Quantum Blog
On retro-computing: Macintosh Plus
I am an Apple Fanboy. Always been. Nevertheless, it took me a long time to actually own an Apple device. The first Mac I ever bought was a 12″ PowerBook G4, in 2003. Since then, I went down the rabbit hole, with a 3rd generation iPod (2003), a Mac Mini G4 (2005), a 4th generation[…]
On retro-computing: Amstrad CPC 464 (part 1)
Let’s go a little further into retro-computing. After these first steps with the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, if was time for another British 8bit computer from the 80’s: the Amstrad CPC 464 ! The Amstrad CPC 464 The Amstrad CPC 464 is very dear to me. Unlike the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum I[…]
On retro-computing: decorating the study
Let’s take a (short) break from vintage computers. As a consequence to the COVID-19 pandemics and lock-downs, home-office turned from an occasional to a day-to-day way of working. We had moved 3 years ago to a nice Haussmannian style apartment, right in the center of Lyon. At this time, we had planned turn one of[…]
On retro-computing: Sinclair ZX Spectrum (part 1)
After my first baby steps into the retro-computing world with a ZX81, I thought I should add a new member to the family. In memory of the late Lord Sinclair, it had to be a ZX Spectrum, and nothing else. Sourcing a Sinclair ZX Spectrum I did not own a ZX Spectum myself, but used[…]
On retro-computing: Sinclair ZX81 (part 1)
My Previous posts on reto-computing were dealing with emulating old 8-bit and 16-bit computers and consoles. That’s is what indeed triggered a bit of retro-gaming and retro-computing addiction. And, of course, like any addiction, I wanted more ! So it was time to go one step further, with the real stuff: sourcing old computers and[…]
On retro-computing : exploring emulation software on macOS
In the last post, I explained how I jumped into the retro-computing bandwagon, and built a few DIY boxes for retro-gaming via software emulation, based on the RecalBox project. During the same time, I also explored how to run old computers systems on the current hardware I use day by day, namely an Intel Core[…]
On retro-computing : retro-gaming with Recalbox
The COVID-19 pandemic had (and, unfortunately still has) a strong impact on us all. We all tried our best to cope with it, our own ways. Somehow, lock-downs triggered a bit of nostalgia for me, and, to my surprise, new geeky side projects emerged … populated with Lego bricks and old-school computers. Maybe I’m weird,[…]
What are forces ?
This question stems from discussions at work about the notion of “data gravity”, which, 10 years after its inception, seems to make a comeback and draw some kind of vague buzz within the Data & IT community. It quickly turned out that this concept – though appealing from afar – is one of these so[…]
Evaluation des technologies quantiques
Voici le rapport technique d’évaluation des technologies d’informatique quantique élaboré par l’équipe du Digital Labs d’Econocom. Notre objectif est d’évaluer expérimentalement les technologies quantiques actuelles, avec pour application la résolution de problèmes 3-SAT, comme alternative aux méthodes classiques: Evaluer les technologies d’informatique quantique actuelle et identifier une plateforme quantique pour les expérimentations; Identifier l’algorithme quantique[…]
On superdense coding
Alice and Bob are fictional characters often used to describe cryptographic protocols. We introduced them in a previous article on quantum cryptography. Picture a situation where Alice and Bob are living in different parts of the world and where Alice would like to communicate two classical bits of information to Bob by sending him only[…]
On cloud-based quantum computing
Cloud-based quantum computing is the invocation of quantum emulators, simulators or processors through the cloud. Increasingly, cloud services are being looked on as the method for providing access to quantum processing. Cloud-based quantum computing can be used in several contexts, such as: Teaching: teachers can use cloud-based quantum computing to help their students better understand[…]
On photonic quantum computing
The worldwide quest to build practical quantum computers is undergoing a critical period. Fault-tolerant quantum computers will soon provide significant computational speedups for problems like factoring, search, or linear algebra, etc. During the next few years, a number of different quantum devices will become available to the public. Over the past decade, a wide variety[…]
On Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence
