While we’re at it: if you don’t have a Web site of your own and you’ve been blogging and creating content on third-party platforms, now might be a good time to reconsider creating one and owning your own little corner of the internet. ??

As WP Tavern put it, “Businesses put themselves in a vulnerable place when they rely on a walled garden to deliver audience engagement….It’s time to invest in the long-term health of your online presence by building on the open web.”

In other news

• It’s a ten-minute space orbit, Jim. William Shatner, who played Star Trek’s famous Captain, Jim Kirk, is to become the oldest person to travel into space at 90 years of age. Joining three other passengers aboard Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft, the group departs from Texas on October 12th. As with the previous maiden flight in July, this second voyage will take the crew just beyond the Karman Line – the most widely recognized boundary of space which lies 100km (60 miles) above the Earth. Fellow passengers include Blue Origin’s vice president, Audrey Powers, and tech entrepreneurs, Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen, and Medidata co-founder Glen de Vries.

Shatner must truly feel like he’s conquering that final frontier. He quipped, “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.” Considering we’re not yet in an age like Star Trek where space travel is all part of daily life, we salute you as you go forth into the unknown, Captain!

The superconductor run unit requires nitrogen storage, and the quantum computer housing needs batteries, trailing wires, a cooling infrastructure, and an industrial-sized unit for its size – all significantly less planet-friendly in the long term

Quantum breakthroughs in photonics could be a climate saver. A UK firm hopes to move the emerging quantum computer manufacturing industry in two new directions, ending our dependence on semiconductors and expensive cooling systems. Orca Computing, led by Oxford Professor Ian Walmsley, has manufactured four small-sized quantum computers powered by photonics. Orca’s computers are small, housed in a standard rack, and photonics eliminates the need for freezing temperatures. The savings on storage, power costs, and the climate change implications are significant. The only catch? Orca’s current quantum models have the processing power comparable to an Apple Watch – but they aim to scale.

In contrast, American firms, Rigetti, Google, and IBM have all developed powerful quantum computers but these are expensive to make and store. And the shape’s not very practical, either. Rigetti’s Mandy Birch describes their model as resembling “a golden chandelier with wires coming off it”. Next year, Standard Chartered Bank will trial Rigetti’s computer.

Birch agrees “it’s early days” for the industry, while Orca’s Richard Murray is hoping to compete with the bigger firms and “be confident rather than give up at the first chance”.

• U.S. Treasury moves to halt ransomware payments. In the wake of the Colonial Pipeline attack and the tantalizing rewards offered to the hackers behind it, the White House has begun to stopper the tap of available cryptocurrency options for ransomware payments to Russian cybercriminals. In a statement shared exclusively with CNN, the administration shared that it has cut access to U.S. markets for Suex, a cryptocurrency exchange that US officials accused of doing business with hackers. U.S. President Biden will convene a 30-country meeting this month to try to ramp up global efforts to address the threat of ransomware to economic and national security. U.S. officials remain unconvinced Russia will assist in the prevention of cybercrime against U.Spanies. To date, attacks emanating from Russian sources continue to increase.