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  1. Re:Hope she's learned something on Google Science Fair Finalist Invents Peltier-Powered Flashlight · · Score: 1

    ".... where ambient temps are remotely similar to body temperature."

    She's from CANADA you insensitive klutz.

  2. The big ticket question on D-Wave Large-Scale Quantum Chip Validated, Says USC Team · · Score: 1

    Can it outperform classical computers?

    This remains to be seen for the time being, although early benchmarking was enough to convince Google to shell out some cash.

    Nevertheless, there is another set of benchmark results to be released soon, and those may spell a different picture. Unfortunately, I am not at all convinced that I can already win my bet on D-Wave with the current chip generation.

    Of course 'hardliners' like Scott Aaronson maintain that quantum annealing will never get there in the first place.

    At any rate a fascinating story to follow.

  3. Re:The question is on D-Wave Large-Scale Quantum Chip Validated, Says USC Team · · Score: 1

    Please recreate it if you can find the time. I regularly blog about quantum computing and are happy to feature it, and make sure it doesn't get lost again.

  4. You only care about people you know personally?

  5. You must not have kids.

  6. Yeah, I am just anthropocentric like that.

  7. That's one mofo of a planet killer sized asteroid.

  8. Re:Always wondered how Schroedinger ... on Schrödinger's Cat and RCU (Well, Structured Procrastination, Actually) · · Score: 2

    So probably he turning in his grave with a spin 1/2 :-)

  9. Always wondered how Schroedinger ... on Schrödinger's Cat and RCU (Well, Structured Procrastination, Actually) · · Score: 1

    ... would feel about the fact that his cat became a household name to illustrate quantum weirdness.

    After all he created that thought experiment to mock the Copenhagen Interpretation. He was severely unhappy with the latter, and argued against it in his article on the meaning of wave mechanics.

  10. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Fair enough.

  11. Mr. Rossi, who built the e-cat ... on A Cold Look at Cold Fusion Claims: Why E-Cat Looks Like a Hoax · · Score: 1

    ... whatever the thing really is, comes across as one of the oddest, math challenged inventors imaginable.

  12. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Ever so often not being a native English speaker catches up with me, while "constance" is a nice town, it actually isn't an English word. I guess "constancy" would do, and it'll give the none physicist more of a hint towards the meaning, than the technical word "invariance".

  13. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Should have made clearer that I referred to the "instant" in the /. summary.

  14. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Sorry, should have made more clear that I referred to the "instant" in the /. summary.

  15. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Regard the FLT paths as having as much physical reality as the infinite electron mass before renormalization.

    ST is like making sausage, the end result is pretty good, but what goes in it can be rather stomach turning.

  16. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Isn't it :-)

    Felt the same way when I first came across it, and ever since kept wondering why SR is still taught most of the time following the initial cumbersome path - not that the latter isn't interesting as well, and certainly historically very relevant, yet this approach creates so much more clarity.

  17. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 1

    Yes, I am aware of that, but the additional principle that you have to introduce is not the constance of c in all inertial reference frames, but the less strict condition that the universe doesn't allow instantaneous transfer (velocities are bounded by an upper limit). Then the fact that c has to be constant in all frames of motion follows from there.

    This is essentially another new first principle - and if I have any criticism of the paper than it is that this isn't more explicitly stated.

  18. Re:Wait for the retraction on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 5, Informative

    We already knew that.

    Whatever "we" you mean count me out.

    According to GR gravity is facilitated via a retarded potential, and of course GR survived so far every conceivable test and has been shown to make correct predictions were Newtonian gravity failed.

    So no, gravity does not operate faster than light.

  19. Re:Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a common misconception that QM as a theory of the microcosm is somehow more general and accurate than SR. Yet, the derivation of SR does not even require the constance of light speed (although that's the route that Einstein oribinally followed), but can be derived from very obvious first principles.

    And this is a key difference to QM where this still hasn't been accomplished (despite the theory being such a fantastic empirical success story). Of course as far as empirical evidence goes SR also has a spotless record (which is why the CERN faster than light brewhaha was pretty much a forgone conclusion).

    .

     

  20. Getting so tired of this "instantaneous" BS on Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist At the Same Time · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Special Relativity makes quite clear that if two particles are spacelike separated when measured, that the concept of "instantaneous" is devoid of meaning.

    If you have this kind of distance than you will have just one special reference frame where this is true, and infinite more where the events are arbitrarily separated in time. This is already at the core of the EPR paradox.

    I.e. that you can have entanglement across time follows trivially from SR and the EPR paradox.

    It's just astounding how many times the very same insight can get repackaged and sold as new.

  21. Link to D-Wave's blog on Google and NASA Snap Up D-Wave Quantum Computer · · Score: 1
  22. Re:Now add a GPS so that it won't shoot ... on A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale · · Score: 1

    In the last school shooting it was the mother's insufficiently secured guns that were used. Intrinsic build in security features like this could prevent this.

  23. Re:Now add a GPS so that it won't shoot ... on A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale · · Score: 1

    A warez site with region-unlocking crack that could be a perfect honeypot set-up by the FBI.

    Any additional hurdle increases the chance of detection and eliminates the dumber would-be killers.

  24. Now add a GPS so that it won't shoot ... on A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale · · Score: 0

    ... close to a school zone and we may have something.

  25. Re:If you ignore the best news in supercomputing . on Has Supercomputing Hit a Brick Wall? · · Score: 1

    Fair enough, I used CMOS as sloppy shorthand for all current silicon based field effect transistor integrated circuit technology. (See how much longer that is?)