"Pray tell, my dearest Sephiroth, did you just come out of the oven? Because you're looking mighty hot today~"

The pause in the First's usual confident step; the way he turns, slowly, and already his brows begin to furrow. That narrowing of his eyes as the words he's just heard sink in like burning metal in a slab of cold ice.

It's a look Roche has seen so many times now, and that is his privilege alone. No one else confuses Sephiroth, SOLDIER First Class and war hero quite in the same way as his own cohort.

His mouth opens, he's about to say something. But something stops him; his instincts are screaming that this is another of Roche's elaborate verbal conundrums in which he's bound to lose. He's been here before. It never bodes well. In a best-case scenario, Sephiroth is doomed to walk out of this and spend a couple sleepless nights mulling over whatever discussion they're about to have, absolutely to no avail. Like the tormented soul of a specter cursed by pure nonsense.

But there's something else screaming alongside his instinct. The childish curiosity that years of experiments and war could not erase. It urges him to speak up. The need to know is too strong.

"... Why would I spend any time inside an oven?" He blurts out, shooting a brief, regretful sideglance at some invisible enemy. There's no way to look inside oneself, after all. Better point those green glaciers back on Roche again. "And while it's on, to boot? There better be a good reason to compensate that kind of risk."

Hold on a minute. He knows what this is. And as realization flashes through his eyes, Sephiroth speaks once more without waiting for an answer.

"... Am I getting 'roasted' right now? Is that what you're doing?"

Outside the crop of construction cranes that now dot Vancouver’s bright, downtown greenways, in a suburban business park that reminds you more of dentists and tax preparers, is a small office building belonging to D-Wave. This office, squat, angular, and sun-dappled one recent cool Autumn morning, is unique in that it contains an infinite collection of parallel universes.

Founded in 1999 by Geordie Rose, D-Wave company worked in relatively obscurity on esoteric problems associated with quantum computing. When Rose was PhD student at the University of British Columbia he turned in an assignment that outlined a quantum computing company. His entrepreneurship teacher at the time, Haig Farris, found the young physicists ideas compelling enough to give him $1,000 to buy a computer and a printer to type up a business plan.

The company consulted with academics until 2005 when Rose and his team decided to focus on building usable quantum computers. The result, the Orion, launched in 2007 and was used to classify drug molecules and play Sodoku. The business now sells computers for up to $10 million to clients like Google, Microsoft, and Northrop Grumman.

“We’ve been focused on making quantum computing practical since day one. In 2010 we started offering remote cloud access to customers and today, we have 100 early applications running on our computers (70% of which were built in the cloud),” said CEO Vern Brownell. “Through this work, our customers have told us it takes more than just access to real quantum hardware to benefit from quantum computing. In order to build a true quantum ecosystem, millions of developers need the access and tools to get started with quantum.”

Now their computers are simulating weather patterns and tsunamis, optimizing hotel ad displays, solving complex network problems, and, thanks to a new, open source platform, could help you ride the quantum wave of computer programming.

Inside the box

When I went to visit D-Wave they gave us unprecedented access to the inside of one of their quantum machines. The computers, which are about the size of a garden shed, have a control unit on the front that manages the temperature as well as queuing system to translate and communicate the problems sent in by users.

Inside the machine is a tube that, when fully operational, contains a small chip super-cooled to 0.015 Kelvin or -459.643 degrees Fahrenheit or -273.135 degrees Celsius. The entire system looks like something out of the Death Star – a cylinder of pure data that the heroes must access by walking through a little door in the side of a jet black cube.

It’s quite thrilling to see this odd little chip inside of its supercooled home. As the computer revolution maintained its predilection towards room-temperature chips, these odd and unique machines are a connection to an alternate timeline where physics is wrestled into submission in order to do some truly remarkable things.

And now anyone – from kids to PhDs to everyone in between – can try it.

