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User: Legendre

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Comments · 38

  1. DIY Credit Union on Developer-Friendly Banks? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Roll-out your own credit union for geeks. I'd be interested in a bank with the services you've described. I'm absolutely sick of big banks and their big fees for even minor infractions.

  2. Re:Perfect micro will warp gameplay on StarCraft AI Competition Announced · · Score: 1

    xnor, I'd like to discuss with you your ideas about this competition some more. Please email or send me a private message with your email. Apparently your account isn't setup to receive messages.

  3. Re:Was REAL GENIUS wrong? on Airborne Laser Successfully Tracks, Hits Missile · · Score: 2, Informative

    The quantum processes of state inversion, pumping electrons, etc. are all done assuming 0 K temperature already.

  4. Very dark dreams -- maybe bw, maybe color on B&W TV Generation Has Monochrome Dreams · · Score: 1

    I don't know if it's just me, but my normal dreams almost happen in darkness; I almost wish someone would turn on the lights! For age reference, I'm 30. Because everything is so damn dark, I really can't tell if there are colors around or not. It's like walking outside at night, with no lights, and no moon. Maybe things have colors, but I just can't see nothing! Even if I'm dreaming of a sunny day on the beach, it's like someone turned the brightness/contrast so that everything is just so dark! Now, I tried lucid dreaming techniques a while back -- BAM!!!! FULL beautiful colors, very vivid, just like during waking hours!! Lucid dreaming is hard though, takes a lot of practice. So now I'm back to the dreams of darkness.

  5. Re:Give me an account...I'm being serious on Cool/Weird Stuff To Do On a Cluster? · · Score: 1

    I actually have an account on a real supercomp (rated on Top500), and I have no real jobs on run on it. I'm also in cond mat physics, so shoot me an email and let's connect.

  6. Britney Spears photo near the pink dress on Microsoft Demos "Deep Zoom" Technology · · Score: 1

    There is pink dress near the bottom right corner. The legend says it was worn by Britney Spears. On top of the dress is a photo of Britney Spears wearing the dress.

    I zoomed all the way in hoping that I could see Britney wearing that dress. Of course, it's too low rez and you can't even tell it's Britney.

    DeepZoom is not that deep after all. I would have let out an "ahhh" if I could have seen Britney.

  7. Re:This doens't mean anything. on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    Erbus, you're absolutely correct -- Ambitwistor, like some sort of String Gestapo, has to defend the religion at any cost. (You don't need to put in any constants into Newton's equation if you're using the right units. Ambitwistor knows that, of course.)

  8. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    Hence the moniker "string wars" heard in the physics community nowadays. Ask yourself, which side are you on? Very, very sensitive topic...

  9. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    As I said, the paper is not specific to string theory and makes no calculations within the context of string theory. It gives tests of any generic theory that obeys unitarity, analyticity, Lorentz invariance, and crossing. That includes both string theory and quantum field theory as subsets. ... and it also includes relativity, quantum mechanics, and basically almost all of modern physics as subsets. Yes, it's a very general test; "well, if ALL of modern physics is wrong, then perhaps string theory is wrong". You call that a prediction?

    So no, it is not a string theory paper Seems like my job here is done.
  10. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    Read your own link. I did. It clearly says that "it is based on a paper which has nothing to with string theory and doesn't do a string theory calculation at all"

    Are you going to ask for chapter, sub-chapter, and section number now?
  11. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    Please tell me one prediction that can FALSIFY string theory; This very story gives such predictions. No it doesn't, see this thread, which belongs to this very same story, by the way.

    --
    The only strings I like are the ones I see on a woman's behind.
  12. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1
    Ambitwistor must be on crack...

    Physicists were led to string theory in a search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity No, the very first version of string theory came about to explain the strong interaction (not quantum gravity), then it was abandoned, then they picked it up again because of the spin 2 bonus... So it's a little like refried beans.

    it is a unique theory with no adjustable parameters or interactions. You forgot to mention the part where this "unique" theory generates 10^500 possible universes. If you play all 10^500 lottery number combinations, you're guaranteed to win, yes?

