Theoretical Musings
Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also an assistant research professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is on quantum computing, his scientific passions extend to everything in physics, mathematics, computer science and beyond, and his personal pleasures include making wine, playing poker, skiing, camping, and daydreaming (although not all of those at the same time.)
July 31, 2008
Category: Quantum
Sure quantum computers can find a needle in an unstructured haystack quadratically faster than their classical brethren, but I didn't think the word "quantum" and "search" would appear in the press quite this soon: Ex-Googlers reinvent web search: Quantum porn...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 10:57 AM • 8 Comments • • View blog reactions
July 30, 2008
Category: Politics
Turning down a tenured position at the University of Chicago Law School:Soon after, the faculty saw an opening and made him its best offer yet: Tenure upon hiring. A handsome salary, more than the $60,000 he was making in the...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:32 AM • 2 Comments • • View blog reactions
July 29, 2008
Category: Caltech
Someone at Caltech's PR office sure was having fun: Caltech Astronomers Describe the Bar Scene at the Beginning of the Universe PASADENA, Calif.--Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers,...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 7:59 PM • 6 Comments • • View blog reactions
Category: Go Ahead, Waste Your Time
Physical Theories as Men, a tit for tat response to Physical Theories as Women. Go ahead, you know you want to click on both of them....
Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:09 AM • 3 Comments • • View blog reactions
July 28, 2008
Category: SciRate
In attempt to keep my reading more current, I'm going to try to post the top rated arXiv papers on SciRate each week and hopefully add about the papers. Let's see how long I can keep it up (bets?)...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 10:41 PM • 2 Comments • • View blog reactions
Category: Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self.
Yesterday I started to trace the wiring for our doorbells and figure out why they aren't working (they haven't worked since we moved in.) So I'm happily tracing away (a bit difficult since part of the basement has been finished...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:56 AM • 13 Comments • • View blog reactions
Category: Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self.
Last night we went to see the new Batman movie. After attempting to see it at Paul Allen's Cinerama (it was sold out), we headed down to the standard mall theater in downtown Seattle to view said film. Verdit for...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:46 AM • 2 Comments • • View blog reactions
July 25, 2008
Category: Brain
An interesting idea from Mark Changizi from RPI: can one design pictures which, when interpreted by your vision, perform a computation? Press release here (note to RPI public relations department: you should probably make it so that the webpage address...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 3:32 PM • 10 Comments • • View blog reactions
Category: Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self.
Yesterday the New York Times, ran an article Absaroka, a proposed state between Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota which never was. Which reminded me of the state that I grew up in, the great state of Jefferson. What, you've never...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:41 PM • 12 Comments • • View blog reactions
Category: Computer Science
Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, passed away early today. If you haven't watched Pausch's last lecture, you should: This lecture, when I first saw it, reminded me how important humor is for teaching. In other words, my students...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:02 AM • 1 Comments • • View blog reactions
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