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Here is something to help you better gauge the risks. The exposure received by this worker is closer to the zero mark than the next mark above it (250). http://jmsc.hku.hk/sites/healt...

You CLEARLY have no understanding of the differences between radiation and radionuclides and no understanding of external and internal exposure.

Repeat after me R.A.D.I.O.N.U.C.L.I.D.E..A.B.S.O.R.P.T.I.O.N

According to established radiation science and statistics,

Citation please. Specifically which statistics and which science are you referring to?

Here is something to help you better gauge the risks. The exposure received by this worker is closer to the zero mark than the next mark above it (250).

http://jmsc.hku.hk/sites/healt...

The real breakthrough in LED lighting is getting rid of electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. Those are currently the components with the shortest life. See "Elimination of an Electrolytic Capacitor in AC/DC Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Driver With High Input Power Factor and Constant Output Current" Variations on that technology are now going into production LED lighting units. This should push unit lifetimes up from 20,000 hours to that of the LEDs, 40,000 or so. (Provided the quality of the LEDs doesn't slip.)

TCP will re-transmit dropped packets, but this means by definition that some will arrive out of order.

True, there is no way to assure that the packets travel over every hop in lockstep, with non getting lost. But you are conflating problems of the physical layer with problems at the application layer.

TCP's handling of re-transmits is entirely unseen by the application.

Any needed re-ordering is handled by the TCP stack, way down there on the Transport layer.and any competent TCP Stack will handle this for you without the need of excessive buffering. You will never know it happened.

The algorithms employed for assuring proper order delivery by the transport layer of the TCP stack have steadily evolved over the years. There are some summaries of the various methods that have been tried. The interesting thing about this is that out-of-order detection and re-ordering methods can and have evolved separately from the upper layers over time, as they requiring only an agreement on the control packets involved (ACCs). As a result some routers use totally different detection and re-ordering strategies than others.

As an applications programmer, you never have to worry about the order or missing data. It will be there or the link has failed.

Like many people in China, I use Google to search. Unfortunately, Google is a proven tool of American hegemony and if you believe otherwise, please provide citations that refute the facts in the above article. Being able to see search results and not click on them is not particularly helpful. If we could have a sitelist that keeps up with what the Golden Shield blocks, it would make Google a lot more useful. Otherwise, Google is just helping imperialism and impeding socialism. What would the workers in Wisconsin say about that? What if the people of Wisconsin could, with a mouseclick, be inoculated against the Koch Brothers' poisonous propaganda, much like China has been inoculated against the lies of the Dalai Lama clique?

I teach a class on pc repair, and this "problem" is right at the top of my list of "things to learn to teach".

I find that most of the people that take the class bring a lot of misconceptions which are very hard to overcome in some cases, but, I also find that the younger the person that takes the class, the easier it is for them to accepts the facts that I teach. (Class participants are anywhere from 16 to 46 years old, the majority are from 23 to 36)

Kids know more about this subject than we want to believe, its just trained out of them by punishing them for making us feel stupid when we get asked a question we dont have the answer to.

With that in mind, I'll present the major findings of my research:

Books to read:

The demon haunted world, science as a candle in the dark. Carl sagan

Great book that touches on the need for critical thinking and the meta aspects to evaluating information, as well as very specific cases whre it is applied. (And beautifully written too, engaging and awe inspiring, i wish i could write like this man)

A minigude to critical thining - Joe Lau - Depatment of filosophy University of Hong Kong

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/misc/miniguide.pdf

This paper is useful for introducing the general concept of critical thinking as well as the necessary skills. Very brief and very concise.

There is more, this is just a starting point.

