Comment Heisenberg Compensator (Score 1) 104
So does this negate the need for the Heisenberg compensator?
The First Room-Temperature Superconductor Has Finally Been Found (sciencenews.org) 102
Joe2020 shares a report from Science News: Now, scientists have found the first superconductor that operates at room temperature -- at least given a fairly chilly room. The material is superconducting below temperatures of about 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), physicist Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues report October 14 in Nature. The team's results "are nothing short of beautiful," says materials chemist Russell Hemley of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not involved with the research. However, the new material's superconducting superpowers appear only at extremely high pressures, limiting its practical usefulness.
Dias and colleagues formed the superconductor by squeezing carbon, hydrogen and sulfur between the tips of two diamonds and hitting the material with laser light to induce chemical reactions. At a pressure about 2.6 million times that of Earth's atmosphere, and temperatures below about 15 degrees C, the electrical resistance vanished. That alone wasn't enough to convince Dias. "I didn't believe it the first time," he says. So the team studied additional samples of the material and investigated its magnetic properties.
Superconductors and magnetic fields are known to clash -- strong magnetic fields inhibit superconductivity. Sure enough, when the material was placed in a magnetic field, lower temperatures were needed to make it superconducting. The team also applied an oscillating magnetic field to the material, and showed that, when the material became a superconductor, it expelled that magnetic field from its interior, another sign of superconductivity. The scientists were not able to determine the exact composition of the material or how its atoms are arranged, making it difficult to explain how it can be superconducting at such relatively high temperatures. Future work will focus on describing the material more completely, Dias says.
Dias and colleagues formed the superconductor by squeezing carbon, hydrogen and sulfur between the tips of two diamonds and hitting the material with laser light to induce chemical reactions. At a pressure about 2.6 million times that of Earth's atmosphere, and temperatures below about 15 degrees C, the electrical resistance vanished. That alone wasn't enough to convince Dias. "I didn't believe it the first time," he says. So the team studied additional samples of the material and investigated its magnetic properties.
Superconductors and magnetic fields are known to clash -- strong magnetic fields inhibit superconductivity. Sure enough, when the material was placed in a magnetic field, lower temperatures were needed to make it superconducting. The team also applied an oscillating magnetic field to the material, and showed that, when the material became a superconductor, it expelled that magnetic field from its interior, another sign of superconductivity. The scientists were not able to determine the exact composition of the material or how its atoms are arranged, making it difficult to explain how it can be superconducting at such relatively high temperatures. Future work will focus on describing the material more completely, Dias says.
Comment Re:Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score 1) 140
I used to work in the utility boring industry designing boring machines and consulting. There is nothing toxic in what Facebook left. The drilling fluid is bentonite (clay from Wyoming) & biodegradable polymer drilling fluid additives which are mixed with fresh water. The drill string is just steel pipe. None of these materials are toxic to the environment. Recovery efforts would cause much more environmental damage than leaving it there.
Boring is the preferred method to install buried cables in environmentally sensitive areas as it causes much less damage to the environment than open cutting. From a cost standpoint Facebook is paying much more to have this bored than open cutting so they are actually trying to do the right thing for a change.
Comment Re:Where is the User choice in all of this (Score 1) 203
Do you rejoice when you get an email about an upgrade of the vending machines in the company cafeteria, or do you worry about the new machines not carrying the kind of soft drinks or candy bars you're used to? That's basically how a typical office worker feels about computers. Spend a week working helpdesk and you'll understand that very very clearly.
That's why when you manage a large pool of workstations you want the bare minimum that users need to do their work, and why you want that bare minimum to be set in stone. Otherwise you're just annoying users and adding more support tickets to your queue.
I could not agree more.
Comment Re:Build a wall! (Score 1) 170
or a yuuuuuuge beaauuuuuuttifuuul wall
Comment Re:I solved this very problem. (Score 1) 217
The biggest problem I've had over the years is getting an ISP to give me IP addresses from a good static block. If there are dynamic addresses within that block or lots of spam coming from IP addresses from your provider then you're toast. Currently have a customer I have set up email servers using AT&T uverse business DSL with static IP addresses. No problems. I'm running qmail with starttls . I used mxtoolbox to check my server and implemented all recommendations. So far I've had no problems. The customer maintains cell sites for all the major cell companies - Verizon, Tmobile, Sprint, AT&T, etc and uses the server mainly to communicate with them with no problems.
