wbhart

19 ms·

151.
by wbhart 9y ago
For the most part, I'd prefer not to give explicit examples, since it amounts to public shaming of (often) still living authors. In broad generality, I work on algorithms for number theory and fast arithmetic. If you look at published,
152.
by wbhart 9y ago
There are many, many errors in the published mathematical literature, and the older you get, the more of them you see. What I find even more amusing is when people don't withdraw their papers after you convince them their paper is fund
153.
by wbhart 9y ago
As I understand it, the article is about the frequency stabilisation market. The existing reserves are able to pick up the loss of energy eventually, but reliability of the grid depends on more than just total reserve power. That is why the
154.
by wbhart 9y ago
That first article you cite certainly puts the whole thing in perspective. I was tempted to put an article on Arxiv announcing a new architecture for billions of "super-physical" qubits, but you've convinced me that not only
155.
by wbhart 9y ago
Yes, I was certainly confused. When IBM announced they are building a 7x7 = 49 qubit machine, I naturally assumed they meant logical qubits, not physical ones. Using surface codes, they can probably get one logical bit. But what confuses me
156.
by wbhart 9y ago
I guess someone will eventually introduce some kind of terminology like, "qubit equivalent". But I think that if you could build an error free 128 qubit machine, this would be interesting. But the main reason I see for that is if
157.
by wbhart 9y ago
I assume that was meant as a joke. Universities regularly put out utter nonsense in press releases (the marketing departments at universities are often ground zero for the most atrocious exaggerations that end up in the press). And I doubt
158.
by wbhart 9y ago
I am not an expert, but my assessment is that it's pure marketing. They talk about needing millions of qubits to do useful computations. This is flat out false. Thousands will already solve interesting problems that no classical comput
159.
by wbhart 9y ago
There is no way for the general public to distinguish between arguments presented in this way that are genuine, and ones that are pseudoscientific. It's never ok to knowingly present information which is unscientific, to achieve a poli
160.
by wbhart 9y ago
Sorry, I think I misunderstood your example. I read 10 TV as 10 Teravolts, i.e. they blew up your IT infrastructure with a massive electrical surge. Obviously I also mixed up who was sending the 10 TV and who was receiving. You can safely i
161.
by wbhart 9y ago
I think that the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3123(d)(2) were introduced by Bush as part of the Patriot act, after September 11, not by Obama. One might argue that Obama abused them, of course.
162.
by wbhart 9y ago
No, but you might be required to make reasonable accommodations to allow them to fix it, or minimise the cost of repairing it for them (at their expense). As I understand it, you couldn't just pick the most expensive solution and charg
163.
by wbhart 9y ago
In consumer law in the EU (which the laws of the UK are supposed to reflect), I believe entities that enter into a consumer contract are in principle, treated equally. That means you have to minimise their losses in the event of a dispute,
164.
by wbhart 9y ago
My understanding (IANAL) is, that's not the best strategy. If you have a complaint against a company, it is often the case that the company has an internal complaints procedure (usually a simple 9 step affair that only takes a year or
165.
by wbhart 9y ago
In 2013, the absolutely terrible defamation laws in the UK were improved somewhat. Before then, you basically couldn't have said anything at all, publicly, about this absolutely shocking incident! IANAL, but now I understand they would
166.
by wbhart 9y ago
Quite often the reason for receiving two items is that the first got stuck somewhere in transit, the customer complained so the company sent out a second item, and eventually both turn up. It seems reasonable under those circumstances for t
167.
by wbhart 9y ago
Unless you think those Canaanite cities were in Egypt, I'd say the details are given pretty precisely. The book is actually online; you can easily check that there's no chance this was talking about Egypt.
168.
by wbhart 9y ago
It does say they fought Canaanites. It specifies that they were Amorites, and names the cities.
169.
by wbhart 9y ago
The Merneptah Stele says Israel was wiped out. So it's a pretty tenuous explanation to say that this is the battle recorded in the book of Joshua. Also the book of Joshua says the battle was against the Amorites, that the sun delayed g
170.
by wbhart 9y ago
The documentation [1] appears to come from a very ordered mind. There's something very appealing about simplicity. I see more similarity with Python than either Java or C, except for the braces and semicolons. The description says that
171.
by wbhart 9y ago
It's not really significant for RSA at all. It is likely that no human (as far as we recognise the species) will ever generate RSA primes of this form randomly, if standard tools are used. It's been known for a very long time that
172.
by wbhart 9y ago
This theory (when appropriately hacked) describes rotation curves of galaxies extremely well. Unfortunately it doesn't work at larger scales. There are many nice videos on YouTube by Sean Carroll on MOND, which explain it's limits
173.
by wbhart 9y ago
But we know they "spin too fast", by measuring the amount of observable matter and then measuring the "rotation curve" of the galaxy. However, the basic point that this is not half the dark matter, is correct, (based on
174.
by wbhart 9y ago
The article seems to assume that the universe is fractal, but Wikipedia can't seem to make up its mind whether fractal cosmologies are fringe ideas or not. It's certainly far outside the consensus.
175.
by wbhart 9y ago
I'm pretty sure Tesla is referring to her position vs her qualifications here. A company won't usually hire people into senior positions if their qualifications aren't adequate. It's then a case of the employee being pro
176.
by wbhart 9y ago
I think they may just be saying that she had been promoted at a rate much higher than people with similar qualifications, precisely because they were recognising her contribution. In other words, they are contesting her claim that she wasn&
177.
by wbhart 9y ago
Can seeking asylum be used as a reason for bringing charges against someone? As far as I understand, exercising legal options cannot ever be interpreted as an illegal act. I think it's much more likely the UK will pick Assange up on be
178.
by wbhart 9y ago
The theoretical maximum for a neodymium magnet is grade N64, i.e. 64 Mega-Gauss Oersted.
179.
by wbhart 10y ago
I imagine Dotcom will actually sue for damages if he wins.
180.
by wbhart 10y ago
"NZ should offer the US to sue Doctcom in New Zealand or wherever his company resided in." The US already seized all his assets, and even denied him funds to defend himself, claiming he was a fugitive from justice (even though he

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