In our Quantum Computing community, we have no shortage of "interesting characters". Some of those have become celebrities in their own rights, like Scott Aaronson, who's blog has become a go-to destination for the inevitable "well actually" post after any overly enthusiastic press release.

It's nearly time to talk about a new project we're releasing. The best thing is it's open source, it's for the community, and it's something I know a lot of product teams in Quantum Computing will benefit from. Providing value doesn't always need to be technical or complicated. More on this soon.

Here's a look behind the scenes as I get ready for a conference in Tokyo. I've been too busy to do the (overdue) planned headshot photography session, so I wondered... could AI help me repurpose my general avatar? Spoiler: the result in the second image is unintentionally hilarious.

I keep thinking about a comment I read. Making me think about all the various local maxima we are experiencing in our current lives, that will zoom off in new directions as progress (and entropy) rolls forward: "Trebuchets are what you get when your Physics knowledge outpaces your Chemistry".

I read the new IonQ and Airbus white paper about #quantumcomputing for transport logistics optimisation so you don't have to... TLDR? A new Multi-Angle Layered Variational Quantum Algorithm (MALVQA) that uses fewer two-qubit gates than standard QAOA approaches, and a novel cost function.

Remember the time when Paul Graham threw shade at Elon in his famous "The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups" essay? An unexpected gem from 2006.

Today I am mostly humming this... youtu.be/1a9cmgKsohU

Today I'm pushing the alpha version of OpenQase, an open resource that collects and curates QuantumComputing business cases and industry data.

I got tired of juggling multiple platforms for content publishing, and I wanted to see all my content in one view. Bebop is my custom CMS built for content campaigns --> Hashnode, Dev, Bluesky, and Mastodon are working, and there's a built-in local blog too. v0.2.3 is on Github.

This is a post to test if the Bebop CMS is configured correctly for Bluesky.

This is a text post from BebopCMS to Bluesky.

This is a test post from the BebopCMS to Bluesky.

Just pushed the 0.2.0 release of the open source Bebop CMS. This version adds cross-posting to Hashnode and Dev as examples of the "Buffer for blog posts" features. Building my own tool specifically for developer advocate content posting, reposting, remote tracking, etc. github.com/ddri/bebop

I miss the era of open APIs and developer advocacy being the norm. I lost a few hours tonight extending the Bebop CMS publishing module to include Medium. But the APIs and integration tokens are shut down, regardless of the developer site down out of date saying otherwise. My mistake 😬

A lovely bit of user experience design from the team at Clay. The "LAST USED" is going to save a lot of wasted time when you count that up across their entire userbase.

Interesting to see the Spotify team putting some of my music on their editorial playlists. Always curious to see where it ends up. open.spotify.com/playlist/37i...

I was testing Microsoft's CoPilot after seeing @mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social post about Think Deeper. I asked it my usual selection of questions around quantum computing calculations to see how well it can read Pauli Matrices / Bloch Spheres etc. And then this exchange happened 😂

Here are 6.5.354 reasons why I don't use SemVer... (a thread)

And #seattle or #seattletech people here on the (ironically named for those of us in the Pacific North West) Bluesky?

Congrats to @johnonolan.bsky.social and team for the latest release of the open source Ghost CMS (now up to 5.108.2). A great CMS, a great team, and no drama from it's founder/CEO. These are all good things. github.com/TryGhost/Ghost

"Hey guys, good news, everyone is talking about the R1 again! We're saved!" "Oh... oh okay... damn".

Refer to my earlier comments that we're about to see Quantum Computing companies repositioning to align with the prevailing AI investments. Sovereign funds have propped up the VC pullback from quantum, but there's still a shortfall to be met. Projects like Stargate create the umbrella to do that.

When making developer docs, be sure to use the brightest whitest style possible, with tiny text, and the softest shades of grey the eye can barely detect on the screen. Making them work harder to read your content makes them appreciate it more, and earns their respect as a worthy challenge.

Zoom: "Graphic design is my passion"

Building something.

This is probably the worst era for science media since the church burned people for being witches.

In case you missed it... Hugging Face are building a fully open implementation of DeepSeek-R1. github.com/huggingface/...

