I've been led to thinking that it will never be feasible. We don't know yet, but there are good reasons to think it might not pan out - for breaking crypto.
E.G. The energy required to cool a volume of space for an n-qbit machine to temps that will maintain entanglement between the qbits will scale with 2^n. So you spend just as much energy doing it in parallel on a quantum computer as you would in a classical computer serially. This isn't known to be true, but try plotting the size of fridge against n for existing quantum computers and see what the curve looks like.
Also: Increasing key size is very easy. If quantum computers look like they're getting close we can simply double the key size.
The reality is that only old messages will be decrypted and those messages are already out there so there's nothing you can do about that anyway. .
What happens when you cross one of the largest companies on the planet and a new currency?
As much as 'social media' changed the face of democracy in the last few years, this could have a much bigger impact. Just imagine if people in countries that do not have stable currencies had a choice. People may trust 'FBcoin' more than they ever trusted Bitcoin.
With all of that being said, for a company that doesn't seem to respect anyone's privacy, this could be a real doozy.
-- The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. - Albert Einstein
a) It's Whatsapp, not Facebook. It's a totally different brand.
Yep. Think "Paypal", not "Bitcoin" and you'll be a lot closer.
Does the world need another Paypal? Not really but an awful lot of people have Whatsapp open right now so if this makes it quick/easy to send money then Paypal should be worried.
They're already doing it. Windows 10 users wake up every few months to a message along the lines of, "We've added new features to Windows while you were asleep! Aren't we awesome!!"
I wonder if Trump has considered using a wall of ice to keep out the Mexicans. Water is a lot cheaper than concrete/steel so you could build it really tall.
Macbooks are fine for reading your email or dashing off a tweet in a darkened corner of Starbucks. Apparently that's a decent chunk of the population so fair enough.
But... a "top-quality tool" they are not. Typing code on them is a complete chore with all the missing keys and I have yet to find a decent FTP program for the Mac (eg. equivalent to WinSCP).
I own and use both, there's no way I could use a Macbook for any sort of serious work.
PS: A Chromebook would give most MacBook users the same user experience and same "minimal setup" for half the price. Apple's only real selling point is image.
And why the general public wouldn't care about what criminals do to each other?
No, I want you to explain why the general public thinks they're all "hardened criminals" (they aren't) and (b), why even "hardened criminals" deserve that.
(Conversely, why should the other hardened criminals be allowed to have "fun" doing it? The very worst of society seems to have great fun in prison)
For you to single out the USA says far more about your biases than it does about the actual character of the United States as a nation.
I single it out because a) America makes more noise about being decent and upstanding, and b) Because people in other countries see it as a genuine problem and try to do something whereas it's on the rise in the USA.
While you're there you could comment on the US prison system.
I don't mean the sheer number of people in there, I mean the way that it's a place for institutionalized rape and that most Americans seem to be perfectly OK with that.
The two things (Abu Ghraib and federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison) seem related to me. The idea that there's whole classes/races of people who somehow "deserve" to be tortured, abused and shot at seems to be prevalent in the USA.
Have you forgotten Abu Ghraib? That's the true face of the USA.
You really are kind of an idiot, aren't you? I guess you think that Anders Breivik is the true face of Norway, too.
What's your explanation for Abu Ghraib? Are you one of those who believes it was just a couple of low ranking soldiers doing that and that none of the officers in charge knew anything?
He didn't; he gave away sensitive information which very well could have gotten plenty of good men and women killed
You say "plenty". Do you have any evidence that a single person did get killed?
Have you forgotten Abu Ghraib? That's the true face of the USA. The USA would be a very different place if not for people like Chelsea Manning who are willing to go to prison for their belief in justice.
The effort required to turn Apple laptops into top-quality tools is far lower than that required to turn a Windows laptop into a top-quality tool. That's why we don't switch.
An apple laptop can only ever be a mediocre tool. The software simply isn't there, no matter how much effort you put in.
And you want a "pretty" non-Apple laptop? Try paying Apple prices for one.
PS: Does Apple even make a laptop that doubles as a tablet, or with a detachable/rotatable screen, or... ?
Slashdot Mirror
I've been led to thinking that it will never be feasible. We don't know yet, but there are good reasons to think it might not pan out - for breaking crypto.
E.G. The energy required to cool a volume of space for an n-qbit machine to temps that will maintain entanglement between the qbits will scale with 2^n. So you spend just as much energy doing it in parallel on a quantum computer as you would in a classical computer serially. This isn't known to be true, but try plotting the size of fridge against n for existing quantum computers and see what the curve looks like.
Also: Increasing key size is very easy. If quantum computers look like they're getting close we can simply double the key size.
The reality is that only old messages will be decrypted and those messages are already out there so there's nothing you can do about that anyway.
.
Sure, do you remember when DES was going to take the lifetime of the Universe to crack,
Nope. The precise limitations of DES key size (56 bits) were known from day one, nobody ever thought it would take that long to crack.
Math. It works.
What happens when you cross one of the largest companies on the planet and a new currency?
