pontiff
Posts by this author
February 5, 2009
For subscribers to Physics World, an article I wrote The Race to Build a Quantum Computer has appeared in the February edition. Unfortunately unless you have a subscription you'll have to pay to read the article...or better yet, pick up a copy of the magazine!
February 5, 2009
ReadWriteWeb - Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media
What do you do when your industry is shifting under your feet? Taking the lead with radical steps is one strategy. The New York Times did just that this afternoon when it announced that it has released a new…
February 4, 2009
The view from my plane window this afternoon (thank you United Airlines for making me take this Delta Airlines flight):
Check out those lenticular clouds!
One of my fondest memories was on a trip with my father to the Sacramento in a small plane, and on the trip back falling asleep and waking up…
February 4, 2009
Some upcoming talks for those in Albuquerque or Ann Arbor (so many A's!):
Feb 5, 5pm, University of New Mexico Center for Advanced Studies Seminars: The Symmetry Conjecture
Feb 6, 4:00 pm, University of New Mexico Physics and Astronomy Colloquium: The Race to Build a Quantum Computer
Feb 9, 4pm,…
February 4, 2009
A Simple Introduction to Quantum Groups « XOR's Hammer
(tags: quantum groups)
Backreaction: Corot-Exo-7b: A Venus in another World
the discovery of an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star in the constellation of Monoceros, at a distance of about 450 light years.
(tags: planets astronomy…
February 3, 2009
Computational Complexity: While I was Gone
"Paul Goldberg is looking for permanent faculty members (plural again) for a new Economics and Computation group in Liverpool. Economics is becoming the new quantum." If only this implied golden-ness about quantum were true
(tags: computing, quantum…
February 3, 2009
Lots of news about the Chris Monroe's group teleporting between ions in different traps.
The original paper in the January 23rd issue of Science: Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits, S. Olmschenk, D. N. Matsukevich, P. Maunz, D. Hayes, L.-M. Duan, and C. Monroe. Official press…
February 3, 2009
Sir Tobias Osborne of the Quantum Boolean Functions has made the plunge and is trying out open notebook science: Tobias J. Osborne's Research Notes.
Which reminded me of some dream software I've been thinking of writing (oh Time you Devil---why could you not expand to fit in all I want to create…
February 2, 2009
A long time ago, in a blog far far away, I ran a small poll about paper refereeing. The poll asked "What is your ratio of reviewed to submitted manuscripts?". The results were
>=6 reviewed for every 1 submitted: 7 votes (8 percent)
5 reviewed for every 1 submitted: 3 votes (4 percent)
4…
February 2, 2009
Compare and contrast.
That first one has some good book review snark:
T. C. Boyle's dreary new novel, "The Women," isn't a rewrite of Clare Boothe Luce's wicked 1936 play "The Women." It's a rewrite of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright that somehow manages to turn the gripping, operatic saga of…
February 1, 2009
Amusing line from a New York Times article this morning:
"Are you aware under what conditions I worked in 1996?" he said by telephone from Mexico. "It's only because of my lawsuit that you or anybody else can pick up a tape. In those days, I could not leave the archives with that material. I used…
January 30, 2009
Like many an arrogant kid before me, when I graduate from high school in my podunk hometown (no, it wasn't marshy, and I say podunk with all the warm feelings of a idyllic childhood), I was filled with confidence that I was one of the smartest people I knew. Oh, I'd never say it, and yes I knew I…
January 28, 2009
Via Alea: the CME trading simulation game. If only it were this easy:
I suspect that in the real world, doing the opposite of what I did would be required to actually make money :)
January 26, 2009
Amusings.
Good: temperatures higher than freezing!
Bad: conference schedule at awesome resort which just taunts you cus you're stuck inside (that withstanding the talks are awesome but due to a turn of events, I will have to leave early.)
Good: Did you know that there is a part of Florida which…
January 22, 2009
Part three in my continuing pedantic slow-as-molasses walk through Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.
