It works on the principle of superconductors excluding a magnetic field. When they are cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures. Steel is low in ferromagnetism and isn't as good a conductor as copper so it's not as good for making electromagnets.

Well, I did that once with a bottle of liquid nitrogen from Airco and a superconductor I bought from Edmund Scientific. This was before there was a Slashdot. So, no, not impressive.

Before someone makes a working hoverboard, we will first hear about the principle that makes it possible. Because one that's practical is almost guaranteed to get someone a Nobel Prize. And certainly Lexus would go for that if they could.

No new principles lately. There is an existing principle of magnetic repulsion that would work only in an extreme condition. One requiring really special stuff buried in the street, and probably including liquid nitrogen to keep it working for even a short time and a few feet.

So, it's a gimmick.

The algorithm doesn't need "fixing" -- it works perfectly.

Computers are constantly animating objects based on the position of the mouse -- there are 4 points crossing the cartesian axis (immediately right or left, up or down), and we USED to, add a small value to the Zero figure and test if it's in quadrant [1,1 ; 1,-1 ; -1,-1; -1, 1] -- now it's automatic in a lot of programming languages -- at least as far as animation goes.

The problem I'm seeing here is people who know a lot of math theories, but aren't seeing that Divide by Zero comes up a lot in the real world and we deal with it -- it used to be with error handling, but now it might be with a min/max limiter and store the negative and positive. Or with a test of ranges above and below the value.

I wanted some input if "this was correct" from programmers.

You are technically correct but IMHO practically wrong. I'm talking about "real use" such as in animation, graphing and financial.

An equation that uses Divide by zero might go to "max limit" or to zero (in practical terms), based on preceding values. It will not suddenly say; "Sorry, the resultant value is indeterminable".

Graphs pass the zero mark all the time without a "NAN".

We just run to the limits of Math as an abstract concept but we do indeed KNOW that the value is either really big or really small -- we just lack the mathematical proof.

Until then, a lot of us are going to have to use a handler for divide by zero -- but a lot of scripts and programs already allow for it.

I think the people who suggest Russia or China has somehow gotten some "amazing secrets" from Snowden need to check some Wikileaks document dumps about how the 3rd party contractors are selling this data.

I was going to make a great quip with the name of the company, but Google is giving me nothing but popular results right now. Couldn't find the right terms to "NSA independent contractor." It told me the wages were up 25% however, so now is the time to sell out -- but with Patriotism.

Actually, I'd say I prefer the MS Office Suite from a decade ago.

I too hate the ribbon. And I'm thinking hate is not strong enough of a word. I use this UI device as a handy example of what you should not do in a User Interface -- but likely, now that UI is a "professional field" nobody with common sense or aesthetics need apply. The interface is more important than your content, and you'd understand that if you were TRAINED.

But we have to use the current MS Office, just like we have to use the current Adobe Edge, and Google Libraries in our web code.

I can just imagine saving a web page today, and trying to look at it in ten years. It's going to be like a Rubik's cube of long-dead self-organizing links.

"The JavaScript Lib you are trying to reach has collapsed into a dimensional rift. Would you like to use MS-Doc View? MS-Doc View no longer exists,"

If your algorithm treats it as a valid number, your algorithm is wrong.

I'm curious if your detractor here has written code.

I don't think a mathematician has "SHEER" stupidity, it's the problem with people who are smart, who think everything within the subset of their domain is figured out.

I imagine security experts have this problem with hackers; "But I read the entire manual and what you did is not possible."

Hacker; "Well, that's like, our opinion man."

Cyber Security; "You are an idiot. You have no command of the lexical jargon."

Hacker; "Hey, wasn't Lexical the name of your first pet?"

I think this is a RULE we want to follow, but in the real world, like all those "corporate guidelines" that come from Human Resources -- nobody can actually follow all of them and get their job done.

I can think of a lot of situations where I HAVE TO GIVE an answer when a value becomes Zero and I'm dividing with it.

Animation, bank accounts and artificial intelligence to name a few.
Dude; "Like if I have no money, so I give all of that to you but you have zero dinero change, and you've got zero patience with that, well, like that's your problem man."
AI; "Does not compute, divide by zero, shutting down."
Dude; "I can always get free nachos at the robo drive-thru this way."

I think your math skills and clear understanding of the rules is awesome.

However,... if I were programming an animation and it's following a path y= 2/x, I'm going to have a smooth motion along screen at position 2 until I get to Zero.

So do we handle it as an error? Undefined of course means undefined but do I have my animated plane just blink "undefined" at a random location and then suddenly re-appear on the screen?

In this case, I'd imagine that having the prior two locations and next (estimate) would be handy to determine what y is when x = 0.

Or perhaps we have a built-in exception handler if x = 0 BEFORE we calculate when we have x in a division statement. For instance, if we have a point on the screen and try and follow the mouse, there are 4 points where one of our numbers reaches 0.

Consider this script;
this.rotation = Math.atan2((object.y - mouse.y), (object.x - mouse.x)) * 180 / Math.PI;
These days -- that code will work. Likely because someone at Adobe built in a handler just for these cartesian dilemmas to figure out at which quadrant X and Y were pointing to.

Does it make practical sense that if X = 0, then X = .0000001 will get you a reasonable facsimile of what should occur with X?

That solves the need to test for "undefined" -- even though more programming environments might be robust with regard to divide by zero errors.

I think the POINT here is to add a; "Don't let the Citizen be able to do what we do, and don't let the citizen EVER have an opportunity to do something back."

We are ruled by mutual consent. NOT asymmetrically ability of CorpGov to crush us.

I'm not a fan of private citizens having arsenals and what chaos might ensue when an idiot adds a rocket launcher on a repurposed drone. But that idiot can also just use the stupid rocket launcher.

But I'm going to say; "I want that fool with a rocket launcher on my team if and when you guys in charge get out of hand."

Banning what people do with drones while having NO LIMITS to what those in power get to do with data, drones, genetic modification of monster carrots (for example) is not something I'm in favor of.

Feinstein is a crass, self-serving politician and it's embarrassing she's happens to be a Democrat -- or that I once defended her election (but hey, there was another crass, self-serving politico on the other team).

I'm sure her thought process was; "I'm not sure what a drone is, nor if these people are lying to me, but there are some really nice Zeros on this check they sent me."

more mandatory checked bag fees.

LOL Did someone pass the idea that the airlines are FORCED to charge you for checking baggages?

"Forced! Forced I say! Why, I don't know what we'll do if the Big Government makes us take more money in fees from our passengers!"

But the Cargo hold is full as well... why? Because your airline is using the storage that USED to be used for Checked baggage to ship packages!

They started adding fees for these things and now their SOLUTION is to reduce the size of the bag because "surprise! People take stuff when they travel!"

Next thing you know, there will be an "air fee." "Oh, you wanted to BREATHE on your trip? Well that's going to cost you."

You know how they say; "We've got to support the worst to get the best"?

Well that's how I feel right now; mixed. You have to defend the KKK guy using his freedom of speech so you can have someone speak up about Wall Street (and get tear gassed *sigh*).

And I'm all for "research for research sake" because, hey, a penny spent on science is one less penny for Wall Street to leverage into $2, and then shift as a $2.50 tax burden when a depreciation in pennies pushes the leverage the other way.

Now researching Cat Videos? Seems like a demotion from the study; "found that watching internet porn not that harmful, also; stronger wrists."