Month: March 2004

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BC

The trip to Vancouver: a full plane with lots of smiles. “Heading home?” they would ask. “No,” I could only envy. From Vancouver at night you can see the lights from the local ski areas. “Nobody seems to leave UBC,” the faculty tell me.
The trip from Vancouver: a 20% full plane with lots of sleepers. And then there was the 1 1/2 drive back to South Pasadena. At night in LA you can sometimes see the moon if the smog isn’t too dense.
I have seen the promised land and it is good. Whether I am saint enough to ascend to such heights remains an open question. Any supersticious acts performed on my behalf will be duly noted in my big book of karma.

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Job Talks

Job talks in the next few weeks, so I have been wandering around looking for advice. Here is a nice, calming quote from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

As a doctoral student or postdoc seeking a professorship, your academic job talk may well be the most important presentation you will ever give. An excellent talk can get you the job, while a poor one will almost surely eliminate you from contention.

No pressure, eh?

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Through a CTO's Eyes

Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s CTO, on quantum computing from this interview:

For nearly a decade there has been talk about the coming quantum computing revolution, yet it seems no nearer. What is it that is causing the delay?
It will probably be talked about for another decade too. It certainly won’t be relevant for another decade. That doesn’t mean it’s bad research but it’s far from coming to the commercial sphere. We need to challenge some of the assumptions about quantum computing and what it will be used for. We’re now building 3bit quantum computers with possibly a 5bit one under construction. That’s fine, but I’m already building 64bit computers. When we get quantum to 14bit then it can be used for encryption, which is one of the key applications for it. The country that gets a quantum network first will have a real competitive advantage.

I wish I had a 3 bit quantum computer in the same sense that he has a 64 bit computer! I wonder, however, where his 14 bit claim comes from?