Capturing Waste Heat with Quantum Mechanics

TheMatt writes: "There is a summary of a Phys.Rev.Lett. article up at Nature Science Update that describes a design for a 'quantum afterburner' that would improve the efficiency of an Otto engine. It improves the efficiency by using a laser and maser to extract energy from the hot exhaust of the engine. In fact, the process could enhance performance beyond that of the "ideal" Otto engine."

Comments

Re:first page lengthening post

[Anonymous Pancake]

why hasn't that fat faggot CmdrTaco fixed this bug yet!

Nutties El Douche

[Anonymous Coward]

Mister AC & SweetAndSourJesus, I love you both. Really, we're probably like Musketeers or triplets or some such shit. I'd love to See a FreeBSD/Scoop site side-by-side compared to any shit-pit running Linux/Slash.

-NElD

Slashdot story posted, then pulled down

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone else see that story posted...and then pulled right down off Slashdot?

It was about LinuxWorld, posted by good ole tim.

Re:Slashdot story posted, then pulled down

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, what is the deal? I had a FP on there.

Re:Dear Slashdot Trolls ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Im gonna stick my fat hairy dick in your ass and rape you till you bleed BITCH! DIE DIE DIE!

Re:Dear Slashdot Trolls ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I say yu0=fag0rt!!! Hal hal!!1

Re:Dear Slashdot Trolls ...

[Anonymous Coward]

We would be glad to, as long as you stop bitchslapping posts, and banning users from moderating that happen to have opinions different than yours.

I'm drunk.

[Anonymous Coward]

I love you.

Re:I know this is OT, but

[oingoboingo]

i saw the same thing...then cynical bastard in me thinks it's because it was a story about HP preinstalling Mandrake on some of their desktop systems. bruce perens works at HP and is a notorious debian zealot. running a story about how a company that employs one of the hardest core debian fanatics around, yet then chooses to use mandrake on their desktops probably doesn't look very good for the debian loving guys at slashdot.

Re:Adsorption refrigerator to cool intake charge.

[dadaist]

Adsorp this:

A life size cow made out of butter! It's true!

Re:Dear Slashdot Trolls ...

[dadaist]

Maybe I'll waste you!

Troll, how I loathe thy name. Hallowed be thou in spirit, for thine is the kingdom of Helen.

Best troll ever: here.

Re:werd to my windows hommies

[Apostrophe Police]

1) Remove the bloat. Most linux distro's ship with way to many useless programs.

The Apostrophe Police Strike!

Re:Bring back the ASCII art!

[Anonymous Coward]

come on, give it more feeling
an ascii penis would help too

Where are you, Ed?

[dadaist]

I claim this post for Aiur.

Re:Where are you, Ed?

[dadaist]

Hey bob a rebob.

hhhey bo a re tab

Re:well, this could be nice.

Because I am lame,
I continues to writes.
Becauses I be whole, I stops to consider.
I stops to consider,
Why my voice ain't on the knoll.

Give credit where credit is due:
Mad propz to my bros in A.R.

Re:The Dada says

[dadaist]

And THIS post's for you.

Re:ASCII penis included

[Anonymous Coward]

/)))))))))
//) __ __\ DEAR "COMMANDER TACO"
C==/_o|^|o_\
| _\ )
\ '---'/ HEY GUESS WHAT ??????
_/`-. __.'_
/` \`'-,._./|\ THE REST OF US LOST OUR GAY
/ \ /`\_/\/ \ FUCKING CHILDHOOD HANDLES
/ , ||| |\ , \ WHEN WE GREW THE FUCK UP
| |:===: / | | |
| /|:~~~: | / | | LOVE, THE ENTIRE WEST COAST
\ \ '-' \/ / /
`\ \==I==[]=/ /
\o_\ |o/ P.S. NICE FUCKING POCKET
/ ) |\ PROTECTOR DIPSHIT
| /\| 8=D|/
|/| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
\ > >
| | |
|_____|__|
[_____]__]
|==|==|
/~~&\~~&\
ass ( , `~~)`~~)
"""`~~~`~~~`

Allowed HTML: <B> <I> <P> <A> <LI> <OL> <UL> <EM> <BR> <TT> <STRONG> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>

Important Stuff:

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Re:ASCII penis included

[Anonymous Coward]

ONE WORD SAYS IT ALL:
____ ___ _ ____ ____ _ _ _____ _
| _ \_ _| / \ | _ \| _ \| | | | ____| / \
| | | | | / _ \ | |_) | |_) | |_| | _| / _ \
| |_| | | / ___ \| _ <| _ <| _ | |___ / ___ \
|____/___/_/ \_\_| \_\_| \_\_| |_|_____/_/ \_\

this will have to do

[Anonymous Coward]

.-.
( )________
> ________)
( )
`-'

right?

Important Stuff:
Please try to keep posts on topic.

Try to reply to other people comments instead of starting new threads.

Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating
what has already been said.

Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.

Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be
moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your
threshold on the User Preferences Page)
Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to
CowboyNeal.

