Anybody know what's been going on in cold fusion research recently?
Infinite Energy magazine seems to keep up to date on cold fusion research. It's not exactly a main-stream scientific journal, so take it with a grain of salt.
There's couple of older articles on research at SRI here and here.
Allegedly there are reports of fusion byproducts from cold fusion experiments. Dr. McKubre from SRI has reported elevated levels of helium-4 in cold fusion cells, for example. Of course, he's merely an electrochemist and not a *ahem* real physicist, so his experiments can be discounted.
I have two reservations about hot fusion research.
on
The Quest For Fusion
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· Score: 1
I have two reservations about hot fusion research.
The proof of concept machines, like the Z-machine are extremely expensive, extremely complex and delicate, and they haven't even reached break-even yet. Unless there are orders of magnitude simplifications, I imagine a practical fusion power reactor would be even more expensive because it would have to be built rugged enough to operate 24x7 (which blows away the hope for cheap, limitless power).
The inside of a fusion power reactor would be a hellishly radioactive environment. Even assuming you don't have the nuclear fuel disposal problems you have with a fission reactor, you still have problems with storage and disposal of the highly radioactive internal reactor parts; injectors, heat exchangers, reactor walls, etc..
Oddly enough I'm not against research into hot fusion reactors, but I cringe everytime some journalist writes about fusion research promising "limitless, cheap energy". I especially remember that's what they promised about fission reactors.
Actually, I think it keeled over during the Reagan/Bush era.
Actually, NASA's been floundering since after Apollo ended. In a way, the Shuttle didn't help any because it became so big (in terms of budget) that it overshadowed everything else at NASA. Now with Shuttle and ISS consuming over half of NASA's budget, I wonder how much "mere" science will be done.
That said, there are pockets of excellence at NASA, mostly engineers and scientists. What is really needed is a way to keep those pockets of excellence and eliminate the middle-management bureaucracy stifling them. Until that happens, I'm afraid any budget increases are being thrown into a black hole.
LiLo executes once every 50 to 180 days for me. It ain't pretty but who cares?
Yes, sure, if everything's running well, you're right, who cares? But, if you've got a laptop, or installing or debugging a new kernel or new hardware, or have a multiboot system, then you need it bad.
By comparison, a coal plant with comparable capacity would have dumped several million tonnes of CO2 and SO2 into the atmosphere, with attendant acid rain and other problems (not to mention the environmental and health hazards from mining the coal in the first place and transporting it to the plant).
Don't forget the megatonnes of coal ash that have to be disposed of, and that stuff is nasty.
Look at it as a learning opportunity, a lot of people would pay real money for a total-immersion language course.:-)
You obviously have some linguistic ability and french isn't that hard. It may take years to become fluent in french, but in a total-immersion environment it shouldn't take you more than a few months to become conversant. Besides, maybe you could finagle a trip to their home office for a few months. France is a beautiful country and you don't want to perpetuate the stereotype of the ignorant american.:-)
OS/2 is a red herring in this argument; back then there were 2 competing standards tyring to woo DOS users. People had to pay more for OS/2 with Windows 3.11; when they could buy the "real thing" from Microsoft for less.
In addition, IIRC, the OS/2 SDK also cost more than the MS equivalent. And IBM's on-again, off-again marketing strategy didn't help matters much.
There is a book called "The Body Electric: Electromagnetism & the Foundation of Life" by Robert O. Becker and Gary Selden that talks about Dr. Becker's experiments with regeneration in reptiles and mammals.
IIRC, one of the reasons lower reptiles can regenerate limbs is because their blood cells still contain DNA in their nucleus. When a frog, for example, loses a limb, the blood cells undifferentiate and then redifferentiate to become bone, nerves, muscle, and skin cells. Absolutely amazing.
Mammal blood cells are "more efficient" and don't contain any DNA, but stem cells are blood cells before they differeniate and lose their DNA so that, in theory, they can redifferentiate into nerve cells! Or bone or muscle or skin! In theory at least.
