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Finally a cool article on /. This is extremely cool! There are a lot of problems in the real world that have extremely large sparse matrices that need to be inverted. Fluid dynamics and solutions to Maxwells equations come to mind. But I am sure there are other applications in relativity and plasma physics. Estimating a solution to a linear dynamic system of say 2^128 degrees of freedom in only 128 cycles would change a lot of things.

And... Yes, we are working very hard on building the computers.

...the telescope will be brought up by a Ariane-V Rocket
from French Guyana.
http://www.uibk.ac.at/ipoint/news/images/esa_pic_a riane_5.jpg

Blackboard insists that this new pledge affords universities a number of legal privileges, and is designed to make educators 'sleep easy at night.' Somehow, very few people seem reassured.

There is absolutely no cause for concern. The wings are not on fire.

Being in that state is nothing new.

That makes sense of why the American presence is still not appreciated.

For those who do not understand the reference, the expression "my hovercraft is full of eels" is part of the hungarian translation book sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. It happens to be here on youtube.

Or in text from http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheHungar ianPhrasebookSketch:

A Hungarian tourist (John Cleese) approaches the clerk (Terry Jones). The
tourist is reading haltingly from a phrase book.

Hungarian: I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
Clerk: Sorry?
Hungarian I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
Clerk: Uh, no, no, no. This is a tobacconist's.
Hungarian: Ah! I will not buy this *tobacconist's*, it is scratched.
Clerk: No, no, no, no. Tobacco...um...cigarettes (holds up a pack).
Hungarian: Ya! See-gar-ets! Ya! Uh...My hovercraft is full of eels.
Clerk: Sorry?
Hungarian: My hovercraft (pantomimes puffing a cigarette)...is full of eels
                      (pretends to strike a match).
Clerk: Ahh, matches!
Hungarian: Ya! Ya! Ya! Ya! Do you waaaaant...do you waaaaaant...to come
                      back to my place, bouncy bouncy?
Clerk: Here, I don't think you're using that thing right.
Hungarian: You great poof.
Clerk: That'll be six and six, please.
Hungarian: If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
                      I...I am no longer infected.
Clerk: Uh, may I, uh...(takes phrase book, flips through it)...Costs six and
              six...ah, here we are. (speaks weird Hungarian-sounding words)
Hungarian punches the clerk.

Meanwhile, a policeman (Graham Chapman) on a quiet street cups his ear as if
hearing a cry of distress. He sprints for many blocks and finally enters the
tobacconist's.

Cop: What's going on here then?
Hungarian: Ah. You have beautiful thighs.
Cop: (looks down at himself) WHAT?!?
Clerk: He hit me!
Hungarian: Drop your panties, Sir William; I cannot wait 'til lunchtime.
                        (points at clerk)
Cop: RIGHT!!! (drags Hungarian away by the arm)
Hungarian: (indignantly) My nipples explode with delight!

for the clueless

... http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/MeaningOf Life/MontyPythonstheMeaningofLife

The Silly Party, of course.

It is generally considered "dirty pool" to have someone train a replacement for any job because the end result is generally someone with all of the bad habits of their predecessor. But in this case, Bank of America is not letting someone go for bad habits, unless one considers a living wage to be a bad habit.

I would suggest this is a prime opportunity for training methodology that results in a type of Hungarian Phrasebook effect. That would be the most appropriate response to this request.

This is the classic hypothesis of why our ancestors started to stand, and there is a species of monkey that lives in grasslands now (forget what they're called though) that are standing erect as well.

Finding RIAA-free music that I like is easy and free. I even *gasp* buy RIAA-free music too! 8-0

Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

Why didn't he use some kind of missle?

Man: Well I've always said, There's nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not.

I like Chinese. They only come up to your knees.

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/Contractu alObligations/ILoveChinese

They signed Trademark agreements that aren't redistributable, making their software unfree even though the package has License: GPL in the .spec.

You can rebuild the packages, you can redistribute them. You can't claim that the resulting distribution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux -- which is fair, because it isn't. See the HOWTO on this topic.

The Hungarian phrase meaning "Can you direct me to the station?" is translated by the English phrase, "Please fondle my bum."

read the complete transcript...

Wow...a comment on a Python story...about somebody wanting to be a lumberjack...can't....resist....

The Lumberjack Song from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
Continued from Petshop, Barber, or a variety of other Python sketches....

I never wanted to do this job in the first place!
I... I wanted to be...

A LUMBERJACK!

(piano vamp)

Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of
British Columbia! With my best girl by my side!
The Larch!
The Pine!
The Giant Redwood tree!
The Sequoia!
The Little Whopping Rule Tree!
We'd sing! Sing! Sing!

Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.

CHORUS: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay,
                  He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lava-try.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.

Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch,
                    He goes to the lava-try.
                    On Wednesdays 'e goes shoppin'
                    And has buttered scones for tea.

CHORUS

I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.

Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
                    He likes to press wild flowers.
                    He puts on women's clothing
                    And hangs around.... In bars???????

CHORUS

I chop down trees, I wear high heels,
Suspendies and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa.

Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels
                    Suspendies?? and a .... a Bra????
                    (spoken, raggedly) What's this? Wants to be a *girlie*? Oh, My!
                    And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter!

CHORUS

All: He's a lumberjack, and he's okaaaaaaayyy..... (BONG)

Stolen from here: http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheLumber jackSong

Correction: There seems indeed a kind of Warp Drive as extension to the anti grav drive possible (according to the theory).

This link: http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raumf ahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf (someone else posted it already in this thread) is a modern paper about the drive (2004). Its a joint work from an austrian and a german Phd student.

The paper is 15 or some sides and quite understanable, if you don't look to close at the formulas ;D According to the paper, the magnetic fields needs to be somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 Tesla, which is quite a lot.

Just for refference: the earth has a magnetic field with the strength of ~1 Gauss.
1 Gauss is 1 * 10E-4 Tesla, so 10.000 Gauss is 1 Tesla and 20 Tesla is 200.000 times the earth magnetic field strength. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss

This page: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a11654.html gives a table about natural magnetic fields and claims man made magnetic fields can get as strong as 40 Tesla.

Another site I found is this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/05121 4220120.htm the actual record for a magnetic field is claimed as 35 Tesla there.

angel'o'sphere

Since so many people are claiming it's all bunk *without actually reading the frigging paper*, here's a link:

http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raumf ahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf

I don't claim to understand the math, but they appear to be elaborating on yet another paper that I haven't looked up yet, describing the device in question. It appears to be a detailed analysis of the actual forces generated by the device, with real honest-to-gosh numbers and all that...

Would someone who actually might understand this stuff, please comment on this paper? Everyone else posting (myself included) have no clue and I'd like to hear some *informed* opinions :-)

• Suppose an 8-dimensional universe with some wacky quantum theory invented by some dead guy no one ever heard of.
• Write a bunch of impressive-looking but disjointed and uninteresting equations.
• Conclude that it leads to whiz-bang pseudo-gravity space travel.
• Publish in the proceedings of a conference on whiz-bang space travel (not on gravity or quantum theory)
• Profit!

(OK, I just threw in that last part for Karma.)

See for yourself: http://info.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raum fahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf

This is a paper on the subject. The only thing that differentiates this from crackpot science is that it is testable. The authors won an award from AIAA for suggesting a method for testing the theory. There is no reason to believe that the theory won't be falsified.

Including Jochem Hauser and Walter Droscher's paper (PDF) that won the AIAA prize: Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device AIAA 2004-3700
http://info.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raum fahrt/guidelinesforaspacepropulsiondeveiceaiaa2004 -3700.pdf

The web site referenced at the end of the dead tree edition of the New Scientist article: http://www.heim-theory.com/

Including Jochem Hauser and Walter Droscher's paper (PDF) that won the AIAA prize: Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device AIAA 2004-3700
http://info.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raum fahrt/guidelinesforaspacepropulsiondeveiceaiaa2004 -3700.pdf

The web site referenced at the end of the dead tree edition of the New Scientist article: http://www.heim-theory.com/

But by all means please stay away from the Hungarian Phrasebook. I've found that to be somewhat less than effective.

As always, when in doubt go to the source. There you'll find that the number 65,536 refers to the density matrix. In quantum computing, the density matrix contains the phase information of the states, along with the probability of their occupation. As the matrix is Hermitian (it is the conjugate transpose of itself), only about half the elements of the matrix are independent, the other half being the conjugates of their opposites. It's a confusing way to describe the situation, as there really are only 256 states.

You know, I put 'The bookshop' sketch here. But I kept getting 'lameness' error. too many junk characters.
so instead, I'll post a link:
David Coperfield with one 'P'

... it is scratched.

Better get the Monty Python out of the way too...

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/PreviousR ecord/TheAustralianTableWineSketch.html

Well, if we're going to bring up Monty Python, then I think someone better mention the Being Eaten by a Crocodile sketch, as well.

They don't need fancy CGI for that. Monty Python had a knight with 3 heads and 2 arms :-)

Actually, in Scotland, don't you have "The Queen's Royal McKamikaze Highlanders"?