Into the Ocean

Learning to program a quantum computer takes time. Because the processor doesn’t work like a classic universal computer you have to train the chip to perform simple functions that your own cellphone can do in seconds. However, in some cases researchers have found the chips can outperform classic computers by 3,600 times. This trade off – the movement from the known to the unknown – is why D-Wave exposed their product to the world.

“We built Leap to give millions of developers access to quantum computing. We built the first quantum application environment so any software developer interested in quantum computing can start writing and running applications — you don’t need deep quantum knowledge to get started. If you know Python, you can build applications on Leap,” said Brownell.

To get started on the road to quantum computing D-Wave build the Leap platform. The Leap is an open source toolkit for developers. When you sign up you receive one minute’s worth of quantum processing unit time which, given that most problems run in milliseconds, is more than enough to begin experimenting. A queue manager lines up your code and runs it in order received and the answers are spit out almost instantly.

You can code on the QPU with Python or via Jupiter notebooks and it allows you to connect to the QPU with an API token. After writing your code, you can send commands directly to the QPU and then output the results. The programs are currently pretty esoteric and require a basic knowledge of quantum programming but, it should be remembered, classic computer programming was once daunting to the average user.

I downloaded and ran most of the demonstrations without a hitch. These demonstrations – factoring programs, network generators, and the like – essentially turned the ideas concepts of classical programming into quantum questions. Instead of iterating through a list of factors, for example, the quantum computer creates a “parallel universe” of answers and then collapses each one until it finds the right answer. If this sounds odd it’s because it is. The researchers at D-Wave argue all the time about how to imagine a quantum computer’s various processes. One camp sees the physical implementation of a quantum computer to be simply a faster methodology for rendering answers. The other camp, itself aligned with Professor David Deutsch’s ideas presented in The Beginning of Infinity, sees the sheer number of possible permutations a quantum computer can traverse as evidence of parallel universes.

What does the code look like? It’s hard to read without understanding the basics, a fact that D-Wave engineers factored for in offering online documentation. For example, below is most of the factoring code for one of their demo programs, a bit of code that can be reduced to about five lines on a classical computer. However, when this function uses a quantum processor, the entire process takes milliseconds versus minutes or hours.

Classical

# Python Program to find the factors of a number

define a function

def print_factors(x): # This function takes a number and prints the factors

print("The factors of",x,"are:") for i in range(1, x + 1): if x % i == 0: print(i)

change this value for a different result.

num = 320

uncomment the following line to take input from the user

#num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

print_factors(num)

Quantum

@qpu_ha def factor(P, use_saved_embedding=True):

#################################################################################################### # get circuit #################################################################################################### construction_start_time = time.time() validate_input(P, range(2 ** 6)) # get constraint satisfaction problem csp = dbc.factories.multiplication_circuit(3) # get binary quadratic model bqm = dbc.stitch(csp, min_classical_gap=.1) # we know that multiplication_circuit() has created these variables p_vars = ['p0', 'p1', 'p2', 'p3', 'p4', 'p5'] # convert P from decimal to binary fixed_variables = dict(zip(reversed(p_vars), "{:06b}".format(P))) fixed_variables = {var: int(x) for(var, x) in fixed_variables.items()} # fix product qubits for var, value in fixed_variables.items(): bqm.fix_variable(var, value) log.debug('bqm construction time: %s', time.time() - construction_start_time) #################################################################################################### # run problem #################################################################################################### sample_time = time.time() # get QPU sampler sampler = DWaveSampler(solver_features=dict(online=True, name='DW_2000Q.*')) _, target_edgelist, target_adjacency = sampler.structure if use_saved_embedding: # load a pre-calculated embedding from factoring.embedding import embeddings embedding = embeddings[sampler.solver.id] else: # get the embedding embedding = minorminer.find_embedding(bqm.quadratic, target_edgelist) if bqm and not embedding: raise ValueError("no embedding found") # apply the embedding to the given problem to map it to the sampler bqm_embedded = dimod.embed_bqm(bqm, embedding, target_adjacency, 3.0) # draw samples from the QPU kwargs = {} if 'num_reads' in sampler.parameters: kwargs['num_reads'] = 50 if 'answer_mode' in sampler.parameters: kwargs['answer_mode'] = 'histogram' response = sampler.sample(bqm_embedded, **kwargs) # convert back to the original problem space response = dimod.unembed_response(response, embedding, source_bqm=bqm) sampler.client.close() log.debug('embedding and sampling time: %s', time.time() - sample_time)

