Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2019
From Writing
Terraform: Up & Running, 2nd edition has been published!
Terraform: Up & Running, 2nd edition, has been published! The 2nd edition is nearly double the length of the 1st edition (~160 more pages), including two completely new chapters (Production-grade Terraform Code and How to Test…
From My Biased Coin
Harvard Admissions Lawsuit Decision Out
As someone who reads a significant number of court documents and decisions (I still do expert witness work), I can recommend for your reading pleasure the very recent decision on the Harvard admissions case. For those who want…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
AI Research: Times They Are A-Changin’ (or They Should Be)
The following blog was written by Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Vice-Chair Liz Bradley from University of Colorado Boulder and CCC Chair Mark D. Hill from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Times in Artificial Intelligence…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mixing Machine Learning and Human Judgement
Ultimately this will be a very important problem. We worked on many examples where we could create very complex analytics or AI style solutions, but ultimately fit their solutions into real world decisions. What is the form…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Modeling Chaotic Systems
The breadth of modeling capability is always important.
Numbers Limit How Accurately Digital Computers Model Chaos
UCL News
Researchers at University College London (UCL) in the U.K. and Tufts University found digital computers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Democratizing Data Science
Watched this presentation yesterday. Nicely done, non-technical overview of 'democratizing'.
Breaking Analytic Barriers: How To “Democratize” Data Science In Your Organization
Listen in to IIA’s CAO Bill Franks alongside Nick Jewell…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Good Judgment Formalizes Superforecasting
Been following the idea of 'superforecasting' for some time. All business is dependent on accurate forecasts. If they are analytical-numerical or the hunch of decision makers, or crowdsourced consumer opinions. Or as more…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Go to License to Retailers
Makes sense, also allows additional retail experimentation with the idea.
Amazon may be about to explore yet another revenue stream, this time using the technology that powers its cashier-free Go stores. in Digitaltrends The…
From insideHPC
Eurolab4HPC Call for Participation: Short Term Collaborations and Business Prototyping Projects
Today Eurolab4HPC issued a pair of Calls for Participation for Business Prototyping Projects and Short Term Collaboration Grants. "Eurolab4HPC gives grants to PhD students, early career researchers, senior researchers, academics…
From insideHPC
Raid Inc. Partners with Whamcloud for Turnkey Lustre on ZFS Appliance
Today RAID Incorporated announced the launch of Pangea, the first turnkey Lustre on ZFS appliance in the market. "RAID Inc. has partnered with Whamcloud to provide this preconfigured, highly available software stack for Lustre…
From insideHPC
First Annual Exascale Day on 10/18 to Celebrate Supercomputing Discoveries
"Exascale Day celebrates the scientists and researchers who make breakthrough discoveries with the help of some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. Exascale Day celebrates those who keep asking what if, why not, and what…
From insideHPC
Podcast: FinTech and HPC-AI
In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks back at the HPC-AI on Wall Street conference. "We discuss the well-received Cryptocurrency panel that he moderated, the challenges of using of AI in financial services, the emerging…
From insideHPC
Quantum Computing for the 21st Century
Brian Eccles from IBM gave this talk at the HPC User Forum. "IBM Q is the trusted partner to help you start your quantum journey and prepare for the era of quantum advantage. Discover early use cases, equip your organization
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
UPS Now has the First Drone Airline
Been following supply chains as supported by drones for some time, this seems to be an evolution.
UPS Now Runs the First Official Drone Airline in Wired
The FAA has granted a Part 135 certification for the logistics giant's drone…
From Schneier on Security
New Research into Russian Malware
There's some interesting new research about Russian APT malware: The Russian government has fostered competition among the three agencies, which operate independently from one another, and compete for funds. This, in turn, has…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
ACM/CSTA 2020 Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing
Applications for the ACM/CSTA 2020 Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing are now open. The deadline is 12 January 2020.
The Award
The ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing is a prize designed to recognize talented…From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Helping Break Silos
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-ai-is-helping-companies-break-silos/
How AI Is Helping Companies Break Silos
Frontiers September 24, 2019 Reading Time: 4 min
Zoran Latinovic and Sharmila C. Chatterjee
Digital, Data & Analytics…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Chinese vs English Language Password Security
Fascinating that language could strongly change the ability to crack passwords. Note also the Markov solving engine used in the test.
How Language Shapes Password Security
IEEE Spectrum By Jeremy Hsu
Researchers at China's Peking…
From insideHPC
Exxact Shipping Xilinx Alveo Accelerator-Powered Servers & Workstations
Today Exxact Corporation announced that their Xilinx Alveo Accelerator Powered Workstations & Servers are now shipping worldwide. The Xilinx Alveo accelerator-powered workstations and servers from Exxact are designed to meet
…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Podcast Interview with ACM Prize in Computing Winner, Shwetak Patel
Shwetak Patel, the 2018 ACM Prize in Computing winner and Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington, was a participating laureate at this year’s Heidelberg Laureate…
From insideHPC
Vitis Unified Software Platform to make FPGA Programming Accessible for All Developers
Since their beginnings, FPGA's have been notorious for being hard to program. That could be changing with the new Vitis Unified Software Platform from Xilinx.n“Xilinx has created a singular environment that enables programmers…
From insideHPC
Dell Powers Alzheimer’s Disease Breakthrough at The University of Queensland
Today Dell Technologies announced one of the first computational projects for The University of Queensland’s Dell HPC system may enable a non-invasive disease-modifying strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease. The “Wiener” HPC system…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Examination of Stores of the Future
Used to be part of a team that ran 'future stores' for P&G and investigate technology enhancements and implications. We ended up with dozens of stores globally. Making these as realistic as possible was key. We always tried…
From insideHPC
ENERXICO to Empower Mexican Energy Sector with HPC
Recently launched in Barcelona, ENERXICO is a new project jointly funded by European Union and the government of Mexico to solve such real-world engineering problems. "Mexico through the ENERXICO project and the European collaboration…
From insideHPC
Video: Exascale Computing Project Application Development
Andrew Siegel from Argonne gave this talk at the HPC User Forum. "The Exascale Computing Project is accelerating delivery of a capable exascale computing ecosystem for breakthroughs in scientific discovery, energy assurance,
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
D-Wave Still in the Race for Quantum
Have been following D-Wave's work since their inception. We also worked with Los Alamos in the area of dealing with rare maintenance events. See tag below.
Nuclear weapons lab buys D-Wave's next-gen quantum computer
Los Alamos…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facebook Dives into Smart Contracts and Cyber Payment
Implications, given the number of customers involved could be huge, though stiff regulation is looming.
Facebook Makes First Blockchain Acquisition With Chainspace
This is the clearest sign yet of Facebook’s ambition to be a big…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Secure Your Website
From the Google Blog. Advice as to securely encrypting your online sites, beyond Https. Its National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Technical, but worth talking with the people that set you up.
Build security into your next…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Re Predictions of IOT Growth
In part depends on how you define it. Smart Home IOT has exploded, but security has added an element of caution.
Why the Internet of Things isn’t growing as rapidly as predicted from Verdict.co
Early forecasts for the IoT suggested…
From Schneier on Security
NSA on the Future of National Cybersecurity
Glenn Gerstell, the General Counsel of the NSA, wrote a long and interesting op-ed for the New York Times where he outlined a long list of cyber risks facing the US. There are four key implications of this revolution that policymakers…