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Comment: Re:"Tenfold"? (Score 1) 271

by Captain Segfault (#38761392) Attached to: Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform

This result was rather interesting for SODA because it wasn't an improvement in time complexity over the best known algorithm. There are asymptotically faster previously known algorithms for computing sparse FFTs, but they aren't actually faster than the current (extremely optimized) FFT implementations unless the output is extremely sparse.

This algorithm isn't quite as asymptotically fast but it has a much better constant factor, so it is more likely to be effective in practice on inputs which are not extremely large and/or outputs which are not extremely sparse.

Comment: Ahh, Slashdot (Score 1) 271

by Captain Segfault (#38761244) Attached to: Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform

Posting a story about how a presentation will be given at SODA... about a day after SODA ended.

I actually went to this talk, which was scheduled for the first 8:30 AM timeslot as part of their evil conspiracy to get me to wake up early. The approach seemed remarkably straightforward, but I haven't gotten around to actually reading the paper yet -- I was too busy sightseeing around Kyoto.

Comment: Re:Neutron Activation Analysis (Score 3, Informative) 210

by Captain Segfault (#36483926) Attached to: Teen Builds Nuclear Bomb Detector

Fusors are a standard neutron source, and they're fairly straightforward to build.

The idea that you could throw hydrogen ions at each other with enough energy to fuse is fairly obvious. It turns out that the obvious ways of doing so are orders of magnitude short of generating net power, but they do generate neutrons.

Comment: Re:Who's law do you want to use? (Score 1) 243

by Captain Segfault (#35106312) Attached to: Senate Panel Backs Patent Overhaul Bill

This "harmoization" of US law with other countries is getting really old. We need to decide what we stand for and do it. Others can do as they wish. Why don't we just dump our whole government and put the states under some other one? Since we think adopting all their rules is a good idea... That is the stupidest reason I've ever seen for changing a law, and it gets used more often than a stupid idea should come up.

Eliminating arbitrary differences in regulation is stupid?

Have a taco. -- P.S. Beagle

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