“The industry is at an inflection point and we’ve moved beyond the theoretical, and into the practical era of quantum applications. It’s time to open this up to more smart, curious developers so they can build the first quantum killer app. Leap’s combination of immediate access to live quantum computers, along with tools, resources, and a community, will fuel that,” said Brownell. “For Leap’s future, we see millions of developers using this to share ideas, learn from each other, and contribute open source code. It’s that kind of collaborative developer community that we think will lead us to the first quantum killer app.”

The folks at D-Wave created a number of tutorials as well as a forum where users can learn and ask questions. The entire project is truly the first of its kind and promises unprecedented access to what amounts to the foreseeable future of computing. I’ve seen lots of technology over the years and nothing quite replicated the strange frisson associated with plugging into a quantum computer. Like the teletype and green-screen terminals used by the early hackers like Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, D-Wave has opened up a strange new world. How we explore it us up to us.

via TechCrunch

D-Wave offers the first public access to a quantum computer

Outside the crop of construction cranes that now dot Vancouver’s bright, downtown greenways, in a suburban business park that reminds you more of dentists and tax preparers, is a small office building belonging to D-Wave. This office, squat, angular, and sun-dappled one recent cool Autumn morning, is unique in that it contains an infinite collection of parallel universes.

Founded in 1999 by Geordie Rose, D-Wave company worked in relatively obscurity on esoteric problems associated with quantum computing. When Rose was PhD student at the University of British Columbia he turned in an assignment that outlined a quantum computing company. His entrepreneurship teacher at the time, Haig Farris, found the young physicists ideas compelling enough to give him $1,000 to buy a computer and a printer to type up a business plan.

The company consulted with academics until 2005 when Rose and his team decided to focus on building usable quantum computers. The result, the Orion, launched in 2007 and was used to classify drug molecules and play Sodoku. The business now sells computers for up to $10 million to clients like Google, Microsoft, and Northrop Grumman.

“We’ve been focused on making quantum computing practical since day one. In 2010 we started offering remote cloud access to customers and today, we have 100 early applications running on our computers (70% of which were built in the cloud),” said CEO Vern Brownell. “Through this work, our customers have told us it takes more than just access to real quantum hardware to benefit from quantum computing. In order to build a true quantum ecosystem, millions of developers need the access and tools to get started with quantum.”

Now their computers are simulating weather patterns and tsunamis, optimizing hotel ad displays, solving complex network problems, and, thanks to a new, open source platform, could help you ride the quantum wave of computer programming.

Inside the box

When I went to visit D-Wave they gave us unprecedented access to the inside of one of their quantum machines. The computers, which are about the size of a garden shed, have a control unit on the front that manages the temperature as well as queuing system to translate and communicate the problems sent in by users.

Inside the machine is a tube that, when fully operational, contains a small chip super-cooled to 0.015 Kelvin or -459.643 degrees Fahrenheit or -273.135 degrees Celsius. The entire system looks like something out of the Death Star – a cylinder of pure data that the heroes must access by walking through a little door in the side of a jet black cube.

It’s quite thrilling to see this odd little chip inside of its supercooled home. As the computer revolution maintained its predilection towards room-temperature chips, these odd and unique machines are a connection to an alternate timeline where physics is wrestled into submission in order to do some truly remarkable things.

And now anyone – from kids to PhDs to everyone in between – can try it.

