The Quantum Pontiff
Archives for February, 2009
Earth to Republicans: Curing STDs Would Probably Be a Good Thing
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 27, 2009 On Morning Edition this morning, there was a story about the annual Conservative Political Action Conference which contained a line which made me guffaw: Representative Paul Ryan: “[rant on spending in stimulus plan]…$400 million dollars to study sexually transmitted diseases!” [rant on about how his daughter is more responsible that President Obama] Oh my! The…
Construction, Real Estate, and …
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 26, 2009 For those scientists out on the job market this year, the following from TheLadders.com might be a little scary: Two annihilated industries and…science.
QI Position at the University of Guelph
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 25, 2009 David Kribbs sends along info about a quantum information position at the University of Guelph: The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Guelph invites applications for a full-time tenure track position to start 1 July 2009 or thereafter, at the rank of Assistant Professor. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to…
Zotero 1.5 Beta and More
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 25, 2009 Zotero, a Firefox extension for managing research sources, has announced the release of Zotero 1.5 beta. I’ve heard good things from those who use Zotero. This major update adds some nifty synchronizing and automatic backup. The next step after this for Zotero, I believe, is adding sharing capabilities. By the way does anyone know what…
You Down With Symmetry? You Know Me
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 23, 2009 For those local to Seattle, I’m talking tomorrow in the Paul Allen center: TIME: 1:30 — 2:30 pm, Tuesday, Feb 24, 2009 PLACE: CSE 503 SPEAKER: Dave Bacon, University of Washington TITLE: Symmetry in Quantum Algorithms ABSTRACT: Quantum computers can outperform their classical brethren at a variety of algorithmic tasks. Uncovering exactly when quantum computers…
Not With a Bang But a Whimper
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 23, 2009 Via Yglesias: Boy I didn’t need to watch that after a rough day.
Quantum Canada
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 23, 2009 Quantum computing continues to grow in Canada. Congrats to the IQC at the University of Waterloo who now, truly are the center of the quantum computing universe: With matching funds from the province of Ontario and RIM founder Mike Lazaridis, University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing will receive $150 million to build a research…
links for 2009-02-21
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 21, 2009 Antenna on the Cheap (er, Chip) Pringles antenna. Billionaire Lifestyles: Checking In With Paul Allen and Charles Simonyi | Xconomy Simonyi is slated to make his second trip to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 26 (at a cost of around $35 million)
Ode to Self-Correcting Quantum Computers
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 20, 2009 With apologies to Radiohead’s “There, there”: in pitch dark i go walking in your codespace. broken errors trip me as i speak. just ’cause you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. just ’cause you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. There’s always decoherence Singing you to shipwreck (Don’t reach out, don’t…
SqUinT Day 1 Summary
Posted by Dave Bacon on February 20, 2009 Okay, so keeping running notes on friendfeed isn’t going to work for me. Just too hard to do this and make a readable record. Really we should just be taping the talks. Summary of day one below the fold (this may be a bit off as this is being written a day later.)