We used to drive bicycles when we were children. Then we started driving cars. Bicycles have two wheels, cars have four. Eight wheels seems to be the logical next step, why don’t we drive eight-wheel vehicles?
The “15 to 17” part is worded somewhat confusingly, but it’s not wrong.
The number of bits contained in a double is equivalent to ~15.95 decimal digits. If you want to store exactly a decimal number with a fixed number of significant digits, floor(15.95) = 15
digits is the most you can hope for. However, if you want to store exactly a double by writing it out as a decimal number, you need 17 digits.
to be fair, the way it’s worded I can parse as “a language for web programming”, instead of “a programming language for the web”
[…] Sundar Pichai defended the layoffs and claimed that workers sometimes reach out to express gratitude for the cuts.
“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week.”
Quantum encryption isn’t something quantum computers can even do. It’s not just transforming bits into other bits, it’s about building entirely new security properties based on physical properties of matter.
So, even if it is interesting for end users, they would need dedicated hardware anyway.