I disagree. This isn't about closed vs open source, this is about decent programming. Comments in code are neccessary and a minimal requirement for any project. But far less important than most people realise. Most code should be self documenting.
At least add one line to any function explaining what the function does, what its input is and what it returns. Isn't: template<typename InputIterator> typename iterator_traits<InputIterator>::value_type sum(InputIterator begin, const InputIterator& end) enough?
I don't understand this hatred for comments and the "code-is-its-own-documentation"-philosophy. I really don't. If your code is unreadable, then it is bad (see your example). Oh wait... I think I just had a "Whoosh" moment... I did, didn't I? Somebody mod parent up +1 Funny
Air Conditioning systems do not "Remove" heat, they move it. This is why most large air conditioning systems sit outside, because they unit themselves are giving off a substantial portion of the heat that they are moving from the original locations. Your air conditioner was only pushing most of the heat out of the area of the server.
The impossibility of a water based fuel cell is very simple. I will try to explain it briefly here, hopefully you accept this as proof.
A hydrogen fuel cell works by removing electrons from hydrogen molecules. Generally, you cannot simply remove an electron from an atom, but you can with hydrogen because it can bond easily with so many other atoms, such as oxygen. You can easily remove an electron from an atom, although many atoms are harder. For example it is very hard to remove an electron from Chlorine. Atoms with a nearly empty outer shell can have an electron removed very easily.
Two hydrogen atoms can cling to an oxygen atom by sharing it's electrons, this allows the hydrogen atoms to give up their own electrons. These electrons are collected by the fuel cell giving you electricity. In our example of bonding with oxygen, you also end up with H2O, or water. This is the most common result in a fuel cell because oxygen is so abundant. A hydrogen fuel cell works by placing the hydrogen on side A of a membrane that allows protons to pass easily but not electrons, and which has lower energy state if the whole hydrogen atom is on side B. The Hydrogen separates into an electron and proton, the second of which will pass through if there is already a reasonably free electron on the other side for it to combine with.
Since there is a conductive wire on the other side, there/is/ a reasonably free electron so the proton passes through, combines with the electron to become a hydrogen atom again. Now there is the lack of an electron on side B and an extra electron on the side A. So the electron from side A pushes all the electrons in an electrical circuit through said circuit (containing any electrical device you wish to drive) until one of the pops out of the other side to fill the "hole" left by the electron that combined with the proton to form a hydrogen atom.
The hydrogen atom typically combines with another hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom to form water. The presence of the oxygen atom on side B is the reason that it was energy favourable for the hydrogen to be on that side rather than side A. The energy difference between the two hydrogens on side A with an oxygen on side B and having all three joined together on side B is the energy driven through the aforementioned circuit to power its devices and heat it up.
The second thing to understand is electrolysis and how Water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen. As explained above, Water is formed by a lack of electrons to have hydrogen and water separately. Electrolysis works by adding excess electrons to water so that it must separate into component parts to remain stable. Electrolysis works by drawing electrons out of one side and pushing them in the other so that the hydrogen atoms give their electrons to the oxygen atoms. The hydrogen atoms then get pulled to the source of electrons and the oxygen atoms get pulled to the drain of electrons. The hydrogen atoms (now short of electrons) get an electron each and join up (because that is more energy favourable) to become molecular hydrogen and the oxygen atoms (no with a surplus of electrons) give up two electrons each and join up (because that is more energy favourable) to become molecular oxygen. The end result is that there remains exactly the right number of electrons.
Indeed, and that will be a great day, but it will be operated in large commercial plants long before it operates in a car.
Cars would still be using steam if it were half as safe as an ICE, that's the only reason commercial electricity generation didn't switch to ICEs first. This technology should be powering our homes first if it is real.
D2 plasmas need much larger magnetic fields before the magnetic field effect kicks in. The Z-machine has shown with its iron plasma that the magnetic field effect works as long predicted (heavier ions need a smaller field). They just need a way to get the large magnetic field and nobody has been able to show that it can't be achieved in any electrode and current configuration. So they are working on electrode configurations to see if they can find one that puts enough energy in to get the required field strength.
