Some weeks ago some hot-shot engineer at Focus Fusion was down to his last days before he was leaving to take a position elsewhere. I recall there was a lot of hype, people working very long shifts, trying to get some pulse or something going. There were some pictures taken, some up to the minute reports.

Then everyone was pooped, the big pulse test didn’t occur, everyone went home to get some rest.

And now, weeks later, no updates, no news, nothing at all.

What gives? What’s the story? Did the test firing ever get done?

http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/lpp_press_release/

Aeronaut - 04 November 2009 11:44 PM

http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/lpp_press_release/

Thanks!

Any analysis of the test? Was any fusion achieved? Any x-rays produced?

While “baby” was built, things went very fast and open-sourced. This whole worldwide community was allowed to know how it works and looks like, in itself a remarkable openness in comparison to other small-scale fusion projects. Some call this an overhyped website, but I really like it. Gives me “room for thought”

Now the experiment starts taking data I presume Eric wants to keep the lid on releases because now it’s really getting serious.

The really important data, the one that shows that p-B11 break-even has occured or not, will have to be peer-reviewed before release anyway, to avoid a possible “Pons-Fleishman-disaster”. Important intermediate breakthroughs, such as confirmation of the “Lerner magnetic field effect” on electrons, will also need such a review process.

It would be real trouble if LPP first cried victory on CNN worldwide, only to find out that a fundamental mistake was made and break-even is still a long way to go or outright impossible with the available hardware.

We humans may theorize and tinker, but the physics is there since the big bang (or NOT??) and it won’t comply to our wishes.

After all, we do have some time: ITER isn’t due before 2018…

However, as anyone in here, I do hope to see some intermediate results published, such as first D-D neutrons and first p-B11 fusion.

Sorry, wrong button. Now I can’t remove this….

belbear - 05 November 2009 01:29 PM

Sorry, wrong button. Now I can’t remove this….

Really?  Don’t you see a “delete” button at the bottom of your own posts?  You aren’t able to delete other people’s posts, unless you’re admin like me (the POWER!) but you should be able to edit or delete your own.

Thanks, Belbear.  Good assessment of the situation.

Rezwan - 05 November 2009 03:12 PM

Thanks, Belbear.  Good assessment of the situation.

I guess it does make sense. But it is anti-climactic nevertheless.

Thanks all for responding.

OK, Dash, some new updates are on the home page.  http://focusfusion.org - from your initial post, it seems you don’t actually follow the website, just the forums.  Is that correct?

Rezwan - 05 November 2009 05:44 PM

you don’t actually follow the website, just the forums.  Is that correct?

My links to get to focus fusion link directly to the forums, not the main page. I also don’t make use of RSS, I’m a bit behind the times.

I guess I’ve always assumed that any newsworthy updates would appear in the “News” area of the forums also.

You make a good point.  I hadn’t considered that. 

I have been, on occasion, setting up an announcement with a simultaneous discussion link, but only when I thought it was something that would raise debate.  I shall make it a habit of doing this with each new post. 

This raises another issue for me - comments vs. forum.  We have both capabilities.  But they don’t really dovetail.  The comments link will take you down the same page to where comments start.  “Discuss in forums” will bring you here to the forums.

Comments are more limited.  They only follow a specific article.  On the forums, you can initiate topics independently.  Also, forums gives you more flexibility for quoting, going back and editing, uploading images and so forth. 

I guess my question here is - are comments redundant - should I just link everything up to go to forums for discussion?  Or is redundancy fine?  Actually, redundancy may not be the issue.  More likely people miss some of the discussion by visiting either forums or just the article & its comments.

Hmmm.  Another “usability” issue.

Rezwan - 05 November 2009 08:01 PM

Hmmm.  Another “usability” issue.

www.xkcd.com has an effective approach, I think. The main page has the new comics that appear Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then the forums area has a discussion forum specific to each new comic as it comes out. So everyone knows exactly where to go to comment on a new comic.

I’ve always liked forums better than comments areas, there are more options, as you say.

Rezwan - 05 November 2009 08:01 PM

I guess my question here is - are comments redundant - should I just link everything up to go to forums for discussion?  Or is redundancy fine?  Actually, redundancy may not be the issue.  More likely people miss some of the discussion by visiting either forums or just the article & its comments.

Hmmm.  Another “usability” issue.

I’ve commented in both places. I like the way the homepage’s left column is becoming more intuitive, btw. Linking straight from new blog posts to the forum would further simplify navigation, imho. A blue-sky project may be to link to the “Store” and “Library” sections to eliminate the right column.

Rezwan - 05 November 2009 08:01 PM

This raises another issue for me - comments vs. forum.  We have both capabilities.  But they don’t really dovetail.  The comments link will take you down the same page to where comments start.  “Discuss in forums” will bring you here to the forums.

Comments are more limited.  They only follow a specific article.  On the forums, you can initiate topics independently.  Also, forums gives you more flexibility for quoting, going back and editing, uploading images and so forth.

There is another important difference between comments and forums:

In the forums you can immediately see where new replies have been posted (the dark folder icons), so even if you post in a “dormant” thread, discussions can quickly pick up again.

Comments do not have this very useful signaling feature, so comments on somewhat older articles are probably never looked at again, because every regular visitor has already read the article and doesn’t bother to re-read. Passers-by don’t have a login, they don’t write at all.

And no, there isn’t a delete button I found. There is an edit button, but even in edit mode you can’t delete an already posted reply.

Yes, comments v. forums:

I think the value of a comments section would be if people limited themselves to just putting a relevant link in there, or add information that should be visible by the article.  And also the cheery nod is always welcome. 

I kind of like a few comments tacked on to the articles, makes me see that people are reading them. Humanizes things a bit.

So:  Comments are for quick links of relevance to the post, and kudos : ), and a note if there’s an error in the post to be fixed.

The forums, in contrast, are for discussing topics in detail.  Getting into the commentary, opinions and ramifications. 

How to get this to happen?  It kind of seems to be happening now.  To improve:

1.  I must get in the habit of setting up a forum post for every website post & linking them. 
2.  A note by the comments and forum links on each post directing people - explaining the preference.

3.  Then I have to update twitter on these. 
4.  What about facebook/myspace/whathaveyou.  We need some volunteer updaters who are dedicated to the various outlets.  Anyone want to commit to manning one of these things?  We have a defunct myspace page out there.  And an anaemic facebook club thing…each one waiting for a dedicated person to be the official updater and put their own spin on it.  Bring it to life.   

Passers-by don’t have a login, they don’t write at all.

Yep.  Shutting them out.  I’m getting elitist with the passing seasons.

And no, there isn’t a delete button I found. There is an edit button, but even in edit mode you can’t delete an already posted reply.

  Ah.  Then I believe I have to wade into the back end permissions and change something.  I’ll get back to you on that.

I can contribute up to an hour a day to the facebook outpost. Please PM me the details of what needs to be done every day, how it should be done, etc.