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Submission + - New material gives visible light an infinite wavelength

wazafoojitsu writes: Researchers from The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Institute and the University of Pennsylvania have fabricated a material which gives visible light a nearly infinite wavelength. With a specially built interferometer it was shown that light indeed propagates through the metamaterial with no significant change of phase, corresponding to an almost infinite wavelength. This new material may find applications in novel optical components or circuits and the design of more efficient leds.

The work will appear on 13 October in Nature Photonics (abstract). The paper is paywalled but the pdf is available.

Submission + - Lighsabers without The Force?!?

wazafoojitsu writes: "Use the force..." or just get normally massless photons to behave like they have mass and when they clump together you have yourself a new form of matter that behaves just like...well..a lightsaber! Yes. Really. Almost. "It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to light sabers," Lukin, one of the colleagues at the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms. "When these photons interact with each other...the physics in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies." Applications include quantum computing and more.

Read more at: nature.com

Comment YOU are the developer young padawan! (Score 1) 342

Take all this advice and throw it out for a moment. When you have a site that needs done, think about what development tools you 'feel your oats' with. Those are the right ones...for this project...for now. I have always used a smattering of hand-coding tools and a smattering of visual tools. Sometimes I just need that polished slick look I can get quickly from a visual tool, not always a whole platform or IDE but sometimes just a freebie, or even something brand new. The most important thing is, if you are going to be doing this by yourself, as a sort of self-made consultancy or what have you..summer money while you are attending college etc. then do whatever it takes and use whatever it takes to get the job done the way the guy with the MONEY wants it done. Sometimes I'll use a visual tool like Dreamweaver or Artisteer just to get a quick design and then use this as a template and code the entirety of the site by hand. Sometimes I use Notepad++ sometimes I use an IDE. You, after a dozen or two middle-of-the-road projects, will discover those development tools that just simply say 'I can do anything with just these 4..now I'm set' ...until HTML5 undergoes mitosis and now you have two standards to deal with...but this program only supports that one and that IDE can only do this.... Point is...development is an ongoing...well...development. Tools and technologies will change (rapidly)

Comment 2 cents worth 4 (Score 1) 515

Alvin Toffler said: '“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Some people in this digital age can, some can't, as is to be expected. I first pondered this when I realized I didn't want to learn to use new input hardware for gaming. Or learn a new 'gamepad' setup or what have you. I had certain configs I was used to and didn't want to 'unlearn and relearn' control of this game or that. Age certainly CAN come in to play but, as many other things, should not be used as an excuse. Just keep on learning, unlearning, and relearning till you make 6 figures my friend, forget the others and put that energy into your own development. Oh yeah, keep smiling :)

Comment Re:It totally depends what you want to do. (Score 1) 530

Great comments thanks for your reply! You hit the proverbial nail on the head nicely. Yes, I know learning syntax in a weekend does not a programmer or expert make...that comment was really just to say that I don't care if the syntax is clean or reads like regex snips but I am more interested in capability. Thanks again!

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