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?
Original McEliece Cracked
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”
Villa Sophia Cab 2008: The Beginnings
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”
Visiting Stanford and Cal
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”
Hippy Pontiff
Turn your face into a name (via torque). The “quantum pontiff” apparently has long hair:
Shorter Bruce Schneier: "Trust My Blind Faith in Cryptography"
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"”
Quantum Algorithms Zoo
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!
Majority Gate Reality
The universe doesn’t always operate the way we want it to. No, I’m not talking about the stock market (unless you’ve been short lately), I’m talking about the role of error in logical deterministic systems! When you zoom down far enough into any computing device you’ll see that its constituent components don’t behave in a completely digital manner and all sorts of crazy random crap (technical term) is going on. Yet, on a larger scale, digital logical can and does emerge.
Today heading to work in the early dawn I was pondering what all of this meant for our notion of reality.
Continue reading “Majority Gate Reality”
Krugman on Krugman
A very good essay Paul Krugman wrote on his method of doing research. Some good gems in there for researchers of all fields.
The injunction to dare to be silly is not a license to be undisciplined. In fact, doing really innovative theory requires much more intellectual discipline than working in a well-established literature. What is really hard is to stay on course: since the terrain is unfamilar, it is all too easy to find yourself going around in circles.
Ski Season Begins
It’s official: Loveland and Arapahoe Basin are open for the 2008-2009 ski season. Eighteen inches of man made snow may or may not, however, be considered good news.