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  1. Re:Very Interesting, but What is it good for? on China Makes Quantum Leap In Developing Quantum Computer (scmp.com) · · Score: 1

    I've been wondering whether the safety of "post-quantum" crypto functions was threatened more by quantum simulators than quantum computers.

    As to "how do you know the output is correct?" well, pick a problem with a verification step that is not NP hard I guess...

  2. Re:How does this work? on China Makes Quantum Leap In Developing Quantum Computer (scmp.com) · · Score: 2

    You set a register of bits to all possible combinations of the bits at the same time -- all possible values from 0 to N^2-1 are entangled. Then you run them through some quantum logic operations that eliminate all impossible solutions to a problem from the set of possible combinations. Then you read the register. It collapses to *one* of the possible solutions when you read it. So for example if you are factoring a large umber, that solution will be one possible divisor of that number. So you divide the large number by that number, then use the same process to factor those two smaller numbers. Where you save time is you did not have to iterate through a large bunch of prime numbers that were not factors by trying to divide the large number by each of them in turn.

    As far as detecting particles, the "probabilities" are better when you only need a binary result like "spin up versus spin down". So even if you have a probability of erroneous readings, some of the readings will be good, and when you are looking for needles in a haystack, as long as you can tell when you found a needle, all you need is a significantly better probability of a good reading than the probability of randomly sticking your hand in and finding the needle.

  3. VIC-20 on Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer? · · Score: 1

    A commodore VIC-20.

    Which, years later, back of the envelope math confirmed no number of tricks with video memory management/font crushing/etc could ever have enough resources to emulate a 80x25 vt-100 dumb terminal.

  4. Not "every linux kernel before 4.5". Whether a kernel is vulnerable depends on whether the bug was backported by distros. RHEL never backported it, and Debian quietly fixed it a good while ago (kernels of any version shipped Sep 2015 to Jan 2016)

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/r...

  5. Re:Xfinity (aka Comcast) doing this for years. on Virgin Media Starts Turning Customer Routers Into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots (arstechnica.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    ISTR having to have my housemate phone this in.

    Also it still keeps broadcasting a mystery SSID-less beacon thereafter.

    And, as far as not impacting your network at all, beacon pollution is a huge deal

    You're best to use your own APs on a different channel than whatever Comcast is squatting on.

  6. Well, if you only drink gatorade you made from it, it should be fine... well except for the calcium. I heard distilled water can be hard on your teeth for lack of it.

  7. Re:I like some songs just for the intro on As Streaming Booms, Songs Are Getting Faster and Shorter (japantoday.com) · · Score: 1

    Amen, brother!

  8. Might as well rip it to HD if you're gonna put it on loop http://www.urbandictionary.com... (definition #5)

    Anyway, considering how much tripe music wasted the intro playing the same four bars over four times with no added value, reduced intros might be a good thing. I mean, for shit music.

  9. Re: The wage gap myth continues... on NYC Poised to Ban Firms From Asking Job Candidates About Pay (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    About 16 percent of the stay-at-home parent population is male. Should salaries be based on whether your spouse earns or housemakes? Should employers assume women don't have a househusband? Is having a "non-working" spouse providing free day care, taxi service, coupon cutting, grocery delivery, personal shopping services, and secretarial and butler duties a liability?

  10. Re:Why do they care? on NYC Poised to Ban Firms From Asking Job Candidates About Pay (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    Prediction: employers who yell the loudest about this restriction will be the ones with the most aggressive market-segregation strategies preventing you from getting a simple or even ballpark price quote without extensive interaction with a VAR partner.

  11. Re: The wage gap myth continues... on NYC Poised to Ban Firms From Asking Job Candidates About Pay (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Pretending to have a convesation with yourself does not help you prove your point.

    While the gender-based unexaplained wage gap may be as low as 3%-7% in the U.S., the larger part, that which is explained by what positions people are working, is widely recognized an an indicator of hiring bias. Whether it's unequal pay for equal work or unequal opportunity for equal qualifications, it is still a problem that compounds on itself over a lifetime. The wage gap stat represents both factors.

  12. Re:Not going to change anything on NYC Poised to Ban Firms From Asking Job Candidates About Pay (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2

    No, don't you understand? Wasting everybody's time is a moral imperative. How are we supposed to live with ourselves if we don't make people spend over an hour paging through tens of websites to buy a widget? And for a job applicant? You gotta make sure they wear out at least one keyboard before they get in the door.

  13. Eventually we'll be able to recognize the shifts and establish "jeckle" and "hyde" phases, then wonder how long each one will last.

  14. Re:More US warmongering on US Strikes Syrian Base With Over 50 Tomahawk Missiles (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Blaming Obama is a partisan bitch move.

