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Comment plasma reaction? (Score 1) 182

so actual fusion events for 22 minutes?

The article isn't really clear about that small detail. Actual fusion events for 22 minutes, even if the net energy was still less than Q is an impressive feat. Just holding temperature is nice but mostly "meh"

Could someone who knows more about the details chime in on this please?

Comment Re:Linux as an alterntive (Score 1) 242

I'm guessing many of the people who can't go to Win11 would struggle with a conversion from Win to Linux, ..."

If my 18 year old niece can manage to successfully install and configure Debian with a Cinnamon desktop on her Lenovo laptop it is probably safe to say that more people than you think would be able to manage it now. She downloaded the iso, imaged a USB thumb drive and installed it on her own, including the proprietary firmware needed for her laptop's WiFi chip set. The install scripts for most of the well know distros make it all so easy you don't really need to be very tech savy to get it done now. All the instructions needed to install GNU/Linux on any hardware capable of running it are on the respective distro's web sites. Anyone who can't manage it should probably not be using a computer in the first place.

Only help I gave her was a quick overview of the *NIX directory structure and how every device is treated as a "file" by the OS. And some pointers about some command line stuff she might find helpful, simple stuff like lsblk, ps, pstree, and a few other basic utils. Total of about 20 minutes effort on my part.

She also installed WINE and has most of her music editing software running already too.

As to the learning curve from Win 10/11 to one of the various desktops available for Linux or BSD it is about the same as going from Win 7 to Win 8. Anyone who managed the Win 7 => 8 transition probably won't have any problem with it.

Comment False positives? (Score 4, Interesting) 81

So how will travelers prove they are not actually the wanted terrorist that the face id scans claim them to be without some other piece of internationally recognized id?

Automated facial recognition has it's place but until they are 100.00000% accurate I'll keep my paper passport thank you.

No to mention I like to look back at all the entry stamps/visas I've collected in my passports over the years from time to time.

Comment Re:Meaning (Score 1) 69

... Linux (steep learning-curve, high maintenance).

You haven't tried Linux in the last 20 years have you?

It's like the old joke about how Windows constantly crashes to the BSOD. It was true a couple decades ago but not so much anymore.

Most modern Linux installers are completely automated. All the user has to do is answer some basic questions like user name, keyboard layout, wifi pass phrase, ect. and then sit back and let the install happen. The last time I used a Windows Installer (about 14 years ago) it asked me those same questions. And I've also found that the Linux installers have better hardware support than the Windows installers of the same era

The argument about the steep learning curve really doesn't apply considering that with each new version of Windows MS has changed the UI requiring the user to re-learn everything almost from scratch. I don't know about other DEs out there but the one I've been using for 15-20 years, Trinity, hasn't changed at all. It supports all the new apps and such but is consistently stable.

As for "high maintenance" I have to ask you how many times have you had to restart your Windows system in the last year because of some update or patch? My fully updated linux box has only had one reboot in that time, and that was only because I wanted to clear the /tmp folder of all the old stuff I had been putting there while I worked some projects. Unlike Windows Linux can install almost all it's updates without requiring a reboot, only exception to that is when it involves the actual GNU/Linux kernel or video driver.

Purely from personal experience over the last 30 years of working in IT I would have to say that Windows has a steeper learning curve version to version and far higher maintenance than Linux ever has.

Comment better to use Hemp, Bamboo, Jute, others (Score 1) 143

Trees are slow growing. Hemp and many varieties of Bamboo can produce the same amount, and in most cases more, cellulose per acre each year than that same acre of trees would produce in a decade. There are also a lot of other plants that would be suitable so the crop could be picked for what would work best in what ever region the operation was implemented in.

As to the issue of the CO2 getting back into the atmosphere when the cellulose breaks down all that would be needed would be to convert the cellulose into charcoal right at the start. Pure Carbon doesn't rot. And since the pyrolysis reaction that would be used to make the charcoal would also produce syngas that could then be used to fuel the reaction the entire operation would be Carbon neutral.

And rather than bury the charcoal as is compress it into blocks dense enough to sink and drop them into deep ocean trenches.

Leave the trees to grow into forests to replace all the acres of forests that have been destroyed over the years

Comment Payback (Score 2, Informative) 35

The USA can't really complain. They interfered in Iran and caused the overthrow of Iran's Democratically elected government in 1953. Which led directly to the eventual rise of Iran's current non-secular government and many of the problems that Middle East region currently experiences.

I'm sure we'll soon be hearing about the other usual suspects, China, Russia, and N. Korea trying to mess with the USA's elections as well.

Comment Makes me wonder ... (Score 1) 71

I've been using DDG for years and never noticed any search results that relate to on line gambling or porn, unless I specifically search for something that I know is going to end up with mature or otherwise explicit results.

Makes me wonder what those Indonesians are searching for that is returning the results they are complaining about.

Comment Re:Kind of scary (Score 3, Informative) 169

Nothing gets sold by Israel to China without the US's approval.

Israel may follow that rule but that doesn't mean Israelies always follow that rule.
https://www.middleeastmonitor....

All you need to do is find someone with the tech you want who wants the money your willing to pay. Rules or no rules.

Comment Re:failed every time (Score 1) 155

The reactor design being used is not a MSR. It is a solid fuel reactor just like the LWTR currently used in the USA only is uses molten Sodium as a coolant instead of water for the primary coolant loop.

The advantage of using Sodium is the core and coolant loop doesn't need to be kept at ~70 atmospheres of pressure to keep a water coolant from flashing to steam if there is a containment failure.

A sodium cooled reactor can still suffer a core melt down but it is much less likely. Fukushima would still have happened since it wasn't the initial lose of coolant that caused the issues, it was the loss of power to the coolant pumps. Had the sea water from teh tsunami not shorted out the electrical power to the backup coolant pumps there wouldn't have been a meltdown. That could still have happened even with Sodium coolant but it would have been less likely.

Comment slight correction (Score 2) 25

This first-of-its-kind device known in the UK ...

just because it was the first one found doesn't mean it was the first, and only one ever. When you consider that the various LEOs have been using Stingrays for the last couple decades to think that this escapade was really the "first of it's kind" is being either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid.

Comment Butanole (Score 2) 56

Now if they can just get this process to make Butanol we're set for Carbon neutral, green, alternatives to gasoline that doesn't require a complete replacement of the current fuel distribution infrastructure. With an "at pump" Octane of 87 Butanol can be used as a drop in replacement for Gasoline in any ratio mix unlike methanol and doesn't require modification to the engine beyond replacing any natural rubber fuel hoses with a synthetic rubber that won't degrade from the drying effects of alcohols.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/...

Comment sounds perfect for a small project. (Score 1) 51

A small SATA III 120GB SSD for $3. Sounds perfect for several Raspberry Pi projects I can think off off the top.

If you want the best performance get the Enterprise level hardware. If you just want a big block of storage for some small project that and you won't care if it gets stolen/lost a $3 SSD might fit the bill perfectly.

Too bad the article doesn't have a link to where I can get a few of these, now that I think about it it might be useful to have a few handy.

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