Floppy Disks (NYTimes)

Floppy Disks

The antiquated system that controls the U.S. nuclear arsenal quietly got a long-awaited update this summer — eliminating the use of eight-inch floppy disks that are more than 50 years old.

Proving that the technological past — like the future — is not evenly distributed, floppy disks have hung around far longer than most people would have expected. Norway’s nationalized health plan, which once distributed thousands of 3.5-inch disks to physicians every month, only phased out their use a few years ago.

A missile combat crew member inserting a floppy disk into a communication module at a missile alert facility in 2014.  Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The floppy disk was initially created by IBM in 1967, with its name derived from a magnetic disk enclosed in a flexible plastic envelope. Initial versions could hold about 175 KB of data. The disks shrank over time — from eight inches to 5.25, and then to 3.5 — before abruptly falling out of favor, most notably when the iMac debuted without a disk drive in 1998.

The disks haven’t been manufactured for several years, but are still available on Amazon and from specialty retailers. The idea of them, however, may endure as the “save” icon in many modern apps and other software.

Midlife Crisis

Research shows that life satisfaction follows the shape of a U-curve as we get older.

HBR.ORG

Why So Many of Us Experience a Midlife Crisis

DMZ, Demilitarised zone, the no-go zone

The heavily-fortified demilitarised zone remains a place of barbed wire and landmines. For many artists, it is also a place of mystery


ECONOMIST.COM
South Korean artists explore the DMZ
In a new exhibition in London, they contemplate the no-go zone

quantum computer, ‘quantum supremacy’

Google Claims To Achieve Quantum Supremacy — IBM Pushes Back
October 23, 20194:32 PM ET

PAOLO ZIALCITA

Google's processor, Sycamore, performed a truly random-number generation in 200 seconds. The achievement marks a major breakthrough in the decadeslong quest to use quantum mechanics to solve computational problems. Above, a Google sign at the company's campus in Mountain View, Calif.

Jeff Chiu/AP

Google says it has built a computer that is capable of solving problems that classical computers practically cannot. According to a report published in the scientific journal Nature, Google's processor, Sycamore, performed a truly random-number generation in 200 seconds. That same task would take about 10,000 years for a state-of-the-art supercomputer to execute.

The achievement marks a major breakthrough in the technology world's decadeslong quest to use quantum mechanics to solve computational problems. Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote that the company started exploring the possibility of quantum computing in 2006.

In classical computers, bits can store information as either a 0 or a 1 in binary notation. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can be both 0 and 1. According to Google, the Sycamore processor uses 53 qubits, which allows for a drastic increase in speed compared with classical computers.

The report acknowledges that the processor's practical applications are limited. Google says Sycamore can generate truly random numbers without utilizing pseudo-random formulas that classical computers use.

Google AI

✔@GoogleAI

We are excited to announce the results of our quantum supremacy experiment. Using a fully programmable, 54-qubit processor, called “Sycamore”, we have performed a calculation in 200 seconds that’s infeasible on the fastest supercomputers. Learn more ↓ https://goo.gle/2Bzp7TB 

Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

Posted by John Martinis, Chief Scientist Quantum Hardware and Sergio Boixo, Chief Scientist Quantum Computing Theory, Google AI Quantum ...

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Pichai called the success of Sycamore the "hello world" moment of quantum computing.

"With this breakthrough we're now one step closer to applying quantum computing to—for example—design more efficient batteries, create fertilizer using less energy, and figure out what molecules might make effective medicines," Pichai wrote.

IBM has pushed back, saying Google hasn't achieved supremacy because "ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity."

On its blog, IBM further discusses its objections to the term "quantum supremacy." The authors write that the term is widely misinterpreted.

"First because, as we argue above, by its strictest definition the goal has not been met," IBM's blog says. "But more fundamentally, because quantum computers will never reign 'supreme' over classical computers, but will rather work in concert with them, since each have their unique strengths."

News of Google's breakthrough has raised concerns among some people, such as presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, who believe quantum computing will render password encryption useless. Theoretical computer science professor Scott Aaronson refuted these claims on his blog, writing that the technology needed to break cryptosystems does not exist yet.

The concept of quantum computers holding an advantage over classical computers has dated back to the early 1980s. In 2012, John Preskill, a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech, coined the term "quantum supremacy."

Paolo Zialcita is an intern on NPR's News Desk.

 smidgen, quantum computer,   ‘quantum supremacy’

Its research paper is now available to read in its entirety

關於這個網站

THEVERGE.COM

Google confirms ‘quantum supremacy’ breakthrough

A quantum computer has carried out in a smidgen over three minutes a calculation that would take Summit, the world’s current-best classical supercomputer, 10,000 years to execute

ECONOMIST.COM

Proof that a quantum computer can outperform a classical one

smidgen

noun [ S ]

   informal (also smidgin); (smidgeon)

UK 

 /ˈsmɪdʒ.ɪn/ US 

 /ˈsmɪdʒ.ɪn/

a very small amount:

Could I have a smidgen more wine?

It was five years since I'd last seen him, but he hadn't changed a smidgen.

Refolution

Refolution: old and new paradigms - Calenda

https://calenda.org › ...

This period must have been a Refolution, as Timothy Garton Ash states, the author of this neologism (Herspring, 1994), which consists of a process of political, social and economic changes that simultaneously combines elements of reform, ...

台灣需要Refolution｜專欄｜評論｜2014-03-18｜天下雜誌第 ...

https://www.cw.com.tw › article › article.action

このページを訳す

2014/03/18 - 「改革」容易而廉價，經常是空口講白話，「革命」則變動太大，阻力太多。 而Refolution這個新字，代表一場真正的改革，是台灣最需要的。

美國雞肉三明治連鎖 Chick-fil-A 英國分店才一開門，就因反同抗議須關門大吉

Chick-fil-A: The fast food chain’s first restaurant in Britain, which just opened, will close in six months, the company said, after facing protests and boycotts over its opposition to same-sex marriage.

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Chick-fil-A, Inc.

A Chick-fil-A store in Morristown, Tennessee
Type	Private foundation = May 23, 1946; 73 years ago (as Dwarf Grill) 1967; 52 years ago (as Chick-fil-A) Hapeville, Georgia, U.S.
Industry	Restaurants
Founder	S. Truett Cathy
Headquarters	College Park, Georgia ,  United States
Number of locations	2,363[1]
Area served	United States Canada United Kingdom
Key people	Dan T. Cathy (CEO)
Products	Sandwiches, chicken dishes
Revenue	US$10.5 billion (2018)[1]
Owner	Cathy family
Website	chick-fil-a.com chick-fil-a.ca

Chick-fil-A (/tʃɪkfɪˈleɪ/ chik-fil-AY, a play on the American English pronunciation of fillet) is one of the largest American fast food restaurant chains^[1] and the largest whose specialty is chicken sandwiches.^[2]