The most interesting thing is that this book was first published over 20 years ago and it's only now that I've begun reading about using stem cells in medical treatment. I can't help but think, what took them so long?
In all honesty, although it is a fascinating book, the last quarter of it is a rant against the medical research establishment in general and, IMO, detracts from the credibility of the author.
I've been thinking what might be done for indie musicians. Perhaps a company could be created to represent the indies and to pool resources. Etched on every employee's forehead (figuratively speaking of course) is the rule that their clients (the indies) and their customers (their fans) are to treated fairly, honestly, and with respect. Beyond that, I believe the internet could be the great equalizer between them and the record companies.
A few things I can think of that this hypothetical company could do is:
Build and maintain websites musicians websites. Pooling webserver space and web design talent.
Organize tours, recording sessions, CD manufacturing, jacket design, all that stuff...
Maintain an mp3.com-like online streaming library for registered users. Thereby creating a database of potential customers. And/or...
Streaming broadcast, via shoutcast, of all indies by genre. So fans can easily sample all the different talents.
And of course, since the streaming audio is only poor to fair quality, online shopping for CDs is only a click away. The company could offer precompiled collections of songs or offer to burn custom CDs.
Anyway, who knows, I'm not a musician or a businessman. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.
You don't make a case against the theft of music via file-trading. It is theft, as the Napster user is getting the benefit of the music while the licensed distributor gets nothing in return.
And there you put your finger on one of the core issues in this argument (I was wondering if anyone would catch it:-). I'm not convinced it is theft, at least the way I think you mean. If someone steals my wallet, I think we all agree that's theft, my wallet is gone. If someone makes a copy of one of my music CDs, is that theft? I don't lose anything. The copyright owner technically doesn't lose anything but a potential sale (there's no guarantee the copier would have bought the CD in the first place). Is it a different type of theft? Perhaps it's a different degree of theft? Should it be called theft at all? Personally, I'm undecided.
Moreover, there's some evidence that downloading "illegal" MP3s inceases sales of CDs. Granted the evidence is controversial, but it puts an interesting philosopical twist on the controversy.
I agree that the licensed distributors are sleazebags, fat cats who wine and dine little artists, seducing them into signing horribly restrictive contracts.
At least we can agree on something.:-)
Get debit cards in the hands of teenagers. They're the market for music money, yet so few teens have any purchasing power online due to the credit card hurdle.
Nothing personal, but that's a disaster waiting to happen. There's a reason teenagers have a tough time getting credit and debit cards. I work retail part-time, believe me, I know.
Moreover I might point out there's no constitutional right that guarantees that music companies should make money. If their target customers don't have money for CDs, maybe they should rethink their business plan.
Whilst the move to digital, downloadable music is inevitable at this point, Napster has made sure that the RIAA will move as slowly as possible whilst aiming for maximum control over every aspect of online music.
I would disagree. If anything Napster has accelerated the industry's move to online distribution. RIAA (and the music industry in general) is an established bureacracy who believe the adage, "If we're making tons of money from brick and mortar stores, why should we go online"? Napster et al, have given the music industry a well deserved kick in the butt.
Napster really is not the future of online music,...
Strictly speaking, I agree, but I think something Napster-like may be.
and has merely solidifed the opposition of a lot of artists to making their music available online
And support from a lot of other artists, especially (but not exclusivly) indie artists.
teenagers won't go out and buy a Brittany Spears CD
You say this like it's a bad thing.:-)
b) theft is still theft - the artists have not given their permission to do this and so anyone uploading their tracks onto Napster is infringing upon their rights to control what they produce.
And here is the crux of the matter. A) The artists often do not own the songs the write and sing, the record companies do. Many artists get little or nothing from "their" music. B) Considering the record industries "creative accounting" practices (i.e., screwing the artists), many people seem to find it difficult to accept the record companies claim of the higher moral ground.
I want to enjoy music I can download, and Napster stands in the way of this.
You're entitled to your opinion. To restate my opinion, I think Napster has been a wakeup call
and the record companies will have to move damn fast to come up with a consumer acceptable online alternative.