It was the irrelevant association in the blurb with a ridiculed branch of cosmology "Lerner's inspiration for the technology is based upon an interpretation for astrophysical Herbig-Haro jets that agrees with the Electric Universe explanation." When his focus fusion plans just use well known and experimentally confirmed laboratory plasma physics.
> ITER may have a 0% chance of producing viable fusion power, but it will very likely help us understand plasma physics.
Actually it probably won't. JET did, but ITER is just an engineering prototype and proof of concept. It is intended to test the technologies to make a fusion power plant work and be maintainable. The physics is done already.
> However, the work described in this story has a 0% chance of working
Actually it has a pretty reasonable chance. Nobody has been able to perform an analysis using previous theories to show that current physical understanding says it won't work. In part because Eric Lerner has been the first person to care enough about certain aspects of plasma behaviour to actually produce quantitative models.
The cosmic microwave background is as you would see from a closed universe with a period of expansion as current big bang theories say, but is also as you would see from an infinite, approximately homogeneous universe.
BTW, you can't use wikipedia for the debate between the big bang and electric cosmogonies because the debate between them is not only carried out on wikipedia itself but is carried out on almost purely religious grounds using information removal instead of competitive analysis of gathered information. If you use wikipedia for this you'll just end up believing the least scientific theory.
Interestingly, the theories that might make this work have very little do to with the electric universe. Eric Lerner was doing some theoretical work looking in more detail at some aspects of cosmological plasma and got some inspiration from it - but we're talking about two separate things.
Unfortunately Eric Lerner keeps bringing the cosmological plasma thing up, he somehow got it into his head that associating his current work with that will make him more credible:/
Well, there's always crime I suppose - you can't get away from that, so don't walk down the street either. Safety harnesses just don't break often - maybe the law in the US is different to the UK but over here you get strapped to the building and the building has to fall down before you do. If you fall your boss was a criminal not much better than a drunk driver.
As a fat guy, I can assure you that the only difficulty in getting laid comes from self-esteem issues and the inability to attract predatory females. Most women are attracted to confident humourous men regardless of their weight.
Women generally spend most of their time listening to what you say and watching your face - by the time they think about the difficulty of accessing your genitals you have already won.
I'm fat because of sugar. Hamburgers and biscuits (while a favourite of mine) have never caused weight gain. Only years in which I've gorged myself on sugar have been a problem.
We are not buckets therefore it does not necessarily follow that putting fat in causes an increase in fat stored.
You should have said "Enjoy your bucket of readymade meals and chocolate and products marketed as 'low fat' you fat tits."
If events of type A (eating a cheeseburger) cause an increase in factor X by 1 unit each, but events of type B (metabolic processing of toxic factor X) cause a decrease in factor X by 0.2 units each and an event of type B occurs every day that factor X is nonzero. And if toxic factor X of 3 causes harm at level 1 for each day that the factor is 3 or higher.
ABBBBBABBBBBABBBBBABBBBB causes 0 harm even if it goes on forever because factor X goes 1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2, 0.0, 1.0, 0.8...
ABABABABABABABABABABABAB causes harm like so: 0000123456789...
This is a gross simplification of human metabolic function, however it does demonstrate the principle.
That's illegal now in the UK - after scabies and mad cow disease (causing CJD in humans). British meat is now the safest and healthiest (and probably the most expensive) in the world.
A Hoover is not any old device for sucking dust up, it's a trademark of Hoover PLC (or whoever), hence the capitalisation. It is a generic noun for the type of device. The first time I saw such a device it was branded "Electrolux" and it was a hoover.
Personally, if people used the word "Linux" to describe Microsoft Windows, then I would expect exactly that to happen.
For example, "Hoover" means "hand operated machine for sucking dust out of carpets and upholstery". When I search for "hoover", I expect to see information about all brands of hoove.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't about closed vs open source, this is about decent programming.