Into the Ocean

Learning to program a quantum computer takes time. Because the processor doesn’t work like a classic universal computer you have to train the chip to perform simple functions that your own cellphone can do in seconds. However, in some cases researchers have found the chips can outperform classic computers by 3,600 times. This trade off – the movement from the known to the unknown – is why D-Wave exposed their product to the world.

“We built Leap to give millions of developers access to quantum computing. We built the first quantum application environment so any software developer interested in quantum computing can start writing and running applications — you don’t need deep quantum knowledge to get started. If you know Python, you can build applications on Leap,” said Brownell.

To get started on the road to quantum computing D-Wave build the Leap platform. The Leap is an open source toolkit for developers. When you sign up you receive one minute’s worth of quantum processing unit time which, given that most problems run in milliseconds, is more than enough to begin experimenting. A queue manager lines up your code and runs it in order received and the answers are spit out almost instantly.

You can code on the QPU with Python or via Jupiter notebooks and it allows you to connect to the QPU with an API token. After writing your code, you can send commands directly to the QPU and then output the results. The programs are currently pretty esoteric and require a basic knowledge of quantum programming but, it should be remembered, classic computer programming was once daunting to the average user.

I downloaded and ran most of the demonstrations without a hitch. These demonstrations – factoring programs, network generators, and the like – essentially turned the ideas concepts of classical programming into quantum questions. Instead of iterating through a list of factors, for example, the quantum computer creates a “parallel universe” of answers and then collapses each one until it finds the right answer. If this sounds odd it’s because it is. The researchers at D-Wave argue all the time about how to imagine a quantum computer’s various processes. One camp sees the physical implementation of a quantum computer to be simply a faster methodology for rendering answers. The other camp, itself aligned with Professor David Deutsch’s ideas presented in The Beginning of Infinity, sees the sheer number of possible permutations a quantum computer can traverse as evidence of parallel universes.

What does the code look like? It’s hard to read without understanding the basics, a fact that D-Wave engineers factored for in offering online documentation. For example, below is most of the factoring code for one of their demo programs, a bit of code that can be reduced to about five lines on a classical computer. However, when this function uses a quantum processor, the entire process takes milliseconds versus minutes or hours.

Classical

# Python Program to find the factors of a number

define a function

def print_factors(x): # This function takes a number and prints the factors

print("The factors of",x,"are:") for i in range(1, x + 1): if x % i == 0: print(i)

change this value for a different result.

num = 320

uncomment the following line to take input from the user

#num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

print_factors(num)

Quantum

@qpu_ha def factor(P, use_saved_embedding=True):

#################################################################################################### # get circuit #################################################################################################### construction_start_time = time.time() validate_input(P, range(2 ** 6)) # get constraint satisfaction problem csp = dbc.factories.multiplication_circuit(3) # get binary quadratic model bqm = dbc.stitch(csp, min_classical_gap=.1) # we know that multiplication_circuit() has created these variables p_vars = ['p0', 'p1', 'p2', 'p3', 'p4', 'p5'] # convert P from decimal to binary fixed_variables = dict(zip(reversed(p_vars), "{:06b}".format(P))) fixed_variables = {var: int(x) for(var, x) in fixed_variables.items()} # fix product qubits for var, value in fixed_variables.items(): bqm.fix_variable(var, value) log.debug('bqm construction time: %s', time.time() - construction_start_time) #################################################################################################### # run problem #################################################################################################### sample_time = time.time() # get QPU sampler sampler = DWaveSampler(solver_features=dict(online=True, name='DW_2000Q.*')) _, target_edgelist, target_adjacency = sampler.structure if use_saved_embedding: # load a pre-calculated embedding from factoring.embedding import embeddings embedding = embeddings[sampler.solver.id] else: # get the embedding embedding = minorminer.find_embedding(bqm.quadratic, target_edgelist) if bqm and not embedding: raise ValueError("no embedding found") # apply the embedding to the given problem to map it to the sampler bqm_embedded = dimod.embed_bqm(bqm, embedding, target_adjacency, 3.0) # draw samples from the QPU kwargs = {} if 'num_reads' in sampler.parameters: kwargs['num_reads'] = 50 if 'answer_mode' in sampler.parameters: kwargs['answer_mode'] = 'histogram' response = sampler.sample(bqm_embedded, **kwargs) # convert back to the original problem space response = dimod.unembed_response(response, embedding, source_bqm=bqm) sampler.client.close() log.debug('embedding and sampling time: %s', time.time() - sample_time)