Things to teach:

• People lie!, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not, but people do not always tell you things that are true, just what they believe to be true.
• People (as a general rule), accept new information on any given topic as factual and without challenge, any information that contradicts what is already "known" is interpreted as an attempt to deceive for some unknown purpose. (This is healthy skepticism at work, the problem is not exercising it earlier)
• Do not accept statements at face value! Always try to understand what is meant by what is said. Eg. a layman tells you that he cannot access his email, he might mean:
  • The computer wont turn on.
  • I can't find Outlook Express
  • No internet access
  • I don't know how to check my email, and so on.
• Accept information with varying degrees of trust. Eg. Factual, trustworthy, tentative, not trustworthy, unreliable source, etc. How to be wrong. It does not mean to learn to fail, thats a different skillset, it means that you wont always be right and that its very hard to always be right on the first try. People who are willing to pursue something even if its been proven ineffective, lack this skill. And it usually hurts other people more than the person responsible, thats why its hard to detect when youre wrong.

Most important skill to learn:

Hold yourself to the most rigorous standards you can think of, even more so than other people. You will find that even if youre wrong and everybody knows about it, they still wont tell you, this is because most people will not apreciate being proven wrong either, so the only person that can keep you honest is yourself.

Quick, someone call the police, apparently these guys are breaking the law. http://www.physics.hku.hk/~tboyce/sf/topics/lightf reeze/lightfreeze.html

(Getting too interested in censorship issues in a totalitarian country is usually not the short path to a happy prosperous life.)

So is discussing the situation in China online from within the country ;) But I guess your online discussions are safely encrypted.

Not every instance of censorship is precisely equivalent, in either a practical or a moral sense.

Right, but I'm surprised that when it comes to doing business, moral is no category at all. Not even for those who are "not evil". Refusing to stay in the Chinese market would at least have been a signal, and it might have been more "helpful" if the Chinese asked themselves "Why is google pulling out?" than just seeing the "local regulations" notice every once in a while. They might actually have asked their government and authorities some more questions compared to the present situation (see link below).

please name one instance -- just one, is all I ask -- of the Chinese government relaxing its censorship in any way whatsoever in response to a foreign company's refusal to comply.

Not sure if there are any, but would public pressure from the Chinese population count? I think it's not really a matter of making the government change its regulations, but merely a question of whether you want to take a tough stance - or just earn big bucks in a huge, promising market and bend your moral to serve that purpose. BTW, I don't know nor suggest what's good for the Chinese people, but I do dislike the way google handles this.

From dating a Chinese woman for a year and a half

OK, I'll buy into that... even though we're on /. (SCNR)

Here is a half decade old article that describes the process well. It also uses units such as nm and Kelvin instead of thigs like "seven times around the earth" and "about 450 degrees below zero"

http://www.physics.hku.hk/~tboyce/sf/topics/lightf reeze/lightfreeze.html

Java is already fragmented. The result of open sourcing Java will actually be consolidation, i.e. killing of competing VMs. And a huge open source test suite will greatly benefit all surviving JVMs, which is a good thing.

How can you not see this?

Javas problem is not that it might get fragmented, the problem is that it IS fragmented. Do something about it! Let Java free!

Java is already fragmented. The result of open sourcing Java will actually be consolidation, i.e. killing of competing VMs. And a huge open source test suite will greatly benefit all surviving JVMs, which is a good thing.

How can you not see this?

Javas problem is not that it might get fragmented, the problem is that it IS fragmented. Do something about it! Let Java free!

Don't be shortsighted:

More efficient heating includes: radiant heat instead of forced air [not exactly new technology]; better insulation techniques; making use of geo-regulation of heating and cooling costs; amoung many others. Do a Google search for sustainable development or check this out: http://www.arch.hku.hk/research/BEER/sustain.htm#1 .1

The excuses listed for not using renewable resources almost don't make sense!

Endangered Species protection areas are definately the exception to land use and don't warrant a response.

Wind studies have shown that many areas that were previously though to not have enough wind to support a turbine may contain areas (such as on a ridge) where the winds are consistant enough

Solar is a great way to offset air conditioning demand since availabilty is high when demand is high. Solar is also used in many remote locations to power lights and safety equipment

The other arguments are just plain negative thinking! Oceans are not privately owned, upper class populations are probably more likely to invest in alternative energy (like w/hybrid cars), and who said anything about destroying habitats?

There are definately NIMBY cases where people complain about windmills etc. but I always say I would rather see a windmill than not be able to see the whole mountain because of the smog.

