Potassium and oxygen went out. It was OK.

[lettered]

So I know I'm totally behind on answering emails to some people, sorry.

What I really wanna know is: do any of you know anything about computer hacking (in theory or in practice), and maybe wanna talk to me for just a little bit about it in the context of Tony Stark and JARVIS?

Also, do any of you know anything about physics or chemistry, and maybe wanna talk to me for just a little bit about it in the context of Tony Stark inventing a new element? I know Stark inventing the element is totally bogus, but if you're gonna pretend like it can happen I at least wanna talk about it in a somewhat plausible way. Ahhhhhhh.

Even if you have no idea who Tony Stark is, but think computers or physics or chemistry or particle physics are cool, lemme know!

Thanks.

Comments

[jjhunter]

Try science if you don't get any good nibbles from your flist. :o)

[lettered]

oh, that's so cool!

[synecdochic]

i grok "what people generally refer to as hacking", by which i think you mean breaking into secured systems, but alas, should not be typing :(

but if you are looking to learn how someone who does that sort of thing thinks, you could do worse than read everything bruce schneier has ever written. it will teach you very quickly how to see the world as a series of very badly secured systems and once you see the matrix, you can't stop seeing it...

[synecdochic]

also, for "invented a new element" you want "invented a new crystalline superstructure", according to sarah. who has ranted the rant at me before but never written it down :)

[lettered]

Aw! Don't type!

I don't really need to know how they think . . . it's Tony trying to keep Bruce on his toes, mainly. But those are some cool articles! Thanks.

And I know that you can't create a new element the way they have Tony do it--I mean, one that's stable and not radioactive and exists for more than a nanosecond and is made with a particle accelerator that apparently lives in his garage. But isn't that what it says in canon? I mean. They also have a cube that apparently causes a rift in space-time and a hammer that brings all the lightening to the yard; I'm not sure they're actually trying to be realistic scientifically. And also how does Tony even move the v. first proto-suit around? All of this is entirely unclear.

[synecdochic]

hee. yeah, there's a certain level of suspension of disbelief you have to go for, but there are some things i just can't accept!

schneier's awesome. i've been reading him forever and ever. but yeah, if you're looking for specifics i could probably help you out a bit, assuming you don't mind delays thanks to my new exoskeleton.

[lettered]

Thanks so much, hon. I just ended up writing around it. I don't want to do that a lot with the Bruce/Tony stuff, because this:

"Bruce said something technical, then Tony responded in kind. Bruce addressed his point, and Tony said, 'Finally, someone who speaks English!' while everyone else looked confused."

is so much less interesting than what actually happened in the movie. And the science dialogue in the movie makes no sense; we don't need it to; no one cares, but you can't produce that effect without the science dialogue.

So I'm finding that when writing Tony and Bruce there are a lot of moments where they're speaking (either about physics or programming or engineering or what have you) where I don't need it to make sense so much as sound technical. A better writer would probably do both or find better ways to write around it. This time I just wrote around it because while I do understand some science, I understand practically nothing about computer code.

But anyway, I'm through that portion so it's fine, but I hope you don't mind if I keep you in mind for the future :o) I hope your poor elbows are feeling a little better, or that you are at least accustomed to having become a cyborg. I'm hope that once you molt you'll become a beautiful beautiful butterfly who can fly again. On the keyboard.

[seraphcelene]

I feel like you should be talking to yhlee about the chemistry and physics part of this. I don't know if that's accurate, but she is the first and only person who pops to mind.

Good Luck, precious, ;)

[lettered]

hullo, lovely.

HOW ARE YOU DOING? I thought I was going to have so much time over the holidays and then I didn't. Gah. Did you have good ones?

I asked yhlee; thanks for your help :o)

[seraphcelene]

I had weird holidays. How were yours? Awesome? Did you go to TX?

J, I am so checked out of my life that it is sometimes astounding. I'm working really hard on the ME stuff, but everything else is exhausting and disconnected. Some days I feel bad about that, some days not so much.

The holidays this year were low stress and spent at other people's houses. I had no decorations up, no tree, and I did not cook; it was very unusual. It was also very nice.

I hope you get what you need for your fic! YAY! Can't wait to read it.

[yhlee]

Howdy! My husband is a physicist, although he doesn't specifically do stuff with elements (he's in gravitational astrophysics); if you want to shoot me an email, however, he may be able to ask some colleagues for you. I'm specifically remembering one physicist we knew at Caltech who had a strong chem background, if I can get his email. (He'd be okay with being asked. I once sat him down and made him talk to me about whether you could make a jade laser.) I'm at yoon at yoonhalee dot com.

Computer hacking: the book is not about this specifically, but Social Engineering by Christopher Hadnagy has some sections that talk about hacking tools that social engineers use. Also, I highly highly highly recommend Ross Anderson's Security Engineering. Don't be intimidated by the length of the book, or by its price. Here (page down) you can download a PDF of the 1st ed. for free. I have read both editions, and for your purposes, the 1st ed. will probably suffice, because the basic principles stay the same. The chapter titles are pretty self-explanatory, there are TONS of great examples, and although parts of the book are technical, as a whole it is extremely approachable by a layperson and very well-written.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps; if not, good luck finding what you need elsewhere!

[lettered]

seraphcelene mentioned you and lo, you appeared! Hallo.

Thank you so so so much; I shall email you.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

While the concept of inventing an element is a stretch, making one that hasn't previously been available on Earth is plenty possible. It's just that most of the ones that aren't already here have a pesky habit of unmaking themselves almost instantaneously. But if you could get them to hold still just long enough, in a big enough piece, it is theorized that there are other elements further down the line that would be stable.

People have managed to smash things together and make some of the fleeting ones. We're still waiting on the "it should be stable" stuff. But that's kind of what I thought of in the context of "Tony makes an element."

Re: Well...

[lettered]

Yep. I really think they want us to think that Tony did it with a particle collider, but yes, stabilizing it, there's the rub. If you were just gonna make up something wild and crazy about why it was stable, what would you say? I'm reading this article, which is really interesting.

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Maybe it's like Tetris: if you put the pieces together very quickly just right, they'll stay that way. Tony is more of an engineer than a physicist, really. It would be easier for him to a fast, precise stack than to create the heat and pressure conditions to chain up to a stable element. Just build it from scratch before it realizes what you're doing.

Kind of like the way he picks up women.

Re: Well...

[lettered]

if you put the pieces together very quickly just right, they'll stay that way

Oh, that's really very cool.

Kind of like the way he picks up women.

hahahaha. He's sings the Tetris song in his head while he's doing it.

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yes, Tony Stark is totally the kind of person who sings video game music, in his head with company or out loud alone.

*laugh* One of these times, he's going to hijack a sound system to play it, and Natasha is going to smack him.