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User: backwardMechanic

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  1. Re:Another limit? on New Superconductor Found "Immune To Magnetism" · · Score: 1

    It's perfectly possible to build wires using brittle ceramics, it's just hard work. As I understand it (which may be wrong) wires are made by forming powder in a mold and then melting it. Trouble comes when you think about thermal expansion/contraction. Taking a brittle solenoid from room temperature to 4K or below involves a substantial contraction. Taking it back up to room temperature quickly (quenching a magnet) is probably bad. But it's certainly possible, we have one at work (14T).

  2. Re:Principle is seldom cheap. on Why Buy a PC Preloaded With Linux? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nobody said anything about paying for bleeding edge. You can choose to pay more to support the wider project (FOSS) and have your computer the way you want it. But it is a choice.

    I would choose to pay slightly more, because it tells the manufacturers that I want to use Linux, and I'd really like them to supply Linux drivers for their hardware.

    There is a different argument as to whether you should pay more to Dell et al, or buy the cheaper machine and donate the extra to a FOSS project. I'm not sure which option is preferable there.

  3. Re:Well, Obviously this is a test. on Breaking the Fermilab Code · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read your message with interest. I think the most significant part is the missing 's' in source in point 1. I think this may be the extra 's' found in the original message which is causing so much confusion.

  4. Texmaker on A Virtualized Linux System For Windows · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may like Texmaker. It's developed by the guy who originally wrote Kile, but doesn't depend on KDE so runs on anything. I switched because I wanted to use the same editor under Win and Linux, but actually prefer it now.

  5. Re:I wonder... on Using Magnets To Turn Off the Brain's Speech Center · · Score: 1

    The surprising thing is that your heart will pretty much look after itself. If your brain sends a synchronization signal, that's good, your heart will sync, but without it your heart just beats away by itself. Brains are over-rated, your body can manage a lot of the work unaided.

  6. Re:Does MS understand what Blender is? on Microsoft Reaches Out To Blender · · Score: 1

    Exactly. If enough FOSS projects say they need better OpenGL support, it gets harder for MS to say they are supporting open source without actually doing something. Maybe projects receiving these mails should club together and co-ordinate their response? Focus attention on a small number of important issues?

  7. Re:Hmm on London Lawyers Demand £600 For One Game · · Score: 1

    So if I use a file system developed by a convicted murderer, is that going to be a problem?

  8. Re:Trolls are great :) on In-Depth With Qt 4.4 · · Score: 1

    I hear you. I guess when Qt started out, the STL was pretty unstable and unpredictable across platforms, but C++ has moved on since then. C'mon Trolltech, how about it?

  9. Re:The Art of Electronics on Books On Electronics For the Lay Programmer? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've worn out one copy of AoE, and still use it regularly - I'd also recommend it, but it's a reference book rather than a gently read. If you want to get your hands dirty and actually build something, try the Robot Builder's Bonanza. It's much less technical, but full of good ideas. I've never built any of the projects from the book, but it has inspired lots of my own.

  10. Re:A couple of things... on Berners-Lee Claims Web "Still In Infancy" · · Score: 1

    Erm, but wasn't that correct usage? Equivalence, rather than assignment? Although it's always a little difficult to work out the correct way of writing something wrong...

  11. Re:hmm. on Cray, Intel To Partner On Hybrid Supercomputer · · Score: 1

    I run full-wave electromagnetic simulations to investigate fields generated inside the human body. My runtime is reasonable if I pick some parameters, but running an automated optimizer could easily take weeks using a 30 node Opteron cluster. If you give me more cycles, I can think of stuff to keep them busy. But if you want to see a really power-hungry project, talk to the protein folders - the guys that model chemical interactions starting at quantum mechanics, and try to find out how the shapes of protein molecules change through the progress of the reaction. That's neat. Or the cosmologists, simulating the formation of the universe, but they're just crazy...

