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The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.

October 2020


From Putting People First

[Book] Privacy is Power

[Book] Privacy is Power

The first book to call for the end of the data economy. Carissa Veliz exposes how our personal data is giving too much to big tech and governments, why that matters, and what we can do about it.


From The Eponymous Pickle

Towards Artificial Common Sense

Towards Artificial Common Sense

 The key part of AI we don't know hw to do yet. Good overview of current state and directions.   What most all of us consider the important starting point for useful intelligence.  It is often also has the ability to explainSeeking…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Quantum Safe Hybrid Digital Certificates

Quantum Safe Hybrid Digital Certificates

 Looking at quantum safe.

What Is a Quantum-Safe Hybrid Digital Certificate?

Sectigo’s Tim Callan, Jason Soroko and Alan Grau break down what quantum safe hybrid TLS certificates are and how they can help to prepare businessesQuantum…


From insideHPC

Nvidia Dominates MLPerf AI Benchmark Competition Again

Nvidia Dominates MLPerf AI  Benchmark Competition Again

Nvidia said it has extended its lead on the MLPerf Benchmark for AI inference with the company’s A100 GPU chip introduced earlier this year. Nvidia won each of the six application tests for data center and edge computing systems…


From The Eponymous Pickle

RPA for Fintech, a Use Example

RPA for Fintech, a Use Example

Here a good intro to RPA (Robotic Process Automation) for finance applications.  Nice too because most of us can understand basic financial statements, arithmetic and goals.   Below just the intro, full look at the link. 

RPA …


From The Eponymous Pickle

Amazon will Pay You to Know what you Bought Somewhere Else

Amazon will Pay You to Know what you Bought Somewhere Else

Amazon's paid shopper panel.   

Amazon will pay you to know what you bought somewhere else  by George Anderson in Retailwire

Amazon.com wants greater insights into what its customers are purchasing and it is willing to pay forParticipants…


From Putting People First

Experientia speaks at Turin’s Technology Biennial

Experientia speaks at Turin’s Technology Biennial

Experientia's Jan-Christoph Zoels and Mark Vanderbeeken will be part of discussion panels at the upcoming Biennial of Technology in Turin, Italy.


From The Eponymous Pickle

MIT and Related Quantum Resources

MIT and Related Quantum Resources

Was just pointed to this (much more at the link):

MIT partners with national labs on two new National Quantum Information Science Research Centers

Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage and Quantum Systems Accelerator are funded…


From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP

Vaccines are Not Developing

The search for a vaccine—is not a development. Edward Jenner was an English physician who created the first vaccine, one for smallpox. In 1798 he used the weak cox-pox to fool our immune system to create a protection against…


From Putting People First

New course by Experientia Academy

New course by Experientia Academy

7 day online interactive course with vertical, thematic focus on tools and methods of behavioral design for cultural change to tackle societal challenges


From The Eponymous Pickle

Whats a Space Force Do?

Whats a Space Force Do?

 Well one thing, guarding against cybersecurity threats.

US Space Force guards against cybersecurity threats miles above Earth

If space is indeed the “final frontier,” as narrated in the famous opening voiceover in “Star Trek,”…


From insideHPC

Choosing the Best Data Flow Design for GPU Accelerated Applications

Choosing the Best Data Flow Design for GPU Accelerated Applications

In this sponsored article from our friends over at Supermicro, we discusses how deciding on the correct type of GPU accelerated computation hardware depends on many factors. One particularly important aspect is the data flow …


From insideHPC

NSF Awards $3M to Expand FABRIC Cyberinfrastructure

NSF Awards $3M to Expand FABRIC Cyberinfrastructure

A new $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will expand FABRIC, a project to build the U.S.’s largest cyberinfrastructure testbed, to four preeminent scientific institutions in Asia and Europe. The expansion…


From insideHPC

HPE Cray EX with AMD CPUs-GPUs to Deliver 552PFLOPS for Finland’s CSC

HPE Cray EX with AMD CPUs-GPUs to Deliver 552PFLOPS for Finland’s CSC

The HPE-AMD supercomputing tandem has had a bang-out week for systems wins and installations – and it’s only Wednesday. On Monday, Australia’s Pawsey Supercomputing Centre announced HPE has been awarded a $48 AUD million systems…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Extending Insight from Neural Networks

Extending Insight from Neural Networks

 Some thoughts about how trained networks can be used to further analyse chemical structure.

Opening the Black Box of Neural Networks

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Allan Brettman

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Driverless in San Francisco

Driverless in San Francisco

And yet more cars without drivers.     A tipping point?

