Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2021
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF CISE Upcoming Due Dates
Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) Full Proposal Window: January 25, 2021 DMREF is the primary program by which NSF participates in the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Towards Battery Free IOT
A particular challenge for IOT devices.
Battery-Free IoT: These Tiny Printable Computers Harvest Energy From Radio Waves
In Forbes by John Koetsier
The Wiliot Internet of Things (IoT) tag is a printable chip with random-access memory…From The Eponymous Pickle
Identity in Your Smartphone
Working some related topics here. we have a considerable opportunity now to have a universal device that can provide identity. Need to make the credentials secure in the context that the individual needs or wants.
The Identity…From insideHPC
Northern Data: Existing Bitcoin Mining Customer Expands Contract Volume by More Than 200MW
Frankfurt am Main – Northern Data AG (XETRA: NB2, ISIN: DE000A0SMU87), a provider of high-performance computing (HPC) solutions, has announced the extension of a customer contract of a volume of ASIC chips worth USD $100 million…
From Schneier on Security
Extracting Personal Information from Large Language Models Like GPT-2
Researchers have been able to find all sorts of personal information within GPT-2. This information was part of the training data, and can be extracted with the right sorts of queries.
Paper: “Extracting Training Data from Large…From Schneier on Security
Backdoor in Zyxel Firewalls and Gateways
This is bad:
More than 100,000 Zyxel firewalls, VPN gateways, and access point controllers contain a hardcoded admin-level backdoor account that can grant attackers root access to devices via either the SSH interface or the …From Schneier on Security
Latest on the SVR’s SolarWinds Hack
The New York Times has an in-depth article on the latest information about the SolarWinds hack (not a great name, since it’s much more far-reaching than that).
Interviews with key players investigating what intelligence agencies…From The Eponymous Pickle
Data from Cars for Evidence
Not unexpected. We give up all kinds of data now. More is coming.
Insecure Wheels: Police Turn to Car Data to Destroy Suspects' Alibis
NBC News, By Olivia Solon
Law enforcement agencies increasingly are using data stored in…From insideHPC
HPC Predictions 2021: Quantum Beyond Qubits, Rising Composable and Memory-Centric Tide, Neural Network Explosion and 5G’s Slow March
Annual technology predictions are like years: some are better than others. Nonetheless, many provide useful insight and serve as the basis for worthwhile discussion. Over the last few months we received a number of HPC and AI…
From The Eponymous Pickle
2D Arrays for Quantum Computing Proposed by Consortium
A step forward towards recognizable Quantum computing power
Industry Collaboration Leads to Important Milestone in the Creation of a Quantum Computer
University of Copenhagen in ACM
December 28, 2020
According to researchers at…From The Eponymous Pickle
Lopsided Digital Transformation
Look at how automation of digitization can make a big difference. And we are continuing to move to that.
Digital Transformation Is Lopsided, Even Within the Same Organization By ZDNet
A study of organizations in Harvard Business…From The Eponymous Pickle
Cybersecurity Research
Further, a look at where research is focusing and worth following.
Cybersecurity Research for the Future By Terry Benzel
Communications of the ACM, January 2021, Vol. 64 No. 1, Pages 26-28 10.1145/3436241
The growth of myriad…From The Eponymous Pickle
Top Data Breach Targets
Expected places for threats:
Experian predicts 5 key data breach targets for 2021 by Veronica Combs in Security
The pandemic warfare will shift to vaccine supply chains, home networks, and data from telemedicine visits inCybersecurity…From insideHPC
Graphcore Announces $222M Series E Funding Round
Bristol, UK — Graphcore announced it has raised $222m of investment to help support the company’s global expansion and accelerate future IPU silicon, systems and software development. The Series E funding round is led by Ontario…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Vegan Chili Squid
The restaurant chain Wagamama is selling a vegan version of its Chilli Squid side dish made from king oyster mushrooms.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t …From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: China Launches Six New Squid Jigging Vessels
From Pingtan Marine Enterprise:
The 6 large-scale squid jigging vessels are normally operating vessels that returned to China earlier this year from the waters of Southwest Atlantic Ocean for maintenance and repair. These vessels…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Searching for Giant Squid by Collecting Environmental DNA
The idea is to collect and analyze random DNA floating around the ocean, and using that to figure out where the giant squid are. No one is sure if this will actually work.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about…From Schneier on Security
Military Cryptanalytics, Part III
The NSA has just declassified and released a redacted version of Military Cryptanalytics, Part III, by Lambros D. Callimahos, October 1977.
Parts I and II, by Lambros D. Callimahos and William F. Friedman, were released decades…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
I2O PostDoc Fellowship- Deadlines February 1st and March 1st, 2021
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is broadening its commitment to young scientists through a new Information Innovation Office (I2O) PostDoc Fellowship Program focused on postdoctoral researchers in the field…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Automating Material-Matching for Movies and Video Games
Towards an automation of many kinds of image context.
Automating Material-Matching for Movies and Video Games
MIT News by Adam Conner-Simons
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Adobe researchers described a new system…From insideHPC
Modern HPC and Big Data Design Strategies for Data Centers – Part 2
This insideHPC Special Research Report, “Modern HPC and Big Data Design Strategies for Data Centers,” provides an overview of what to consider when selecting an infrastructure capable of meeting the new workload processing needs…
From The Noisy Channel
Recall: Size Isn’t Everything
Recall is a key measure of search quality that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. But how does a search engine recognize when recall is a problem?
Size Matters, But Size Isn’t Everything
Recall measures the fractionConsider…From The Eponymous Pickle
Insights for AI from the Human Mind
Good thoughts by Gary Marcus, aiming at the difficulty of creating intelligence, even though we have very rich models around we can do testing with.
Insights for AI from the Human Mind By Gary Marcus, Ernest Davis
Communications…From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Science Can only do so much in the face of a Pandemic
A look at data tech vs Covid, What worked and what didn't. But this, though provocative is a very early look. Before we know exactly what happened. Then repeat this study with much more data. For now still premature…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ulriken Rail Tunnel
An aside interest of mine, rail supply chains. Points to the first tunnel boring machine used in Norway for the Ulriken Tunnel
Ulriken Tunnel –The first TBM Drive for a Railway Tunnel in Norway.
See also a new cab ride viewTunnel…From The Eponymous Pickle
Deep Learning is Overused
Well put, always consider the simpler analysis that leads to better understanding first.
Deep Learning Is Becoming Overused
Understanding the data is the first port of call
By Michael Grogan in TowardsDataScience
There is always…From The Eponymous Pickle
Association Pattern Analysis
Some of the very earliest work we did in the big enterprise used forms of this analysis. A classic pattern analysis. Good basic intro with code. Is applicable in many areas.
Association Analysis Explained
How grocery stores…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Recursion–How and When to Teach
I’ll start with a confession. Recursion is one of those concepts that I struggled to understand in the beginning. Was it me or was it how it was taught? An open question that I don’t want to look for blame. A recent article by…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Will the FAA’s new Rules Speed Use of drones? Google Responds.
Regulating commercial delivery.
Will the FAA’s new rules speed commercialization of drones? In RetailWire by Tom Ryan
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday issued guidelines that will soon require remote identification…From The Eponymous Pickle
India Bets Big on 5G
Have yet to see any compelling arguments for new business models. My new phone seems to have quietly dropped the option.
India Bets Big on 5G Technology Going Mainstream in 2021
Business Standard
The role of 4G networks in helping…