antepodius (u/antepodius)

antepodius commented on Software Rot permacomputing.net/softwa... · Posted by u/pabs3

esseph · 7 months ago

You just described all software, for the decades it often runs.

Entropy sucks.

antepodius · 7 months ago

The point of the article is that this does not have to be the case, and is not the case for all software.

antepodius commented on Factoring 2048 RSA integers in 177 days with 13436 qubits and a multimode memory arxiv.org/abs/2103.06159... · Posted by u/athul7744

azatris · 5 years ago

I do not know much about quantum computing. But could you explain what makes these computers quantum? Is it the configuration of these transistors to invoke some quantum phenomena?

antepodius · 5 years ago

In a classical computer, every bit of information in the system is in a definite state- 1 or 0. In a quantum system with such definite possible states, what you actually have most of the time of the system in some interpolation of the possible states- so in the quantum computer case each bit is usually in a state a1 + b0, where a and b are complex numbers such that |a^2|+|b^2| = 1.

Most of the time, the 'weight' flows back and forth between a and b according to certain equations over time. When you measure the system- that is, when the bit interacts with the outside world, hopefully your measuring apparatus- you see a 1 or a 0, with probabilities |a^2| and |b^2| respectively.

So what you can do is get a whole bunch of these quantum bits- qubits together, and set things up so that the time-evolution of their quantum state is correlated and probabilistically moves towards something you're interested in. Say you can set things up so the bit array- which, at first, will give you a mere perfectly random bit string on measurement- becomes more and more likely to give you, say, a prime factor, or the answer to some other question.

So yes, the quantum phenomenon is that the bits of the computer are quantum objects as opposed to classical.

antepodius commented on As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds reuters.com/investigates/... · Posted by u/accountinhn

quesera · 5 years ago

> Even one week at home for my kid is damaging let alone a year.

What do you do during school vacations, and summer?

antepodius · 5 years ago

The kid can go outside, go to establishments with friends...

antepodius commented on The futuristic cargo ship made of wood bbc.com/future/article/20... · Posted by u/perfunctory

KozmoNau7 · 5 years ago

It's a good sign of someone who isn't bound by dogma.

Far too many people are locked into the consumerism cycle, that we must improve the things we consume and consume more of them, because "more good" must be the same as "better overall", right?

antepodius · 5 years ago

I doubt a guy running ship-building is 'bound by dogma'. The consumers are the ones who need to be brainwashed into buying new stuff every 20 minutes; the producers don't need to be convinced into some grand story in order to comply- acting along is in their best interests, it's exactly what they want to do! They can do it, knowing exactly what's going on, with their eyes open.

antepodius commented on FrontPage: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly invisibleup.com/articles/... · Posted by u/pmlnr

jeanlucas · 5 years ago

I don't know if I agree... Ok, UI creation has gone down, but never the web had so much user created content. From tweets to videos and long texts it's easier to create content on mobile and in a much bigger volume than ever it was created.

antepodius · 5 years ago

"The medium is the message." The possible shapes of a river are determined by the underlying landscape.

antepodius commented on Indian government blocks access to forty-three mobile apps pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa... · Posted by u/nithinkashyapn

Quarrelsome · 5 years ago

it was a few that pushed that hatred. Hatred is usually engineered as a distraction for a crime. Usually those committing the crime and pushing the hatred are very close.

antepodius · 5 years ago

Yes. People in close proximity are in competition. When technology makes the whole world your neighbour, you're at war with the whole world.

antepodius commented on Is carbon capture a viable solution? thedetechtor.com/post/car... · Posted by u/scottbucks

tsimionescu · 5 years ago

I'm hoping this is a joke?

It did remind me of an off-topic pet peeve - it's absurd to start thinking of a colony on Mars before colonizing the Sahara and the Antarctic, both being orders of magnitude easier and more useful than a colony on Mars.

antepodius · 5 years ago

Yeah. Until we've tiled the solar system with solar panels, fusion reactors, and people, we're not done with local growth. Of course, Earth's surface would be converted first, and you might want to treat that as an externality to be taxed and regulated (as we already do with national parks etc).

antepodius commented on Indian government blocks access to forty-three mobile apps pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa... · Posted by u/nithinkashyapn

Quarrelsome · 5 years ago

I think the closer we allow our peoples to be, the less likely it is that we will ever fight.

IMO the great firewall of China is a stumbling block in the path to world peace.

antepodius · 5 years ago

1930s Germany didn't hate the japanese, despite them being very different from them (appearance, culture). Instead, they hated the German/european jews, who were basically visually indistinguishable.

antepodius commented on Indian government blocks access to forty-three mobile apps pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa... · Posted by u/nithinkashyapn

RegnisGnaw · 5 years ago

Why? Its in the government's interest to promote MII (Made In India) rather then some foreign FOSS app.

antepodius · 5 years ago

Is it? If everyone in a country used FOSS apps rather than paying (in money, data, or letting ads into their heads) for proprietary ones, wouldn't that country's people be better off? And nobody's saying there can't be indian-made FOSS.

Unless you're talking about the government putting its own interests above the people's, which makes sense.