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Comment here is a super simple solution and answer (Score 1) 467

It's very possible that either or both of your random number generator or AES has some artifacts that make them stand out. Even if you can't find anyone with such knowledge, you shouldn't be too sure that they don't exist. So, just do this:

Run your random number generator numbers through your AES encryption to create your "random" blocks. The encrypted real data and the encrypted random data will be absolutely indistinguishable.

Media

RIAA President Says Copyright Law "Isn't Working" 473

Kilrah_il writes "Apperantly not satisfied with the current scope of the DMCA, RIAA President Cary Sherman wants to broaden the scope of the law to have content providers such as YouTube and Rapidshare liable for illegal content found on their sites. 'The RIAA would strongly prefer informal agreements inked with intermediaries ... We're working on [discussions with broadband providers], and we'd like to extend that kind of relationship — not just to ISPs, but [also to] search engines, payment processors, advertisers ... [But], if legislation is an appropriate way to facilitate that kind of cooperation, fine.' Notice the update at the end of the article pointing out that Sherman is seeking for voluntary agreements with said partners and not to enact broader laws without their cooperation."
Patents

Touchpad Patent Holder Tsera Sues Just About Everyone 168

eldavojohn writes "Okay, well, maybe not everyone but more than twenty companies (including Apple, Qualcomm, Motorola and Microsoft) are being sued for a generic patent that reads: 'Apparatus and methods for controlling a portable electronic device, such as an MP3 player; portable radio, voice recorder, or portable CD player are disclosed. A touchpad is mounted on the housing of the device, and a user enters commands by tracing patterns with his finger on a surface of the touchpad. No immediate visual feedback is provided as a command pattern is traced, and the user does not need to view the device to enter commands.' Sounds like their may be a few companies using that technology. The suit was filed on July 15th in the favoritest place ever to file patent claim lawsuits: Texas Eastern District Court. It's a pretty classic patent troll; they've been holding this patent since 2003 and they just noticed now that everyone and his dog are using touchpads to control portable electronic devices."

Comment Experiment resolves century-old optics mystery (Score 1) 265

Since the early 20th Century physicists have known that light carries momentum, but the way this momentum changes as light passes through different media is much less clear. Two rival theories of the time predicted precisely the opposite effect for light incident on a dielectric: one suggesting it pushes the surface in the direction light is travelling; the other suggesting it drags the surface backwards towards the source of light. After 100 years of conflicting experimental results, a team of experimentalists from China believe they have finally found a resolution.

Weilong She and his colleagues from Sun Yat-Sen University have studied the effect of light at the interface of air and a silica filament and they find that light exerts a push force on the surface (Phys Rev Lett 101243601) âoeThis paper is a beautiful piece of work and may become one of the classic papers on the momentum of lightâ said Ulf Leonhardt a researcher in transformation optics at the University of St Andrews, UK.

The authors suggest this finding could now pave the way for new applications like highly efficient fusion using laser âcompressionâ(TM).
100 year riddle

Hermann Minkowski had proposed in 1908 that light momenta is proportional to a materialâ(TM)s refractive index then the following year, another German theorist, Max Abraham proposed the opposite â" momentum is inversely proportional to a materialâ(TM)s refractive index.

        This paper is a beautiful piece of work and may become one of the classic papers on the momentum of light Ulf Leonhardt, University of St Andrews

It was suggested that this debate should be resolved experimentally but it proved to be notoriously difficult to record the momentum of light in a dielectric. In the seventies it seemed like the mystery was finally solved using a simple experiment involving an air-water interface. Conservation of momentum inferred that if Minkowsi was right, the water surface would compress slightly as light rays pass through, but if Abraham was correct it would bulge. A bulge was witnessed and Abraham was declared the victor.

Unfortunately, later in the same year further analysis showed the bulge to be the result of an unrelated optical effect; the debate was once again thrown open.
21st Century makeover

She and colleagues have now finally overcome these difficulties by replacing the water surface with a nanometre silica filament. âoeWe report direct observation of a push force on the end face of the silica filament exerted by the outgoing lightâ said She. Given this result, Minkowski has been declared the new winner and light momenta is directly proportional to the material it is travelling through. âoeThe experiment represents a modern form of a beautifully simple ideaâ said Leonhardt.

One application that may spring from this knowledge is a more precise technique for laser-induced inertially-confined fusion: a method of producing fusion energy by compressing a fuel capsule made to high density. A series of incoherent laser beams incident on a transparent dielectric ball in a vacuum would cause it to shrink under pressure to achieve nuclear fusion.

Mansud Mansuripur from the University of Arizona recognizes the potential of radiation pressure for inertially-confined fusion but he warns that She and colleagues have only considered electromagnetic pressure without taking account of mechanical forces. âoeA correct accounting for the deformation of the silica filament in the reported experiments would have required a complete balancing of the momentaâ he said.
About the author

James Dacey is a reporter for physicsworld.com

Comment Trying to be objective. (Score 1) 715

There were a combination of reasons that the set rules of the past worked in the past, and a different combination of reasons will make some different set rules make sense in the future. But from here, reasons are all in flux. No set of rules could ever match this changing landscape. For the time being, we are bound to live amidst a fair amount of chaos.

The Courts

UMG Calls Infringement Damages "Excessive" 126

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Why would UMG, one of the four major RIAA members, consider an infringement award 'grossly excessive'? Naturally, because they were the ones ordered to pay it. While they had no trouble with Jammie Thomas being ordered to pay $222k, some 13,214 times the actual costs, they thought that being ordered to pay ten times the actual damages in Bridgeport v. Justin Combs was just too much. Then again, maybe that's why they didn't complain back when the increased statutory damages section was cut from the PRO-IP Act? Now if they could just cut the rest of the act."

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