A set is a collection of things, such as the integers are a set of numbers.
A group is a set with an operation (and a couple of extra properties), such as the integers under addition.
The set of a symmetry group is the set of operations that you can perform to an object and have the object remain unchanged. For example, for an equilateral triangle, rotating it by 120 and 240 degrees leaves you with a triangle. So does flipping it around any of its three axes. Add the identity operation, which leaves the triangle untouched and you have the symmetry set for an equilateral triangle. Add an operation and you have a symmetry group.
The U(1) group is the group of all unitary, 1-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant.
The SU(2) group is the group of all unitary, 2-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant and have a determinant of 1.
The SU(3) group is the group of all unitary, 3-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant and have a determinant of 1.
The Standard Model obeys the symmetry found by combining the three above groups: SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1).
E8 is another group with some special properties. The author of the paper is claiming that E8 contains the Standard Model (SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1)), plus the symmetries belonging to gravity.
I've been a part of this community for quite some time and I often contribute stories. Only rarely do they ever get accepted. I've noticed that the stories that make it to the front page tend to have two qualities - they are sensationalist and they ask rhetorical questions. I decided to try and see if adding those qualities to my submissions would work. Hence, I added the "they'll keep selling PS3s for now" bit for the melodrama and then I added the required rhetorical question. Sure enough, it got accepted.
I've been experiencing this since the late summer. Google will work fine and then all of the sudden I get "connection reset by peer" errors for up to an hour. Since only Google was affected, I assumed it had to be on their end, not my ISPs. For those who care, I'm in Chicago. I wish my service options weren't just ATT and Comcast.
Converting from eV to fahrenheit gives that these interactions are taking place at:
6,446,700,000,000,000,000 degrees!
That's 6.4 billion billion degrees.
First of all, it doesn't take NASA to make a web-enabled oven. Second, if you read to the end of the article, you'll see evidence that this article is actually two or three years old (I'm talking about the 2003 and 2004 awards). And third, who would really benefit from an oven like this? Ask yourself:
When was the last time you used your oven?
Are you willing to prepare a dish in the morning and put it in the oven before you leave for work?
Would you actually trust this thing not to burn down your house?
My point is this: cool idea, but hardly worthy of a front-page post.
Okay, I started typing this based only on the title of the/. article when it was still in the mysterious future. It looks like I'm talking about the same guy that the article is. Anyway, this guy is
truly fascinating. It's good to hear that he's still alive and kicking! Here's what I typed before reading the article:
I was doing video conversions (VHS->VCD) for a Pyschology professor a while back and he had this most amazing video of a man through some sort of illness had lost the ability to make new memories (a
la, Memento, although this was before the release of that movie). He was happy as a clam, although kind of dazed and confused. What was interesting though, was that as he got older (the video followed
him over something like twenty years), he started to adapt. I say adapt, because he wasn't making new memories, but was learning patterns. Let me explain: the nurses always came into his room hoping
that he would recognize them, but of course he wouldn't, because he met them after the brain injury, but he started to pick up on that anticipation and started to fake knowing them, as best he could.
You also forgot having to upgrade the Windows Update Setup Tool so that it could run the "Genuine Advantage" tool.
But lets compare this to any SuSE Linux release in the last few years. It has an option for downloading updates from inside the installer, which can take between 30-60 minutes to download and apply, and then requires no reboot, although certain updates (such as the kernel) won't become active until a reboot is done. Then SuSE Watcher will download and apply any future kernel updates.
So, fewer reboots, no mandatory reboots, option for updating before starting an exposed system, 1/4-1/8th the time, and no extra time downloading the updater or any version checking software.
The reason I can't stand Roland is because his postings suck. They "feel" like they're trying to get me to click the link to his blog and I don't like that feeling. His posts are closer to ads for his blog than summaries of the relevant stories. Which brings me to my second complaint:
Slashads, which seem to be getting through at a more regular rate. Again, I don't want to be advertised to by the story submission (especially when that person is not paying/. for the privilege).
A couple of suggestions: first, every article about a product needs to have at least two links. One to the product and a second to an un-biased review of the product. A link to the product alone is a Slashad for the product and a link to the review alone is a Slashad for the review site. Only once an article has a few links does it get away from the Slashad realm and into the useful realm.