List of posts here: introduction, ch 1, ch 2.
SPOILER ALERT: Dude, I can't talk about the book without giving away what the book is about, so if you don't want the book's main…
January 20, 2009
My favorite line from today's inauguration speech:
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer…
January 19, 2009
From a crazy model to a concrete question: is there a nice mathematical structure hidden here?
Once upon a time I wrote a crazy paper (arXiv:quant-ph/03091189) on quantum computation in the presence of closed time-like curves. In this model, one identifies two types of quantum systems: those that…
January 16, 2009
Method for using Ecto and LaTeXiT.
I've been playing around with a workaround for using LaTeX in Scienceblogs (the powers that be have promised this power, but I need my equations now!)
The solution I've found is a bit of a kludge, but not that bad. First of all I'm using an offline blogging…
January 16, 2009
The Perimeter Scholars Institute is a Masters level course designed to prepare students for cutting-edge research in theoretical physics. It looks pretty cool with some outstanding lecturers. The application deadline is February 1. All accepted students will be fully supported. Details below…
January 16, 2009
The last day of QIP in Santa Fe. Also note that Joe has posted some nice notes on additivity on his blog: part I and part II. Oh, and QIP next year will be in Zurich, and QIP the year after next will be in Singapore.
computing, conference, quantum
Lluis Masanes, "Towards device-independent…
January 15, 2009
Stuff learned while at QIP.
A solution to the more cranky P versus NP problem: simply send those who claim P=NP the papers claiming P does not equal NP, and vice versa
I did not know that the cell phone ring tone which is hard for older people to hear was first used by restraunts to keep away kids…
January 15, 2009
Sorry to those who talked in the afternoon yesterday: I ran off to listen to Michael Nielsen talk at the Santa Fe Institute.
Charles Marcus, "Holding quantum information in electron spins"
Charlie gave a talk about the state of quantum computing in solid state quantum dot systems. Things Charlie…
January 14, 2009
A full day today, after a nice break yesterday (went for a run: yeah for altitude making me winded nearly instantly!)
Andrew Childs, "Universal computation by quantum walk
Andrew Childs talked about a subject whose origin can be pretty much tracked back to Feynman in the 1980s. In particular…
January 13, 2009
A half day at QIP.
The reason I'm having a hard time keeping away this morning:
Avinatan Hassidim, "Multi-prover interactive proofs with communicating provers"
Paper arXiv:0806.3982. Avinatan described work he performed with Michael Ben-Or and Haran Pilpel on multiprover interactive proofs in…
January 12, 2009
Having some glitches publishing, so am trying to split up the posts.
Continuing on the quantum information theory beat:
John Smolin (speaker) and Graeme Smith, "Can non-private channels transmit quantum information?"
John began by explaining the stages of grief and how this relates to the…
January 12, 2009
QIP 2009 started today in Santa Fe, NM. Since the conference organizers have seen it wise to include wireless access, what better excuse for a bit of liveblogging.
Andrew Landahl gave us a nice introduction to QIP and explained the New Mexico State question (I'm thinking of starting a movement in…
January 9, 2009
Scienceblogs is upgrading. This site won't allow comments from 10pm Pacific Standard Time on Friday, January 9 until...well until the upgrade is complete (possibly Saturday sometime.)
So instead of being frustrated at not being able to comment why don't you instead go waste your time by:
By…
January 8, 2009
I'd never seen this quote from Richard Feynman on the measurement problem:
When you start out to measure the property of one (or more) atom, say, you get for example, a spot on a photographic plate which you then interpret. But such a spot is really only more atoms & so in looking at the spot…
January 7, 2009
Special relativity holds a special (*ahem*) place in most physicist's physicists' hearts. I myself fondly remember learning special relativity from the first edition of Taylor and Wheeler's Spacetime Physics obtained from my local county library (this edition seemed a lot less annoying than the…