
Avoiding the Quantum Winter - mathgenius
https://www.hybridquantumlab.com/thinkquantum/2019/3/17/avoiding-the-quantum-winter
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ravitation
[https://outline.com/wjH4U8](https://outline.com/wjH4U8)

For anyone else that refuses to read ~2500 words in black text on a gray
background.

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spectramax
Without meaning offense to anyone, I just don't understand how something as
fundamental as this can be overlooked when writing a blog post. Personally, it
gives off an impression that if the author didn't spend a second thinking
about their audience and how they might read the blog, I become skeptical
about the content itself (which is probably an overreaction on my part). I
can't help it. The author might as well write the post in all caps or
something equally detrimental to readability.

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chc
This appears to be the website of a Michigan State University physics lab.
Assuming a random writer on the lab's blog designed the site seems a bit
unreasonable. It's also unlikely a professional designer has ever touched this
site, so...yeah, it's a bit unprofessional. I'm sure most of us would make
embarrassing mistakes if we had to do something outside of our field of
expertise and then subjected it to critique.

I think there's a valid point to be made that they should put more effort into
accessibility, but trying to say a writer's science is suspect because the
lab's graphic design is bad is just unreasonable IMO.

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spectramax
Yea, I can't help to think like that but as I said it is an overraction on my
part.

Replacing Author with WebDesigner - How can a webdesigner design something so
ridiculously un-userfriendly, entirely defeating the purpose of what a blog is
supposed to do. These kinds of things bother me as I put myself in their shoes
and try to imagine all kinds of things that person might have been caught up
on - let's assume the best.

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AlexCoventry
> For QC software startups, this means the expense profile will be similar to
> other software startups

There are quantum computing software startups? What do they do?

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TrueTom
[https://quantumcomputingreport.com/players/privatestartup/](https://quantumcomputingreport.com/players/privatestartup/)

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AlexCoventry
Thanks. Wow, "quantum software for finance industry using quantum algorithms
for optimization, machine learning, and Monte Carlo simulations" is jumping
the gun a bit.

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nrclark
I haven't seen anything - from any company - that makes me think we're
anywhere close to actually having a quantum anything. It's like this decade's
cold fusion. If I was a VC, I'd be crazy to expect any returns from any
company working in the field.

Is there something I'm missing?

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core-questions
Have you tried signing up for D-Wave Leap, and running optimization problems
on their quantum annealer? It's not a gate model machine, but it is definitely
a quantum computer, and it works and is available now.

People are holding out hope that gate model machines are going to be a holy
grail, but so far the actual investments in real-life applications of QC are
quietly going to efforts to solve optimization problems, which are a very ripe
area in terms of potential for quantum supremacy.

Of course, Scott Aaronson hates them (mostly sour grapes at this point), and a
lot of HN readers take his word as gospel...

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abrichr
Thanks for sharing! I'd like to learn more. For what use cases should one opt
to use D-Wave Leap instead of a more conventional optimizer?

