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Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also a pseudo professor. 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.)
Nothing he says on this blog should be construed as having anything to do with his employer or his dog.
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The use of Occam's razor on this website is strickly prohibited.
Cows are well approximated by a sphere.
Computer Science:
Category: Computer Science
Blackjack, or 21, is a game that many enjoy wasting their money playing at casinos. For those who don't like to waste their money, or at least want to waste it more slowly than others, card counting is a time...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 6:29 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
Two conferences. Renato Renner sends along a note about QIP 2010. The paper submission deadline is one month away:QIP 2010 will be held in Zurich, Switzerland, January 18-22. The submission deadline for contributed talks is 22 October 2009. For more...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
The Netflix prize for movie rankings has been awarded with the winner being BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos. This is very cool, but since it's Monday I think we need a good dose of reality. So here is the first comment on...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:34 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
How do you build a computer out of fire? (Motivated by the observation that if you take three pieces of string and tie them together at a single point, you can make an OR gate. If we denote the presence...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:01 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computers
Rod Van Meter is in search of some summer reading:I'm feeling the need to recharge my store of ideas, and I have the nagging feeling that my lack of currency in a bunch of fields is causing me to miss...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 11:57 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
Today on the arXiv an new paper appeared of great significance to quantum computational complexity: arXiv:0907.4737 (vote for it on scirate here)Title: QIP = PSPACE Authors: Rahul Jain, Zhengfeng Ji, Sarvagya Upadhyay, John Watrous We prove that the complexity class...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:10 PM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
With fast approaching deadlines:...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:53 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
Over at the optimizer's blog, quantum computing's younger clown discusses some pointers for giving funny talks. I can still vividly remember the joke I told in my very first scientific talk. I spent the summer of 1995 in Boston at...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 1:48 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Quantum Computing
The report from the Workshop on Quantum Information Science has now been posted. Color commentary soon :)...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 9:10 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computer Science
DARPA, you know the people who invented the internet ("100 geniuses connected by a travel agent"), has a new director: The Department of Defense (DoD) today announced the appointment of Regina E. Dugan as the 19th director of the Defense...
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Posted by Dave Bacon at 1:51 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks