Computer Definition and 999 Threads

Suppose L\sum* = L for an alphabet \sum . What can we say about the possible strings in L? I know that the \sum* is a collection of all possible words of a language and I know that 'L' is a subset of \sum* . So L concatenated with \sum* needs to be equivalent to L. I am stumped.

Many people within the field say it's not a science nor a subject to do with computers. Then why keep it with the name computer science. What's stopping them from changing the darn name?

1. A streaming Netflix movie is usually 720 by 480 pixels. The color for each pixel takes 3 bytes to encode, and a feature film shows 24 frames (individual still images) per second. a.) How many kilobytes are needed to encode one frame, without compression? b.) How many GB are there in a...

Hello, I am interested in making a computer controlled switch. Can anyone give me a simple overview what components will I need and how should that work. I am aiming for making/designing my own circuit. I just need schematics and steps. Thanks

exploration of course :-p So my situation is that I live in England and am about to enter a computer science degree course. How in demand are computer scientist needed for space agencies? I know NASA and the British Space Agency say on their websites that they do take computer scientists...

In a standard quantum computer, the computing machinery is kept in a superposition of states, with each state doing the computation on different data. It's like having the superposition of a bunch of cats in a box with each cat doing a calculation on different data. The more complex the cat...

The following computer simulation http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/photoelectric contains a serious error: if you in the saturation (U >> 0V) with the same intensity change the wavelength of light, the photocurrent also changes...

Core i7 930 6GB DDR3 1333 MHz MSI Big Bang Xpower X58 motherboard X2 Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) in CF Corsair TX850 850W PSU How will Metro 2033 run on my computer? Can I run it on 1920x1080 with DX11? I heard that Metro 2033 is even more hardware-demanding than Crysis.

How do I stop my mouse from waking up the computer while it is sleep mode? I went to device manager and mouse settings then unchecked the box "allow this device to wake up the computer" but it still does wake up the computer. Plus my test shakes up a little bit, but it's enough to trigger...

Hi guys. I'm finally finishing with high-school and jumping into engineering college world. I've wanted to be an engineer. I've always known that. I love to figure out how stuff works. I automatically get attracted to look if a repairman is repairing some kind of machine at home. My computer...

Homework Statement A computer system is equipped with 3 hard disks, each independantly having a 0.97 probability of functioning correctly. At least 2 of these are required for a working system. What is the probabiliy that the system is not working? Homework Equations P(A and B) = P(A) x...

Disclaimer: This post is a rant, and this thread serves no purpose other than letting everybody vent their frustration. Seriously, how can people be so clueless about technology? If you're 70 years old and have never used a computer before, that's understandable. If you're an adult and rarely...

Homework Statement A computer disk drive is turned on starting from rest and has constant angular acceleration. If it took 0.640s for the drive to make its second complete revolution, how long did it take to make the first complete revolution? Homework Equations...

Hey guys, I am currently a 16 year old Junior in high school. I am incredibly interested and fascinated in computers as they are constantly changing. I had the aspiration of being a computer engineer since Junior High school. But... I'm weak in math. I've passed Alg 1 and 2 with A and B's...

First: Who invents new technologies i.e. Optical disk formats. Second: How does a company make sure it's new technology is compatible with computers? Finally: How is this sold among the public i.e. is it just advertised or do other companies such as the computer manufacturer have to integrate...

I've just started thinking about this and haven't read much about the "simulation argument" yet, but is there anything unreasonable about using computational/information theoretic/Occam's razor arguments to argue that the simplest explanation for the universe is that everything is being...

Hello everyone, (First, I hope this is the right subsection of PhysicsForum for this type of question. I was unsure if this should go into the ME or EE section) To start, I am trying narrow down my Engineering Interests down to somewhat specific areas to solidify what majors to pursue in...

When I first turn on my computer in the morning, it will have intermittent freezing problems when I'm trying to do stuff. Like if I come here and click on something, it will freeze for a few seconds, but my cursor can still move, but it's just slow. After everything I do, it will stop, take a...

I feel the term computer no longer fits what most people do with the thing. Deep inside it's juggling a lot of numbers but on the surface for most users it's about humanity's favorites: information gathering, socializing and gossip, porn, shopping, file sharing, time wasteing etc. These things...

I want to represent a graph with v vertices and e edges. Each vertex represents a city and each edge the distance between two cities. I am aware of adjacency matrix but I found that it took more than double space so I went with an array. Each item in the list keeps a point1, a point2 and the...

I've been looking for a definition for a while now. A google search turns up plenty of research papers using them but I haven't found a definition yet. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks for your time!

Hello. First post on the board, so I would like any help I can get. Im going to be going back to the US for about a week and in the time I want to pick up a new computer. I looked around and found a good site to build it for me, I picked out the insides and all. I am looking for something on...

Homework Statement Floating Point representation: Given Xmax/Xmin=2^4076, what is the size of the mantissa? How many numbers can exist? If mantissa is 0.xxx instead of 1.xxx, how many numbers can exist? Homework Equations (-1)S x 1.M x BE The Attempt at a Solution I'm not sure, but is this...

Howdy, I am currently a Texas sophomore at community college. Attached in .DOC format is a list of the coursework I have completed by the end of this semester. I am planning to transfer to UT-Austin for the Spring 2012 semester with a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science. I...

Hi, I am a grade 12 student, applying for uni for the coming September. And yet, I'm still having trouble with deciding my course. Electrical and Computer Engineering, I am confused with the two. From wiki and other places I see that Electrical is more concerned with telecommunications...

Write an assembly language program that uses ten memory locations (variables) filled with 0, starting at Address 30, and that stores the values 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 in them. Your program will store 2 at Address 30, 4 at address 31, 6 at address 32, etc. Your program must...

Hi, after reading this article, I was left wondering how the heck a quantum computer can be simulated. To begin with, how is a quantum computer of 42 qubits built up? And the how could this computer possibly be simulated? I mean, the wave function of one qubit is a three dimensional scalar...

Hello, I want to draw the detailed logic level diagram for a basic computer. For this i found a software that will work which is microsoft visio 2010. But i m not satisfied with that because it has some limitations. Such as re-arranging the wires automatically and also the simulation...

So I got accepted into engineering, which is just general engineering first year. However the university has asked me for my preferred discipline now, and I was about to put computer engineering. The thing is, i heard that taking electrical engineering as an undergrad degree is a better option...

hi my name is ehab I am a first year collage student in damascuse university our computer programming professer ask us to do a research obout computers and technology so I choose a research that is considaring me from a long long time (who is better scientifically and is that really true that...

What are the advancements in computer hardwares in recent 4 years?what evolutions did occur in hardware field in past 4 years?(for example 3D monitors or core-i cpu's got invented).this is our homework and it should be descriptive.please help.if you know a good site that describes these...

User tries to login while standing and fails. Then sits down, tries again and succeeds. The behavior is consistent. The login always fails when the user is standing and continues to fail until the user sits down. What's wrong with the computer?

I am a Computer Science major and as of now, I am starting to feel like this is not want I want to do with my life. I want to be involved in the management aspect of technology. I don't know which degree will take me there. I am currently taking Data Structures and I hate that class. I feel like...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/01compute.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print So - a question. Once this infrastructure is in place, do we have to revise all the algorithms we use? Just as we have to revise all of our algorithms when we're programming for parallel processors?

Hello I have bachelors degree in computer engineering from Pune University, India. I want to pursue further career in physics. I have scored 940/990 in subject GRE physics and I am now preparing for general GRE. Please suggest from which university (of US preferably) I can get masters...

(wasn't sure where to post this) Hey guys :) Are there any physics/mechanics computer games (i.e. for the PC). A friend of mine has shown me a game where you build bridges with trusses and ropes and a train passes through it. If the bridge isn't well-constructed, it'll break! That game is...

I am nearly done with all my basic undergraduate course work and will soon be pursuing the rest of my applied math degree. There are a variety of upper division classes that I have the option of taking. I was wondering which ones seem best suited if you were going to get your masters in either...

Hello everyone. I'm a third year Physics and Computer science student (predicted a 1st class - studying in the UK) and I'd like some advice on what to do in the future. I apologise in advance if this OP turns into a wall of text but I have tried to do some research prior to this post. I feel...

I want to convert my power supply into a "lab power supply" but a lot less simple. I just want a 12V output on it. The power supply has 2 12V rails. Is it possible to connect both rails to increase amperage? Thanks for you input.

Hello all, I am not sure if formal introductions are required on this forum, but my name is Chris and I have degrees in physics and mechanical engineering. My current job is unrelated to these fields, but I hope to get an engineering-related job soon. In any event, I have been antsy...

Hello all, I want to control a stepper motor using the computer to track the motion of a teacher in a classroom. For example i might put a webcam on the motor and control the motor to keep the camera pointing to the teacher. The teacher will be using a pen with an IR led at its top so that...

So my friends try to explain it to me and everytime they do, i come to the conclusion that they're the same. I just don't understand. If somebody studies computer science, what do they learn? If somebody studies software engineer, what do they learn?

Hey guys, I'm currently using as monitor a Flatron ez T730SH. It's been almost 4 years I have it and sometimes it would change the coloration of the whole screen (red to greenish, red-greenish over and over). Apart this I don't have any problems with it and I don't really care about the color...

I had a question and I figure you guys are the best for the task. I was wondering if theoretically you had a standard computer case, would you benefit by reducing open airspace in the case? Lets say just for example you could place a cube inside the case that doesn't touch anything, it just...

Okay so I am a freshman in college, and planning on majoring in Computer Engineering. The first semester of college was a blast, I did really well in all my classes. I loved Physics, and kinematics just clicked with me. Now comes second semester. Electricity just doesn't click with me. I...

Suppose "0" and "1" digits of binary in computers stand for 0v and 5v respectively. Further suppose "A" on the keyboard is the result of this combination "1101". Let's say there are four open switches lying down under the "A" key. When the key is pressed one of the four switches produced 0v and...

Hi A computer has some program written into its BIOS ROM which turns the hardware skeleton of a computer into a helpful machine. Is this possible to start a computer without that BIOS software using some circuitry. BIOS software is a firmware and I remember correctly I have read somewhere...

I'm a freshman in college right now and I'm still unable to decide what I want to do in the future... I think physics is my true passion, and I came into college wanting to do that. But I've been really discouraged by all the stories of physics people being unable to find jobs (and I don't...

Hello all, I'm an electrical engineering tech student working on a little side project and I can't find anything to help me with a crucial part. I have a gauge cluster out of an automobile that I want to interface with a computer to used while playing a racing game. I have a computer...

Hi I have read that a computer could retain any information as long as its user desires or unless it's nor broken. On many hard disks and USB Flash drives I have seen that the duration of how long the drives could retain the data safely is mentioned, let's say 100 years. What does it mean? To...