Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2020
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Ridiculously fast unicode (UTF-8) validation
One of the most common “data type” in programming is the text string. When programmers think of a string, they imagine that they are dealing with a list or an array of characters. It is often a “good enough” approximation, but…
From insideHPC
Atos Wins Northumbrian Water Cloud Computing Transformation project
London, 20 October 2020 – Atos has been awarded a leading role on a new cloud computing initiative to help deliver operational efficiencies and enhance customer service for Northumbrian Water, one of the UK’s leading utility …
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Synthetic Data
Was asked about this, seems it has not come up for some time. We used it to set up software and analyses for coming real data. Some MIT thoughts.
The real promise of synthetic data by Massachusetts Institute of Technology…From The Eponymous Pickle
Toshiba Targets Quantum Cryptography
Considerable effort under way here:
Toshiba targets $3 billion revenue in quantum cryptography by 2030
By Makiko Yamazaki in Reuters
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp 6502.T said on Monday it aims to generate $3 billion in revenueThe…From insideHPC
HPE to build Australia’s No. 1 Supercomputer at Pawsey Supercomputing Centre
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced it was awarded a $48 AUD million contract to build a new supercomputer for Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, one of Australia’s leading national supercomputing centers, located in
…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Smart Cities Week Global- A Month of Collaborative Engagement (Oct 19-Nov 10, 2020)
This year Smart Cities Week is taking on a big challenge with a month of online virtual collaborative global engagement from October 19-November 10th, 2020. Called “A New Horizon: From Crisis, Opportunity,” it will explore a…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Smart Cities Week Global- A Month of Collaborative Engagement (Oct 19-Nov 10, 2020)
This year Smart Cities Week is taking on a big challenge with a month of online virtual collaborative global engagement from October 19-November 10th, 2020. Called “A New Horizon: From Crisis, Opportunity,” it will explore a…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bringing Power Tool From Math Into Quantum Computing
The implication that this idea can be used for problems already well solved by FFT methods, is considerable. These kinds of pattern recognition techniques are already well known in engineering applications. Would like toBringing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Deep Learning Takes on Synthetic Biology
Previously mentioned, we experimented with the idea before the current state of machine learning, with a kind of simulation more akin to 'digital twins'. The ML method would have been useful to add.
Deep Learning Takes on Synthetic…From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Engines?
Interesting proposal. Speculative? Relates to laws of thermodynamics brought up recently here. Can entanglement be a fuel? Consider the implications.
Perfect Energy Efficiency: Quantum Engines With Entanglement as Fuel…From Computational Complexity
Nature vs Nurture close to my birthday
Since I was born on Oct 1, 1960 (that's not true---if I posted my real birthday I might get my identity stolen), I will do a nature vs nurture post based on my life, which seems less likely to offend then doing it on someone…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning Microwave Ovens
My microwave oven learns, say to cook a baked potato, but this takes it to a new dimension. For possible industry applications. See also my previous note on using microwave ovens for health data detection. Use the tag below…
From Putting People First
Remote events (like this one) are terrible. How to fix them and why.
In this talk, Andre Jay Meissner and Fredrik Matheson talk about what we’ve lost, why existing tech and formats are a poor replacement, and what we can do to change from a navel-gazing event culture into sustainably shaping a…
From Putting People First
The Big Home Reboot: IKEA’s Life at Home Report 2020
IKEA just launched its seventh Life at Home Report, exploring how people have grown closer to their homes in this extraordinary year
From Putting People First
The value of ethnographic research and contextual inquiry
In this article, Lylo Trotta explain the value that both contextual inquiry and ethnographic research provide and discuss why these practices are a crucial, even indispensable part of UX research and design.
From insideHPC
Getting to Exascale: Nothing Is Easy
In the weeks leading to today’s Exascale Day (1018) observance, we set ourselves the task of asking supercomputing experts about the unique challenges, the particularly vexing problems, of building a computer capable of 10,000…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Small Sensors and Robotics: Insects in Tow
Back to our interest here in small robotics and now taking it beyond bio mimicry to directly using insectoriva.
Researchers Use Flying Insects to Drop Sensors Safely By UW News
A Manduca sexta moth carrying a sensor on itsUniversity…From The Eponymous Pickle
Modernizing Legacy Code with AI
Done a lot of this, can have surprisingly big value, even finding latent bugs along the way.
IBM Watson's Next Challenge: Modernize Legacy Code in Spectrum IEEE
IBM Research's Chief Scientist Ruchir Puri says Watson AIOps can…From The Eponymous Pickle
Conversations on Architecture for Digital Twins
Based in part on a conversation with swim.ai Have yet to look at that service, but plan to. Seems such architecture would have to be very adaptable. Linkable to real time and samples of stored operational data. UsefulWhat…
From BLOG@CACM
Why I Don't Recommend CSRankings.org: Know the Values You are Ranking On
Just because a ranking is computable doesn't mean that it's right.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Generating Photons for Comunications in Quantum Computing Systems
Precisely generating photons can be seen as a form of communication, and thus says this can then be beyond just computing.
Generating Photons for Communication in Quantum Computing System
MIT News, Michaela Jarvis
Massachusetts…From The Eponymous Pickle
Traveling Salesperson Algorithm Improved
Classic problem often used as a benchmark for algorithmic solutions.
Computer Scientists Break the 'Traveling Salesperson' Record From Quanta Mag
Finally, there’s a better way to find approximate solutions to the notorious optimization…From The Eponymous Pickle
Automating Declarations of Conflicts of Interest
Had not heard of this specifically stated this way. Contracts. Considerable discussion below.
We Need to Automate the Declaration of Conflicts of Interest
By Richard T. Snodgrass, Marianne Winslett
Communications of the ACM,Over…From The Eponymous Pickle
Text Mining with R: Free Book
One of those sponsored books, to get your email address, via KDNuggets. What we called Text Analytics. Looks to be useful intro.
Text Mining with R: Free Book By Matthew Mayo, KDnuggets.
.... R is designed specifically…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (October 17th 2020)
Computer vision (i.e., artificial intelligence) and cameras are used in London to monitor citizens with respect to social distancing. A fecal transplant from old mice to young mice appears to “age the young mice“. It appearsContinue…
From The Eponymous Pickle
What Is a Quantum-Safe Hybrid Digital Certificate?
More linking Quantum methods and data and communications security.
What Is a Quantum-Safe Hybrid Digital Certificate? Sectigo in CYBER SECURITY
Sectigo’s Tim Callan, Jason Soroko and Alan Grau break down what quantum safeQuantum…From The Eponymous Pickle
Singapore Using Facial Recognition Broadly
Note the focused use, and the automatic disposal of the data after 30 days. Is this sufficient to sufficiently suppress misuse? Once again, it is inevitable that such methods will be used broadly.
In Singapore, Facial…From The Eponymous Pickle
Towards New Kinds of Search
Like the idea of new kinds of search. How about search with business, data or pattern driven context? Lots of possibilities.
Google Search gets hum-to-search and AI query upgrades Maria Deustcher in SiliconAngle
Google LLC…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Interview with a Squid Researcher
Interview with Mike Vecchione, Curator of Cephalopoda — now that’s a job title — at the Smithsonian Museum of National History.
One reason they’re so interesting is they are intelligent invertebrates. Almost everything that we…From Schneier on Security
Cybersecurity Visuals
The Hewlett Foundation just announced its top five ideas in its Cybersecurity Visuals Challenge. The problem Hewlett is trying to solve is the dearth of good visuals for cybersecurity. A Google Images Search demonstrates the …