    BIOB is "Blame It on Barak" now. I expect them to still be doing so 3 years in, if they last that long... no sense of true personal responsibility, to them it is just a sound bite.

    Truth is Congress2013 is just as responsible as Obama for the outcome in Syria, and Dubya responsibe for unnecessarily leaving us with a war weary population unwilling to intervene in a humanitarian crisis, and Trump is *already* partly responsible for trapping even the Syrians that want to just escape the maasacre. I'm sure there is blame to go back decades more.

    The questions now are... is the congress really going to cede its check on non-defensive war powers to the presidency, and if not, can they bring themselves to bring the Trump administration in line, and if so, what level of force authorization do you give to a wildcard like Trump?

  15. Re:Actually iOS is safer, more likely to get patch on Android Devices Can Be Fatally Hacked By Malicious Wi-Fi Networks (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    No, Apple iOS is just plain safer, I hate to say. Google's turned a blind eye to a lot of android security issues. For example, they are especially bad at enterprise where they can't prevent MITM hacks that expose SSO passwords, Which is why some companies have seaparate WiFi SSIDs where they only alow Windows, Linux (actual distros), OSX and iOS, but keep Android off on its own segment. There was a bug filed for that a decade ago, closed by some numnut, and only slowly has any progress been made towards fixing it. Really Android needs something like a .mobileconfig, and probably, should just make a way to just use Apple mobileconfigs rather than invent their own at this point.

    And Android isn't really as open source as a lot of people think, especially now with cyanogenmod closing shop, and given carrier jails.

  16. Progress I guess. I wonder if anything about Bannon/Bossert trickled out of the investigations and this is a premptive walkback of their "importance" so they can call them "just a volunteer" like Manifort (sounds ridiculous I know, but don't think they aren't audaciously mendacious enough to try). I'm just bummed Bossert isn't the smarmy brit-accent guy who gets interveiews on NPR all the time. He makes me want to punch the dash.

    Also Jared looks like he lost too much weight on that subway diet... oh wait... wrong Jared.

  17. Re:$5000 vs. $200, apples to oranges comparison on People Think Smart Home Tech is Too Expensive (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    Well, in addtion to that, you need to replace the whole thing every 5 years when the IoT service falls into the corporate abyss.

  18. I guess you could technically also do it from a webpage

    Don't guess. You could. The only good reason for an app in this case would be if it interacted with phone event trigger systems to e.g. open the door when your GPS says you are coming home about to pull into the driveway, so your lazy ass doesn't have to lift a finger to hit a button.

    Really a solid rally around one opensource local and/or personal iot/cloud emulator demanding iot products can operate without a live internet connection is the only way to end this madness... soon only retards who don't care about their or their childrens' privacy will be allowed to own nice things.

  19. Re:yes but.... on Graphene-Based Sieve Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    You might even be able to recover some energy from the brackish water as you mix it back in via an osmotic power cells.

  20. It'll have special technology that detects when an application is trying to draw window
    borders itself, and change them to the Apple look and feel.

    Or maybe they will just dicontinue blue. Nobody wants blue anyway.

  21. Re:"We're" loosing it? on UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We're Losing It (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Thanks, Some days it would be better NOT to have the ability to cut and paste.

  22. Re:"We're" loosing it? on UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We're Losing It (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Basically you have to liberalize their children, and support their more liberal clerics only to the extent that
    it gives them an edge up over the recalcitrant ones.

    At least they're not as bad as those heathens that use Emacs!

    Guilty as charged. I'm even considering making a T-shirt that says "essential vi/chapter one/:q/the end"

  23. Usually by individually having solid evidence about a particular topic, and seeing a bunch of idiots continually ignore it.

  24. Re:What if the "bullshit" is actually true? on UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We're Losing It (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 1

    But the focus shouldn't be on the alleged "kooks" and their claims; it should be on how the truth was wrongly labeled as "bullshit".

    False dichotomy. There is room to focus both on the small number of cases where something that is not kookery is labeled as such, and also on the surging level of seemingly coordinated and organized kookery.

  25. Re:"We're" loosing it? on UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We're Losing It (seattletimes.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Properly functioning bullshit detectors are a matter of training in an environment conducive to developing one. If you do not have an environment where you can check facts, you cannot develop an instinct for who's shoveling turd and you cannot develop research skills. If you are surrounded by people in a similar situation, you're prone to develop your own dissembling skills as a survival mechanism, rather than an appreciation of honesty. You have to have something to get your footing on. In other words it is down to proper education, environment, and mentoring, not laziness.

    If the neighborhood next door has a long-term infestation of head lice that just won't subside, do you do something to help them out of it, or just sit on your porch saying "look at all those dirty people."?

    The answer should be the latter, if not for moral reasons, then for the fact that the consequences may occasionally spill out onto you.