Re:this will have to do

[Anonymous Coward]

lameness filt x,-""-,-" x x x "-,-""-, er lameness f
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filter lamenes / x x> x.---. x< x x\ s filter lamene
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ameness filte {, / x,_ x x x _, x\ ,} r lameness fil
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filter l .' x x ___ x x`._.` x _ x x x x'. ameness f
ilter x_/_ x x | x_| _ _ x __ | |__ x x x \ lameness
fil .'` x `\ x | |_ | | | / _|| | / x x x x\ ter lam
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ameness x`\ x x x/ / x \_/ x\_/ x o x | x x \ filter
lameness f \ x x/_/ x x x x x x x x x \ x x | ilter
lameness fi `\ x x x x x x x x x x x /` x _/ lter la
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I think Linux is a great thing, because Linux is an alternative to Windows, and because, of all the operating systems that are at all relevant today, Unix is the best of a bad lot.

(Yes, that's right, though I've been living in Unix for more than a decade, I think Unix sucks. Read the "Unix Hater's Handbook" if you want to know why. But I'd rather run Unix than Windows or MacOS any day, because Unix sucks less. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck.)

I used Linux exclusively for most of 1995 and 1996, or thereabouts; back then, I found it to be a total nightmare. It took me three weeks to get X to drive my monitor at better than 640x400, even though Windows did 1280x1024x16 without flinching. I spent weeks fighting IRQ conflicts, trying to get PPP working, trying to find a three-button mouse that worked, and all manner of gross indecencies which do not bear mentioning in polite company.

I understand that here in this modern world, things are much better; but at the time, it was the most pathetic computing environment I had ever had the misfortune of being shanghaied into trying to sysadmin.

(And the fact that some of the problems I had were hardware problems did little to make me feel better; regardless, they were problems that were easier to solve under Windows, and problems that I would not have had at all had I been using a hardware/software combo from a ``real'' Unix vendor. I've heard all the apologies and excuses, I know the litany well.)

See, unlike most hackers, I get little joy out of figuring out how to install the latest toy. I don't get much sense of reward from having discovered how to get the Foo card to coexist with the Bar card. As far as I'm concerned, that crap is a solved problem, and not worth revisiting. That's like banging rocks together and being proud that you've re-derived fire from first principles. It's boring.

So finally I talked my boss into getting me an SGI Indy (which I've since replaced with an SGI O2) and life became joyous again. Because SGI actually knows something about building user interfaces, and about making it possible to administer a machine without being a member of the technological priesthood. For but one example, I was able to install and format a new disk on this machine through GUIs, without once having to run ``man'' and try to remember some random arcane command that I last used in 1986.

This is the part where I start getting hate mail from people, and cheerleading messages telling me to take a look at it again, because it's so much better now. I understand. I'll take your word for it. And when the time comes to replace the O2 I have today, maybe my next machine will run Linux. But as we all know, Linux is only free if your time has no value, and I find that my time is better spent doing things other than the endless moving-target-upgrade dance.

Of course, all of the software I write runs on Linux; that's the beauty of standards, and of cross-platform code. I don't have to run your OS, and you don't have to run mine, and we can use the same applications anyway!

I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more. I hope that some day it will have evolved to the point where my mom can take home a Linux box, turn it on, and get on with her life without having to become a Unix sysadmin first, and without having to give up on all the ease of use she's come to expect from allegedly less powerful operating systems.

Because, you see, what I want to do is to commoditize the OS. I want to have access to all the applications that I need to do the things that I need to do, regardless. Why should someone have to retrain themselves to use a new application that does the same basic thing as the old application, just because something as trivial as the operating system changed out from under them?

Operating systems matter deeply to programmers, but in the big picture, they're old news. It's all about the network, and the applications that let you get benefit from the network. Using a computer isn't an end in itself, it's merely a means to an end. The focus must always be on the task that the person wants to accomplish, to communicate, to learn, to create, to be entertained. Insofar as the computer itself makes itself known in this process, the computer is an impediment. Do What I Mean! Be humanistic, don't get bogged down in the details.

Re:Adsorption refrigerator to cool intake charge.

[Anonymous Coward]

its not nice to talk about Cowboy Neal that way. Take that back!

Re:Dear Slashdot Trolls ...

[Anonymous Coward]

default.css:
--cut--
BLOCKQUOTE { margin: 0.1em 0 }
BLOCKQUOTE { margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px }
--cut--
maybe a little smaller, whatever.

Re:first page lengthening post

[Com2Kid]

Hey dude guess what?

SLASHDOT AUTOMATICALLY CUTS OFF LONG POSTS!

Yah yah yah, big surprise eh?

Your posts take about what, half a second to scroll by? Oh wait, not even that long!

Jeez. Get an original troll for crying out loud! No wonder CT gets fouled up and starts banning people, he has to put up with unoriginal uncreative CRAP like what you put out!

Hey you know what? I think that the sheer STUPIDITY of your post is FAR more annoying then any attempted troll value that you seek to put into it. Keep on showing yourself to be an unoriginal dunderhead with no sense of creativity at all and I guarantee you that you will piss off far more people then you will by seeking to attempt these pathetic little trolls of yours.

Unoriginal, undaring, uncreative, none risky, unoffensive. The Amish are more offensive then your pathetic little attempt at a troll.