Perspective on the atom and atom guts
I was reading way over my head today on quantum computing (link to the PDF here, from the Ethel the Aardvark’s Weensy Book Of Funderful Algorithms [made you look]). Quantum computing is just starting to be a (scary and exciting) real thing. How scary and exciting? No more secrets, Marty.
The gist of it is, properly harnessed, the mind-bogglingly counterintuitive quantum states of electrons can be used to do a certain type of math problem called Fast Fourier Transforms quicker than puberty on a mayfly, and FFTs done quickly enough will (among other things) make it practical to factor the products of arbitarily large prime numbers, the very unfactorability of which is the basis of modern cryptography. So much for your DRMs and your secure wire transfers and your Colonel’s Secret Recipe.
The other thing that blew my mind atomically tonight was this eleven-mile web page.
bk_keywords:Atomic Kitten, Sneakers.
