I have heard a lot about kicstarter, now I know a user - my brother. He is part of a theater company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who want to go to Ireland this May to present a play. And they are trying to raise a wee bit of cash.
Here is the embedded video
Oh boy. Sometimes the truth hurts. New Jersey governor Chris Christie made a big, big point about saving taxpayer money by canning a new tunnel project between New Jersey and Manhattan. It made him a national figure. Now it turns out that he exaggerated the costs. Paul Krugman weighs in with a tough editorial about what happened and why Christie played such a reckless game.
I hear again and again that piracy is costing US firms huge money. The lost profit supposedly justifies more and more legal restrictions on internet distribution. Well it turns out that stopping file sharing does not translate into increased sales. It just means less sharing. How do I know? Those are the results from the French experiment for more strict regulation of file sharing with their fancy new law — which BTW, the Brits are copying.
What’s more. I think that restricting copying can mean less sales. If I have a web platform (like this blog but a lot more popular) and I discuss a film, book or musical work, I stimulate interest in the product. I am less likely to do that if I can’t get easy access to it. I am also less likely to do that if I have to pay just for using a snippet of it as part of my effort. And I am less likely to do that if it is a pain to cut and paste images because of DRM.
The bottom line — sharing is free marketing. Do we really want to cut back on free marketing?
This quote from BI caught my eye today
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) estimates that average living space per head is over 30 square meters in China, extraordinarily high given the country’s current income levels. “Based on international comparisons, a country at China’s level of GDP per head should have 20 square meters of living area, which would mean that China is 53% over-housed,” according to the EIU. Despite China already being the most “over-housed” country in the world, official data show a further three billion square meters of residential property currently under construction, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Put on your helmets. The Chinese real estate bubble may be about to pop.
To be honest, I am not totally clear on what a photon actually is. I first heard about photons as a kid watching Star Trek. They were a type of torpedo, right? Well, in the real world I have never bumped into an actual photon. I do remember from somewhere that photons are packets of light. Hmmm … though it is a bit difficult to visualize light arriving at my eyeballs in packets. Is it gift wrapped as well? Wikipedia offers this helpful insight
… a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force.
It is “the quantum of light”. Right. So … what the hell is a “quantum”? Back to Wikipedia
… a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction.
Much more clear …. errr … I think. Photons are the minimum amounts of the physical entity in light? I guess that is right. With this now clear, consider what a few clever German scientists have just done
they have built the very first, elementary quantum network comprised of a pair of entangled atoms that transmit information to each other via single photons.
So?
Dr. Stephan Ritter, added, “We were able to prove that the quantum states can be transferred much better than possible with any classical network.”
Getting to the point, it seems that we are a step closer to harnessing the potential of quantum computing. Ok. And what will quantum computing deliver to us. Errr … you know. More capacity, dude. A lot more capacity to do complicated stuff. Like my taxes.