You could not be more wrong. The US has a high population density. This makes it cheap to cover a lot of customers with a small footprint. Thus a lot of revenues with minimal expenses on infrastructure.
You're missing three points. First, the US has a high population density in only a few, small widely separated areas.
Nobody cares about covering a few million people living in a vast countryside when there are a couple hundred million living in urban areas.
Second, after you install your cell phone system in the high population desity areas, the millions of people who live in the "vast countryside" become your next potential customers.
There are numerous examples of countries with less population density than the US which have managed to build a much more homogenous network infrastructure.
Third, AMPS was deployed before there was any digital standards, and CDMA and TDMA systems were being installed while GSM was still being developed. Sure, it's a no-brainer to decide which system to install now.
It's too bad you weren't around when they were installing the first cell phone systems. You could have tell them what to install and saved everyone a lot of time and money.
---
You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their back.
Sure it does, all these 'other' countries are small which makes it econmonical to build the GSM network. Their combined land total might be greater than the US but the GSM network was built piecemeal.
In addition, all these counties are coming online after GSM has become a world-wide standard.
---
You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their back.
Well... it takes umpty-ump billion years to break triple-des, so that ought to be good enough.
Um... er... it USED to take umpty-ump billion years.
In terms of security, triple-DES is also in the same class as serpent or rijndael.
(Unless you use NSA's backdoor...)
DES and triple-DES are probably the most publicly scrutinized crypto algorithms in history, no backdoor has been found. In fact, in retrospect, it's been found that the NSA's changes to the original DES algorithm actually made it stronger.
Serpent is actually more secure than Rijndael, even if slightly slower.
I'm not disputing that Serpent is more secure than Rijndael. Nor I'm I disputing your right to use whatever algorithm you wish. But if it takes umpty-ump trillion years to break Rijndael, what does the extra security buy me besides slowness?
Nothing, that is, except for the fact that the encryption key, which you can read, can not be written to the location on the DVD-R disk where a DVD player requires it. So your raw-copied encrypted DVD content isn't directly copyable.
That's true, with off-the-shelf DVD-R disks. If one were going to the trouble to pirate DVDs on a commercial scale, then I'm sure one could procure blank DVD-R disks on the grey market without that pesky limitation.;-)
All the, *ahem*, copy protected DVD-R disks do is prevent college students from financing their education by copying DVD movie disks.:-)
Hell, in fact, if one were pirating DVDs commercially, then one could setup a production line with a commercial DVD pressing machine and avoid using DVD-Rs entirely.
In theory, only in theory mind you, the purpose of NASA is to perform scientific and engineering research and development related to space. In theory, the ISS was developed to support that research in space.
The problem is that the bureaucracy for ISS has become so large that it has developed its own inertia. That is, it no longer exists to support research in space, but only to support itself. Research and science has become secondary to its own existence.
This is one of the problems with NASA in general. The shuttle and ISS consume over half of NASA's budget. Both were developed to support NASA's primary functions of research and development, but in a way, they have now become NASA's primary function. Science and research is secondary. NASA has repeatedly demonstrated they will cancel science missions to support shuttle and ISS.
Personally, I doubt there will be much significant research done on ISS. What little that will be done will be widely publicized as "important" (hey, maybe they can send John Glenn up to ISS for a week or two, that's "important"). Meanwhile, NASA will continue to impede cheap, commercial access to space.
"Our strategy is to enter the low-end server market by purchasing Cobalt Networks. Of course, we'll have to replace the Linux operating system they're currently using with Solaris... and the current AMD processor with a Sparc processor... and the case has got to go... but we'll keep the color. Yes, we'll definitely keep the color."
That's very true, names are valuable. But who has more name recognition? Sun Microsystems or Cobalt Networks? Assuming roughly equivalent capability, who would you rather buy from?