Mixing quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) may sound like a new buzzword. However, since quantum computing advances are hinting at profound changes in the very notions of computation, it is natural to reexamine various branches of computer science in the light of these disruptions. And … AI is no exception As usual, before entering[…]
An update on quantum computing and complexity classes
In a series of posts, we introduced various quantum computing concepts: How information and quantum mechanics are related ? What is quantum computing ? What are Bell states ? What is quantum teleportation ? What is quantum error correction ? What are topological quantum computer ? In addition to these concepts, we devoted two posts[…]
On topological quantum computers
We have been talking about quantum computing for a few weeks now. We have talked about its theoretical principles (quantum entanglement, no-cloning theorem, …) and its applications, especially in the contexts of cryptography and complexity. Yet, we haven’t talk much about practicalities. The outstanding problem with entangled superpositions of spinning electrons, polarized photons or most[…]
On quantum computing and cryptography
Cryptography is the cornerstone of secure communication. Broadly speaking, cryptography deals with creating and studying protocols that prevent third parties (public or adversaries) from reading messages. It is strongly tied to information security topics such as confidentiality, data integrity, identification, authentication or non-repudiation / proof. Today’s cryptography is heavily based on mathematics: cryptographic algorithms are[…]
Complexity and quantum computing
In classical computing, a bit is a single piece of information that can exist in two states (1 or 0, true or false). As we have seen before, quantum computing uses qubits (2-states quantum systems) instead. Qubits can be represented by the mean of an imaginary sphere (called a Bloch sphere): Whereas a classical bit[…]
Quantum error correction
Building a quantum device in the real world means having to deal with errors: any qubit stored unprotected or transmitted through a communications channel will inevitably come out changed. To be protected, quantum devices have to be kept at extremely cold temperatures (a few milikelvins) and shielded from electromagnetic radiation. Quantum error correction is used[…]
Quantum teleportation
In this new post on quantum computing, we are going to talk about quantum teleportation. Teleportation. OMG. Yes, I can see those stars sparking in your geeky eyes … So … first, let’s clarify a few things, shall we ? Quantum teleportation is a communications protocol that transfers the quantum state of a system to[…]
Having fun with Bell states and Q#
In a previous post, we introduced the basic concepts of quantum computing, during which quantum entanglement, Bell states and usual quantum gates such as Hadamard’s or Pauli’s were quickly addressed. Today, we’re going to explore some of these concepts and start having fun with quantum programming to illustrate these ideas. Quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is a[…]
On quantum computing
Quantum computing as made the headlines recently. At IBM’s inaugural Index Developer Conference held in San Francisco, the company showed off its latest prototype: a quantum computing rig housing 50 qubits, one of the most advanced machines currently in existence. Google Quantum AI Lab announced Bristlecone, its new quantum processor, at the annual American Physical[…]
My week-end with E.V.E
I spent part of my week-end finishing the voice recognition sub-system, tweaking E.V.E’s UX and cleaning up E.V.E / A.D.A.M code. Let’s see how it went ! E.V.E loves snakes E.V.E’s interface is based on HTML5/Javascript and runs inside a browser. I wasn’t too happy with my RPi’s browsers until I settled for Epiphany. Even[…]
E.V.E is witty
Yesterday, I tested a tiny USB microphone for E.V.E, and managed to recognized the recorded sentence with the help of the wit.ai platform (even though the quality of the microphone was a little poor). Let’s get a little deeper into wit.ai and see how it could be helpful for E.V.E. Trying another USB Microphone I[…]
E.V.E is all ears
Now that enough progress has been made on E.V.E touch-enabled interface, and since we added a websocket-enabled general purpose middleware (A.D.A.M) to handle local hardware and proxy HTTP requests, we can now tackle voice recognition. The audio sub-system The audio sub-system is probably the weakest point of Raspberry Pi. Without extension (such an USB audio sub-system), only two audio[…]
E.V.E meets A.D.A.M
