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Adding on to that: the researchers are from a private corporation that falsely claimed partnerships with several South Korean enterprises and universities which

Adding on to that: the researchers are from a private corporation that falsely claimed partnerships with several South Korean enterprises and universities which have all disavowed any connection, the "Quantum Energy Research Centre" website has gone private[edit: not suspicious as described in comments below] and the co-authors are apparently feuding over project direction with one of them since removed from the paper. I know nothing about the subject matter but as a curious layperson I've been surprised a pre-print is being taken so seriously with this background and have assumed people much smarter than me interpret the physics as plausible.

lifthrasiir 3y ago
> the "Quantum Energy Research Centre" website has gone private In this particular case however, the website repeatedly hit the daily traffic quota before the closure. So I guess it would be no surprise that the hosting provider [1] forced them to close the website. [1] The website itself was probably hosted by https://imweb.me/ https://imweb.me/ (the parking page also supports this observation---the asset path and the admin page path matches).
- haldujai 3y ago
  Interesting, so that's the expected parking page for such a situation? I have no idea how web hosting works in SK and was going off this article, my interpretation was that this was changed after the traffic warning hence why I assumed malice: While the company’s website previously displayed a message that it has been blocked due to excessive traffic, it has now been shut down altogether as of Thursday with a message saying that it is “under construction." I guess that's one less red flag. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/08/03/business/tech/Korea-Quantum-Energy-Research-Centre-superconductor/20230803184638075.html https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/08/03/business/tec... Edit: Is the Safari translation of https://imweb.me/price https://imweb.me/price correct in saying unlimited traffic is 24,000 won ($18 USD) per month? If so, I'll add back that a private company that has discovered a room-temperature superconductor but is skimping out on $18/mo for web hosting does not inspire confidence.
  - lifthrasiir 3y ago
    To make my point concrete, compare these 3 Wayback Machine captures: 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20230730033806/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230730033806/https://qcentre.c... when it was still available. 2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230802204310/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230802204310/https://qcentre.c... when it hit the quota. The title and texts roughly translate to: "The access was denied due to the excessive traffic" and "The website you've visited reached the agreed daily traffic limit and thus is automatically made unavailable now. You can connect again when the limit resets on 10 AM [UTC+9]. Please upgrade the version if the traffic repeatedly hits its quota." 3. https://web.archive.org/web/20230805041306/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230805041306/https://qcentre.c... when it was closed down. All three pages are probably from imweb's own solutions, given its assets and links. So there is no dedicated server or virtual machine instance, everything is on whim of the provider. > Is the Safari translation of https://imweb.me/price https://imweb.me/price correct in saying unlimited traffic is 24,000 won ($18 USD) per month? Yes, but you need to read the asterisk: "But atypically large number of connections or DDoS attacks may be limited for the optimal operation of system." It is very frequent that this unstated "limit" is much lower than expected for Korean hosting providers.
    - haldujai 3y ago
      Got it. Apologies if it came across like I was questioning you, I'm just trying to understand the only part of this I potentially can (not the physics) and I'm clearly ignorant of how hosting works with SK providers. I couldn't tell from the Korea JoongAng Daily and Bloomberg articles if this was implying deceitful behavior. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

lifthrasiir 3y ago

> the "Quantum Energy Research Centre" website has gone private In this particular case however, the website repeatedly hit the daily traffic quota before the closure. So I guess it would be no surprise that the hosting provider [1] forced them to close the website. [1] The website itself was probably hosted by https://imweb.me/ https://imweb.me/ (the parking page also supports this observation---the asset path and the admin page path matches).

haldujai 3y ago
Interesting, so that's the expected parking page for such a situation? I have no idea how web hosting works in SK and was going off this article, my interpretation was that this was changed after the traffic warning hence why I assumed malice: While the company’s website previously displayed a message that it has been blocked due to excessive traffic, it has now been shut down altogether as of Thursday with a message saying that it is “under construction." I guess that's one less red flag. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/08/03/business/tech/Korea-Quantum-Energy-Research-Centre-superconductor/20230803184638075.html https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/08/03/business/tec... Edit: Is the Safari translation of https://imweb.me/price https://imweb.me/price correct in saying unlimited traffic is 24,000 won ($18 USD) per month? If so, I'll add back that a private company that has discovered a room-temperature superconductor but is skimping out on $18/mo for web hosting does not inspire confidence.
- lifthrasiir 3y ago
  To make my point concrete, compare these 3 Wayback Machine captures: 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20230730033806/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230730033806/https://qcentre.c... when it was still available. 2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230802204310/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230802204310/https://qcentre.c... when it hit the quota. The title and texts roughly translate to: "The access was denied due to the excessive traffic" and "The website you've visited reached the agreed daily traffic limit and thus is automatically made unavailable now. You can connect again when the limit resets on 10 AM [UTC+9]. Please upgrade the version if the traffic repeatedly hits its quota." 3. https://web.archive.org/web/20230805041306/https://qcentre.co.kr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230805041306/https://qcentre.c... when it was closed down. All three pages are probably from imweb's own solutions, given its assets and links. So there is no dedicated server or virtual machine instance, everything is on whim of the provider. > Is the Safari translation of https://imweb.me/price https://imweb.me/price correct in saying unlimited traffic is 24,000 won ($18 USD) per month? Yes, but you need to read the asterisk: "But atypically large number of connections or DDoS attacks may be limited for the optimal operation of system." It is very frequent that this unstated "limit" is much lower than expected for Korean hosting providers.
  - haldujai 3y ago
    Got it. Apologies if it came across like I was questioning you, I'm just trying to understand the only part of this I potentially can (not the physics) and I'm clearly ignorant of how hosting works with SK providers. I couldn't tell from the Korea JoongAng Daily and Bloomberg articles if this was implying deceitful behavior. Thanks for taking the time to explain.