During the day we are professional developers and technical leaders with impeccable communication and business acumen. Meanwhile on our personal side projects...

What's everyone's preference for static site generators these days? Hugo, VueJS, NextJS, Jekyll, etc?

Useful perspective, clearly written and well-reasoned. arxiv.org/abs/2501.05694

So we know that Threads hates links to other content. LEt's see what this does on Bluesky...? Side note: lovely #triphop and #downbeat grooves for those that love the likes of Morcheeba and Massive Attack and Mr Scruff as much as I do. open.spotify.com/album/3ZYgGP...

New favourite thing. The public domain image archive has an "infinite view" that is... really hypnotising. Check this out: pdimagearchive.org/infinite-view/

Solid example of how to communicate about AI and privacy options from Miro. While they are gathering more data from free tier users, they clearly state the reasons, what they aren't doing, and the method to opt out.

Heads-up if you're in the Bay Area in February. Bill Gates will be doing a talk at the @computerhistory.bsky.social museum. One of the tech history institutions I'm happy to be a supporting member of.

A reminder that IBM's #quantumcomputing roadmap is public, and their Kookaburra processor is expected to be released in 2025. Unlike Google's milestones (Sycamore and now Willow), IBM's systems are generally available (to the public/quantum network members). Steady releases minus the hyperbole.

A reminder for those interested in #quantumcomputing, one of the resources I find myself recommending (and referencing) is Olivier Ezratty's "Understanding Quantum Technologies". It's available for free on Arxiv, or via Amazon for the hardcopy versions. www.oezratty.net/wordpress/20...

Happy "remembering which SaaS companies you subscribed to" credit card billing day for everyone who celebrates it.

Perfect. Great work. No notes.

Trovaire members Dennis and David met some 20 years ago while touring in bands (Dennis in Statler & Waldorf, David in Superfluid and Segue). Think "Underworld and Chemical Brothers" and you've got the era. Needless to say, quite the shift from Trovaire's #triphop, chill out and Balearic Beats vibe.

The “New Faces” panel at #Q2B2024 has some very familiar faces… including Australian founder Andrew Dzurak from Diraq. #quantumcomputing

Working for a quantum company doing trapped ion qubit modalities, I thought it was time to update my requisite “here’s what we make” selfie… here’s an ion trap!

Always a highlight of Q2B, here comes Scott Aaronson to speak on the current mood and expectations around quantum algorithms. #Q2B2024 #quantumcomputing

Day Three of #Q2B2024, opening with IBM’s Suhare Nur on a topic close to my heart… Qiskit Functions. An increasingly abstracted approach for #quantumcomputing that benefits the software developer (not just physicists).

Kicking off day two of #Q2B2024 is the esteemed @preskill.bsky.social at his 8th edition of the event. This time around, a talk on his idea of the “Megaquop Machine”, a post-NISQ framing.

As an Australian with an eccentric Irish family I must admit, I read this and thought "okay that's a bit drastic".

Time to recommend another paper. This is technically a monograph, if that means anything to you, and starts with a humble grounding from the author that many of us working in #quantumcomputing can relate to: the false summit when it comes to the maths, and then... quantum!

Flying back to San Francisco for #Q2B. One of my favourite #quantumcomputing conferences due to the focus on real world and business value. As a PM it pushes me harder to challenge my assumptions of the timelines and readiness of what we work on, and the connections IRL are priceless. See you there?

Adam Zewe from MIT News gives an insightful look at the ways that #quantumcomputing is used for simulation, which can range from large-scale enterprise explorations, or on-campus experiments like the one referenced here (using a 16 qubit configuration).

Today is Bandcamp Friday, where @bandcamp waives their fees and artists get the full support of their community for every purchase made. So today is a good day to grab a copy of "The Stonefruit Sessions" (which won't be streaming until 2025 sometime). trovaire.bandcamp.com/album/t...

A reminder that any article claiming XYZ technology "could soon" do ABC thing isn't news you need to read. It's usually a media outlet filling the day's quota for content by looking what new papers are published on a topic, and then picking a provocative angle for clicks. https://buff.ly/3ODFRPa