In the previous post, we quickly reverse-engineered an Orange LiveBox Play set-top box and how it can be easily driven by simple HTTP requests. Be before implementing an interface between E.V.E and this kind of set-top box, we need to sit down and think a bit. Indeed, for now, E.V.E is nothing but a web[…]
E.V.E sips Orange juice
Since I’m still waiting for all the audio components I ordered for E.V.E’s voice recognition functionality, let’s try in the meantime to interface E.V.E with a first home device. The very first one that comes to my mind is of course a television set. Let’s try ! Reverse-engineering an Orange Livebox Play set-top box I rely on[…]
E.V.E is a Yodeling Cowgirl
Here is a little followup of this week-end work on E.V.E. I’m still at a prototyping stage which means there rough edges and that the source code is sometimes naughty), but it’s getting long nicely. E.V.E is now a Yodeling Cowgirl During this week-end tests, I tried to complete the simple internet radio functionalities of the[…]
A kiosk mode for E.V.E
E.V.E front panel is touch-based. This is why I ordered an official touchscreen for Raspberry Pi, that I started to play with last night. The software on E.V.E’s front has to run in kiosk mode. There are many alternatives. On could be to use a dedicated framework like Kivy, which can handle multi-touch and be[…]
E.V.E has a sens of touch
Since our previous post, the touchscreen and the stand I ordered at Swag shop were delivered (this morning actually). It is now time for an unboxing and a first setup ! The unboxing Two packages were sent via Chronopost: A first one – a very sober white box with no label – containing the 7″ touchscreen[…]
Say hello to E.V.E
It’s been (yet again) a very very long time since I posted news on “Jarvis”, my pet project on Raspberry Pi. So long I would consider Jarvis project to be almost dead (although it spawned a project internally used at work, but re-baptized “Moshi-Moshi“). Nevertheless, home automation, voice recognition, new forms of human-machine interactions, and[…]
On hidden realities (part 6)
This is the last part of a series of posts on (a few selected) hidden realities : many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, multiverse linked to the space-time geometries and dynamics, higher dimensional multiverse, holographic multiverse and simulated multiverse. For the previous posts, please see: On hidden realities (part 1) – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics[…]
On hidden realities (part 5)
This is our fifth part of a series of posts on (a few selected) hidden realities : many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, multiverse linked to the space-time geometries and dynamics, higher dimensional multiverse, holographic multiverse and simulated multiverse. For the previous posts, please see: On hidden realities (part 1) – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics[…]
On hidden realities (part 4)
This is our fourth part of a series of posts on (a few selected) hidden realities : many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, multiverse linked to the space-time geometries and dynamics, higher dimensional multiverse, holographic multiverse and simulated multiverse. For the previous posts, please see: On hidden realities (part 1) – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics On hidden[…]
On hidden realities (part 3)
This is our third part of a series of posts on (a few selected) hidden realities : many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, multiverse linked to the space-time geometries and dynamics, higher dimensional multiverse, holographic multiverse and simulated multiverse. For the previous posts, please see: On hidden realities (part 1) – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics[…]
On hidden realities (part 2)
This is the second part of a series of posts on (a few selected) hidden realities : many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, multiverse linked to the space-time geometries and dynamics, higher dimensional multiverse, holographic multiverse and simulated multiverse. For the previous posts, please see: On hidden realities (part 1) – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics Space-time[…]
On hidden realities (part 1)
Since I took a 4 weeks vacation, and I’m getting really bored, it gave me time to push a (muuuuch) needed upgrade to this blog and to publish a couple of posts. I wanted to publish a few posts on multiverse for a long time. I stole the title of this series of post, “On[…]
Server crash, and moving to a new hoster
After 6 long years, my good old Shuttle server died a week ago 🙁 Even if both the power unit and the CPU burned (!), there were absolutely no data dammage. This little fellow used to run web sites, home-automation services and share internet connections between all my devices. I tried to replace my Shuttle[…]
