No they're not fusing anything yet. It just means they built and design this thing properly, so far. You don't test a brand new billion dollar fusion machine by ramping it up to 100% on your first try.
isn't this process risky? (I know I was the one to originally post about it but I've had this question in the back of my head since the start)
Risky how? The worst that could happen is if the plasma touches the metal. You'll get a big hole, but that's about it (Well, and you threw away €370 million if the damage is really bad). Loss of pressure means loss of fusion, so there won't be runaway processes like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island.
In unrelated news, SPACE DUST! http://www.accuweather.com/en/weath...ecember-2015-viewing-conditions-tips/54096454
google creates new supercomputer http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...is-100-million-times-faster-than-your-PC.html
frankly what I understand by this is "**** your 6080 character long private RSA key, we can crack it in three days!" I just wonder if this is defeated by bringing it up to 1 000 000 characters.
Yeah, it's pretty neat actually. Quantum physics is just really weird. The thing about qubits is that they can be be 0 and 1 at the same time (superposition) unlike a classical bit which has to be either 0 or 1. So if you super-secure RSA key is 4-bit then the classical computer would have to go through everything from 0000, 0001, 0010, ..., 1111 and do the check algorithm on each of the 2^4=16 combinations to see if that's the key. The quantum computer will just check all possible combinations at the same time because every qubit can be both simultaneously. It's quite bizarre. For https I think 2048 bits is recommended now. 4096 isn't really used much because that would be too CPU intensive and slow things down. So they won't use 8,000,000 bits any time soon for that at least. And once the number of qubits they can cram in their computer, that won't protect you anymore either.
Well, quantum communication is developed simultaneously. Using that you can tell if somebody is eavesdropping or not. That is based on the fact that a quantum state cannot be copied. If you read it, you destroy it. So if the evil party can't get a copy of your message, then there is nothing from them to decipher. I think we'll be ok. Also, I'm not entirely sure of this, but I think that even though RSA might be breakable by quantum computing, other cryptographic standards might not be. But I'm just a regular physicist, not a quantum one. It's been five years since I had a course on this quantum computing stuff.
well I think quantum communication (that's a thing ???? I wasn't at all aware) won't be standard until very VERY long. yes there are other algorithms but apparently all are breakable given enough time and CPU horsepower. but apparently some techniques such as SSL with certificate are better than others.
Yeah, it's a thing. And they are building these things already. Want to buy one? And for example one-time pad is proven unbreakable. It's a way of encrypting stuff with an encryption key that is the same length as the message. You use binary addition to add the message to the encryption key and you can only get the original by doing that operation again. So if your message is 0110, and your encryption key is 1010, you'd get 1100 and send that. The other side adds the encryption key again, so 1100 + 1010 = 0110. and you get your secret message back. But if you don't know the key, and you try the wrong one such as 0000, you'd get 1100 + 0000 = 1100. Is 1100 the message you were trying to send? Who knows. Try the key 0001, and you'd get 1101. You could get every possible combination of bits that way so there is no way to know if the message you decrypted is the actual message. The trouble is getting the key securely to the other party in the first place. And that is where those quantum communication systems get in. They are a way of securely sending those one-time pads. (Binary addition: 0+0 = 0, 0+1=1, 1+0=1, 1+1=0)
also this method is heavy weight since the key is at least as long as the message. not exactly your performance or everyday use cipher. about quantum crypting.... that looks very interesting but extremely expensive (it HAS to be on fiber optics network alone??? if so the data that passes through must be monstruous. can it realistically be implemented worldwide?)
It is heavy weight. The point was that there are unbreakable algorithms though. I don't know enough about this stuff to know any other ones. The Toshiba device I linked you to says AES-256 is pretty good for the quantum communication as well. Apparently quantum computing reduces the strength of that one to the equivalent of AES-128, but I don't quite understand how. And pricewise, yeah, but breaking encryption with a quantum computer is also very expensive. Also it doesn't need to be fibre optics. Free space works just as well. I don't remember if they have already done it or still are going to, but they were going to use the ISS for quantum communication. Pretty neat. There is also talk of dedicated quantum communication satellites. So I think it can be implemented worldwide eventually. Give it a few decades.
OH MY JESUS LORD WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF that can't be real ! "SOOTHING MUSIC" ARE YOU SHITTING ME!! NOTHING CAN SOOTHE BEING IN THIS SITUATION! edit : phew it's fake. I must have gone back 10 years in internet age there to fall for that one! (I replied within the first few seconds) @Geers what are you doing this is supposed to be a real news thread !
Space news: Russia wants to test anti-asteroid ICBM's on an asteroid set to be dangerously close to Earth in 2036 http://www.universetoday.com/127442/russias-new-ballistic-missiles-to-be-tested-on-asteroids/
I can see it coming: "We're sorry to announce this, but our nuke exploded in a slightly different place than planned and it actually bounced the asteroid straight at earth. Expected hit area is exactly on the white house in the US. Sorry again" xD I don't share the big concern about nukes in space though. They already have super long range "I can nuke you at any time in dozens of places at once"-weapons. "I can nuke space" doesn't really top that.
