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Juggling Molecules with Linux
An anonymous reader writes "This article at LinuxDevices.com describes an interesting project at the University of Vermont in which researchers use real-time Linux to build a laser trap that manipulates individual molecules by means of a computer-controlled laser beam. The project makes use of RTLinux, a real-time enhanced version of Linux that allows the system to process interrupts every 50 microsecond, sample new data, and timeshare the laser beam position. 'If the computer failed to respond, for even a millisecond, then we would drop the balls,' explained one of the researchers. Gives a whole new meaning to BSOD, eh?"
...is doing something useful. Just kidding! Don't kill me. Mod Flaimbait, please
When it's juggling a molecule, a bowling ball, and a chainsaw, then I'll be impressed;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Because this is Slashdot.
The slam on Microsoft is compulsory.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I think it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase: "don't drop the ball!"
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Dr. Torvalds: You know, I have one simple request... and that is to have penguins with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. Now evidently, my megaloptic Naval colleage informs me that IT'S A TRAP!
yes, and TFA is wrong they're actually using MS Linux which includes the BSOD feature. Also all the operators are clad in blue body paint and if the molecule is dropped a huge blue screen falls from the sky and crushes them to death.
air and light and time and space
[note to mods: If you don't get the joke you should read the other headlines on today's index]
;-)
Should read:
"World's fastest Linux-based laser trap"
...but does it have enough horsepower to generate a mime trapped in a box? I doubt it.
Fedore Core 3 comes with an application for juggling molecules. It's called "katomic". It actually allows one to assemble molecules from its constituent atoms. The miracles of modern science never cease to amaze me.
You want a BSOD, eh? How about this: You build a gun that has an actuator attached to the serial port of a computer running Windows NT. The computer sends, via the serial port, a watchdog-style "keep alive" signal, say, every 100 microseconds. The actuator is designed such that once powered on, if the watchdog timer skips a single beat or delivers it too late, the gun is fired.
At this time, a volunteer (say, Gill Bates) would be tied to a chair and placed in front of this gun, while the Windows NT system runs Exchange and IIS, and while a user browses pr0n sites via Internet Explorer. This is, actually, quite a safe experiment, as we all know that Windows NT never crashes.
The lunix is on the grass
The lunix is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the lunix on the path
-- Fink Ployd.
Oh well, what the hell...
BSOD = Ball Shouldn't Occasionally Drop. I've never seen this meaning before, so it's new. Of course it has nothing to do with Windows (you didn't think it had, did you?) ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I juggle molecules all the time - In fact, I never juggle anything EXCEPT molecules.
Of course, I usually juggle lots of them at once.
I dunno. I think they'd get better results if they reversed the polarity on their trap coil couplers.
* chirp * chirp *
But that wouldn't have been a whole new meaning!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.