Project “Jarvis”: step five (look at me)
Tonight, I’ll go for a very simple hack: connect a webcam, detect motions and stream a live feed over HTTP. Not sure how it’ll fit with Project “Jarvis”, but who knows … Hardware First things first: the hardware. For some reasons, the only webcam that I had was an old Apple iSight. You know, the[…]
Project “Jarvis”: step four (GUI)
Here comes another step in the conception on project “Jarvis”. For once, let’s not be too geeky. I feel artsy today. I’ll focus on the GUI and fire up Inskcape et the Gimp. Yeah, still a bit geeky, I know… Jarvis-like GUI Let’s try the first idea take comes to my mind: create an[…]
Project “Jarvis”: step three (the brain)
During the last steps, voice recording, speech-to-text and text-to-speech feasibility was studied. Now enters another difficicult part: the brain ! The last steps implied the use of external services for voice-recognition and text-to-speech capabilities. When it comes to Jarvis’ brain, the idea is twofold: Onboard answer engine: part of the analysis will be done onboard[…]
Project “Jarvis”: step two (speak to me)
In my previous post, I conducted a few experiments with speech recognition via Google’s Speech API and get enough results to push the project “Jarvis” a bit further. Now it is time for Jarvis to speak ! Text-To-Speech engines There are many “Text-To-Speech” engines already packaged for the Rasberry Pi. Namely: espeak: eSpeak is[…]
Project “Jarvis”: step one (proof of concept)
Adding Siri to both my old iPad 1 and iPhone 4 was a failure 🙁 Jailbreaking went nice, but messing up with SiriPort was a complete disaster, and it took me nearly 2 hours to turn back these devices into something different than a brick. And thus … no SiriProxy for me. But then[…]
Raspberry Pi, ready to serve !
Alright. My Raspberry Pi by is set up and delivering AirPrint and AirPlay services. Let’s add few web capabilities. A lightweight configuration: Nginx & SQLite I felt like the usual Apache / MySQL duet might be a little to heavy for my tiny ApplePie. So, I opted for a Nginx / SQLite couple. Everything[…]
Baking Apple Pies
Now that “applepie” (my very first Raspberry Pi) is set up, it is time to have a little fun. The first hacks will be to turn the device into a cheap (but nonetheless quite efficient) AirPlay / AirPrint device, while baking a real Apple Pie… Setting up AirPlay First, I hooked up the Raspberry Pi[…]
A healthy dose of raspberries
It’s been two long weeks, but the Rasberry Pi I ordered finally arrived this friday. I’m extremely excited with this tiny thing. Just like messing with my first computer (30 years ago…) or patching a Linux kernel for the first time. Yep, I really do feel like a kid 🙂 Raspberry Pi The Raspberry[…]
What’s been cooking ?
I haven’t been posting anything about cooking for a long time. Since I have made (some) progress and I’m getting a little better at taking picture, here’s a little catch up (pun intended). Let’s start with a few french classics: .. then, a few italian cuisine: … Asian food: A bit[…]
What’s this Higgs boson anyway ?
Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about the Higgs boson. A month ago, both teams from CMS and ATLAS experiments at LHC have announced independently the discovery of a previously unknown boson of mass between 125–127 GeV/c2. The characteristics of this new particle are consistent whith the ones of the Higgs Boson. Without getting[…]
HDD meltdown …
The last couple of days have been terribly hot here, reaching 41°C yesterday. Alas, it was way too hot for my home server hard drive, which was already in a baaaad shape. Of course, it died while I was in the process of a much needed system upgrade (in the spirit of this other upgrade).[…]
What to do the first days of once summer holidays ?
Nope, watching the Olympic Games wasn’t an option. Time to upgrade this old blog to a decent version of wordpress. It was about time… Migrating to the latest version of wordpress (from such an obsolete one) wasn’t exactly a piece of cake. I had, of course, to migrate the theme, but also rewrite a few[…]
Upgrading quantum-bits
Once again, it’s been a long time since the last post. Partly because I’m overworked, partly because my good old blog became technically obsolete and is now plagued by security vulnerabilities. Some *ucking morons have been exploiting these holes in order to send spam, which pissed me off quite a bit (and almost got me[…]
THE TEAM
Mostly one guy. With a few little people inside. Maybe mom should have me tested.
Fred
Rupert
E.V.E
The Hand