Mentifex was the original author of Mind.Forth, Mind.html and the AI4U ISBN 0595654371 textbook of artificial intelligence.

Mind.Forth was a primitive artificial mind written in Win32Forth for robots and based on a Theory of Cognitivity for artificial intelligence. AI functionality was developed by Mentifex first in Mind.Forth and ported subsequently into the Mind.html Seed AI for propagation throughout the installed user base.

Mind.html was an artificial intelligence coded by Mentifex initially in JavaScript for Web migration and in Forth for robots, evolving towards full civil rights on a par with human beings and towards superintelligence beyond any human IQ.

The AI4U textbook was reviewed falsely and viciously but found its way into libraries at such prestigious universities as the University of Hong Kong, North Carolina State University and Texas A&M University.

Technological Singularity was launched almost single-handedly by Mentifex against all odds and in the face of desperate opposition from the FAQ-writing AI Establishment and the Singularity wannabes whose revenue stream was threatened by the free Open-Source AI software released into the Web Wilds by Mentifex.

It's difficult really to tell from the article, but is it a distributed JVM? Or just software to migrate java processes from one computer to another? I've personally tested a distributed JVM on a small beowolf cluster: http://www.cs.hku.hk/~clwang/projects/JESSICA2.htm l It essentially keeps a single distributed heap for all of the objects, automatically migrates objects from one node to another, and migrates threads as well. To the programmer, it looks like a single computer, although you have to make sure as a programmer to utilize as many threading resources, and to decouple as many independent processes as possible to help the VM distribute resources better. This seems like a high price, for a less ambitious technology. -Jason Thomas.

You forgot: - The Humongous ***********************

Gravity extends throughout the universe. Good luck finding a spot devoid of gravity. I don't know what you are talking about, but here is an article on freezing light if you wish to re-educate yourself.

http://www.physics.hku.hk/~tboyce/sf/topics/lightf reeze/lightfreeze.html

~10 invites here.

Get them while they're hot!

Thank god. Please mod parent up, so people will stop suggesting /dev/*random.

Can you comment on a few other random topics?

Have you used the Diehard tests and if so, how do you feel they compare to the 800-22 tests you used.

What do you think of the tests attempting to show anomalies in random number generation around the time of significant (to humans) events?

Do you think the type of test used on prngs in this paper could add any value to the tests you are already using?

While reading K. Popper my then wife asked me what I was studying. I replied that I was studying the hypothetical-deductive method, being a smart assed lawyer she replied: "You mean trail and error." I'm not sure, even now, that in its bare essentials they aren't one in the same.

> Slashdot: News for Nerds, Physics for the Vague.

Tell me about it. For a website that fashions itself as one for nerds, the speed of bicycle thing sounded as bad as Opera talking physics.

Is it so hard to specify the specific value to which the beam of light was slowed down to? At the very least, they could have linked to a slightly more detailed article on freezing light.

Almost sounds like some arts major posted something in physics that went over their heads

There's a lot of reason to believe that negative energy is just a silly concept.

Negative energy isn't a silly concept. For one of the explanations I've found of this, see this Scientific American article (which appears to date from when that magazine was worth something scientifically), about halfway down. But the more you have, the shorter the time, and the longer the time you want to have it, the less you can have. I don't know the equation but the first-order behavior is something like:

some_really_small_constant = NE_quantity * NE_duration

In other words, it's useless for any human-scale engineering.

I mention this because I agree with your overall argument; as we dig more and more deeply into physics, where some physics fan boys see more and more possible loopholes, I, on closer examination of the relevant finds, find all the loopholes closing all the more tightly. FTL is "receding", and while that proves nothing, the smart money is on its continued impossibility.

I'll try again since you apparently didn't see it the first time:
----
Capitalism works every time it's tried, thank you very much.

From this page:

"Economic freedom has been gaining ground around the world," Walker said. "This has spurred a worldwide increase in wealth, unprecedented poverty reduction, and an impressive lowering in inequality, as numerous peer-reviewed, fact-based research papers have shown."

