pontiff
Posts by this author
May 24, 2008
From the Uncyclopedia entry on computers:
How Computers Work
Inside a computer case is a midget that intakes power and outputs graphics. On an average computer, this is an average male midget. High end computers contain baby giraffes or sometimes Links (which will periodically shut down, some blame…
May 22, 2008
Does anyone know if any author has ever had a paper published in the entire alphabet of Physical Reviews? (A,B,C,D,E) And if not, doesn't that sound like a fun task to try to achieve. OK, perhaps "fun" is the wrong word. Even better if you could carry out the task with alphabetical order…
May 22, 2008
The telectroscope:
Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel will finally be completed. Immediately afterwards, an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope will be installed at both ends…
May 20, 2008
is realizing that you've spent twenty straight hours working on a grant proposal. Fry, meet Brain. Brain, meet Fry.
May 19, 2008
Dude, can I get a Canadian aerospace company to win a United States federal contract and as a consequence have to fund my quantum computing research?
Dalhousie research is taking a quantum leap into next-generation computing.
The university has received $2 million from Lockheed Martin that will…
May 16, 2008
Robert Mondavi, who helped put Napa Valley on the world wine map has passed away age 94. The most famous story about Mondavi involves a fight:
The Mondavis moved to Napa, and Cesare, Robert and Robert's younger brother, Peter, ran the winery. But there were disagreements about how the winery…
May 15, 2008
I'm a sucker for any game which involves time travel. If only now I could go back in time and use my time more wisely than I did by playing that silly game.
May 14, 2008
Interesting new website from the New York Academy of Sciences: Scientists Without Borders:
Scientists Without BordersSM aims to mobilize and coordinate science-based activities that improve quality of life in the developing world. The research community is already promoting areas such as global…
May 13, 2008
Over at the Optimizer's place, the Optimizer compares libertarians and those who believe in the many worlds interpretation of quantum theory. (Key Ron Paul apologists in three, two, one...) An amusing comparison. So if many worlders are the libertarians of interpretations of quantum theory, what…
May 11, 2008
Be sure to watch out for the Pacific Northwest tree octopus!
May 10, 2008
For a second straight year, the winner of the U.S. Teacher of the Year, is a University of Washington graduate. Of course I'm not supposed to say that, as not bragging is an sacred northwest tradition. (Did you know that the University of Washington receives the second most federal research…
May 10, 2008
Science is full of hard problems. One hard problem is protein folding. Indeed vast amounts of computer power have been thrown at this problem. So one wouldn't think that the computer we've got sitting on top of our body would be much use for this problem. But is this true? Can humans fold…
May 9, 2008
From a student today in office hours before today's midterm: "How many times will the word automata appear in the test, including its use in acronyms like DFA, NFA, GNFA, and WTFA?"
May 9, 2008
From the annals of "is that really the word you wanted?" from a New York Times article on steampunk:
"There seems to be this sort of perfect storm of interest in steampunk right now," Mr. von Slatt said. "If you go to Google Trends and track the number of times it is mentioned, the curve is almost…
May 9, 2008
Of interest to quantum computeristas: Cosmologist Niel Turok has been named the new director of the Perimeter Institute. Onward and upward!
May 8, 2008
The mothership, aka Seed magazine, has a crib sheet for quantum computing. Its not half bad, considering how bad things like this can go. And of course this is probably due in part to the fact that they list the Optimizer as a consultant. But the real question is whether that little shade of…
May 8, 2008
Two fans in Dodger stadium caught back to back fouls during a Mets game (and, almost as importantly, the Dodgers lost, woohoo!)
From the article:
But USC mathematics professor Kenneth Alexander used Wednesday's Dodger Stadium crowd size and game statistics -- 40,696 in attendance and a foul ball…
May 8, 2008
When discussing ways that quantum computing may fail, a common idea is that it may turn out that the linearity of quantum theory fails. Since no one has seen any evidence of nonlinearity in quantum theory, and it is hard to hide this nonlinearity at small scales, it is usually reasoned that these…
May 6, 2008
New leader at the Perimeter Institute this Friday, Perimeter researcher wins prestigious award, a summer school on quantum cryptography, the answer is not quantum physics, and quarter charge quasiparticles for quantum computing.
Looks like the Perimeter Institute, without whom jobs in quantum…
May 1, 2008
One of the coauthors on the paper which I claimed was shoddy has written a comment in the original post. Which merits more commenting! But why comment in the comment section when you can write a whole blog post replying!
The paper in question is 0804.3076, and the commenter is George Viamontes:…
April 30, 2008
Hoisted from the comments, Rod says
You guys are much more blunt than I usually am (except with students :-). You're also a lot more succinct.
This particular paper may be wrong, and the authors should be told that, but: as the field grows, and more engineers join, there are going to be more people…
April 29, 2008
Okay, well apparently the paper arXiv:0804.3076 which I mentioned in the last post is being picked up by other bloggers (see here and here as well as here) as a legitimate criticism of quantum computing. So before anymore jump on this bad wagon let me explain exactly what is wrong with this paper…
April 29, 2008
Okay, quick, who can be the first to tell me what is drastically wrong with arXiv:0804.3076? (via rdv.) Winner gets a beer next time I see them. This is almost as fun as the game of trying to spot the error in papers claiming thethe discovery of a quantum algorithm for efficiently solving NP-…
April 29, 2008
Via Alea, a new entry into the best title ever competition: "Option Model Calibration Using a Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm" by J. Dang, A. Brabazon, M. O'Neill, and D. Edelman. That right, using an algorithm inspired by trying to mimic E. coli foraging, one hopes to calibrate a…
April 28, 2008
After a comment suggesting that a Science Film festival be held to combat a certain idiotic movie, He of Uncertain Principles agreed, and then the powers that be at scienceblogs decided to hold a poll on the Best Science Movies. And the four choices are...."Contact", "Gattaca", "An Inconvenient…
April 25, 2008
Bill Gates, in his transition from Mr. Big at Microsoft, to Mr. Big at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, has been going around to various college campuses and given a talk "Bill Unplugged." You can watch the video here if you are so inclined.
Notes from the talk.
First of all no one asked…
April 24, 2008
Good talks are rare gems. Good talks about interesting topics even rarer. Good talks that make you want to change fields and design E. Coli which smell like bananas are the best. I saw a good one earlier this week, and its now online: Learning to Program DNA by Drew Endy. If you get a chance,…
April 24, 2008
A new entry in the best title ever competition: arXiv:0804.2162, "The secret world of shrimps: polarisation vision at its best", by Sonja Kleinlogel and Andrew G. White. Secret lives of shrimp? That sounds more like an expose on the secret drug habits of the Roloffs on the T.V. show Little People…
April 23, 2008
Via Digg, an article on hilarious Google searches. Hmm, reminds me of one I discovered a while back. (Below may or may not be NSFW, depending on your level of puritanism. And it can certainly lead to clicking which is definitely NSFW.)
Why, no Google, you pornography obsessed search engine,…