O brave new quantum world!
I wrote a paper with David DiVincenzo once. Now he is in the title of a YouTube video. Some things you can never predict.
Part of me wants to say very loudly OMG. The other part of me watched the full six episodes.
Parts 2-6 below the fold. Hat tip Aggie.
Continue reading “The DiVincenzo Code”
“Local” politics.
Continue reading “And I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords”
F5.
A common refrain among members of the left in the United States in the last two presidential elections has been that if the right wins then they would “move to Canada.” This was, of course, recently one-upped by Tina Fey who quipped that if McCain-Palin won this year, she would “leave the Earth.” Today I spent way to much time trying to figure out where the right would say they are going if the left wins. Anyone?
Shor’s algorithm is an algorithm for quantum computers which allows for efficiently factoring of numbers. This in turn allows Shor’s algorithm to break the RSA public key cryptosystem. Further variations on Shor’s algorithm break a plethora of other public key cryptosystems, including those based on elliptic curves. The McEliece cryptosystem is one of the few public key cryptosystems where variations on Shor’s algorithm do not break the cryptosystem. Thus it has been suggested that the McEliece cryptosystem might be a suitable cryptosystem in the “post quantum world”, i.e. for a world where a quantum computer is built (and if your a commenter who wishes to simply post the quantum computers are like string theory, please…save your keystrokes.)
Continue reading “Original McEliece Cracked”
This weekend the grapes for my second “real” batch of wine were delivered to Mountain Homebrew and Wine Supply. Last years vintage, Villa Sophia “La Gruccia” was a success in that it didn’t turn to vinegar and that over time it is definitely mellowing out, but I wouldn’t say it was a fantastic wine. This year I’m a bit more hopeful and have some ideas for how to modify my process to produce a better wine.
Continue reading “Villa Sophia Cab 2008: The Beginnings”
I’ve spent the last two days in the San Francisco bay area visiting first Stanford and then Berkeley.
Continue reading “Visiting Stanford and Cal”
Turn your face into a name (via torque). The “quantum pontiff” apparently has long hair:
Bruce Schneier has a commentary up at Wired about quantum cryptography. There are a lot of good points about the article, but it left me kind of scratching my head. As far as I can tell Bruce Schneier believes that you should not worry about any cryptographic system currently in use ever being broken. I didn’t think cryptographers were allowed to have so little paranoia.
Continue reading “Shorter Bruce Schneier: "Trust My Blind Faith in Cryptography"”
Stephen Jordan, now a postdoc at Caltech, has produced a useful little guide to quantum algorithms: a zoo of quantum algorithms. Help squash the myth that all there is to quantum algorithms are the algorithms of Shor and Grover!