Econimies with a high degree of freedom are Capitalist. Economies with low freedom are generally Communist. Those in the middle are Socialist.

So, Capitalism increases wealth, decreases the disparity between rich a poor, and reduces poverty. Sounds pretty good to me.

Capitalism works every time it's tried, thank you very much.

From this page:

"Economic freedom has been gaining ground around the world," Walker said. "This has spurred a worldwide increase in wealth, unprecedented poverty reduction, and an impressive lowering in inequality, as numerous peer-reviewed, fact-based research papers have shown."

Econimies with a high degree of freedom are Capitalist. Economies with low freedom are generally Communist. Those in the middle are Socialist.

So, Capitalism increases wealth, decreases the disparity between rich a poor, and reduces poverty. Sounds pretty good to me.

we can boot the whole OS from the net with ease.

... which is here. If true, I would have thought it would merit some mention.

I just learned that the University of Hong Kong, the largest university in Hong Kong, has just closed its electrical engineering department due to lack of funding and enrollment. However, the Chinese University of Hong Kong still maintains its EE department.

There's no way Hong Kong can catch up technologically with mainland China now, not without heavy academic research in new arenas of technology.

So this finding is not necessarily a surprise, and it may not hold for languages that are similar to each other (such as English and Spanish).

Of course, life could probably exist in a totally different paradigm, but it's kind of hard to design space probes or experiments to test for the unknown.

It seems to me there is a freedom in programming that is like the freedom in art and that arises from the fact that the full range of abstract mathematics is available to the programmer, rather than just that which will work in the real world and because there is an immediacy of implementation and an intimacy between idea and expression like that which there is between composer and piano keyboard. Software patents are generally directed toward the utilitarian aspects of programming - it's fundamental techniques and ideas, yet strangely it is obvious to everyone that such kinds of patents if applied to literature or cinematography or music would have only a detrimental effect.

It is interesting to wonder if one day artists (or publishers of art) might foolishly decide to embark on a patent land grab as is occurring in the software world. If you think that is not possible because of the technicity/usefulness requirements of patents, consider the Pollock techniques of splatter painting at a certain constant average fractal dimension, or the Da Vinci low frequency technique of causing a sense of elusivity and enigma. (Check out Semir Zeki's book; "Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain" and much other work on the science of perception). Recent work in analysis of music too has resulted in (among other things) researchers claiming to have found techniques for generating 'hit songs' automatically. It can only be a matter of time before one cannot engage in any activity at all without infringing someone else's exclusive right to use the techniques associated with it. :)

I googled for some information and came up with this site.

Here are some relevant quotes:

Housing is a particularly severe problem. The quality built into a modern home is good, but cost and size are a different matter. With the rapid appreciation of land values in the 1980s in Japan, a four-bedroom, ranch-style, North American house on an acre of land and valued at maybe US$250,000 would have cost many millions in Tokyo. The most that people could hope for would be a 3DK (3 bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen plus, of course, a bath, bathroom and entryway) squeezed into, perhaps, 700 square feet. But the price was so high that banks were beginning to write 60-year '3-generation' mortgages which would be finally paid off by the grandson of the signer. With prices at such a level, inheritance was a problem. The tax on inheritances ran to 70% at the top end and, with many homes valued toward a million dollars, most salarymen were forced into deep debt or would have to sell the family home to pay the tax.

In the early 1970s, pollution was a problem, especially in large cities like Tokyo. Policemen were provided with oxygen if they had to direct traffic at a busy intersection and smog alerts rose from 16 a year in 1960 to 150 a year in 1970: school children and those with breathing problems were advised not to go outside on those days. To a large extent, air pollution has been solved and from time to time Tokyo's residents can even see Mt. Fuji once again.

What has not been solved is commuting. Even if the commuters' ribs are not broken, the time spent on public transport has increased from about 60 minutes in 1960 to and average of 90 minutes. The time spent is a serious degradation of the quality of life, even if the trains run exactly on time, are air conditioned, and have stock quotations and weather forecasts on LCD monitors at each door.

