Basically this stuff can't be done in polynomial time. For all quantum algorithms you start by setting a bunch of qubits into a uniform superposition of states (e.g. if you do this to 8 qubits and then measure them, you will be equally likely to get any number between 0 and 255 as your result). Then you can use these qubits as input into a function and effectively calculate the value of that function over every possible value of the input. The trouble is that you don't get 2^n different values of the function, you get a superposition of 2^n states. When you measure the output, you'll only find out one of the values of the function. So in order to get a working quantum algorithm, you have to manipulate the quantum state until you have a high probability of measuring the state you want.
Quantum computing has other complexities. Every function must output as many qubits as it has for input. It's also impossible to make a copy of a qubit without altering the original qubit. This means that in any quantum programming langauge, all funciton parameters must be passed by reference. All functions must be invertible. This can be generally accomplished by leaving the inputs unaltered and writing the output to some scratch qubits which are set to 0 beforehand.
If you want to learn more about quantum algorithms, I suggest you read up on Grover's search algorithm. It's much simpler than many quantum algorithms and it's also proven very adaptible to other situations.
Along the way he devised (discovered?) the Zeta Function, which describes with considerable accuracy the distribution of prime numbers.
Actually, as with most things Euler was the first to study it. The zeta function is also the simplest of a class of functions that Dirichlet studied Dirichlet L-series. There is also a Generalized Riemann Hypothesis that states that no Dirichlet L-series has zero with real part greater than 1/2.
The Riemann Hypothesis is more than tangential to the study of the distribution of primes. There is a function derived from the distribution of the primes that can be expressed in terms of the non-trivial zeros of the zeta function. The Prime Number Theorem is also equivalent to the statement that the zeta function has no zeros with real part 1. The Generalized Riemann Hypothesis implies the weak form of Goldbach's conjecture (i.e. that any odd number greater than 7 can be expressed as the sum of three odd primes).
It's because sometimes the cost of not having something now (this includes lost profits) is greater than the cost of interest payments.
Here's a simple example: suppose you have several job offers and the highest-paying offer requires that you have a car, but you do not own a car yet and do not have enough cash to afford one. Your choices are to either to borrow money to buy a car or to take a lower paying job. If the difference in pay between the best job and the second best job is greater than the cost of the interest on the car, then the best (fiscal) decision is to borrow the money for the car and take the best paying job.
What are you talking about? CmdrTaco didn't write the article and he didn't write any of the text in the article summary. All he did was post something someone else submitted.
I'm not sure if chocolate is actually "poisonous" to dogs, but caffeine is said to have a greater effect on dogs. My uncle's dog pulled a bag of Hershey's kisses off of a counter and ate them, wrappers and all. Later there were little bits of foil all over the yard. The dog did not seem to be harmed by this.
Actually, Roulette doesn't have any bet that gives a 50% chance of winning. There are actually 3 colors on a roulette table: red, black, and green. The 0 and 00 are green and if you bet red or black and either of those turn up, you lose your bet. Color bets aren't that bad, though, and they are even better if you can find a roulette wheel without a 00 (this is rare in Nevada casinos though). Craps is actually the best no-thinking-involved bet if you play pass line with odds (and ignore the side bets) the house only has a very small advantage. The only problem with playing the pass line with odds is that you have to put more money on the table per bet and this will increase the variance in your bankroll (i.e. you will be more likely to hit higher highs, but also more likely to hit lower lows).
Card counting is not illegal, but trespassing is. The casinos reserve the right to not serve people who don't obey their rules and they will charge you with trespassing if you come back after being thrown out.
Several years ago I was able to set up PostgreSQL fairly easily (and securely since I only accepted connections from localhost) with no prior experience. As far as I can tell, the complexity of setup issue is overblown.
I think right now it's best to just wait and see what happens before burying or praising it. No one can tell whether or not the dual screen thing will work out until games are actually released for it.
The Slashcode moderation system carefully determines who is least fit to moderate and then gives them mod points on a regular basis. It is designed to give the most mod points to people who don't realize when they don't get a joke. Slashcode also gives lots of points to people who feel a malicious need to mod down all posts that simply follow a tangent of the main discussion.
I'm not convinced that the processing power neccessary for nanobots to achieve such feats can be fit into such a small package. As some past Slashdot stories have shown, there are physical limits on storage density and computational power. To put it simply, a smaller system has fewer possible states than a larger system.
One way around this would be to have only enough computing power in each nanobot to receive and act on signals from a computer. This might make it possible for nanobots to do more complex work, but it will be extremely difficult to design such a system.
You also have to consider that a nanobot will have limited sensors. Each nanobot will basically have to feel it's way around in the dark. How can the nanobot distinguish between cholesterol that is clogging an artery and cholesterol that forms a cell wall?
Perhaps future generations will be able to tackle these problems, but 2025 is absurdly, laughably, obscenely optimistic. We don't even have prototypes of any sort of nanobot and this guy thinks we'll be injecting them into humans in 20 years? There are a lot of barriers in place and perhaps some of them will be overcome, but I don't see how we can get past all of them in 20 years.
Slashdot Mirror
Basically this stuff can't be done in polynomial time. For all quantum algorithms you start by setting a bunch of qubits into a uniform superposition of states (e.g. if you do this to 8 qubits and then measure them, you will be equally likely to get any number between 0 and 255 as your result). Then you can use these qubits as input into a function and effectively calculate the value of that function over every possible value of the input. The trouble is that you don't get 2^n different values of the function, you get a superposition of 2^n states. When you measure the output, you'll only find out one of the values of the function. So in order to get a working quantum algorithm, you have to manipulate the quantum state until you have a high probability of measuring the state you want.
