I took another approach to this. I have been meaning to post it to HN for a while, though it is still a little raw. I call it geokode - https://geokode.com - it is meant to be like bitly for location. You can essentially choose what your url should be for any location. This makes it very user-friendly and you can also brand your location link. Currently, you can only use English characters and numbers. I have pre-populated it with some entries (see examples below), but the goal is to get users to create their own 'geokodes' as I like to call them. I am also working on a API to make the location data available once the geokode is provided. You can even link a geokode to GPS coordinates, which will be especially useful in countries where addresses are not simple. Obviously, the site needs a lot more polish, but let me know what you think. It is currently free to register a geokode - I have to update the demo video.
Well, it depends on how far back you want to go. All elements come from nuclear reactions in suns/stars which occur partly due to gravity. Some elements are unstable making them radioactive, some of which we use for nuclear fission. Big chunks of stars form planets and the associated geothermal energy. So, solar reactions and gravity account for all energy either directly or indirectly. Gravity is also the cause of tidal energy.
This is sort of a tangent, but why don't more people use Amazon FPS. I know it requires that the customer have an Amazon account (which many customers do have), but it is supported in many countries. You can at least have it has one of the payment options.
The uncertainty principle does not state that you can't measure both position and momentum; it states that you can't measure both accurately. So, as your accuracy of one increases, the accuracy of measurement of the other decreases.
On careful examination the physicist finds that in the sense in which he uses language no meaning at all can be attached to a physical concept which cannot ultimately be described in terms of some sort of measurement. A body has position only in so far as its position can be measured; if a position cannot in principle be measured, the concept of position applied to the body is meaningless, or in other words, a position of the body does not exist. Hence if both the position and velocity of electron cannot in principle be measured, the electron cannot have the same position and velocity; position and velocity as expressions of properties which an electron can simultaneously have are meaningless.
— Percy W. Bridgman
Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 90.
The strength and weakness of physicists is that we believe in what we can measure. And if we can't measure it, then we say it probably doesn't exist. And that closes us off to an enormous amount of phenomena that we may not be able to measure because they only happened once. For example, the Big Bang. ... That's one reason why they scoffed at higher dimensions for so many years. Now we realize that there's no alternative...
— Michio Kaku
Quoted in Nina L. Diamond, Voices of Truth (2000), 333-334.
I think you missed the quote monjaro posted which I responded to "According to the generalized uncertainty principle, the Planck length is in principle, within a factor of order unity, the shortest measurable length - and no improvements in measurement instruments could change that."
i.e. Planck lengths is the shortest measurable length and thus you can't measure anything of smaller length, and so the smallest length any object can have is the Planck length.
What I stated above was an interpretation of the statement you cited. In essence, I (and many others) would posit that if you can't measure it, then you can never know it exists. So, the smallest length any object can have is the Planck length. And then I believe, that since you can't measure sub Planck lengths, everything you measure must be an integral number of Planck lengths. Obviously, one is free to disagree with this interpretation.
Fair point. Depending on how you define it, all charges are an integral multiple of e or e/3 (see below). Either way, the relevant point to this discussion is that charge is quantized/discrete.
As for the Fractional quantum Hall effect, based on a quick glance, it seems that thus far only quasiparticees with charge e/3 have been discovered. So, while the theory could be correct, we will have wait and see if the other predicted fractional charges are detected.
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From the Quark wikipedia page you cited:
What is the quantum of charge?
All known elementary particles, including quarks, have charges that are integer multiples of 1⁄3 e. Therefore, one can say that the "quantum of charge" is 1⁄3 e. In this case, one says that the "elementary charge" is three times as large as the "quantum of charge".
On the other hand, all isolatable particles have charges that are integer multiples of e. (Quarks cannot be isolated, except in combinations like protons that have total charges that are integer multiples of e.) Therefore, one can say that the "quantum of charge" is e, with the proviso that quarks are not to be included. In this case, "elementary charge" would be synonymous with the "quantum of charge".
From my understanding, the Planck length is the smallest length there can be, and every other length has to be an exact integral multiple of the Planck length [1]. I believe the same applies to the other Planck units [2]- they are fundamental units. Similarly, every charge has to be an exact integral multiple of the charge of the electron. These fundamental units seem to to indicate that our universe is not continuous, but quantized/discrete. With that said, there are some theories stating that these fundamental units only apply to our universe (and even in our own universe, the fundamental units may change over long periods of time), and that other universes may have different fundamental units. So depending on how you define the universe, the answer to whether the universe is continuous or discrete could change.
Somewhat related comment:
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck
I have tried both Namejet and Snapnames recently. I used Namejet two times to try to get domains that expired and were under redemption. For Namejet you need to place a backorder and state the amount you are willing to pay, though I believe there is a minimum of $70. You do not need to pay upfront and pay only if you win the domain. You just place the backorder wait until the domain is released, when it is released if Namejet is able to get it, Namejet will charge you, provided no one else is bidding on the same domain name. If someone else is bidding on it, the domain will enter an auction. In my case, Namejet was successful for the first domain I backordered. No one else bid on it, so I got it right away. Namejet transfered the domain to eNom, paid the registration fee for 1 year, and gave me the login. The second time I tried Namejet, it failed to get the domain I wanted when the domain was released. I immediately found out that the domain was acquired by Snapnames based on an updated whois entry. Snapnames was conducting an auction on the domain I wanted, which they just acquired. I bid on it and the auction lasted for 3 days. At the end of the auction, there were no other bidders and so I got my domain for the low price of $19, Snapnames' minimum bid for this particular domain. My suggestion would to be to try both Namejet and Sanpnames, since you don't have to pay anything unless you win, though you do need to provide you credit card number. Also, you want to follow the whois records carefully for your domain of interest. I find GoDaddy's domain monitoring service very useful for monitoring whois records for domains I own and for domains I may want to own. It is quite affordable and a very good service. Hope this helps.
Admit One Security already does this as a part of their keystroke dynamics tool. One interesting thing they do with it is to use key strokes to see if users are sharing passwords for subscription services.
http://admitonesecurity.com/keystroke_dynamics_advantages.as...
(This is a copy of my comment on the original post)
For those that say ideas are next to worthless, when you think about why Google search succeeded, do think it was because of their execution or because of their idea about the importance of backlinks (i.e. the BackRub/PageRank algorithm). Of course, it is a combination of the two, but it is greatly mistaken to think that ideas are next to worthless. I think Daniel Bobke (commented on original post) has it right, when he commented that a good idea is necessary but not sufficient for success. Bad ideas are a dime a dozen, but good/great ideas are rare indeed. Though at times it is hard to tell if an idea is a good/great idea. I think a truly good idea will motivate you to work hard and as Jake Croston (commented on original post) stated drive you to keep going to find the path to good execution, even if you fail at first. Think about it another way: would you rather work for a firm that had (1) a great idea, but terrible execution or (2) a terrible idea, but great execution? I would work for firm (1) in a heartbeat.
dnsmadeeasy.com also offers Global Server load balancing (http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/enterprisedns/trafficdirector.htm...). They offer amazing products and service. I have used their DNS service for years. They just introduced the global server load balancing and are testing it out. They are just as good if not much better than any DNS provider, but much cheaper.
Ya, thanks for the response. I went and double checked what ELB does. I was looking for a way to load balance across regions. I know some services that can do it, but are quite expensive.
Can you please explain how you built a multi-AZ load balanced infrastructure, given that Amazon's ELB only load balances within a given AZ. I assume you used some external service. Would you mind providing the details. Thanks.
PDF: http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/03/jech-2013-20350...