Comments in code are neccessary and a minimal requirement for any project. But far less important than most people realise. Most code should be self documenting. At least add one line to any function explaining what the function does, what its input is and what it returns. Isn't:
template<typename InputIterator>
typename iterator_traits<InputIterator>::value_type
sum(InputIterator begin, const InputIterator& end)
enough? I don't understand this hatred for comments and the "code-is-its-own-documentation"-philosophy. I really don't. If your code is unreadable, then it is bad (see your example). Oh wait... I think I just had a "Whoosh" moment... I did, didn't I? Somebody mod parent up +1 Funny
I know, the /really/ funny thing is that there was similar software for Windows 95!!!
Don't forget "RAM Doubling driver" - $49
There once was a car from Japan
that seemed like a zero-point scam.
Then slashdot derived
that the H2O drive
got more energy out than you can.
The impossibility of a water based fuel cell is very simple. I will try to explain it briefly here, hopefully you accept this as proof.
A hydrogen fuel cell works by removing electrons from hydrogen molecules. Generally, you cannot simply remove an electron from an atom, but you can with hydrogen because it can bond easily with so many other atoms, such as oxygen. You can easily remove an electron from an atom, although many atoms are harder. For example it is very hard to remove an electron from Chlorine. Atoms with a nearly empty outer shell can have an electron removed very easily. Two hydrogen atoms can cling to an oxygen atom by sharing it's electrons, this allows the hydrogen atoms to give up their own electrons. These electrons are collected by the fuel cell giving you electricity. In our example of bonding with oxygen, you also end up with H2O, or water. This is the most common result in a fuel cell because oxygen is so abundant. A hydrogen fuel cell works by placing the hydrogen on side A of a membrane that allows protons to pass easily but not electrons, and which has lower energy state if the whole hydrogen atom is on side B. The Hydrogen separates into an electron and proton, the second of which will pass through if there is already a reasonably free electron on the other side for it to combine with.
Since there is a conductive wire on the other side, there
The hydrogen atom typically combines with another hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom to form water. The presence of the oxygen atom on side B is the reason that it was energy favourable for the hydrogen to be on that side rather than side A. The energy difference between the two hydrogens on side A with an oxygen on side B and having all three joined together on side B is the energy driven through the aforementioned circuit to power its devices and heat it up. The second thing to understand is electrolysis and how Water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen. As explained above, Water is formed by a lack of electrons to have hydrogen and water separately. Electrolysis works by adding excess electrons to water so that it must separate into component parts to remain stable. Electrolysis works by drawing electrons out of one side and pushing them in the other so that the hydrogen atoms give their electrons to the oxygen atoms. The hydrogen atoms then get pulled to the source of electrons and the oxygen atoms get pulled to the drain of electrons. The hydrogen atoms (now short of electrons) get an electron each and join up (because that is more energy favourable) to become molecular hydrogen and the oxygen atoms (no with a surplus of electrons) give up two electrons each and join up (because that is more energy favourable) to become molecular oxygen. The end result is that there remains exactly the right number of electrons.
Indeed, and that will be a great day, but it will be operated in large commercial plants long before it operates in a car.
Cars would still be using steam if it were half as safe as an ICE, that's the only reason commercial electricity generation didn't switch to ICEs first. This technology should be powering our homes first if it is real.
D2 plasmas need much larger magnetic fields before the magnetic field effect kicks in. The Z-machine has shown with its iron plasma that the magnetic field effect works as long predicted (heavier ions need a smaller field). They just need a way to get the large magnetic field and nobody has been able to show that it can't be achieved in any electrode and current configuration. So they are working on electrode configurations to see if they can find one that puts enough energy in to get the required field strength.
It was the irrelevant association in the blurb with a ridiculed branch of cosmology "Lerner's inspiration for the technology is based upon an interpretation for astrophysical Herbig-Haro jets that agrees with the Electric Universe explanation." When his focus fusion plans just use well known and experimentally confirmed laboratory plasma physics.
