Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self.
pontiff | June 1, 2009So bing, Microsoft's latest search engine, is up and running the tech word is a twitter. I checked it out and...well. On google when you search for "pontiff" my blog comes up as hit number five, after a few silly things like wikipedia entries and dictionary definitions (but no actual links to the *ahem* real pontiff. Sadly the days when I was number one on google are gone. But I will someday tell my grandkids...) But on bing, what happens? I'm down at number nine. Nine, Microsoft, really? I live in Seattle you know: shouldn't this give me extra rank in your algorithms? And among the…
pontiff | May 27, 2009Via his squidiness, a test on which pope you are. Me?
Seek help now!
You are a giddy combo of the weirder Popes, Stephen VI, Benedict XVI and St Peter
But we knew that already, no?
pontiff | May 19, 2009A song we (Steve, Elwyn, and ??) wrote while at Caltech. I write it down here because last night I struggled with reconstructing all the verses.
The Frosh Arrived (sung to the tune of "Cat's in the Cradle")
the frosh arrived just the other day
they came to Tech in the usual way
but there was work to do, grades were at stake
staying here was a big mistake
they were flicking for I knew it as I watched I'd say
you're going to be like me, frosh
you know you're going to be like me
and the math's on the table and the chem's on the floor
ain't got sleep in the past twenty four
when you coming out s…
pontiff | May 8, 2009Yes, it's a slow dance:
Through the hourglass I saw you, in time you slipped away
When the mirror crashed I called you, and turned to hear you say
If only for today I am adiabatic
Take my pulsed gates away
arXiv:0905.0901, "Adiabatic Gate Teleportation" by Dave Bacon and Steve Flammia
(As seen on arXiview)
pontiff | May 7, 2009After watching Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk* it occurred to me to go back and look at my own scientific papers and try to assess them for how creative they were. Some things you should just never do, I guess, but it did lead me to an interesting question.
* The first 2/3 of the talk is excellent, ending not as great. I'm heartily in support of his cause, but it felt to me like he was implying that this was the one and only problem with the education system, which I find hard to swallow.
Looking at the list of my papers, I'm struck by many things. First of all I'm amazed by how tightly I've…
pontiff | May 6, 2009For the bus ride home, I'm going to check out "One world versus many: the inadequacy of Everettian accounts of evolution, probability, and scientific confirmation" by Adrian Kent (arXiv/0905.0624) Nothing like ending the day with some against many-worlds reading. That and a fun TED talk should make the ride go by fast
pontiff | April 22, 2009ArXiview, my iPhone app for surfing the arXiv, spotted in the wild:
One of my graduate students is using the app which feels....odd.
James Dacey says incredibly nice things over at Physics World.
MyOpenArchive tweets
just download #arXiview to my iphone. http://dabacon.org/arxiview/ I â¡ #arXive, I â¡ #arXiview. :)
Three diggs, heh, not much.
pontiff | April 22, 2009Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m I'll be participating in a panel discussion of science blogging sponsored by the Northwest Science Writers Association:
Join local science bloggers, including Alan Boyle from MSNBC.com's Cosmic Log, David Bacon the Quantum Pontiff, Sandra Porter of Biology in a Digital World, Julianne Dalcanton of Cosmic Variance, Eric Steig of Real Climate, and Keith Seinfeld from KPLU, for a lively discussion about the state of the art (or is it science?) of science blogs. If you are a sciblogger or like the idea, join NSWA at the UW Paul G. Allen Center in the Gates Commons (…
pontiff | April 17, 2009Catching up with places I've been.
Caltech.
Steve Chu to be Caltech's commencement speaker. Caltech has found an upgraded mascot. I once wore the old mascot uniform when we were playing Life Bible college. Nothing like signs saying "Darwin was right!" to inflame some sporting events. Who was the person who decided to send out an email to alumni for a survey where the link led to an MIT web address? That's a good way to get a Techer's suspicions up (even the Boston version of the Techer might catch that.)
Berkeley
Berkeley physics now webcasts their physics colloquium. They also scored a big…
pontiff | April 17, 2009Random cell phone photos.
Blossoms so thick that when they fall it looks like it has snowed on the cars parked underneath. (Location: up the street from Villa Sophia, Seattle)
Patience, attention, and territory:
The end of monkey the second:
Letting nature draw a silhouette
pontiff | April 15, 2009Over 9 months ago I decided to apply for teaching tenure track jobs. Then the economy took what can best be described as a massive, ill-aimed, swan dive. Thus creating an incredible amount of stress in my life. So what does a CS/physics research professor do when he's stress? The answer to that question is available on the iTunes app store today: arXiview. What better way to take out stress and at the same time learn objective C and write an iPhone app that at least one person (yourself) will use?
What is arXiview? It is yet another arXiv viewer (there are two others available, last I…
pontiff | March 26, 2009Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to a question that I'm nearly constantly asked: "So...[long pause]...are you a physicist...[long pause]...or are you a computer scientist?" Like many theorists in quantum computing, a field perched between the two proud disciplines of physics and computer science (and spilling its largess across an even broader swath of fields), I struggle with answering this question. Only today, after a long and torturous half year (where by torture, I mean interviewing for jobs, not the eerily contemporaneous fall of the world's finances) in which I have been…
pontiff | March 23, 2009Sundries.
Warren Buffet is often attributed as saying, "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked" referring to how a bad economy exposes problems in a business. After reading too many comment sections on New York Times articles on the financial crisis, I think it should be "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's a real communist." (Note, dear reader beginning to flame me in the comments, that I didn't say whether I thought this was good or bad or neither good or bad.) Hard economic times really bring out the daggers in economic ideology. I love to…
pontiff | March 16, 2009Tonight I hop on a red-eye to Pittsburgh to attend the APS March meeting. 7000 physicists in Pittsburgh, now that's a scary thought for poor Pittsburgh (punishment for winning the superbowl, I guess.)
A list of highlighted papers includes some fun ones:
11:15AM, Tuesday Session B15: "Walking on water: why your feet get wet" Michael Shelley , Jake Fontana , Peter Palffy-Muhoray
1:15PM, Wednesday Session Q15: "Statistical laws for career longevity" Alexander Petersen , Woo-Sung Jung , Jae-Suk Yang , H. Eugene Stanley
pontiff | February 23, 2009For 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 can exponentially outperform classical computers is one of the central questions facing the theory of quantum algorithms today. In this talk I will argue that a key piece of this puzzle is the role played by symmetry in quantum…
pontiff | February 5, 2009For 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!
pontiff | February 4, 2009The 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 with spectacular Mt. Shasta right, and I mean right, outside the window.
pontiff | February 4, 2009Some 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, University of Michigan Seminar: The Race to Build a Quantum Computer.