Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2017
From The Noisy Channel
Living The Dream
A year ago, I decided to take a break from full-time employment and explore a mix of consulting, advising, writing, and speaking.
From Schneier on Security
WhatsApp Security Vulnerability
Back in March, Rolf Weber wrote about a potential vulnerability in the WhatsApp protocol that would allow Facebook to defeat perfect forward secrecy by forcibly change users' keys, allowing it -- or more likely, the government…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Global Technology Policy Newsletter – January 2017
ACM PUBLIC POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Through policy statements, issue briefs, white papers, and reports, ACM delivers knowledge-based analysis and educational materials to advance policy leaders’ understanding. ACM’s policy members apply…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Trends in Digital Transformation
Four Trends in Digital Transformation
In CustomerThink by Jacob Morgan
If one of the main goals of the future of work is to increase productivity and collaboration, there’s a great place to start: digital transformation. Many
Digital…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Best programming language for high performance (January 2017)?
I keep hoping that the field of programming language will evolve. I am a bit tired to program in Java and C… I’d like better languages. I am particularly interested in what I generally call “high-performance programming”. I want…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Course about AI in the Enterprise
Ajit Jaokar of Futuretext has an upcoming enterprise AI course.
I like the idea of aiming this at the enterprise, which is rarely done, but needs to be done more. Its not just about solving the problems, it is about making
Hello…
From insideHPC
Bull Atos to Build for HPC Prototype for Mont-Blanc Project using Cavium ThunderX2 Processor
Today the Mont-Blanc European project announced it has selected Cavium’s ThunderX2 ARM server processor to power its new HPC prototype. The new Mont-Blanc prototype will be built by Atos, the coordinator of phase 3 of Mont-Blanc…
From insideHPC
Radio Free HPC Looks at New Open Source Software for Quantum Computing
In this podcast the Radio Free HPC team looks at D-Wave's new open source software for quantum computing. The software is available on github along with a whitepaper written by Cray Research alums Mike Booth and Steve Reinhardt…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simulation Against Real World Data for Learning
Points to how games can act as simulations of the world, and emulate their operation against real world data. Experimented with this in the supply chain space. In TechnologyReview:
Robot Cars Can Learn to Drive without Leaving…
From insideHPC
Scaling Software for In-Memory Computing
"The move away from the traditional single processor/memory design has fostered new programming paradigms that address multiple processors (cores). Existing single core applications need to be modified to use extra processors…
From The Noisy Channel
Spelling Correction
Spelling correction is a must-have for any modern search engine.
From Schneier on Security
Cloudflare's Experience with a National Security Letter
Interesting post on Cloudflare's experience with receiving a National Security Letter. News article....
From Computational Complexity
My REU program/REU's in general/Flyers? Why do some Transcripts...
I run an REU program (Research Experience for Undergraduates) and I would normally urge you to urge undergrads who would benefit to apply to it and present both this link: here and this flyer: here.
I just did that. But I want…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Service Science Readings
Service Science Innovation: Wanted to remind people of this resource, it has recently been updated. I have contributed with some of the work we did in enterprise. Feel free to dive in and contribute if you like. This isLocation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Complex Systems Similarity through Fractal Folding
From insideHPC
Video: Tracing Ocean Salinity for Global Climate Models
In this visualization, ocean temperatures and salinity are tracked over the course of a year. Based on data from global climate models, these visualizations aid our understanding of the physical processes that create the Earth's…
From insideHPC
Registration Opens for Rice Oil & Gas HPC Conference
Registration is now open for the 2017 Rice Oil & Gas HPC Conference. The event takes place March 15-16 in Houston, Texas. "Join us for the 10th anniversary of the Rice Oil & Gas HPC Conference. OG HPC is the premier meeting place…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Benefits of RFID Data in Retail
Recently received, quite interesting. 75 pages based on Macy's data.
From the Platt Research Institute.
The new PRI Working Paper, Quantifiable Benefits and Analytical Applications of RFID Data, analyzes historical data provided…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Humans are Still at Work
In the HBR. For now the humans are clearly still in the loop. we can learn from some areas, like autopilots or process control here. Helping them effectively be in the loop is part of our near term task. It means integrating…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Another Face and Voice for the Alexa Engine
A new kind of speaker, Jam Voice, it's based on the Alexa engine, but it won't listen. Another cheaper solution in the space. How different than that, don't know. In theVerge.
From Putting People First
Putting the “intelligent” machine in its place
It’s rare for a data scientist to be so reflective and critical on the limitations (and therefore the real opportunities) of their discipline, as Katherine Bailey has managed in a short article on Techcrunch. Recent issues around…
From The Eponymous Pickle
EU to Give Robots Personhood?
Considerably premature.
Give Robots 'Personhood' Status, EU Committee Argues
by The Guardian in the CACM.
The European parliament has urged the drafting of a set of regulations to govern the use and creation of robots and artificial…
From insideHPC
Dell EMC Powers Summit Supercomputer at CU Boulder
"The University of Colorado, Boulder supports researchers’ large-scale computational needs with their newly optimized high performance computing system, Summit. Summit is designed with advanced computation, network, and storage…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: Computational Chemist at Bennett Aerospace
Bennett Aerospace has an opening for a highly motivated Research Scientist and Computational Chemist for the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Environmental Laboratory (EL), Environmental…
From The Eponymous Pickle
McKinsey on Automation
The broader issues of how we automate is important. As methods like AI start to be inserted into the business process, clear choices will have to be explored, made and continually monitored and improved. A good article in McKinsey…
From Putting People First
Nissan turns to ethnographic research to inform the design of new models
During the futurist panel at the 2017 Automotive News World Congress, Rachel Nguyen, executive director of Nissan’s Future Lab, said understanding what the consumer wants will help brands define their experience. One method Nissan…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Forty Techniques for Data Science Analytics
An excellent list and pointers to introductory articles on over forty data science techniques. Have mentioned these before, worth the repeat. By Vincent Granville. The practitioner should know the basics of many of these.
…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
New Statement on Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability by ACM U.S. Public Policy Council
Recognizing the ubiquity of algorithms in our daily lives, as well as their far-reaching impact, the ACM US Public Policy Council issued a “Statement on Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability,” containing a list of seven…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: 1874 Giant Squid Attack
This article discusses a giant squid attack on a schooner off the coast of Sri Lanka in 1874. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From Schneier on Security
A Comment on the Trump Dossier
Imagine that you are someone in the CIA, concerned about the future of America. You have this Russian dossier on Donald Trump, which you have some evidence might be true. The smartest thing you can do is to leak it to the public…