Second, to put it bluntly, the editors need to do their jobs. I would much rather see a few high quality stories than many useless ones. Taco said it himself, if the submission bin is empty, a story has a greater chance of being accepted. No! Good stories should be accepted and bad stories rejected. Period. End of line. It is the editor's job to find the good stories, fix the links, and check the grammar (!).
I have had three separate eye doctors tell me that long hours either reading books or looking at computer screens can cause near sightedness. They have all said that they regularly see problems with college students in certain majors such as engineering, physics, mathematics, and especially computer science (surprisingly, art history majors aren't included on this list). The last doctor told me that a way to counter this damage is to wear low powered reading glasses while you use the computer. She suggested the $10 cheap-o's that you might get from your local Thrifty drugstore.
Yes, counterfeiting is wrong, but this article is jam packed with FUD! They make it sound like only counterfeit products will fail, but we all know that the real thing can be just as bad (XBOX 360s overheating, IBM HDDs crashing, Ipod batteries dying). The worst is when they quote the MSoftie who states that if you buy a counterfeit MS product, your credit card number could be stolen. What's the basis for that?
SuSE supports encrypted disks without the use of the commandline. Does anyone have any comment as to the security or the recoverability of the SuSE system?
Interesting hypothesis... it's amazing how these companies work. I think most/.ers would agree with me in saying that AOL is on its way out. Their business model is outdated and they seem to be on their way to becoming just another portal (a la HotBot). To think that another corporation would pay them $1 billion for a 5% stake is unimaginable in my mind.
I am sick and tired of these blantant ads appearing on Slashdot! Remember a few weeks ago, we had the "high tech gifts for geek dads" article? Which turned out to be a CDROM with parenting tips?
The editors need to start acting like editors and edit! If an ad-post occassionally makes through, then alright, I understand, but ones like this one are obvious. It reads like an ad and the only link to the watch is the one to the manufacturer.
I've heard other people say it and I'm starting to agree: a moderation system for stories that make it to the front page might not be a bad idea. If the editors won't do their job, then let us do it for them.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/11/toshiba-launching-scib-batteries-in-march-5-min-charge-10-year
According to this article, hybrid cars will be the first use for these batteries.
As long as the energy density is comparable to current Lithium-ion batteries, then this will be some pretty cool tech.
I hope that the current HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray debate is resolved a bit quicker
but how is it illegal?
Say you're Jay Leno. All of the classic cars in your garage forms a set.
If you swap two cars, that operation with the set of cars forms a group.
Maybe all of your cars are red. Then swapping any two doesn't change the pattern of colors in your garage. You have a color symmetry.
Happy? =)
A set is a collection of things, such as the integers are a set of numbers.
A group is a set with an operation (and a couple of extra properties), such as the integers under addition.
The set of a symmetry group is the set of operations that you can perform to an object and have the object remain unchanged. For example, for an equilateral triangle, rotating it by 120 and 240 degrees leaves you with a triangle. So does flipping it around any of its three axes. Add the identity operation, which leaves the triangle untouched and you have the symmetry set for an equilateral triangle. Add an operation and you have a symmetry group.
The U(1) group is the group of all unitary, 1-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant.
The SU(2) group is the group of all unitary, 2-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant and have a determinant of 1.
The SU(3) group is the group of all unitary, 3-dimensional operations that leave the inner (dot) product invariant and have a determinant of 1.
The Standard Model obeys the symmetry found by combining the three above groups: SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1).
E8 is another group with some special properties. The author of the paper is claiming that E8 contains the Standard Model (SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1)), plus the symmetries belonging to gravity.
I've been a part of this community for quite some time and I often contribute stories. Only rarely do they ever get accepted. I've noticed that the stories that make it to the front page tend to have two qualities - they are sensationalist and they ask rhetorical questions. I decided to try and see if adding those qualities to my submissions would work. Hence, I added the "they'll keep selling PS3s for now" bit for the melodrama and then I added the required rhetorical question. Sure enough, it got accepted.
I've been experiencing this since the late summer. Google will work fine and then all of the sudden I get "connection reset by peer" errors for up to an hour. Since only Google was affected, I assumed it had to be on their end, not my ISPs. For those who care, I'm in Chicago. I wish my service options weren't just ATT and Comcast.
Converting from eV to fahrenheit gives that these interactions are taking place at: 6,446,700,000,000,000,000 degrees! That's 6.4 billion billion degrees.
T2 got me and wouldn't let go.
When was the last time you used your oven?
Are you willing to prepare a dish in the morning and put it in the oven before you leave for work?
