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Comment perhaps a different niche? (Score 1) 123

https://epics-controls.org/ is a software system used for control in many large labs and some companies. Dept of Energy Office of Science labs use it and are frequently looking for individuals willing to code for the rest of their careers as promotion paths are meager. Pay is competitive, not GS scale.

Comment RHEL/Centos mix (Score 2) 137

My organization has RHEL licenses for at least 500 machines. It also has a large HPC farm which runs Centos because the RHEL licensing costs for that number of cores would be absurd. HPC transitioned to Centos 8 earlier this year. Now it will probably go back to 7 while the IT division decides what to do about everything.

Comment Riggleman (Score 1) 180

The local Republican party wanted Riggleman out because he presided at the same sex marriage of two of his Congressional aides. Since he would have won a primary they organized a convention six hours from his home and half an hour from his opponent's. The district is R enough that Webb (D) didn't have a chance. Christine Riggleman owns and runs the Silverback craft distillery. (I'm a Virginia Resident, CD2.)

Comment ICE forces on-line only foreign students out of US (Score 1) 87

Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States,â Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a press release Monday, referring to the visa classifications for academic and vocational students.

https://www.ice.gov/news/relea...

Comment Re:Good luck with that (Score 1) 219

Go to http://directory.web.cern.ch/d... Click on ATLAS and CMS, and find the directory of institutions. China is well represented on both. You may also scan the lists of 3000+ collaborators each, of course. China is also represented in detector collaborations at many other labs worldwide, including mine.

When I last checked the price for a ROXIE license from CERN was 2500 Euros, SC magnet design software incorporating all they learned about magnetics and mechanics.

I was involved in the SSC magnet project 25 years ago. Most of the difference between the SSC and LHC magnets is 4.5K planned operation of the former and 2K operation of the latter. Had LHC chosen to develop NbTiTa conductor they might have gotten another 15% in energy capability. This is old technology.

I spent two years working on Nb3Sn wire and tape magnets before my SSC work. At one point I hoped ITER would move along fast enough to push Nb3Sn magnet development for accelerators. Conductor yes, magnet technology not in time. Since China has great ceramic expertise, they may do better than Western metal-bashers.

Comment Re:Good luck with that (Score 1) 219

The 240 GeV is related to the Higgs mass, not the maximum energy possible in the ring. They could increase the center of mass energy to over 350 GeV in the ring and create top-antitop pairs.

However, the diameter is really set by the proton energy desired for the successor machine and the superconducting magnets they expect to be feasible when that machine is built. China builds MRI magnets with NbTi now so they already have most of the cryogenic technology needed. No one can yet build Nb3Sn magnets required for the desired proton machine. Or for the LHC energy upgrade.

The LEP magnets were mostly concrete. Fields were so low the amount of steel and copper needed was tiny, so these active materials were spaced out with concrete. Shrinkage over the course of construction caused some hiccups in the earliest days of LEP.

As another commented, the Daya Bay neutrino detectors are quite sophisticated. China is also working on GEMs. They make excellent scintillators.

Comment Re:Infectious diseases ... (Score 1) 493

I am 62. I had mumps, measles, chickenpox and rubella (twice) as a child. I was given both Salk and Sabin polio vaccines, and smallpox at least twice. I have kept DP up to date and wish I could still get DTP (vs DTaP). Do I have records of any but the last? None beyond whatever antibodies remain in my blood and the smallpox vaccine scar on my arm. I'd guess at least half the US population is in the same situation. Countries with sensible health care systems are a different matter.

Comment Re:Been saying that...Wrong, Simply Wrong. (Score 1) 376

There is a difference between medical devices and pharmaceuticals. MRI and CT would likely have developed in the way they did without patents because the capital requirements for practical system design and manufacture are so large. FONAR, the first MRI system, died in spite of its patents. GE, Siemens, Phillips had the capital to make it practical and cost effective. For MRI, the key advance is the pulse sequence discovered at Univ. of Aberdeen by Bill Edelstein and others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Edelstein/ When I was in the business in the mid-80s, pulse sequences weren't patented and the capabilities of MRI systems were increased enormously year to year. CT scanners also require large capital. I believe there are sufficient barriers to entry for medical imaging to eliminate patents.

Surgical procedures weren't patented until recently. Medical devices which one or a few people could invent fall in a grey area in my mind, because the barrier to entry is small as the poster wrote. OTOH, Kearns and the intermittent wiper showed that patents aren't a barrier to abuse of the small inventor.

For pharmaceuticals, requiring generic firms to conduct their own safety checks within a decade of introduction of a new drug would likely suffice as a barrier to entry for the discovers.

Comment MIT 1973 (Score 1) 573

If memory serves, you got your SB at MIT in 1973. Is there anyone else in the class of 1973 whose work you respect? Or anyone who was on campus at the time, student/faculty/staff?

Comment VA voted first thing (Score 1) 821

Given the change to standard time it was easy to be at the polling place half an hour before it opened. I was seventh in line. When the poll opened there were about fifty in line. I had checked that everything was OK with my March 2012 registration change in early September so I didn't have any trouble, unlike the earlier commenters. Why the legislature thinks reciting a name and address out loud is a fraud deterrent I'll never know.

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