I understand what you're saying, and I agree, but...
one would think that if they're going to replace Linux with Solaris, then they basically have to replace all the firewall, NAT, and system administration tools that go with it. So they're left with a box, processor, memory, and hard-drive. So why did they buy this company in the first place? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just come-out with their own mini-firewall, server, cube-like thing?
Ummmm, K-Meleon people? Person is more like it. Christophe Thibault was bored last Sunday and threw K-Meleon together in one day. The source code is available and people are encouraged add their favorite features.
Emmanuel mentions that Judge Kaplan suggests using a VHS tape if one wishes to exercise their 'fair use' rights. I haven't seen anyone mention that most (many? some?) commercial VHS tapes are protected by Macrovision anti-copy technology. Sure, Macrovision can be trivally defeated, but by Judge Kaplan's logic under the DMCA, isn't defeating Macrovision the same as using DeCSS?
Never take anything you here about other armies too seriously. Especially if they are present/former/potential future enemies.
Alternatively, there's a risk in assuming other cultures are just like your own. Japanese culture (civilian and military) is quite different than American or European.
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Infinite Energy magazine seems to keep up to date on cold fusion research. It's not exactly a main-stream scientific journal, so take it with a grain of salt.
There's couple of older articles on research at SRI here and here.
Allegedly there are reports of fusion byproducts from cold fusion experiments. Dr. McKubre from SRI has reported elevated levels of helium-4 in cold fusion cells, for example. Of course, he's merely an electrochemist and not a *ahem* real physicist, so his experiments can be discounted.
The proof of concept machines, like the Z-machine are extremely expensive, extremely complex and delicate, and they haven't even reached break-even yet. Unless there are orders of magnitude simplifications, I imagine a practical fusion power reactor would be even more expensive because it would have to be built rugged enough to operate 24x7 (which blows away the hope for cheap, limitless power).
The inside of a fusion power reactor would be a hellishly radioactive environment. Even assuming you don't have the nuclear fuel disposal problems you have with a fission reactor, you still have problems with storage and disposal of the highly radioactive internal reactor parts; injectors, heat exchangers, reactor walls, etc..
Oddly enough I'm not against research into hot fusion reactors, but I cringe everytime some journalist writes about fusion research promising "limitless, cheap energy". I especially remember that's what they promised about fission reactors.
Actually, NASA's been floundering since after Apollo ended. In a way, the Shuttle didn't help any because it became so big (in terms of budget) that it overshadowed everything else at NASA. Now with Shuttle and ISS consuming over half of NASA's budget, I wonder how much "mere" science will be done.
That said, there are pockets of excellence at NASA, mostly engineers and scientists. What is really needed is a way to keep those pockets of excellence and eliminate the middle-management bureaucracy stifling them. Until that happens, I'm afraid any budget increases are being thrown into a black hole.
Yes, sure, if everything's running well, you're right, who cares? But, if you've got a laptop, or installing or debugging a new kernel or new hardware, or have a multiboot system, then you need it bad.
Don't forget the megatonnes of coal ash that have to be disposed of, and that stuff is nasty.
Look at it as a learning opportunity, a lot of people would pay real money for a total-immersion language course. :-)
You obviously have some linguistic ability and french isn't that hard. It may take years to become fluent in french, but in a total-immersion environment it shouldn't take you more than a few months to become conversant. Besides, maybe you could finagle a trip to their home office for a few months. France is a beautiful country and you don't want to perpetuate the stereotype of the ignorant american. :-)
---Wherever you go, there you are.
In addition, IIRC, the OS/2 SDK also cost more than the MS equivalent. And IBM's on-again, off-again marketing strategy didn't help matters much.
IIRC, one of the reasons lower reptiles can regenerate limbs is because their blood cells still contain DNA in their nucleus. When a frog, for example, loses a limb, the blood cells undifferentiate and then redifferentiate to become bone, nerves, muscle, and skin cells. Absolutely amazing.
Mammal blood cells are "more efficient" and don't contain any DNA, but stem cells are blood cells before they differeniate and lose their DNA so that, in theory, they can redifferentiate into nerve cells! Or bone or muscle or skin! In theory at least.