As the economy has grown, pressures have increased to deal with questions of living conditions and the quality of life. Pollution has been reduced and more households are connected to the sewer system in the cities, but there is pressure on local and national governments to invest more to improve living conditions. Local governments especially have been responsive, but the national government controls the bulk of public money and therefore long-term improvement depends on it.

Now that you mention it. Pollock the movie pretty much s u c k e d. I had a professor at UF that taught art appreciation or something like that, and he just lauded Pollock as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think Pollock's work proves the point that people consider too many things art. People drop the word all too freely. You could crap in a bowl, take a picture, and voila! Art is born. I look at him at work and seriously wonder if a 2 year old couldn't do the same thing and no one other than the 2 year old's mother would probably consider the child's work art. I am not arguing that you can't consider it art if you want to, I personally don't. I am just saying that the word "art" has become bastardized by over use. People slap it on everything from a a beer can to the Mona Lisa.

I'm pretty sure that all life needs water. You may be thinking of extremophiles, which live in conditions that are near boiling of water, etc, but they still need water. Water is life. It's not just thinking inside the box - it's basic physics. Water is a very strong simple dipole (hydrogen + carbon is not, hydrogen + nitrogen is too weak, and hydrogen + fluorine is not: ditto for H+Li, H+B, etc.) and dipoles are needed to form complex chemistries that wouldn't exist elsewhere - weak bonds, etc. Even things that live in completely arid conditions need water - they covet it like mad. That's because water allows certain reactions to occur that would never occur, and it rips ionic compounds apart. You'd never get sodium chloride apart without a dipolar compound, and a strong one at that, which means you'd never get sodium or chloride into your chemistry, which means less variation.

"Arid" and "extreme temperatures/pressures" don't equal "no water" - if water can't exist, you don't have life - at least, not life based on chemistry, and not prolific life. Try forming a chemistry based on some wacko chemistry and you'll probably have the simple problem of not enough of the atoms exist. We're based on H, and CNO. If you ignore helium and neon (which are not chemically reactive) those are the four most abundant elements in the Universe. That's not being anthrocentric. It's cosmology. I doubt it's coincidence.

Here for more.

An oxygen atmosphere is looked for simply because it can't exist unless it's being sustained by living organisms. It's a marker signature for life.

With a bit more work we could turn the disks into nanotube interfaces to a frozen light held inside the platter. The article on that wouldn't say how many paperbacks it can hold, more like "If you could convert your body into pure data, you could store N million skinny people (or M million fat people)." Sure it would have to be kept cold, but big deal. And that's not even new technology, what's so great about a lousy 90 GB?

This could be a problem if there's no such thing as negative mass/energy.

His attempts to become a cyborg from what I understand consisted of little more than putting a chip in his body which would open a door as he walked towards it. How is this that different from: having the chip in your pocket, sticking it to your arm with some sort of patch, etc.

I worked in the lab which built the door-opening, PC-booting stuff at Reading. What we didn't tell the countless media hacks was that he had the implant removed after a few weeks, and that a Smart Card in his back pocket was exactly what was opening the doors ;o)

He was/is, however, very competent at teaching Control Theory. He had me understanding Nyquist in a few weeks, which is saying something. Unfortunately, as I graduated, he seemed to have laid claim to work done by other people in the department, causing several good staff to leave.

It is a pity that Cybernetics is reduced by Warwick to robotic gizmos, when it should really be known as a meta-science or scientific philosophy. Its applicability is far beyond robots and just the technological, to business models, large-scale human behaviour, meteorology, etc., etc.

including a grain that was nearly made extinct by the Spaniards

You mean Amaranth? Not extinct; I like to eat it like popcorn.

Go to the website. Notice the drawings. Also notice the dimensions 166*133 max. All of the pictures on the website suggest the bottom of the tower (that is above ground) will be smaller. I think this is also hinted at with (max) in the dimensions. Plus the base diameter is 133*100. I still say it will fall down. It doesn't have any good footing.

if or when they finish this building. It will be 1200 meters tall, and have 300 floors.