“The industry is at an inflection point and we’ve moved beyond the theoretical, and into the practical era of quantum applications. It’s time to open this up to more smart, curious developers so they can build the first quantum killer app. Leap’s combination of immediate access to live quantum computers, along with tools, resources, and a community, will fuel that,” said Brownell. “For Leap’s future, we see millions of developers using this to share ideas, learn from each other, and contribute open source code. It’s that kind of collaborative developer community that we think will lead us to the first quantum killer app.”

The folks at D-Wave created a number of tutorials as well as a forum where users can learn and ask questions. The entire project is truly the first of its kind and promises unprecedented access to what amounts to the foreseeable future of computing. I’ve seen lots of technology over the years and nothing quite replicated the strange frisson associated with plugging into a quantum computer. Like the teletype and green-screen terminals used by the early hackers like Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, D-Wave has opened up a strange new world. How we explore it us up to us.

Via John Biggs https://techcrunch.com

Okay so Cloud lied about some stuff, but why call him out like that? So mean!

"Liar, liar~"

"Parents on fire~"

"You should stick it in and shut me up, baby~"

Unprompted || Always Accepting!

“How can one say no, when you’re asking so strongly?”

Even the masamune seems to be pleased with the way it glints in his hand. The swordman is intrigued. Spellbound, one might say. And his hand is itching to get started.

“Can I have a size in centimeters or inches?”

Why do you only have one wing? What happened to your other one?

"I wonder... perhaps it was torn off of my back from an ungrateful world, the day I was betrayed and cast out into the damnation that is the Lifestream?"

A dark chuckle rises from his throat. Sephiroth shakes his head slowly... seems even now he retains some form of sense of humor.

"Do not let your eyes fool you. I have way more than one wing... and the day you will see it will be your last. Don't be hasty to find out the right number."

"That's dirty" ~Reno

That's Dirty! || Always Accepting

"I want you."

"That's dirty~"

That's Dirty! || Always Accepting

"Do you accept sexual favors?"

SMACK x10 :)

Smack!! || Always Accepting!

Eyes wide open stared into nothing while every atom composing his body gained extra electric charge and made him feel like a bulb at the end of a short circuit. His lips had parted too, only to inhale the shortest, inaudible breath that could have turned into a gasp, hadn’t it chocked right there in the middle of his throat.

With his face uncharacteristically pink, he’d froze on the spot throughout the repeated percussions shaking him to the core, rear-first. And even then, in that state of shock, his ear caught the rhythm. Those strikes weren’t casually chosen, there was a sequence being followed and he’d caught it.

Would that such keen senses had at least helped him evade the treatment. No such luck. His state of freeze persisted until the very end, to which he finally turned, slowly, to face the culprit in all his smug glory.

“... Why the Victory Fanfare?” Was the first crucial question he managed to formulate.

@sageofjustice || Continued from here

What sort of expression Sephiroth could be showing in reaction to the man's words was invisible, shrouded by the curtain of his hair when he did little more than barely slant his head in direction of his voice. 'I heard that.' was all that said, and nothing more.

Were those words in mockery? Maybe it was what he deserved, for almost exposing himself in a moment of vulnerability to someone. Friend or not friend. Shouldn't Sephiroth have learned his lesson by now?

