kodabar

@mrendell Matt Rendell, you are my favourite part of the Tour de France. Long digressions about language and culture during quiet bits of the race absolutely fascinate me. And then to challenge the vacuity of 'green' claims from a major team sponsor? Well done. I shall miss you.

Thanks to everyone who has thought kind thoughts about my small contribution to the Tour coverage over the years. My most important item since my first Tour in 1997 is in tomorrow night’s rest day programme (8pm, ITV4). Tune in, if you can.

@gemoscatelli @skdh And yet I'll bet you have retirement savings, despite your espoused certainty that this will happen.

@kodabar @skdh People will be running naked hunting pigeons with slingshots and no money when this finally arrives. You will be left with your own tears to drink.

I see a lot of confusion about Google's Monday press release about quantum supremacy, so let me try to clarify a few things. They say they did a computation on a ca 100 qubit chip much faster than a conventional (super)computer could do. The particular calculation in question is to produce a random distribution. The result of this calculation has no practical use. They use this particular problem because it has been formally proven (with some technical caveats) that the calculation is difficult to do on a conventional computer (because it uses a lot of entanglement). That also allows them to say things like "this would have taken a septillion years on a conventional computer" etc. It's exactly the same calculation that they did in 2019 on a ca 50 qubit chip. In case you didn't follow that, Google's 2019 quantum supremacy claim was questioned by IBM pretty much as soon as the claim was made and a few years later a group said they did it on a conventional computer in a similar time. So while the announcement is super impressive from a scientific pov and all, the consequences for everyday life are zero. Estimates say that we will need about 1 million qubits for practically useful applications and we're still about 1 million qubits away from that. Also, it's been a recurring story that we have seen numerous times in the past years, that claims of quantum "utility" or quantum "advantage" or quantum "supremacy" or whatever you want to call it later evaporate because some other group finds a clever way to do it on a conventional computer after all.

@gemoscatelli @skdh Your prediction will not age well. Remember it when you make your next.

@kodabar @skdh A few years away only, QC are improving exponentially fast

@FiddleyF @skdh This prediction will not age well. Remember it when you make your next one.

@skdh I think we will be doing useful calculations within about one year.

@gemoscatelli @skdh The first part is true. The second part is not. Quantum factorisation is not yet practical and is even a long way from possible. The implications may be huge, but so's the timescale to solve it. And you're presuming that no one is working on this. Ask Peter Shor.

@skdh There are trillions of USD of value in our financial system stored in systems using RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography vulnerable to quantum factorization. The implications are huge. Ask Peter Shor.

@zbangazbanga @skdh It's a step, but not a major one. On the Google roadmap, this looks like step 2 of 6, so it gives the impression that quantum computing is close. But the gap between steps 3 and 4 is about a hundred times greater than between 1 and 2. And 5 and 6 are just: ???, profit.

@skdh More to the point, is this a major step towards useful quantum machines or not? quantumai.google/roadmap

@Subhash_Peshwa @skdh No. That's not how this works. Quantum bits change very quickly, which is why you need error correction, lest they change before you've read the information. Linking it to another chip ensures all the information will be invalid before it's been communicated with the other one.

@skdh If one of those chips is a 100 qubit, can they take a 1000 of these and create a cluster? Asking as a noob

There is nothing better than listening to @mrendell and @Petekennaugh not talking about cycling in the TdF commentary. I love hearing about regional history, geography and culture. And the 'T Rex' thing just did it for me. Keep up the good work, fellows.

@tchesshyre Now produce a Mail article claiming it's the most eco resort and saying that burning wood pellets to heat hot water is "environmentally-friendly" (cf. Drax). It's amazing what a free holiday can buy.

Have had worse breakfast views #hopeallwellbackintheuk

@picadorbooks @harrietgibsone @Independent Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, not the internet. You write very generally about the internet, when you're only talking about the small part of the English-language internet that you use. Bonus point for the tofu joke though.

'Social media no longer holds that voyeuristic thrill that initially lured me in – the one that made me feel excited, intrigued, as if I could view another’s life in an unfiltered, uncurated way.' Is This Ok? author @harrietgibsone for @Independent. buff.ly/3C7f1bR

@vegassoftware Anyone seeing this should know that the response to this was not to reply or to post an advisory notice, but to follow me on Twitter. Not impressed @vegassoftware

@vegassoftware Maybe use your social media and websites to inform people that there's a problem with the activation servers for the more recent versions of Vegas, instead of relying on Reddit and Twitter to do it for you.

VEGAS 20 Update 3 is here with new multiple smart masks, transfer text properties, and further enhancements to elevate your overall editing experience. See all new features: hhttps://bit.ly/44neRtC If you already own VEGAS Pro 20, Update 3 is free. #vegaspro #videoediting

@CareeristCom I don't know if it's you or some kind of affiliate, but every Digg article is getting comment-spammed with a link to your webinars: crst.co/7JSHg

Worried about making a #career change to the #tech industry? Don't stress any longer ✨ We've got you covered in every way! Join us for a #FREE webinar to get all of your tech career-related questions answered 👉 crst.co/GwHZY

@NiranjanShan13 I'm not accusing people - I'm accusing you. I think you looked up that article five minutes ago and have read no others. I'm also accusing you of arguing in bad faith and being unable to disengage gracefully without having a final jibe. Just go away.

@NiranjanShan13 That you couldn't just leave it and had to tack on an allegation of straw man arguments does not paint a good picture of you. It just sounds like you're close-minded and have to get the last word in. There was no need for an insult. Now I feel sad for you.

@NiranjanShan13 I don't think you know anything about the political history of Taiwan other than maybe a few lines you've seen in a book or two. The trouble with saying 'helped enable' is that it's so slight it's unprovable one way or the other.

@NiranjanShan13 Oh my goodness - you think the US convinced Taiwan to democratise? I would stop using that as an example if I was you. The US influence in SK democracy is arguable, the US democratic influence in Taiwan is non-existent. You're just making stuff up now. We're done.

@NiranjanShan13 Those sources don't support what you claim. The first relates to only Truman's plans, the second is yourself and the third concludes that "it was likely the South Koreans themselves" and not American diplomacy that led to the actual transition to democracy.

@NiranjanShan13 US support wasn't as conditional as you like to make out. It varied enormously between presidencies. The US first and foremost wanted to oppose communism, regardless of the cost to the Korean people. Democracy wasn't what brought economic success either.

@NiranjanShan13 I think we could have an interesting conversation about this, but I do find your assertions that America helped South Korea because of its democratic potential and that America was working to end autocracy and dictatorship, a little difficult to substantiate.