Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re: Theory vs practice (Score 2) 63

Sorry, the algorithm used in quantum encryption is secure, being a one-time pad, exchanged via quantum pairs.

Any system that has a secure method for transmission of one-time pads between the parties in a conversation ought to be secure. However, there is no method of which I am aware that involves passing the one-time pads via a third party (in this case, Signal) where we can be confident the security will not be subverted by (especially) state actors. Would you be confident using one-time pads passed using Fedex?

Comment Theory vs practice (Score 3, Interesting) 63

It appears that a lot of effort has gone into designing a system that is theoretically secure (at least, against currently known attacks). However, it requires trust in the implementation which can never be completely transparent. State actors can insist on secret server-side backdoors that will store less secure copies of messages. These would not require code injection within clients (which would be detectable). There are many ways this could work, including such things as session key substitution.

Comment Re:"any day now" (Score 3, Insightful) 26

In astronomical terms that means it can happen 1 second from now, or 10 million years from now. Either way, it already happened

Since the system is around 10,000 light years from earth, while it has quite likely already happened, it is known that it had not yet happened 10,000 years ago.

Comment Must a turbine blade be INSIDE a cargo hold (Score 2) 184

It seems to me that some kind of heavy lift helicopter solution might make more sense. My understanding is that a reliable 100m turbine blade can be made weighing about 35 tons. Although the most capable current helicopters can only accommodate an external lift weight of about 20 tons, it seems easier to build a more powerful helicopter than a massive aircraft that can land on a makeshift dirt runway.

Comment Re:400 ps? (Score 1) 91

I am not familiar with the current state of the art, but CCM devices seem to have one major flaw: they only work in extremely low temperature conditions. Indeed, they only remain non volatile under such conditions. Outside of niche applications, having to keep your storage media continuously at similar temperatures to those needed for super conductivity does not seem very practical. Changing bits on CCM media may require negligible power, but maintaining the necessary environment continuously is costly.

Of course, we do not know if the environmental requirements in the latest Chinese research are any less demanding, but they might be on to something.

Comment Jury still out (Score 1) 21

From all I have read, it is highly unlikely that anything equivalent to the microbiome in our digestive tracts exists in the brain. However, the presence of a limited group of protective organisms seems plausible. As hinted by TFA, circumstantial evidence suggests conditions like Alzheimer's are affected by gut bacteria. The most likely reason for such an effect seems those organisms crossing the blood brain barrier and acting directly within the brain. Really, though, we simply do not know yet.

Comment No way of knowing (Score 3, Insightful) 75

There is no way of knowing whether or not this was suicide. Most likely, the police know it is either (i) suicide; or (ii) a highly professional hit made to look like suicide, a crime that the investment of vast amounts of police time would be unlikely to solve.

The police can legitimately say that it looks like a suicide, with no evidence to the contrary. It allows them to cleanly close the investigation. In the unlikely event that evidence surfaces pointing at foul play, the investigation can be reopened.

Comment Unworkable: not amenable to normal corruption. (Score 1) 49

For the establishment, there must be ways to influence the votes even of independent representatives. A mayor, Congress critter or whatever making decisions based purely on their analysis of the facts and the wishes of its electorate would be an unacceptable challenge to the status quo. Ways must and will be found by the existing power brokers to kill this idea.

Comment Re:Makes good sense (Score 1) 97

Some statistics I should have included in my original post:

Country-wise production capacity in 2022 (GWh)

Country GWh Share
China 893 (77%)
Poland 73 ( 6%)
United States 70 ( 6%)
Hungary 38 ( 3%)
Germany 31 ( 3%)

Sorry about the formatting. Slashdot these days does not properly support blockqotes

Comment Makes good sense (Score 0) 97

Right now, China has almost a monopoly on the world market for reusable batteries of all kinds. The best chance for countries like the US to catch up is technological advances that can leap frog China in the world market. This is an urgent strategic imperative, as are other actions to reduce the West's reliance on China in potential economic warfare down the road.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Pok pok pok, P'kok!" -- Superchicken

Working...