Even the two he's considered as close as family had turned away from him. What reason was there at this point to open up to anyone? All there was to gain would be more disappointment.

"People will believe what they wish to believe." He dismissed the matter entirely, moving on even from his own words. That fleeting sentiment of melancholy had just sealed tight shut like a shell of steel around his heart. "The person they look up to was never me to begin with, anyway."

Have you ever come up with a real answer to Elfé’s question for you, Sephiroth? Why do you fight?

Sephiroth looks up with the frown of a soldier worn out by a thousand years battle. How did this person even know what had transpired between him and the leader of AVALANCHE, that day? A memory that still burned so fresh, despite being a few months old by now.

"I am... loyal to SOLDIER." He makes an attempt to a quick dismiss of a very heavy question. But even so, self-doubt is visible in his mind. With Genesis and Angeal gone, was it truly loyalty that kept him fighting for ShinRa?

Was he even ready to admit to himself that he'd been thinking of quitting? Yet, Director Lazard is gone. The Department rests upon his shoulders... and if he left, then it'd fall on Zack.

The last one could consider anything close to a friend. He couldn't do that to him. Both of them had been through enough.

As much as it tormented him, he'd become a pillar. And this is where he'd stand... until the end.

◇ for my muse to to play with your muse’s hair (Genesis)

Platonic Affection || Always Accepting

The gentlest tug to his hairline had Sephiroth's eyes flutter open, lazily. Like a big cat in its cage after a full meal, he'd craved rest for just a few minutes. But he should have known that Genesis's offer of his own lap would come at a price.

"That look in your eyes almost gives me the impression you're planning to eat that." He said quietly, following the light play of his friend's fingers along the length of long silver strands. "I find it unsettling."

"I've been feeling a little off today... how relieved I am that you're here now to turn me on~"

"Good to see you, Roche. It's been a while~" And he's missed him, no doubt about it. The desire can be seen deep within the subtle glint of pale green irises.

But he's been kept waiting. Such a treatment cannot go unpunished.. at least a little tease from the First.

"I'm afraid you'll have to help me find that ignition key of yours. Where was it, again?"

UNF (obviously from my most obnoxious muse)

UNF! || Always Accepting

IF YOU SNUCK IN MY ROOM I WOULD:

[] Go back to sleep

[2] Kick you out

[] Cuddle with you

[] Be like wtf?

[] Let you sleepover

[] Beat your ass

[1] Sexy time

IF YOU KISSED ME I WOULD:

[X] Kiss you back

[] Smile & laugh

[] Be shocked

[] Slap you

YOU ARE:

[] Cute

[] Adorable

[] Pretty

[] Beautiful

[] Okay

[X] Sexy

[] Hotass Motherfucker

[] Ew

I WOULD:

[X] Smash

[] Pass

"Pss pss pss~"

He perks his head up, his mind instantly snapping away from his routine of daydreaming of demi-godhood and family reunions. What is this curious, attractive noi-

“... You.”

God damn it, Roche. He’s going to tell Mother, just you wait.

📱!!!

What’s on your phone? || Always Accepting!

Roche absolutely added himself on Sephiroth’s contact list when the owner made the sore mistake of leaving the device unattended. Normally, such a thing would go unnoticed, but it is hard to not spot him right away in the menu when the only alternatives are four other numbers, all picture-less and listed simply by name:

Angeal Hewley

Director L. Deusericus

Genesis Rhapsodos

HOT ROD

President Shinra

The offensive picture of the crimson bike is in the contact profile. When it is just a small thumbnail, one may think that is all there is, however upon closer inspection of the picture - which Sephiroth is totally inclined to do - one may notice a reflection in the chromatic shine of red, of the Third Class in question blowing a kiss straight at the camera.

Sephiroth has contemplated blocking the contact altogether, but somehow the notion of having HOT ROD’s name sitting right under Hojo’s in his Ignore List makes him even more annoyed, so he hasn’t done it yet.