the effective resistance of the adapter and wires only 6.6ohms. Thats pretty low, so forgive me, but I'm a bit skeptical here. (Oh, btw, the clothes dryer in my house only takes 13A, and I think thats the most Amp-hungry device we have). Cheers, LazerFazer

It seems like you're a bit confused about what happens as you approach c. According to Einstein's relativity' date=' your speed can never exceed c. As you go faster, your mass increases by the gamma factor, which turns to infinite at c. This, taken into account with F=ma, means that it would require an infinite force to accelerate you further. So, basically, if we can't get TO the speed of light, how can we exceed it? And as far as I know, relativity has been proved. Two atomic clocks were synchronised on the ground, and one was loaded onto an airplane and flown around the world. When the time the two clocks reported were compared, they were different. This difference was exactly what was predicted using Einstein's relativity equations. The thing about 'going forward' in time also deals with relativity. As you increase your speed, time gets dialated, also by the gamma factor. So while you may experience only 1 year of time, people on the 'outside' might experience 20 years, and thus you would have 'moved forward in time'. That's answered by mattasouths: Cheers, LazerFazer

Wow. I just got back home about 10 minutes ago from school, and I was actually surprised at first. But after thinking about it and reflecting on the recent attempts by Israel to resume the peace process, I became less surprised and actually now I wonder why I didn't see it coming. I remember the day when Sharon was first elected as Prime Minister. I was devastated. I thought that the peace process was dead, and for the first few months and perhaps years it definately seemed that way. But recently he's been trying to make it clear that Israel is prepared to discuss peace, but that the Palestinians also need to take responsibility. The only thing I don't understand is how can they expect the Palestinians to do anything when almost everything they had has been destroyed? The Israelis need to give the Palestinian Authority some time to recover from years of occupation which only recently ended in Gaza and still continues in the West Bank. Furthermore, I think Sharon is, as Skye has stated, trying to associate with people who better represent his ideas and his policies. And yes, I do believe that this will speed up the peace process, since he doesn't need to worry about not garnering enough support for his policies... Of course this assumes he gets re-elected. LazerFazer

@Bettina

Im graduating high school this year, so I find it difficult to answer the poll. I've done some high school, but not graduated, so where do I put it?

I've been through quite a few browsers in my attempts to ditch IE, and I finally settled on using Firefox. If I remember correctly, I've been using it since the days of 0.7, and yesterday I downloaded 1.5RC3. I must say, it's definately the best browser I've ever used, especially since its got such a clean interface and everything that I need. Not to mention the best extension ever, Stumbler. I've kept myself amused many a day through that simple little extension. LazerFazer

Following from what I know and what I've read, if a 'normal' blackhole and an anti-matter blackhole were to collide (assuming same mass exactly), I'm guessing there would be an extremely large explosion, and the two would annihilate each other. I'm risking being wrong, but you could equate that to -3 'meeting' with a 3, what would happen? They would result in 0, ,but in this case theres also energy... vast amounts of it at that. LazerFazer

@5614

I was referred to this site by a friend. Turns to be one of the best, if not THE best referral I've ever followed up on. LazerFazer

@swansnot Indeed, I know that 'faster than light' and 'faster than c' isn't the same thing. But the article did say something to the effect of "...broke the cosmic speed limit" or something like that, so I'm assuming they're talking about c there. And yes, if I remember correctly, it was due to some kind of pulse-reshaping technique. Although I'm a bit skeptical about it, since I THINK it appeared in an Egyptian newspaper... Not the most reliable source. But as I said, I'll check on that tomorrow when I have access to the article. LazerFazer