It is Thursday morning when I write this, and the sun has been up for a while. I woke up at Eastern Time sunrise, rolled over, and then woke up for sunrise in Pacific Time, and rolled over again. My body did not have time to switch to Eastern, meaning now I am completely mixed up. I head for a short trip to Michigan a week from now.
It is nice to be home, but my office is a mess, and the house looks disorganized. Oddly, even with the endless spending on travel, my finances are doing well. My revenge on Trump is to live well and spend it. When I am too old to travel, I will give it away to local liberal causes. And sorry for the political comment to my Republican friends, but F**k you, Trump!
Aside: Although the math does not pencil out to giving away some to cover the taxes on the cash I withdraw from my IRA to live on, it is not a total waste. For about an increased 20-30% burn of cash, I can give away a lot of money (well, for me it is a lot, F**K you, billionaires) to liberal and my church and pay little in tax. I like that. I will also start Social Security (if those F**kers in DOGE and in the Republican controlled Congress have not made it impossible for new filers to get paid).
More: Sorry again to my right or center-right American readers, but after my experience with TSA, I am a little more pushed to the left now. I understand that the TSA sent me a note stating it was not their fault, but Delta’s. However, I had assumed the TSA was responsible for airport security. Growl! Apparently, the only person keeping you safe and headed the right way in an airport is yourself.
Returning to Wednesday, my coffee is locally roasted and from the local veggie market at 185th and TV Highway. It is dark and bitter, much like the current administration. I drink deep and let the bitter come. I am reminded that Justice with Compassion is the goal, and how bitter it will be for so many bad actors when we finally reach this goal. While it seems contradictory, for me, dear reader, the darker/bitter the moment, the brighter/sweeter it will be soon. It is called Hope.
I drink half a pot of dark coffee to keep going. I am almost bouncing in my chair as I write more than 1,600 words, and I still rushed the ending. It was a crazy and educational day yesterday. The highs and lows of my experience were invaluable. I love to travel!
I make coffee by grinding the beans, from Gather, Darkness brand, using my brush to clean every bit of coffee dust from the grinder, and then filling it with tap water (where a coffee purist might just wince). I shook out all the laundry from my bags, and moved the clean stuff (though wrinkled) to hangers or put it away. I did two loads of laundry in The Machine, which was expensively repaired ($380 to replace the sensor, and then free to fix the leak that was caused by the repair). It worked without coding or flooding. About two hours per load, when loads are smallish. I continued writing while doing two loads. My iPhone App for LG tracks the progress. I did not buy a smart dishwasher (for an additional $200) because I did not want it, like a Douglas Adams story, to happily inform me of its status. I also get updates from Air VW the Gray. It is currently worrying that its doors are unlocked (inside the garage). My experience with so-called Smart Devices makes me sure that the definitions of smart and intelligence are too imprecise.
Returning to Wednesday, I wrote and wrote, and took a screenshot of the TSA explanations and put that in the blog (the screenshot text is generally not searchable), and included that with my pictures of Queens Zoo and the nearby park. With that finally done, I showered, and all of that.
I spent time in the morning and afternoon reading more about quantum computers, and I learned that the math is deep and the physics is outside of my high school level classes. I will need to skills-up to work on this. I decided that this was the direction I wanted to go after all the options that HOPE_16 offered. I am less interested in traditional hacking, which involves breaking into computers. Instead, I am interested in breaking encryption with a simulated quantum computer, an older form of hacking — more Maker and DIY. Years ago, when I applied to work for the NSA right out of college, this was the area I wanted to work in; I am grateful that I did not end up in the shadows.
I am at a loss to understand how the traveling salesman problem can be broken by a quantum computer, but it might be possible after learning about Concord software and its ability to produce a good-enough solution on large versions of the problem. Python has an open-source simulator for this work, and I am starting to read and understand it. The gap between my understanding and math/physics is significant, but I would like to try.
Encryptment uses factoring and elliptic curve calculations, and interestingly, the ellipse problem I worked on in the 1980s, trying to use FORTRAN’s math libraries to calculate, and failing, to solve inexact measurements of ellipse to determine the actual original ellipse, an unsolvable problem (though I thought it could be solved with something now that I have read about in the Concord software).
I purchased a new Raspberry Pi 5, a ready-to-use system and monitor, from SparkFun. I want to make sparkling lights to show the status of the simulated quantum computer, and a Pi seemed a good choice. I ordered the whole kit because I did not wish to assemble it from various parts I already had. I initially wanted something easy that would let me focus on programming.
I stopped in Beaverton at Powell’s, where I picked up a used number theory book for about $15 and a Ritter chocolate bar (Eric A, “Elric,” loved them, and I think of him whenever I get one). I also dined at Pastrini nearby and saw Charlotte J, who was having lunch there too. Charlotte and I agreed this one was better than most, and the portion sizes for lunch were perfect ($13 plus drink). Charlotte started me on the path of remodeling part of the church; it was her idea, and I think of her often as I press the process forward.
I read more about Quantum at lunch (here), and I found the Python class and notebooks on how to use the simulation, called QuTiP (Python tradition is to use crazy names for things). My goal is to utilize quantum computing code in Python to solve a reduced version of factoring on a Raspberry Pi 5 (with added flashing lights), thereby breaking easier encryption as a dazzling demonstration. I may have to search out some online classes on math (I don’t remember much of my linear algebra) and matrix versions of the physics calculations. I have taught myself AI, Python coding, and various other things.
To start such a journey is the hardest part. You see the path in your mind, and that is not too bad. Then, the clouds part, and you realize that what you saw was just a waystation, with the summit far off. There are also requirements for the journey that look difficult, and those are the ones you know!
But I love to travel, even in just my mind. Time to start. Equipment is on its way! I have a book that I can barely read, and it is written in English, but I have it. Here we go!
I get Tiramisu to go. I am tired (and a bit overwhelmed) and arrive home and take a nap. I rise, finish the laundry, clean the kitchen, and have the Italian dessert for lunch. I take Air VW the Gray to First United Methodist Church and meet the choir and Z. Z and I play the board game, Concordia, using the Roma board. Z gets every good move, and soon leads me by twenty points! I build and collect many personality cards, but those don’t Z. The Mason card, usually a weak card, supplies Z with bricks and points for brick-cities. I manage to chase her to the end, but she finishes her houses, scoring seven points for ending the game, and that is enough to beat me by seven points, though I would say the Mason card works well in the Roma board. I passed on it three times. Hmmm. Next time!
We agree that the newish board, Roma, with its alternative rules for ships, makes the game better. Recommended. We might try Sicily (on the reverse of the Roma board) next, with its erupting volcano, because it looks fun. A standee volcano on the board!
I returned home, and instead of sleeping, I watched the next episode of Wednesday, which led me to miss the clues in the second episode. I would recommend it because it has some great lines. For example, when asked if Wednesday’s mom, Morticia, could be convinced to leave, “That casket is closed,” explained Gomez. Recommended, though I found the storyline confusing.
It was still not late, but I put on my PJs and read. I am enjoying
I sleep after that, setting back on the AC, and wake up later, feeling cold. I managed to sleep until, as I said at the start, until 3ish.
Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 