    It is also not correct that string theory doesn't make testable predictions. This whole story is about testing predictions of certain string models. Please tell me one prediction that can FALSIFY string theory; not experiments that confirm predictions made in the "low energy limit". Standard model is plenty good enough for the low energy limit, thank you very much. It's like you want to make a testable prediction for whether or not aliens exist: They exist if one day they show up on earth. Well, how long are you gonna wait for a positive result?

    The only strings I like are the ones I see on a woman's behind.
  13. Re:Epicycles redux? on String Theory Put to the Test · · Score: 1

    It's even worse than epicycles. Although the model was wrong, epicycles actually churned out the correct numerical answers. String theory can't even spit out a single number that we can compare with experiment. The original article is about putting supersymmetry to the test, which is but ONE assumption of string theory.

  14. Re:Spin Cycler? on Readable Nuclear Spins Advance Quantum Computing · · Score: 1

    Yeah, it's a pretty simple setup. Tiny magnetic fields will do the job, and it's almost instantaneous. Now, you asked "Does it take more energy to flip one way or another? Is either flip direction endothermic?", well that is a QM phenomena. Basically the thing doesn't have a direction per-se until you do the experiment, and when you do it, it comes out 50-50. You will always need to put in some energy to the measurement. So, you wanted to flip the spin, that's how you'd do it cheap & easy. To build a quantum computer out of it is another story.

  15. Re:Spin Cycler? on Readable Nuclear Spins Advance Quantum Computing · · Score: 2, Informative

    Stern-Gerlach apparatus, circa 1920.

  16. Phrenology on Did Humans Get Their Big Brains From Neanderthals? · · Score: 1

    It's the Phrenology hypothesis, and it has been throughly shown to be false in the last century...

  17. Where's the LED? on How To Make a Green Lantern Ring · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least add a LUXON UltraBrite green LED in there in order to qualify for a ./ frontpage...

  18. Re:Completley misleading summary on Study Shows Good With Math Means Bad With People · · Score: 1

    Since parent hasn't been modded-up yet, let me rephrase it: Study shows that better student are less confident with MATH. Not People. Original article says nothing about being less confident with people.

  19. Re:"Hynix"... on Rambus Allowed to Continue Patent Dispute Case · · Score: 1

    The last link is definately worth it, wikipedia even has some pictures of the different types!

  20. HardOCP knocks my socks off, literally on Water Cooling an Xbox 360 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, the authors command of english literally knocks my socks off!!

  21. Re:x86, x86_64, or PPC best for mambo simulator? on IBM Full-System Simulator Team Speaks Out · · Score: 1
    Thanks for the suggestion, Mr. Garrett. I'll go pick up a PPC. That's also the processor used inside BlueGene, no?
    As for my plans for the Cell, I was thinking of writing either:
    • A toy hard real-time OS or
    • A toy Fortran compiler for it
    I don't care for the PS3/games, although I'll probably pick one up as well, just to get inside the Cell. There should be a stand-alone Cell workstation, really.
    (Ex-IBMer here! Good job guys!).
  22. x86, x86_64, or PPC best for mambo simulator? on IBM Full-System Simulator Team Speaks Out · · Score: 1

    I don't own a machine that meets the simulator's minimum system requirement (namely, 2.0GHz or higher), but I'm so curious about it, that I'm willing to buy a new box just to try Mambo with CBE sim. So, what hardware platform is best for the simulator software?

  23. Re:Teammates wanted! on Summer Reading and Startup Program · · Score: 1

    A mailing list has been setup at Yahoo Groups; simply submitt a request to summerfounders-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

    Would someone please mod the parent up?

  24. Teammates wanted! on Summer Reading and Startup Program · · Score: 1

    I'm looking for a few teammates; I proposed everyone needing a team to just email me (borkut at gmail) and we'll get a mailing list going. Multiple teams will probably be spawned.

    I'm in the bay area myself, and have a few ideas...

  25. University of Boston? on Nanoscale Switches in Memory · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't know about you, but I've never heard of a "University of Boston". Are they neighbors with Caltech University or Georgia Tech University perhaps?
    Do editors even know what I'm talking about?