Quantum computing has other complexities. Every function must output as many qubits as it has for input. It's also impossible to make a copy of a qubit without altering the original qubit. This means that in any quantum programming langauge, all funciton parameters must be passed by reference. All functions must be invertible. This can be generally accomplished by leaving the inputs unaltered and writing the output to some scratch qubits which are set to 0 beforehand.
If you want to learn more about quantum algorithms, I suggest you read up on Grover's search algorithm. It's much simpler than many quantum algorithms and it's also proven very adaptible to other situations.
Unless you get hurled into it.
Actually, as with most things Euler was the first to study it. The zeta function is also the simplest of a class of functions that Dirichlet studied Dirichlet L-series. There is also a Generalized Riemann Hypothesis that states that no Dirichlet L-series has zero with real part greater than 1/2.
The Riemann Hypothesis is more than tangential to the study of the distribution of primes. There is a function derived from the distribution of the primes that can be expressed in terms of the non-trivial zeros of the zeta function. The Prime Number Theorem is also equivalent to the statement that the zeta function has no zeros with real part 1. The Generalized Riemann Hypothesis implies the weak form of Goldbach's conjecture (i.e. that any odd number greater than 7 can be expressed as the sum of three odd primes).
Art is about accomplishing whatever the artist wants to accomplish.
I thought about that after I posted and yes, when making a decision you should wait the choices based on risk.
It's because sometimes the cost of not having something now (this includes lost profits) is greater than the cost of interest payments.
Here's a simple example: suppose you have several job offers and the highest-paying offer requires that you have a car, but you do not own a car yet and do not have enough cash to afford one. Your choices are to either to borrow money to buy a car or to take a lower paying job. If the difference in pay between the best job and the second best job is greater than the cost of the interest on the car, then the best (fiscal) decision is to borrow the money for the car and take the best paying job.
I think he was suggesting that France would be a natural enemy for a "green" nation because of their heavy use of nuclear power.
What are you talking about? CmdrTaco didn't write the article and he didn't write any of the text in the article summary. All he did was post something someone else submitted.
Too many people don't know how to spell lose. Please don't do the same thing to bore.
I'm not sure if chocolate is actually "poisonous" to dogs, but caffeine is said to have a greater effect on dogs. My uncle's dog pulled a bag of Hershey's kisses off of a counter and ate them, wrappers and all. Later there were little bits of foil all over the yard. The dog did not seem to be harmed by this.
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis
(I do not trust the Greeks, even bearing gifts)
--Vergil, The Aeneid
Actually, Roulette doesn't have any bet that gives a 50% chance of winning. There are actually 3 colors on a roulette table: red, black, and green. The 0 and 00 are green and if you bet red or black and either of those turn up, you lose your bet. Color bets aren't that bad, though, and they are even better if you can find a roulette wheel without a 00 (this is rare in Nevada casinos though). Craps is actually the best no-thinking-involved bet if you play pass line with odds (and ignore the side bets) the house only has a very small advantage. The only problem with playing the pass line with odds is that you have to put more money on the table per bet and this will increase the variance in your bankroll (i.e. you will be more likely to hit higher highs, but also more likely to hit lower lows).
Card counting is not illegal, but trespassing is. The casinos reserve the right to not serve people who don't obey their rules and they will charge you with trespassing if you come back after being thrown out.
Several years ago I was able to set up PostgreSQL fairly easily (and securely since I only accepted connections from localhost) with no prior experience. As far as I can tell, the complexity of setup issue is overblown.
You should really substitute email for enamel there.
I liked Q better when he was short, green, and called the Great Gazoo.
I think right now it's best to just wait and see what happens before burying or praising it. No one can tell whether or not the dual screen thing will work out until games are actually released for it.
A cable modem without an ethernet interface is hardly a cable modem at all.
But this only matters if RTS, god games, and first person shooters are all you care about.
I think that Mark Hamill's best work has been doing voices for cartoons. His conception of the Joker was particularly brilliant.
Let's rephrase things. The people who operate Paypal have the right to decide whom they do business with.
The Slashcode moderation system carefully determines who is least fit to moderate and then gives them mod points on a regular basis. It is designed to give the most mod points to people who don't realize when they don't get a joke. Slashcode also gives lots of points to people who feel a malicious need to mod down all posts that simply follow a tangent of the main discussion.
I wanted to make a sculpture of a shopping cart out of DNA.
It wasn't a joke. He was just trolling.
Point for generic-man!
I'm not convinced that the processing power neccessary for nanobots to achieve such feats can be fit into such a small package. As some past Slashdot stories have shown, there are physical limits on storage density and computational power. To put it simply, a smaller system has fewer possible states than a larger system.
One way around this would be to have only enough computing power in each nanobot to receive and act on signals from a computer. This might make it possible for nanobots to do more complex work, but it will be extremely difficult to design such a system.
You also have to consider that a nanobot will have limited sensors. Each nanobot will basically have to feel it's way around in the dark. How can the nanobot distinguish between cholesterol that is clogging an artery and cholesterol that forms a cell wall?
Perhaps future generations will be able to tackle these problems, but 2025 is absurdly, laughably, obscenely optimistic. We don't even have prototypes of any sort of nanobot and this guy thinks we'll be injecting them into humans in 20 years? There are a lot of barriers in place and perhaps some of them will be overcome, but I don't see how we can get past all of them in 20 years.