pontiff
Posts by this author
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…
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…
February 23, 2009
Via Yglesias:
Boy I didn't need to watch that after a rough day.
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…
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)
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…
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.)
Jack Harris, Optomechanical…
February 19, 2009
Undergrad program which looks cool:IQC will be hosting an Undergraduate School on Experimental Quantum Information Processing (USEQIP) from June 1st to 12th, 2009 and we would like to ask you if you could share the information below with potential students in your department.
This two-week program…
February 19, 2009
Most powerful ever quantum computer chip in tests - 18 February 2009 - New Scientist
the prototype chip built by D-Wave Systems in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, is designed to handle 128 qubits of information.
Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators --…
February 18, 2009
I know you're not paying attention the talk. So why not go to the FriendFeed room located here. Once sQuinT starts, I hope to live blog there and could use some help (Thursday evening.)
February 18, 2009
Charles passes along that Booz Allen Hamilton is looking for a few good quantum people:JOB POSITION IN QUANTUM PHYSICS IN ARLINGTON, VA - BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON, INC.
As you may already know from interacting with us at review meetings and conferences, our team at Booz Allen Hamilton provides…
February 18, 2009
CreateSpace - On-Demand Self Publishing, DVD on Demand, CD on Demand, Books on Demand, DVD Duplication and DVD Replication
Amazon's self publishing service
SciRate Page For 0902.2658
Here we study the performance of a concatenated error-detection code in a system that permits only nearest-…
February 17, 2009
I like poker and I like quantum computing and lo and behold here is a paper with both:arXiv: 0902.2196Title: Quantized PokerAuthors: Steven A. Bleiler
Poker has become a popular pastime all over the world. At any given moment one can find tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of players playing…
February 17, 2009
Picture Gallery for listing 29003112
Now that's a Seattle swimming pool view.
(tags: real networks)
PDF redaction still not working - Hack a Day
Court documents from a settlement between Facebook and ConnectU showed that Facebook values itself at $3.7 billion, much less than the $15 billion that…
February 17, 2009
Congrats to the quantum tenure odds booster award winners Sloan award winners:Robert Raussendorf, UBC
Hartmut Häffner, UC Berkeley (Go Bears!)
Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Haavard
Scott Aaronson, MIT (that other Tech school)
Andrew Houck, Princeton
Subhadeep Gupta, University of Washington
Lance lists the…
February 16, 2009
A correspondent writes to me about a recent article in the APS News describingThe Top Ten Physics Stories of 2008 and notes a very troubling sentence:Diamond Detectors
Work on the molecular structure of carbon continues to show great promise for quantum computing. This year scientists were able to…
February 16, 2009
Physics - A quantum phase transition for a spin liquid
In a Rapid Communication appearing in Physical Review B, Vasile Garlea and collaborators at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, the Hahn-Meitner Institut in Germany, and the Commissariat à lâÃnergie Atomique in Grenoble, France, report an…
February 14, 2009
In addition to the distinguished Dr. Hawking, the Perimeter institute lands nine very impressive distinguished research chairs, including some familiar quantum names.
The presser:Nine Leading Researchers Join Stephen Hawking as Distinguished Research Chairs at Perimeter Institute in Ontario, Canada…
February 13, 2009
Conference of interest to the fault-tolerant crowd (hm, wording not quite right):Event Title: Workshop on Logical Aspects of Fault Tolerance (LAFT)
(affiliated with LICS 2009)
Date: 08/15/2009
Location: University of California, Los Angeles
URL: http://www.aero.org/support/laft
Description:
We are…
February 12, 2009
Over at the fact builders blog, the fact master discusses The Physics of....Pink Floyd. Being two areas I greatly enjoy, I was reminded by the fact builders picture of the cover of "The Dark Side of the Moon" of a little known piece of Pink Floyd strangeness. Anyone notice something peculiar…
February 12, 2009
The Computing Research Policy Blog is reporting possible good news for science funding:Speaker Pelosi's office just released a fact sheet on the conference agreement for the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act and, wow, it looks good for science agencies in the bill. Here's the relevant…
February 11, 2009
Fame and fortune could be yours. Tell your supervisor to nominate you:Once again, GQI will award two "Best Student Paper" prizes at the APS March Meeting (2009): one for theory and one for experiment. The awards, each consisting of a $500 cash prize, are sponsored by Perimeter Institute for…
February 10, 2009
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
(tags: omg)
MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism - Times Online
THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a…
February 9, 2009
Watch Bill Gates unleash that 'swarm' of mosquitoes on crowd - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source
Earlier this week, Bill Gates got a lot of attention for releasing some mosquitoes into a crowd while talking about malaria. The video is now available for viewing, and you can watch it below…
February 8, 2009
In a prior post I asked about the how the structure of fixed points of stochastic maps changes under composition of such maps. Robin provided an interesting comment about the setup, linking this question at least partially with zero error codes:
R has at least one fixed point. If it's unique,…
February 7, 2009
Madoff Victim Map
"Search the Interactive Madoff Victim Map"
SciRate Page For 0902.0912
We introduce the concept of mutual independence -- correlations shared between distant parties which are independent of the environment. This notion is more general than the standard idea of a secret key --…
February 6, 2009
Biocurious: Drew Endy on group meetings
Via he of uncertain principles
"OpenWetWare tweeted an interesting link to Drew Endyâs take on how to give a good group meeting presentation (though it is clear that this is useful advice for any presentation). Here are a few of my favourite slides:"
(tags:…
February 5, 2009
I've never made it to Benasque, and am always profoundly jealous of those who have gone:Dear Colleague,
We are pleased to inform you that following a very successful editions of Benasque 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2007, we are organizing another workshop of the similar type in June 2009. This is…