Sunday, December 31, 2017


This is my last blog!


Of 2017.  


That was tricky, right? “Wow, Tom’s blogs are always amazing -
why would he stop blogging???”


Made you look. Made you click. Made you read this far. If this was “fake news”
it’s too late. Let’s come back to this later.


Standing is good for you. Sitting at a desk all day long is bad for you.
They say that just standing - getting up from your desk - once every
twenty minutes will make an AMAZING difference in your health.
Just stand up. Once every twenty minutes.


Cool!  What a perfect New Year’s resolution! Take your smartphone,
and set the timer to ring once every twenty minutes. Stand up.
Take a few steps away from your desk. OK, you can go sit down again.
Boom! Done!


Google “Standing for Health”


You will see many articles that talk about standing desks, standing at work,
and how doing something as simple as STANDING UP will change your life.

It’s better than going to the gym!





On the circle of health hype, what was bad becomes good, then it becomes
overrated, then it becomes bad again. That’s what happened to barefoot
running and multivitamins, and it’s where the purported dangers of
“too much sitting” seem to be headed.
But, like all hype cycles, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle rather
than on the peaks or in the valleys.
It’s worth looking at an interesting study published in the American Journal of
Epidemiology that finds jobs that require a lot of standing to be much worse for
your health than jobs that require mostly sitting. The new study is a surprising
opposite of the “sitting is the new smoking” message.
Standing all day long is no good for you.
Sitting all day long is no good for you.
But if you stand up and take a few steps away from your desk every
twenty minutes during your day, you are on your way to perfect health!
Unless you take a few steps away from you desk to go outside and smoke.
Or go eat junk food.



Where are you going with this Tom?
Having New Year’s resolutions are good for you.
Unless of course, having New Year’s resolutions are bad for you.
If you cannot stand up and take a few steps away from your desk every
twenty minutes, what chance do you have of going to the gym, or quitting
smoking, or getting more sleep, or keeping any of your other noble
New Year’s resolutions?
OK, if you are not going to stand up and take a few steps away from your desk
every twenty minutes for your own physical health, how about doing something
for your own mental health?
Do not click on fake news in 2018.
Do not read fake news in 2018.
Do not spread or share or promote fake news in 2018.
How can you possibly know if something is fake news you ask?
Well, you can click on everything.
Or you can click on nothing.
Or you can take the time to read, research, validate what you read before you
share it or promote it on social media. Alternative facts are by definition,
not facts at all.
Just like standing all day long - or not standing at all - the best most healthy
answer is always going to be somewhere in the middle.
OK, that’s it.
My last blog!
Of 2017.

[ Insert standing ovation here. Go ahead, standing is good for you. I think. ]





Sunday, December 10, 2017



Nerdy:
In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity
involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property
may be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization".


Quantum Computing studies computation systems (quantum computers)
that make direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as
superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.

Quantum computers are different from binary
digital electronic computers based on transistors.


Non-Nerdy:
Shit is about to get real.


This past Friday, the NYDLA.org co-sponsored an event with
IE.edu and SAP on Quantum Computing. The event was held at SAP
on the 48th floor at 10 Hudson Yards.

The view from the 48th floor was amazing.




I need to keep this blog post short, so let me say it this way:


Encryption is what allows things like Bitcoin to exist. Encryption
is what allows us to do online banking. Encryption is what allows Nuclear
Power Plants to operate. If there was no such thing as “encryption”
the Internet would shut down almost overnight.

Without encryption, there is no more Amazon, no Netflix, no Uber,
no cloud.


If someone tried to break the encryption of Bitcoin, or break the encryption of a Nuclear Reactor, or break into the NSA, or break into ANY financial institution (using today's technology) it would take around 2,700 years.


If you had access to a Quantum Computer, it would take
around 400 minutes to break the encryption.


If a "bad actor" had access to a Quantum Computer, the value of
every Bitcoin in the world would to go $0 in less than 400 minutes.

This is why schools like IE.edu and companies like SAP, Microsoft,
Google, Amazon are betting all of their chips on Quantum Computing.

Quantum Computing is the new “space race” and we need to make sure
that the bad guys don’t win.




Quantum Computing will be here before you know it.

There are “countries” that are storing everything - every email,
every document, truly storing everything digital.

Why?

Because storage is cheap. And because they know that (one day)
there will be a Quantum Computer that can read, analyze and
BREAK into anything digital and encrypted. In minutes.

The first country with mastery of Quantum Computing will be
the next superpower.

Forget about nuclear weapons.




One fully functional Quantum Computer is more dangerous than 1000 nuclear bombs.





“The view” from the 48th floor was amazing.
Thrilling. Mesmerizing. It was also terrifying.


^^^ A great article on Quantum Computing


View from the 48th Floor - SAP - 10 Hudson Yards