The most interesting thing is that this book was first published over 20 years ago and it's only now that I've begun reading about using stem cells in medical treatment. I can't help but think, what took them so long?
In all honesty, although it is a fascinating book, the last quarter of it is a rant against the medical research establishment in general and, IMO, detracts from the credibility of the author.
---Disclaimer, I am not a biochemist.
A few things I can think of that this hypothetical company could do is:
Build and maintain websites musicians websites. Pooling webserver space and web design talent.
Organize tours, recording sessions, CD manufacturing, jacket design, all that stuff...
Maintain an mp3.com-like online streaming library for registered users. Thereby creating a database of potential customers. And/or...
Streaming broadcast, via shoutcast, of all indies by genre. So fans can easily sample all the different talents.
And of course, since the streaming audio is only poor to fair quality, online shopping for CDs is only a click away. The company could offer precompiled collections of songs or offer to burn custom CDs.
Anyway, who knows, I'm not a musician or a businessman. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.
And there you put your finger on one of the core issues in this argument (I was wondering if anyone would catch it :-). I'm not convinced it is theft, at least the way I think you mean. If someone steals my wallet, I think we all agree that's theft, my wallet is gone. If someone makes a copy of one of my music CDs, is that theft? I don't lose anything. The copyright owner technically doesn't lose anything but a potential sale (there's no guarantee the copier would have bought the CD in the first place). Is it a different type of theft? Perhaps it's a different degree of theft? Should it be called theft at all? Personally, I'm undecided.
Moreover, there's some evidence that downloading "illegal" MP3s inceases sales of CDs. Granted the evidence is controversial, but it puts an interesting philosopical twist on the controversy.
I agree that the licensed distributors are sleazebags, fat cats who wine and dine little artists, seducing them into signing horribly restrictive contracts.
At least we can agree on something. :-)
Get debit cards in the hands of teenagers. They're the market for music money, yet so few teens have any purchasing power online due to the credit card hurdle.
Nothing personal, but that's a disaster waiting to happen. There's a reason teenagers have a tough time getting credit and debit cards. I work retail part-time, believe me, I know.
Moreover I might point out there's no constitutional right that guarantees that music companies should make money. If their target customers don't have money for CDs, maybe they should rethink their business plan.
Whilst the move to digital, downloadable music is inevitable at this point, Napster has made sure that the RIAA will move as slowly as possible whilst aiming for maximum control over every aspect of online music.
I would disagree. If anything Napster has accelerated the industry's move to online distribution. RIAA (and the music industry in general) is an established bureacracy who believe the adage, "If we're making tons of money from brick and mortar stores, why should we go online"? Napster et al, have given the music industry a well deserved kick in the butt.
Napster really is not the future of online music, ...
Strictly speaking, I agree, but I think something Napster-like may be.
and has merely solidifed the opposition of a lot of artists to making their music available online
And support from a lot of other artists, especially (but not exclusivly) indie artists.
teenagers won't go out and buy a Brittany Spears CD
You say this like it's a bad thing. :-)
b) theft is still theft - the artists have not given their permission to do this and so anyone uploading their tracks onto Napster is infringing upon their rights to control what they produce.
And here is the crux of the matter. A) The artists often do not own the songs the write and sing, the record companies do. Many artists get little or nothing from "their" music. B) Considering the record industries "creative accounting" practices (i.e., screwing the artists), many people seem to find it difficult to accept the record companies claim of the higher moral ground.
I want to enjoy music I can download, and Napster stands in the way of this.
You're entitled to your opinion. To restate my opinion, I think Napster has been a wakeup call and the record companies will have to move damn fast to come up with a consumer acceptable online alternative.
You're missing three points. First, the US has a high population density in only a few, small widely separated areas.
Nobody cares about covering a few million people living in a vast countryside when there are a couple hundred million living in urban areas.
Second, after you install your cell phone system in the high population desity areas, the millions of people who live in the "vast countryside" become your next potential customers.