Would you actually trust this thing not to burn down your house?
My point is this: cool idea, but hardly worthy of a front-page post.
Fascinating! If you don't mind us asking, what was the cause of your grandmother's condition?
Okay, I started typing this based only on the title of the /. article when it was still in the mysterious future. It looks like I'm talking about the same guy that the article is. Anyway, this guy is
truly fascinating. It's good to hear that he's still alive and kicking! Here's what I typed before reading the article:
I was doing video conversions (VHS->VCD) for a Pyschology professor a while back and he had this most amazing video of a man through some sort of illness had lost the ability to make new memories (a
la, Memento, although this was before the release of that movie). He was happy as a clam, although kind of dazed and confused. What was interesting though, was that as he got older (the video followed
him over something like twenty years), he started to adapt. I say adapt, because he wasn't making new memories, but was learning patterns. Let me explain: the nurses always came into his room hoping
that he would recognize them, but of course he wouldn't, because he met them after the brain injury, but he started to pick up on that anticipation and started to fake knowing them, as best he could.
Between using a USB drive and a high-speed internet connection? Or ten years ago when file sizes were still reasonable, using a floppy?
The podcast:l
http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xm
The MP3:0 11325.mp3
http://libsyn.com/media/sciencefriday/scifri-2006
What if a UK citizen starts a radio station hosted in the US? Does he have to pay?
This is just another example of how the Internet was not meant to exist in a world with borders.
But lets compare this to any SuSE Linux release in the last few years. It has an option for downloading updates from inside the installer, which can take between 30-60 minutes to download and apply, and then requires no reboot, although certain updates (such as the kernel) won't become active until a reboot is done. Then SuSE Watcher will download and apply any future kernel updates.
So, fewer reboots, no mandatory reboots, option for updating before starting an exposed system, 1/4-1/8th the time, and no extra time downloading the updater or any version checking software.
"The Internet is for Porn" is from the outrageously funny Broadway musical "Avenue Q", a takeoff of Sesame Street.
Slashads, which seem to be getting through at a more regular rate. Again, I don't want to be advertised to by the story submission (especially when that person is not paying /. for the privilege).
A couple of suggestions: first, every article about a product needs to have at least two links. One to the product and a second to an un-biased review of the product. A link to the product alone is a Slashad for the product and a link to the review alone is a Slashad for the review site. Only once an article has a few links does it get away from the Slashad realm and into the useful realm.
Second, to put it bluntly, the editors need to do their jobs. I would much rather see a few high quality stories than many useless ones. Taco said it himself, if the submission bin is empty, a story has a greater chance of being accepted. No! Good stories should be accepted and bad stories rejected. Period. End of line. It is the editor's job to find the good stories, fix the links, and check the grammar (!).
I have had three separate eye doctors tell me that long hours either reading books or looking at computer screens can cause near sightedness. They have all said that they regularly see problems with college students in certain majors such as engineering, physics, mathematics, and especially computer science (surprisingly, art history majors aren't included on this list). The last doctor told me that a way to counter this damage is to wear low powered reading glasses while you use the computer. She suggested the $10 cheap-o's that you might get from your local Thrifty drugstore.
Why don't you make your list go to 10 and make that the highest?
Yes, counterfeiting is wrong, but this article is jam packed with FUD! They make it sound like only counterfeit products will fail, but we all know that the real thing can be just as bad (XBOX 360s overheating, IBM HDDs crashing, Ipod batteries dying). The worst is when they quote the MSoftie who states that if you buy a counterfeit MS product, your credit card number could be stolen. What's the basis for that?
SuSE supports encrypted disks without the use of the commandline. Does anyone have any comment as to the security or the recoverability of the SuSE system?
Interesting hypothesis... it's amazing how these companies work. I think most /.ers would agree with me in saying that AOL is on its way out. Their business model is outdated and they seem to be on their way to becoming just another portal (a la HotBot). To think that another corporation would pay them $1 billion for a 5% stake is unimaginable in my mind.
Their art department doesn't have to waste time and money developing their own icon and they get credit for "working together".
The editors need to start acting like editors and edit! If an ad-post occassionally makes through, then alright, I understand, but ones like this one are obvious. It reads like an ad and the only link to the watch is the one to the manufacturer.
I've heard other people say it and I'm starting to agree: a moderation system for stories that make it to the front page might not be a bad idea. If the editors won't do their job, then let us do it for them.