In the preprint, it is argued that their device reached “quantum supremacy” and that “a state-of-the-art supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task.” We argue that an ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity.
If you use Windows, I suggest NVDA - it's a free screen reader that's similar to the most-popular-but-expensive one (JAWS):
https://www.nvaccess.org/download/
IMHO the best screen readers are on your phone / tablet. This might sound crazy (how can a touchscreen work when you can't see it?) but they're much better designed than their desktop equivalents. Mobile software tends to be simpler, resulting in a better experience:
Pathological myopia can't be corrected with glasses.
TBH we call it "myopia" in the plugin because it's short and what we think most users would understand. Many visual disabilities cause a similar blurring effect, such as cataracts.
It’s not a substitute for real-world testing, but it should help you appreciate the basics without having to learn a full screen reader.
We’re also working on some accessibility games right now (scores challenges for you to complete in a browser with a simulated disability), which sound a lot like what you’re suggesting.
You never want laws to be ambiguously applied and to presume exemption because "it wouldn't happen to me". People will abuse laws: there will be spam scams aplenty selling snake-oil solutions, and ambulance chasers threatening to sue companies because they can. Excess legislation comes at a cost.
I am in favour of better privacy but I fail to see how counting unique visitors on a blog should become a crime. By setting the standard that everyone is violating the law, you encourage everyone to ignore your law.
Author here. What’s new is the ICO has changed their guidance: they had explicitly stated analytics was acceptable in the past. The law itself hasn’t changed, but what most people thought was compliant is now unambiguously not.
https://insites.com/ crawls your website in a cloud-based Chrome for both mobile and desktop, so you can check spelling, broken links, JS errors, layout etc.
Things that are popular are incendiary to those who don't like them.
If an obscure artist makes some music you don't like, nobody cares. But if that artist sells a million records, you'll see an online explosion of rage.
It seems we're wired to react when our tastes don't match those of the groups we hang around in.
Author here. Originally I had a lot of blather in that section, but given:
1. It's a long post
2. Most of my readers are presumably >15 yrs old
3. I honestly think most people up to age 15 have limited control over their lives
I decided to trim it down. Obviously I am not literally saying that a 14-and-11-months year old has no influence over their destiny but a 15 year old does. But superfluous precision is the enemy of effective writing; you end up with a legal document.
Thanks! I've not really posted much on HN before, although I've had a few of my posts turn up in here by themselves, and I thought it would be worth trying myself.
Thanks. I did agonise over that part at the time I wrote it. I couldn't think of a more inclusive alternative, and chose something a little comedic on purpose ('ladies man') in the hope it wouldn't be taken too seriously.
> The entirety of humanity’s knowledge is – of course – free
I was using a degree of hyperbole for the benefit of word economy. It's like when Louis CK remarked "Everything is amazing, no-one is happy". It's obvious he doesn't mean "everything" or "no-one", but a more factually precise "Most of our first-world lives are remarkably great, yet most of us complain disproportionately about them" isn't quite so catchy. I was aiming to write a commentary, not a white paper.
As for your second point, I think we're in agreement. I agree it's likely that in 100 years our current best will look like crap. That's a good thing. It seems that mankind is on a permanent positive trajectory – a realisation that seems to elude most people, sadly – and that by itself is pretty damn amazing.
It's significant because they're the regulator, and now they're changing to do what everyone else is, instead of telling everyone else to do what they've been doing.
How exactly am I spreading Fear, Uncertainty or Doubt here? (I wrote that article, and run Silktide).
We have no problem with privacy - quite the opposite, I wish it were being taken seriously - but this law is not remotely about that. If you look at the ICO's latest report they say their audit of sites like Facebook and Google was done purely "visually". They are literally evaluating privacy by looking for banners or legal pages, and not at say the technology or intent behind it.
This event is newsworthy because their site - which is clearly going to be looked at as an exemplar of best practice - is changing from explicit opt-in to implicit. Essentially we're now back to 2009, when sites were expected to include privacy policies that explain if they use cookies.
The law is not enforced in the UK at all. Accordingly those who do comply are being penalised unjustly.
The ICO (body responsible for enforcing) have themselves said they probably won't prosecute people for using analytics, because even though that's against the law it's not really all that bad. That's just one example of how vague the law has become.
So we're left in a mess where no-one knows what to do, and those doing the least possible profit. Hence our stance.
Vibe coded in 3.5 hrs (content was older, natch), wrote a block-based, WYSIWYG block based CMS from scratch to power it.