Comment Re:couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people (Score 1) 205
Cingular Wireless was a mobile phone company from United States. Cingular is now owned by AT&T. AT&T Mobility LLC (branded and referred to as AT&T) is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. AT&T Mobility is the second largest wireless telecommunications provider in the United States behind Verizon Wireless, which has 107.7 million customers as of the third quarter of 2011.
Submission + - Lawsuit over quarter horse's clone may redefine animal breeding (latimes.com)
schwit1 writes: Lynx Melody Too, a clone of a renowned quarter horse, is at the center of a lawsuit that could change the world of animal breeding and competition.
Texas horse breeder Jason Abraham and veterinarian Gregg Veneklasen sued the American Quarter Horse Assn., claiming that Lynx Melody Too should be allowed to register as an official quarter horse. A Texas jury decided in their favor in 2013, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in January, saying there was "insufficient" evidence of wrongdoing by the association.
The Jockey Club, which registers thoroughbreds, has banned them from racing. But clones are allowed in other competitions, such as dressage and rodeo. There is little uniformity among other animal groups. The American Kennel Club has banned clones; the Cat Fanciers' Assn. has no policy yet since no one has tried to register a cloned cat.
Texas horse breeder Jason Abraham and veterinarian Gregg Veneklasen sued the American Quarter Horse Assn., claiming that Lynx Melody Too should be allowed to register as an official quarter horse. A Texas jury decided in their favor in 2013, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in January, saying there was "insufficient" evidence of wrongdoing by the association.
The Jockey Club, which registers thoroughbreds, has banned them from racing. But clones are allowed in other competitions, such as dressage and rodeo. There is little uniformity among other animal groups. The American Kennel Club has banned clones; the Cat Fanciers' Assn. has no policy yet since no one has tried to register a cloned cat.
Comment Dansguardian (Score 2) 260
Dansguardian works well on the network level and is easy to set up and configure the degree of filtering.
Comment Re:Oh hell no (Score 1) 126
I understand completely. Theft is blatantly encouraged. At least with a US company theft is the exeption rather than the rule and the thieves are a bit less direct about it or try to purvey some sort of legitimacy.
Comment Not like Ebay or Amazon (Score 2) 126
Have dealt with Alibaba twice. The first time was with a legit vendor and was fine. The second time was with a bad vendor and got shipped misrepresented junk. Alibaba sided with the vendor and cost me 200.00 USD. Dramatically different than dealing with US based similar companies. Non-existant customer service and will screw you over in a minute. Will never buy through them again.
Comment Re:For us dummies.... (Score 1) 382
Most states have laws regulating car dealers that make it difficult and expensive to open a new dealership. You also must be a dealer to sell new cars. A manufacturer, by law, must sell through a dealer and cannot sell directly to the consumer. The status quo is reinforced by dealers associations in each state (and nationally) that spend lots of money on lobbying to keep the current system intact. Tesla wants to sell direct and bypass the dealers. The dealers are fighting this tooth and nail.
Submission + - Town Releases Red Light Camera Stats (farragutpress.com)
SonicSpike writes: A transparent look at some statistics released by a small town's red-light camera program. Specifically in the last fiscal quarter 7,213 incidents were recorded, 2,673 incidents were rejected by the reviewing officer, and 662 incidents were not processed due to technical issues or lack of information. All in all 3,878 citations were issued between April I — June 30 in a town of 17,000 residents. Interestingly enough there are two nearby cities claiming that individuals "have no presumption of innocence" when accused by the red light cameras: http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2010/07/cities-ask-judge-to-toss-anti-.html
PETA Creates New Animal-Friendly Software License 356
Anders writes "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the largest animal rights organization in the world, endorse a new FLOSS license. From the article: 'The Harm-Less Permissive License (HPL) is a permissive, non copyleft, software license. It is based on the FreeBSD license but with one additional restriction; the "harm-less" clause. It prevents software, licensed under the HPL, to be used for harming humans or animals.'" I guess this leaves the bunny-fueled power plant in Stockholm out in the cold.
Why Overheard Cell Phone Chats Are Annoying 344
__roo writes "American researchers think they have found the answer to the question of why overhearing cell phone chats are annoying. According to scientists at Cornell University, when only half of the conversation is overheard, it drains more attention and concentration than when overhearing two people talking. According to one researcher, 'We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue. Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can't tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated.' Their study will be published in the journal Psychological Science."
