The Quantum Pontiff
Archives for April, 2008
Stephen Hawking at TED
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 6, 2008 The Hawkman Speaketh at TED: No alien quiz shows? Certainly Professor Hawking did not see Alex Trebek last week, when, for half the show, Alex Trebek had a really alien looking mustache.
CSE 322 Spring 2008, Week 1
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 5, 2008 This quarter I am teaching CSE 322: Introduction to Formal Models in Computer Science. Good fun. As part of my teaching I am LaTeXing up lecture notes from the class, which follow closely the book we are using, Sipser’s “Introduction to the Theory of Computation.” Here are the first three lectures for those with nothing…
AP Computer Science AB Cut
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 4, 2008 The very first AP class I took in high school was the Computer Science AB test. Today, I learn from the Washington Post, that the Computer Science AB test is on the chopping block (along with Italian, Latin literature, and French literature.)
An ArXiv PDF Mime Fix for Firefox 3.0
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 4, 2008 Previously, I had found a way to get a Mac running Firefox to not choke on recognizing pdfs correctly when downloaded from the arxiv.org. Commenter Dan has tracked down the reason for this and suggested another way to fix this which should be compatible with the latest versions of Firefox: Update: It seems that the…
Best Title Ever Competition: Quantum Flatland Edition
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 3, 2008 Today, I looked on the arxiv and found arXiv:0804.0272: arXiv:0804.0272 Quantum computing using shortcuts through higher dimensions Authors: B. P. Lanyon, M. Barbieri, M. P. Almeida, T. Jennewein, T. C. Ralph, K. J. Resch, G. J. Pryde, J. L. O’Brien, A. Gilchrist, A. G. White and nearly fell out of my chair. What an awesome…
Let’s Make Them Fight Each Other
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 3, 2008 Oh no: do the Christian creationists know that by taking down Darwin they might inadvertently aid Eastern religions? Witness: the Bhaktivedanta Institute Newsletter. Personally I want a grunge match between the Discovery Institute and the Bhaktivedanta Institute to see who can out pseudoscience each other. “No my psychogenetic fallacy definitely trumps your silly fallacy of…
Quantum Diet
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 2, 2008 Eat anything you want and lose weight? How? By using quantum physics of course!: Freedom From Food looks at food and weight from a unique vantage point. It examines the mind/body connection – how your thoughts and emotions affect your body. The book points out that there is abundant scientific evidence in quantum physics to…
Why Living in Seattle Rocks
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 2, 2008 The view from my morning run …and that’s not even the best view I get!
Fafblog Returns?!?!
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 1, 2008 Is it really true? Is Fafblog back? All that praying to the April Fool’s Day Jackalope has finally paid off! “Screw this dump!” says Giblets. “This universe is old and fat and smells like smelling and Giblets is busting out!” “Should we go over the wall or take the tunnel?” says me. I been diggin…
Hot Quantum Computing!
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 1, 2008 Normally when I think about quantum computers, I think about systems which are pretty cold, since a thermal equilibrium state at high temperature is a very mixed state. But is it really true that a quantum computer needs to be cold to quantum compute? I’ve often wondered (some would say pontificated) about this, and so…