I heard that they'd figured out how to get break even during JET, and just needed to test it.
He really isn't good at selling his ideas. In fact he is profoundly bad at it.
The boron is there so the energy is mostly output in charged ions rather than neutrons, thus you have an electrical current immediately.
Another Quantum Physics denier?
> ITER may have a 0% chance of producing viable fusion power, but it will very likely help us understand plasma physics.
Actually it probably won't. JET did, but ITER is just an engineering prototype and proof of concept. It is intended to test the technologies to make a fusion power plant work and be maintainable. The physics is done already.
> However, the work described in this story has a 0% chance of working
Actually it has a pretty reasonable chance. Nobody has been able to perform an analysis using previous theories to show that current physical understanding says it won't work. In part because Eric Lerner has been the first person to care enough about certain aspects of plasma behaviour to actually produce quantitative models.
The cosmic microwave background is as you would see from a closed universe with a period of expansion as current big bang theories say, but is also as you would see from an infinite, approximately homogeneous universe.
BTW, you can't use wikipedia for the debate between the big bang and electric cosmogonies because the debate between them is not only carried out on wikipedia itself but is carried out on almost purely religious grounds using information removal instead of competitive analysis of gathered information. If you use wikipedia for this you'll just end up believing the least scientific theory.
Interestingly, the theories that might make this work have very little do to with the electric universe. Eric Lerner was doing some theoretical work looking in more detail at some aspects of cosmological plasma and got some inspiration from it - but we're talking about two separate things.
:/
Unfortunately Eric Lerner keeps bringing the cosmological plasma thing up, he somehow got it into his head that associating his current work with that will make him more credible
When I read the slashdot blurb I thought the poster was attempting to discredit Eric Lerner.
Well, there's always crime I suppose - you can't get away from that, so don't walk down the street either. Safety harnesses just don't break often - maybe the law in the US is different to the UK but over here you get strapped to the building and the building has to fall down before you do. If you fall your boss was a criminal not much better than a drunk driver.
As a fat guy, I can assure you that the only difficulty in getting laid comes from self-esteem issues and the inability to attract predatory females. Most women are attracted to confident humourous men regardless of their weight.
Women generally spend most of their time listening to what you say and watching your face - by the time they think about the difficulty of accessing your genitals you have already won.
I'm fat because of sugar. Hamburgers and biscuits (while a favourite of mine) have never caused weight gain. Only years in which I've gorged myself on sugar have been a problem.
We are not buckets therefore it does not necessarily follow that putting fat in causes an increase in fat stored.
You should have said "Enjoy your bucket of readymade meals and chocolate and products marketed as 'low fat' you fat tits."
In a complex system this is not the case.
...
If events of type A (eating a cheeseburger) cause an increase in factor X by 1 unit each, but events of type B (metabolic processing of toxic factor X) cause a decrease in factor X by 0.2 units each and an event of type B occurs every day that factor X is nonzero. And if toxic factor X of 3 causes harm at level 1 for each day that the factor is 3 or higher.
ABBBBBABBBBBABBBBBABBBBB causes 0 harm even if it goes on forever because factor X goes 1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2, 0.0, 1.0, 0.8
ABABABABABABABABABABABAB causes harm like so:
0000123456789...
This is a gross simplification of human metabolic function, however it does demonstrate the principle.
You won't fall off the high steel. They are obliged to make the workplace safe.
That's illegal now in the UK - after scabies and mad cow disease (causing CJD in humans). British meat is now the safest and healthiest (and probably the most expensive) in the world.
Have you ever heard of a "jubilee clip"?
In the UK it is practically the only word most people use for them.
Personally, if people used the word "Linux" to describe Microsoft Windows, then I would expect exactly that to happen.
For example, "Hoover" means "hand operated machine for sucking dust out of carpets and upholstery". When I search for "hoover", I expect to see information about all brands of hoove.