Tech

FFS, let it die!

Everyone in quantum computing agrees that error correction will be the key to doing a broad range of useful calculations. But early every company in the field seems to have a different vision of how best to get there. Almost all of their plans share a key feature: some variation on logical qubits built by linking together multiple hardware qubits.

A key exception is Nord Quantique, which aims to dramatically cut the amount of hardware needed to support an error-corrected quantum computer. It does this by putting enough quantum states into a single piece of hardware, allowing each of those pieces to hold an error-corrected qubit. Last week, the company shared results showing that it could make hardware that used photons at two different frequencies to successfully identify every case where a logical qubit lost its state.

That still doesn't provide complete error correction, and they didn't use the logical qubit to perform operations. But it's an important validation of the company's approach.

I'm currently using an old charger like this:

It's great. Easy to carry with me, uses a two-pin cable so I can easily buy a cheap 2 dollar cable in the country I'm traveling. It's light, and I use a few short (30cm) cables to charge my laptop, phone and other stuff.

I would like to get another one, but it seems like they are no longer sold from the original manufacturer.

I'm searching around online, but the only alternatives I find seem to be very bulky and not easily carried with you. Or they are wall chargers, which is very inconvenient, needing 4 long cables to reach your devices, and often taking up multiple plugs because they are so bulky.

Anybody that knows if these are still sold anywhere? This one is 65W, but with GaN tech, I expected to see more of these compact chargers with the same weight and thickness outputting maybe 100W. But I can't find anything

TLDW:

Pros: backup for GPS with more resilience

Cons: patent, potential DRM uses

TLDW:

• pros: redundant alternative to GPS, which works in some contexts where GPS has trouble
• cons: patent, potential for DRM