- 108 Posts
- 20 Comments
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology•Wikimedia Foundation calls on US Supreme Court to strike laws that threaten Wikipedia21·2 years agoChecks and balances. Plus, the U.S. is a very large country, with a large population that has their own priorities and values. Local municipalities can also vary largely within state governments. The federal system allows these communities to self-determine, while also enacting a foundation of basic rights and government function.
First, a quick primer on the tech: ACR identifies what’s displayed on your television, including content served through a cable TV box, streaming service, or game console, by continuously grabbing screenshots and comparing them to a massive database of media and advertisements. Think of it as a Shazam-like service constantly running in the background while your TV is on.
All of this is in the second paragraph of the article.
btp@kbin.socialOPtoRandom@kbin.social•It's kind of funny how many 1:1 clones of popular subreddits were created on kbin after the big Reddit api debacle earlier this year that were posted in by like one or two people for a month or so, th11·2 years agoI’m gunna keep sticking around and posting regularly for the time being. Still really enjoying the experience and communities that are still here.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Politics@kbin.social•Eligible voters are being swept up in conservative activists' efforts to purge voter rolls91·2 years agoI think I agree with this. Creating vigilantes like this is going to cause more problems than it solves, especially considering most of these people are driven by political interests, have no professional training or education on the issue, and seem to be targeting voters (whether inadvertently or not) who already have challenges voting in the first place.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology•Physicists May Have Found a Hard Limit on The Performance of Large Quantum Computers23·2 years agoA newly discovered trade-off in the way time-keeping devices operate on a fundamental level could set a hard limit on the performance of large-scale quantum computers, according to researchers from the Vienna University of Technology.
While the issue isn’t exactly pressing, our ability to grow systems based on quantum operations from backroom prototypes into practical number-crunching behemoths will depend on how well we can reliably dissect the days into ever finer portions. This is a feat the researchers say will become increasingly more challenging.
Whether you’re counting the seconds with whispers of Mississippi or dividing them up with the pendulum-swing of an electron in atomic confinement, the measure of time is bound by the limits of physics itself.
One of these limits involves the resolution with which time can be split. Measures of any event shorter than 5.39 x 10-44 seconds, for example, run afoul of theories on the basic functions of the Universe. They just don’t make any sense, in other words.
Yet even before we get to that hard line in the sands of time, physicists think there is a toll to be paid that could prevent us from continuing to measure ever smaller units.
Sooner or later, every clock winds down. The pendulum slows, the battery dies, the atomic laser needs resetting. This isn’t merely an engineering challenge – the march of time itself is a feature of the Universe’s progress from a highly ordered state to an entangled, chaotic mess in what is known as entropy.
“Time measurement always has to do with entropy,” says senior author Marcus Huber, a systems engineer who leads a research group in the intersection of Quantum Information and Quantum Thermodynamics at the Vienna University of Technology.
In their recently published theorem, Huber and his team lay out the logic that connects entropy as a thermodynamic phenomenon with resolution, demonstrating that unless you’ve got infinite energy at your fingertips, your fast-ticking clock will eventually run into precision problems.
Or as the study’s first author, theoretical physicist Florian Meier puts it, “That means: Either the clock works quickly or it works precisely – both are not possible at the same time.”
This might not be a major problem if you want to count out seconds that won’t deviate over the lifetime of our Universe. But for technologies like quantum computing, which rely on the temperamental nature of particles hovering on the edge of existence, timing is everything.
This isn’t a big problem when the number of particles is small. As they increase in number, the risk any one of them could be knocked out of their quantum critical state rises, leaving less and less time to carry out the necessary computations.
Plenty of research has gone into exploring the potential for errors in quantum technology caused by a noisy, imperfect Universe. This appears to be the first time researchers have looked at the physics of timekeeping itself as a potential obstacle.
“Currently, the accuracy of quantum computers is still limited by other factors, for example the precision of the components used or electromagnetic fields,” says Huber.
“But our calculations also show that today we are not far from the regime in which the fundamental limits of time measurement play the decisive role.”
It’s likely other advances in quantum computing will improve stability, reduce errors, and ‘buy time’ for scaled-up devices to operate in optimal ways. But whether entropy will have the final say on just how powerful quantum computers can get, only time will tell.
This research was published in Physical Review Letters.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology@lemmy.ml•GitHub: Can no longer search code without being logged in.64·2 years agoMicrosoft purchased GitHub in 2018. This change happened this year.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology@lemmy.ml•GitHub: Can no longer search code without being logged in.295·2 years agoI think it kind of flies in the face of what Open Source Software should be. They’re walling off code behind accounts in the Microsoft ecosystem.
btp@kbin.socialto Colorado Politics•2024 ballot measure would make Colorado’s primaries open, enact ranked-choice voting for general elections4·2 years agoThis feels like a really good piece of election legislation. CO moving in the right direction.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Neoliberal@kbin.social•Colorado judge rejects attempt to bar Trump from 2024 ballot under 'insurrection' clause21·2 years ago“Commander-in-chief of the entire military is not an officer of the military.” lolwut.
“References illicit drugs” lol
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology@lemmy.ml•OpenAI announces leadership transition Sam Altman departs the company1·2 years agodeleted by creator
btp@kbin.socialOPto Technology@lemmy.ml•OpenAI announces leadership transition Sam Altman departs the company1·2 years agodeleted by creator
btp@kbin.socialOPtoRandom@kbin.social•Is it just me, or should the "boost" and "favorite" functions on kbin be swapped? I feel like the "up arrow" should be the "boost", and the "boost" link on a post, thread, or comment should be "favori1·2 years agoAh, okay, I see. Thanks for clearing that up.
btp@kbin.socialto Colorado Politics•Republican Rep. Ken Buck isn't running for re-election. So, who's running for Congressional District 4 in Colorado?1·2 years agoCongressman Ken Buck changes positions faster than a yoga teacher.
This made me chuckle.
btp@kbin.socialtoPC Gaming@kbin.social•Bloodborne Kart will be released for free on PC on January 31st1·2 years agoShhh. Just bask in its glory.
btp@kbin.socialto Colorado Politics•Jared Polis vows to veto bill authorizing safe injection sites3·2 years agoRare Polis L. Definitely don’t agree with his choice here.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Politics@kbin.social•Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case | CNN Politics3·2 years agoGreat description, thank you for clarifying.
btp@kbin.socialOPto Politics@kbin.social•Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case | CNN Politics2·2 years agoThey’re pursuing this case under the RICO act, and thus will be charging any of the co-conspirators with the charges brought forth to any other co-conspirators; at least this is how I understand it.
I’m no legal expert, so I can’t really explain the details, though. However, it does seem that convictions of other defendants will strengthen their case against subsequent defendants.
Especially not with a Republican-controlled House.