In the sense that there are usable qubits, and single and two qubits gates that one needs in computations, it does work. Presently coherence times are too short and number of qubits too low for practically useful computations, though.

Regardless, a lot can be learned in projects like this about integrating conventional and quantum computing. One has to start somewhere.

They’ll be implementing several updates over the coming years to push towards useful computations. The engineering challenges are formidable and the road will be long and bumpy.

Could have been me. I’ve been working on this as a hobby for over five years yers since we got solar panels, EV and a dedicated battery for storage.

Smarter devices support demand side response, which is welcome to make the grid more efficient. A good local energy-efficient solution includes in my experience three key ingredients.

First you need local energy storage to allow for extra flexibility to handle life’s ebbs and flows. This could be an EV or dedicated storage battery, which can be charged when electricity is abundant, and discharged when supply is tight and something energy hungry needs doing.

Second the grid side will not know when I’m planning to do something energy hungry, or when I want the EV battery full instead of the usual 80% charge. Therefore some way of providing input is needed. It might be possible to learn reasonable local demand forecast models reflecting local behaviour patterns, but I’m not yet convinced about this and tend to trust human guidance more.

Third you need intelligent control to respond to grid signals (e.g. price changes) and combine those with local inputs and any local consumption and production (e.g. from solar panels or micro wind turbines) forecasts.

Energy companies will of course want to have the intelligent control in their hands as it creates them price arbitrage. For majority of consumers that will be the best solution. Some of us will not necessarily want to give them that control and prefer a local solution.

True, and you are probably not putting anywhere near enough salt to the water.

Any news outlet will have a bias. If nothing else, the broader culture a news organisation operates in will inherently influence their decisions.

I would say BBC is nowhere near the worst, though. Arguing they are Government controlled is just silly. You drawing a comparison to Russian media organisations is a load of tosh.

I know you are not.

Executive and board compensation as a result of any deal of this nature should be public information.

My favourite is Betty’s Tea Room Blend https://www.bettys.co.uk/bettys-tea-room-blend-tea-80-tea-bags-1

If tech for you means software, then yes, you can decouple from global supply chains with relative ease.

If, however, you look into some other areas of tech a different picture emerges. Global dependencies especially in semiconductors are much deeper. Products built from such components are the same. Decoupling in those domains would be significantly more difficult.

Tories have an amazing hit rate in selecting deplorables as their leader.

And just to be clear, I boot from the SSD and don’t use an SD card at all.

RaspberryPi + USB connected SSD would be my recommendation for HomeAssistant. Using an SSD reduces the risk of SD card flaking

My first thought seeing the captain is Russian was sabotage. And maybe a second later I realised the more likely cause: vodka.

We have enough twats as it is, so perhaps fuck off.

Obviously they were too busy lining their and mates’ pockets, and in general being totally useless politicians.

Solar + local battery is the way. We should push hard to make that affordable for as many people as possible.

What’s with the agism? Old geezers like me find a day’s work incredibly stressful!

The depth of climate crisis denial is depressing. We should be cutting drastically down on flying. We should be cutting drastically down on miles driven in cars. Nope, none of that.

I think this is a great idea! Perhaps he could move his whole company, its beers and himself in the process.

I’m in no way suggesting anything, nor encouraging or endorsing any particular course of action, but I do note that when things are securely tied to or wrapped in a heavy object with negative buoyancy, they do sink rather fast to the bottom of the sea and stay there. Examples of such things include battleship chains and concrete boots.