As much as 'social media' changed the face of democracy in the last few years, this could have a much bigger impact. Just imagine if people in countries that do not have stable currencies had a choice. People may trust 'FBcoin' more than they ever trusted Bitcoin.
With all of that being said, for a company that doesn't seem to respect anyone's privacy, this could be a real doozy.
--
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. - Albert Einstein
a) It's Whatsapp, not Facebook. It's a totally different brand.
Yep. Think "Paypal", not "Bitcoin" and you'll be a lot closer.
Does the world need another Paypal? Not really but an awful lot of people have Whatsapp open right now so if this makes it quick/easy to send money then Paypal should be worried.
They're already doing it. Windows 10 users wake up every few months to a message along the lines of, "We've added new features to Windows while you were asleep! Aren't we awesome!!"
Release another good windows.
Exactly.
Windows 10 is useless garbage.
No it isn't, but it's fugly, has a completely shit start menu, insists on installing candy crush and it's full of "telemetry".
Microsoft would gain more converts by fixing those few things than by nagging.
ClassicShell is free.
What we need to is tell them is that WiFi and cellphones use infra-red light, just like their TV remote controls.
(technically true, 3.5GHz is definitely below red in the spectrum)
Answer: "To give them the results they wanted"
Let's hope they get a "Brexit" vote.
The first thing ALT-Tab does is show a list of thumbnails with all the open windows.
You can click on the window you want with the mouse, no LIFO required.
If you don't click on one, then the LIFO is used.
The fleet should be grounded, but money talks
If it was Airbus the FAA would have grounded them after the first/i> incident.
The rate of complications for Lasik is extremely low, like less than 1% if you are using a "surgeon" with more than 15K procedures under their belt.
How many of those are there?
I wonder if Trump has considered using a wall of ice to keep out the Mexicans. Water is a lot cheaper than concrete/steel so you could build it really tall.
I'm just glad they put "meaningful public discussion" inside air-quotes.
If your defense of the USA is that "other countries do it too" then you're losing sight of the problem.
Bollocks. Nobody develops real software with a MacBook keyboard.
The new Win8+ start menu and "flat" colors are a UI disaster, yes. The first thing I do with any Windows PC these days is install Classic Shell.
Apart from that, Win10 isn't awful.
Most who buy Apple products have no clue as to what a quality tool is -- they just believe the hype/reality distortion field.
They like the Apple stores, they see their friends have pretty MacBooks, they go with the flow.
Apple really understands marketing and presentation.
No true Scotsman?
Macbooks are fine for reading your email or dashing off a tweet in a darkened corner of Starbucks. Apparently that's a decent chunk of the population so fair enough.
But ... a "top-quality tool" they are not. Typing code on them is a complete chore with all the missing keys and I have yet to find a decent FTP program for the Mac (eg. equivalent to WinSCP).
I own and use both, there's no way I could use a Macbook for any sort of serious work.
PS: A Chromebook would give most MacBook users the same user experience and same "minimal setup" for half the price. Apple's only real selling point is image.
And why the general public wouldn't care about what criminals do to each other?
No, I want you to explain why the general public thinks they're all "hardened criminals" (they aren't) and (b), why even "hardened criminals" deserve that.
(Conversely, why should the other hardened criminals be allowed to have "fun" doing it? The very worst of society seems to have great fun in prison)
For you to single out the USA says far more about your biases than it does about the actual character of the United States as a nation.
I single it out because a) America makes more noise about being decent and upstanding, and b) Because people in other countries see it as a genuine problem and try to do something whereas it's on the rise in the USA.
While you're there you could comment on the US prison system.
I don't mean the sheer number of people in there, I mean the way that it's a place for institutionalized rape and that most Americans seem to be perfectly OK with that.
The two things (Abu Ghraib and federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison) seem related to me. The idea that there's whole classes/races of people who somehow "deserve" to be tortured, abused and shot at seems to be prevalent in the USA.
Preferably a keyboard that has a DEL key.
(...and PgUp/PgDn/Home/End).
Have you forgotten Abu Ghraib? That's the true face of the USA.
You really are kind of an idiot, aren't you? I guess you think that Anders Breivik is the true face of Norway, too.
What's your explanation for Abu Ghraib? Are you one of those who believes it was just a couple of low ranking soldiers doing that and that none of the officers in charge knew anything?
He didn't; he gave away sensitive information which very well could have gotten plenty of good men and women killed
You say "plenty". Do you have any evidence that a single person did get killed?
Have you forgotten Abu Ghraib? That's the true face of the USA. The USA would be a very different place if not for people like Chelsea Manning who are willing to go to prison for their belief in justice.
The effort required to turn Apple laptops into top-quality tools is far lower than that required to turn a Windows laptop into a top-quality tool. That's why we don't switch.
An apple laptop can only ever be a mediocre tool. The software simply isn't there, no matter how much effort you put in.
And you want a "pretty" non-Apple laptop? Try paying Apple prices for one.
PS: Does Apple even make a laptop that doubles as a tablet, or with a detachable/rotatable screen, or... ?