There are numerous examples of countries with less population density than the US which have managed to build a much more homogenous network infrastructure.
Third, AMPS was deployed before there was any digital standards, and CDMA and TDMA systems were being installed while GSM was still being developed. Sure, it's a no-brainer to decide which system to install now.
It's too bad you weren't around when they were installing the first cell phone systems. You could have tell them what to install and saved everyone a lot of time and money.
---You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their back.
In addition, all these counties are coming online after GSM has become a world-wide standard.
---
You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their back.
Um... er... it USED to take umpty-ump billion years.
In terms of security, triple-DES is also in the same class as serpent or rijndael.
(Unless you use NSA's backdoor...)
DES and triple-DES are probably the most publicly scrutinized crypto algorithms in history, no backdoor has been found. In fact, in retrospect, it's been found that the NSA's changes to the original DES algorithm actually made it stronger.
I assume you're trying for +1 funny.
I'm not disputing that Serpent is more secure than Rijndael. Nor I'm I disputing your right to use whatever algorithm you wish. But if it takes umpty-ump trillion years to break Rijndael, what does the extra security buy me besides slowness?
That's true, with off-the-shelf DVD-R disks. If one were going to the trouble to pirate DVDs on a commercial scale, then I'm sure one could procure blank DVD-R disks on the grey market without that pesky limitation. ;-)
All the, *ahem*, copy protected DVD-R disks do is prevent college students from financing their education by copying DVD movie disks. :-)
Hell, in fact, if one were pirating DVDs commercially, then one could setup a production line with a commercial DVD pressing machine and avoid using DVD-Rs entirely.
The problem is that the bureaucracy for ISS has become so large that it has developed its own inertia. That is, it no longer exists to support research in space, but only to support itself. Research and science has become secondary to its own existence.
This is one of the problems with NASA in general. The shuttle and ISS consume over half of NASA's budget. Both were developed to support NASA's primary functions of research and development, but in a way, they have now become NASA's primary function. Science and research is secondary. NASA has repeatedly demonstrated they will cancel science missions to support shuttle and ISS.
Personally, I doubt there will be much significant research done on ISS. What little that will be done will be widely publicized as "important" (hey, maybe they can send John Glenn up to ISS for a week or two, that's "important"). Meanwhile, NASA will continue to impede cheap, commercial access to space.
God, I hope I'm wrong.
"Our strategy is to enter the low-end server market by purchasing Cobalt Networks. Of course, we'll have to replace the Linux operating system they're currently using with Solaris... and the current AMD processor with a Sparc processor... and the case has got to go... but we'll keep the color. Yes, we'll definitely keep the color."
LOL!
That's very true, names are valuable. But who has more name recognition? Sun Microsystems or Cobalt Networks? Assuming roughly equivalent capability, who would you rather buy from?
one would think that if they're going to replace Linux with Solaris, then they basically have to replace all the firewall, NAT, and system administration tools that go with it. So they're left with a box, processor, memory, and hard-drive. So why did they buy this company in the first place? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just come-out with their own mini-firewall, server, cube-like thing?
Well ok, but just remember, it was your idea. :-)
Ummmm, K-Meleon people? Person is more like it. Christophe Thibault was bored last Sunday and threw K-Meleon together in one day. The source code is available and people are encouraged add their favorite features.
Emmanuel mentions that Judge Kaplan suggests using a VHS tape if one wishes to exercise their 'fair use' rights. I haven't seen anyone mention that most (many? some?) commercial VHS tapes are protected by Macrovision anti-copy technology. Sure, Macrovision can be trivally defeated, but by Judge Kaplan's logic under the DMCA, isn't defeating Macrovision the same as using DeCSS?
Actually, for the Japanese, being blunt is extremely rude.
:-).
I understand this is true. However, one can be precise and exact without being blunt (unless, perhaps, if you're an American
Never take anything you here about other armies too seriously. Especially if they are present/former/potential future enemies.
Alternatively, there's a risk in assuming other cultures are just like your own. Japanese culture (civilian and military) is quite different than American or European.