Just because something needs to get done doesn’t mean that it will. I have learned this in many contexts, most recently in writing about the pharmaceutical industry. They come up as a good candidate to use Blockchain as a way of stopping counterfeiting. By all accounts, they continue to sit on their hands. While there are profound losses coupled with compromised safety, it’s not a priority, […]
iSchool Admin
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It’s already being promoted. IBM encourages writing for quantum computers in their cloud interface. Rigetti has some utilities that you can use. The odd thing is that it looks like any other code at first glance. If it doesn’t to you, please comment.
Or maybe it’s the Cryptocalypse That Will Happen at a Later Date. In any case, predictions are often where the money is. Here is a brief literature review. Now that quantum supremacy has been achieved, there is a lot being written about it being the end of the world in one way or another. The most predictable is Roger A. Grimes’ Cryptography Apocalypse, ISBN-13: 978-1119618195, which just […]
This breakthrough is from a corporation, not a government. Previous innovation, such as ARPANET, came from such sources. It is likely that the priorities will be different. The sudden increase in speed implies the possibility of intermediate steps. As IBM reminded everyone after Google’s announcement, they too have a 53 qubit machine, albeit one that runs much slower and steadier. Google’s innovation is likely to be […]
A standard field trip in elementary school was the aerospace museum. They had two flying cars that had been built in the 1930s. Looped videos of grainy black and white footage ran showing them driving down the street, then flying over San Diego. As we sat in traffic on the way back to school, students and teachers alike wondered aloud about what happened. Who wouldn’t want […]
The Blockyball or Blockhelix is on the way. Quantum computing is here. Google made it work with a 53 qubit processor called Sycamore cooled to nearly absolute zero. The 3 minutes and 30 seconds of calculations done would take 100,000 computers 10,000 years to replicate. IBM says that their own 53 qubit processor, with conventional engineering, could replicate Google’s results in 2 1/2 days. It […]
Learning from Healthcare Healthcare is one area of Blockchain application that libraries can learn from. For example, it is currently under consideration as a means of helping stem the tide of counterfeit prescriptions. It would be more important than most applications, because counterfeit drugs are a 200 billion dollar market. They are often made with wrong ingredients. Other sources point to issues in other arenas that […]
A number of issues have been bouncing around in my head lately: Can you really have a sovereign identity on someone else’s network? Sovereign identity might mean “Your identity is your problem.” Blockchain might be oversold, but for the wrong reasons. Blockchain: the Emperor’s New PKI looks at this. Amazon was oversold back when it was a book catalog, but no one predicted that it would […]
So far, I have been unable to find an identity that works on multiple networks. Please comment if you have. In the library world, we have OCLC, which is a network of networks. Melvyl linked the UC system and was eventually subsumed into the larger co-op. If libraries make their own network (again, remember it would replace a co-op), would it be only one network? Would […]
Back in 1978, California passed Proposition 13, which began the defunding of many public services, including libraries. It was the beginning of what was branded right away as the Tax Revolt. The journal of academic librarianship understood it right away. An editorial by RMD in the July issue of that year referring to librarians said, “They must sell libraries to their communities.” After what was a stirring […]
Today, I heard from Georgina Serey at the Chilean National Library. I had asked for a demo ID to use to wander around their holdings. This link shows how to get an ID for numerous online services. It turns out that one needs a national ID called RUN (Rol Único Nacional) first. The two most interesting features appear to guard against hacks. The first is that […]
While contacting libraries that use Blockchain to look for a demo, I came across this one. It is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. There are branches in other countries, and the English version of the acronym is ECLAC, which is the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. In spite of the events in Chile at this writing, the site is still working. Their collection of […]