  12. Re:Okay, stop right there ... on Party Ideas For Math Nerds? · · Score: 1

    Most of your advice is rubbish, but you redeem yourself completely with your final suggestion:

    If that's way off base, at least here's a party idea: have everyone come dressed up as a liberal arts student. :)

    Now that's a party I'd come to. For bonus points, stay in character while at the party for as long as possible...

  13. Re:Scrap Barry White on Party Ideas For Math Nerds? · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're mostly maths nerds - have you any idea how complicated those drinking games are going to get?

  14. Law as science? on Ben Stein's 'Expelled' - Evolution, Academia and Conformity · · Score: 1

    But the rules of law are made up, and can and do change. Gravity doesn't work the way it does because Newton said so. Science is about describing the underlying laws of nature. As scientists we try to figure out what those laws are, but say nothing of why they are there. Man-made laws and scientific laws are different. Now if you were asking about economics as a science, that would be areally interesting conversation...

  15. Re:I wonder though on US Army Furthers Development of Robotic Suits · · Score: 1

    Sound a bit like you're describing a tank?

  16. Re:Hmmm.... on Psychologists Don't Know Math · · Score: 1

    Do they all just forget it by the time they reach a PhD?

  17. Re:Hmmm.... on Psychologists Don't Know Math · · Score: 2, Informative

    I used to laugh at economists when they claimed to do science too. Then one of my friends at uni showed me the notes from their math course. As a physicist I like to think I can handle a few equations, but they do some serious math. After that, I kept quiet. Keep picking on the psychologists, it's safer.

  18. Re:Inaccurate? on Psychologists Don't Know Math · · Score: 1

    I wish that was my experience, but the parent posters description exactly matches my experience. I 'm a physicist working in MRI, so I work with a lot of psych researchers. Some of them are very good, and a very very few are hot statisticians*. But they are in a minority. As for poor/less able, aren't poor/less able students in all fields maths-adverse?

    * well, actually, lots of 'em are hot, but I'm a physicist so I don't meet many girls...

  19. Re:APRS leading the way on GPS Trackers Find Novel Applications · · Score: 1

    But, I think a lot of people would willingly turn on such a feature (say, on a mobile phone with a GPS chip and a GPRS connection.

    Sadly, that's the problem. Once 'most people' already use self-tracking, it becomes suspicious not to. I don't have anything to hide (honest), but I want to make sure some people have the option of not being tracked. Some of them want to steal cars. Others want to make political protests. I think it's worth putting up with the former to allow the latter.

    It's still a neat gadget though...

  20. Re:drugs for enhancement are self-defeating on Many Scientists Using Performance Enhancing Drugs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I admire your romanticism, but science isn't sport. It's not about a fair fight between equals. Science is about using any method you can to explain or measure a detail of the universe that nobody else can. So long as you do it yourself (i.e. you didn't actually steal someone else's idea or result), anything goes. There is no Nobel prize for featherweight science. Either you're the best, or you're not - and your funding will reflect this.

  21. Re:Own concoctions? on Many Scientists Using Performance Enhancing Drugs · · Score: 1

    Not until someone makes it illegal... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lsd#History

  22. Re:Worst analogy EVAR! on IBM Ships Fastest CPU on Earth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fair point. So I should jump out of the window and my computer will run faster? I'm just looking fora few more cycles...

  23. Re:Worst analogy EVAR! on IBM Ships Fastest CPU on Earth · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, if I throw my computer out of the window, I'll get more FLOPS?

  24. Re:Worst analogy EVAR! on IBM Ships Fastest CPU on Earth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think it's a neat calculation. We've all lost track of what fast actually means for a modern CPU. I think task, in this context, would be understood by most to mean a (simple) instruction, maybe an increment for example. That we can compare light moving over such a small distance to the time it takes to complete an op is impressive. Maybe you've not stopped to actually think about it?

  25. Nerves on Sweat Ducts May Act As Antenna For Lie Detection · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not a lie detector, it's a nervous person detector, just like the polygraph. It's clever, but it's more likely to find someone who doesn't like being interviewed by the [insert agency here] than a cold blooded killer.