GM to Run Driverless Cars in San Francisco Without Human Backups    Associated Press, Tom Krisher

General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit said it will remove human…


From The Computing Community Consortium Blog

NSF Wants Your Ideas! Requesting Future Topics for the NSF Convergence Accelerator

NSF Wants Your Ideas! Requesting Future Topics for the NSF Convergence Accelerator

The following is an announcement from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF Convergence Accelerator issued a Dear Colleague Letter (NSF-21-012): Request for Information (RFI) on Future Topics for the NSF Convergence…


From The Eponymous Pickle

SpaceX and Microsoft

SpaceX and Microsoft

Here Comes the Space Cloud.   Faster anywhere, even in space.

 Microsoft, SpaceX Team Up to Bring Cloud Computing to Space

Nextgov. Frank Konkel

Microsoft has partnered with SpaceX and others to make its Azure cloud technology available…


From insideHPC

SoftIron Appoints Greg Bruno Chief Architect

SoftIron Appoints Greg Bruno Chief Architect

San Diego – Oct. 21, 2020 – SoftIron Ltd., the leader in task-specific data center solutions, continues on its growth trajectory in both technical and geographic reach with the opening of two new offices, and the appointment …


From Schneier on Security

NSA Advisory on Chinese Government Hacking

NSA Advisory on Chinese Government Hacking

The NSA released an advisory listing the top twenty-five known vulnerabilities currently being exploited by Chinese nation-state attackers.

This advisory provides Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) known to be recently…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Hewlett Foundation on Security Cyber Design

Hewlett Foundation on Security Cyber Design

Been a long while since I looked at anything by the Hewlett Foundation.  Attended their meetings.  Now back connected.  Visuals are a good thing for communication.  Especially for obscure security concepts.  

Hewlett Foundation…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Expanding AI's Impact with Organizational Learning

Expanding AI's Impact with Organizational Learning

I participated in the below study, they make the point that it will be available only for a short time.  Here is the start of the document:

MIT Sloan: EXPANDING AI’S IMPACT WITH ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Most companies developing…


From insideHPC

Practical Hardware Design Strategies for Modern HPC Workloads – Part 2

Practical Hardware Design Strategies for Modern HPC Workloads – Part 2

This special research report sponsored by Tyan discusses practical hardware design strategies for modern HPC workloads. As hardware continued to develop, technologies like multi-core, GPU, NVMe, and others have allowed new application…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Sonos Makes a Small Smart Home Move

Sonos Makes a Small Smart Home Move

Not expected, intriguing. Hoping to compete with other players in the space?

Sonos speakers can now communicate with GE Appliances

They can notify you when the oven is preheated or a dishwasher load is done.

Igor Bonifacic, @igorbonifacic…


From The Eponymous Pickle

API Security

API Security

Pointed out to me recently.   Have not been involved in API security, seems there are useful tips here.

Tips To Strengthen API Security  By Bill Doerrfeld in DevOps

If you haven’t noticed, digital organizations are building more…


From The Computing Community Consortium Blog

Attend the Upcoming Departmental BPC Plan Workshop Starting on October 29

Attend the Upcoming Departmental BPC Plan Workshop Starting on October 29

The following is a guest blog from BPCnet.org Resource Portal.  The Computing Research Association (CRA) is hosting the third workshop in its series of Departmental BPC Plan workshops starting on October 29, 2020. All departments…


From insideHPC

Los Alamos Stands up HPE Cray EX for COVID-19 Fight

Los Alamos Stands up HPE Cray EX for COVID-19 Fight

Los Alamos National Laboratory reported it has completed the installation of “Chicoma,” based on AMD EPYC CPUs and the HPE Cray EX supercomputer architecture. The HPC platform is aimed at enhancing the lab’s R&D efforts in support…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Bletchley Park Contribution Over-Rated?

Bletchley Park Contribution Over-Rated?

 Am a student of this effort, so this suggestion was surprising.

Bletchley Park’s contribution to WW2 'over-rated'

By Gordon Corera, Security correspondent

Code-breaking hub Bletchley Park's contribution to World War Two is often…


From The Eponymous Pickle

A GPU can Brute Force Your Passwords

A GPU can Brute Force Your Passwords

Faster GPUs are eroding security.  Using a password manager, which give you a larger number of characters,  and/or a multifactor link up makes much sense.   

The Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU Can Probably Crack Your Passwords   By RyanThe…


From The Eponymous Pickle

Focus Music

Focus Music

Amazon Alexa Music has been pushing what they call 'Focus Time Music'   With claims for 'perfect sound when you are studying, working, reading or writing '.   They just suggested the idea to me.  Something I have tried myself…