DVDs because the multiple languages and subtitles are a great way to learn a new language. Cartoons because animation has simpler phrases.

While this can be an excellent motivator, it can be a pretty hard way to learn, because the subtitles are often just vague paraphrases. I remember one DVD translating, "I want to grab your butt", into "I want to hug you" (and this was just a plain "kids" anime DVD). I can just imagine the poor student saying that to someone .... ;-)

(Shades of Monty Python's Hungarian Phrasebook sketch ....)

Here's the script of the origional Spam sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus:

The Spam Sketch

I believe it was out of this sketch that spam came to mean something there was plenty of, but you didn't want...

1.)
Austria != Australia
In Austria there are NO kangaroos, but the Alps, Mozart, Beethoven, Sissy, Schwarzenegger and the river danube in the middle of europe!

2.)
It should not be "Hans J. Briegal of the Australian Academy of Sciences"

but

"Hans J. Briegel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences"

Read more at the University of Innsbruck/Austria page:
http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c705/c705114/

Blade Runner is awsome. Everytime I see the cityscapes and the hear the music that was used in those scenes I get chills down my spine. I'd love to live in a dark, gritty Blade Runner style world.

The music was by Vangelis who composed the soundtracks for many other movies including "Chariots of Fire" and "Antartica".
One of my favourite tracks was "I'll find my way home" which was really a haunting melody.

From the article: Gender is a non-issue... If there's one thing [Raven] hates, it's being type-cast as a "chick hacker".

What a fantastic way to start off an interview: with something the interviewee doesn't consider in any way important! Do these people actually objectively read what they write?

Obligatory Python reference: "And did you write this music in the sheds?"

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....

Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency....

Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....

Our *four*...no...

*Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

Thanks to these folks for the quote!

Two Serbian men, aged 38 and 33, and a Hungarian woman aged 32 have been released on bail until 30 March.

Well, if she hadn't been arrested for cheating at the casino, she probably would have been arrested at the tobacconist anyway...

heres the actual link

e OfBrian/brian.htm>Title Goes Here</a>

would produce a clickable link when posted as HTML (i think it even works with 'plain old text', which it SHOULDNT)

Can we have your liver, then?

I think you mean nudge, nudge.

Call me a nit-picker, but Black Knight clearly states "NONE shall pass", although it's still a likely Tolkien reference. Full description of the scene is here.

For those just down off the tree, the original post talks about Monty Python's 1974 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The movie was recently mentioned by soon-to-be-nearly-knight Bill Gates as being his only source of information on how/why knighthood is given.

No, he means Fetchez.

Aah. And you try telling the young people of today that, and they won't believe you!

Four Yorkshiremen

Note also that RH does make SRPMs of updates to RHEL freely available for download. So such a distribution can benefit from RH's updates/patches/security fixes.

One of these I have here is "White Box Linux". Its web page specifically asks that it not be linked to from /., and I'll comply with that request. Use Google to find it, if you really do want to get a copy (via BitTorrent) of its RC1 ISOs. There is also a mini-HOWTO on rebuilding RHEL at http://www.uibk.ac.at/zid/software/unix/linux/rhel -rebuild.htm and an associated mailing list at http://www.uibk.ac.at/zid/software/unix/linux/rhel -rebuild-l.html.

For some ex-RH users, this kind of "unsupported forked varient from RHEL3" may be a better choice than Fedora, without paying $$$ for official RHEL.

Jonathan

Note also that RH does make SRPMs of updates to RHEL freely available for download. So such a distribution can benefit from RH's updates/patches/security fixes.

One of these I have here is "White Box Linux". Its web page specifically asks that it not be linked to from /., and I'll comply with that request. Use Google to find it, if you really do want to get a copy (via BitTorrent) of its RC1 ISOs. There is also a mini-HOWTO on rebuilding RHEL at http://www.uibk.ac.at/zid/software/unix/linux/rhel -rebuild.htm and an associated mailing list at http://www.uibk.ac.at/zid/software/unix/linux/rhel -rebuild-l.html.

For some ex-RH users, this kind of "unsupported forked varient from RHEL3" may be a better choice than Fedora, without paying $$$ for official RHEL.

Jonathan

There's already (an out of date) HOWTO on this:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Rebuild mini-HOWTO

If they did, they'd likely start with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Rebuild mini-HOWTO. The HOWTO is a little out of date, but there is a mailing list.

RHEL 3.0 is trickier than RHEL 2.1, because it's apparently not designed to be self hosting. Typically, you build a new distribution with the tools in the previous version, then rebuild it with its own tools. It seems that Red Hat no longer does that.