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 Schneier on Security
Split-Second Phantom Images Fool Autopilots
Researchers are tricking autopilots by inserting split-second images into roadside billboards.
Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev … previously revealed that they could use split-second light projections…From BLOG@CACM
Measuring Up: How to Properly Measure Your Programmers
To measure or to not measure, that is the question. Ask programmers and many will tell you that measurement is a fool’s folly. Measurement undermines the team spirit, or it reduces dynamic solutions into simplified numbers that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Exceptions to the Law of Entropy
More of a Science idea, but we actually found it useful to include in creativity work. And in work that related to the application of AI to process. I post it here to remind myself of the connection and pass it along toStochastic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Scanning Construction Site Spotting when things are Slipping
I like the integration of relatively cheap cameras looking for key patterns in work progress (and potentially process) to determine missed schedules. A classic use of AI in pattern recognition. As suggested, also a key aspect…
From The Eponymous Pickle
California Says GM Can Test Fully Driverless Cars
This trend seems to be moving forward faster than expected. Would expect these developments to push reliance in other autonomy efforts.
CA Says General Motors Can Test Fully Driverless Cars on Its Roads in ACM By Futurism.com…From BLOG@CACM
The Pros and Cons of Online Lab Classes for Computer Science - 2020 Pandemic Edition
Contrary to expectations, online lab classes during our current pandemic may actually have some benefits over their in-person counterparts.
From insideHPC
Practical Hardware Design Strategies for Modern HPC Workloads
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 insideHPC
EuroHPC: 4 Nvidia-based AI Supercomputers Coming from Atos, HPE; 4 More on Way
Four new supercomputers backed by a pan-European initiative will use Nvidia data center accelerators, networks and software for AI and high-performance computing. They include a system dubbed Leonardo, unveiled today at Italy…
From insideHPC
Where Have You Gone, IBM?
The company that built the world’s nos. 2 and 3 most powerful supercomputers, according to the latest Top500 ranking of such systems, is to all appearances backing away from the supercomputer systems business. IBM, whose Summit…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Robots as Essential Workers
Still have not seen many robots about, will that change?
How Robots Became Essential Workers in the COVID-19 Response
Autonomous machines proved their worth in hospitals, offices, and on city streets
By Erico Guizzo and Randi Klett…From The Eponymous Pickle
Shopping with YouTube?
Though have used YouTube since its inception, only in the last month have been using all of its capabilities. Have been thinking about how it was a powerful engagement model, and how ads were interspersed. Thinking theI…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Getting Experts to Transfer their Knowledge
Some obvious here, but nicely arranged. Spent much time on the premise. Again consider how the knowledge can be re-tested and maintained.
How KM Gets Experts to Transfer Their Knowledge in APQC Blog
No matter what business…From insideHPC
Canonical Launches HA MicroK8s, Minimal Kubernetes
Oct. 15, 2020 — Canonical today announced autonomous high availability (HA) clustering in MicroK8s, the lightweight Kubernetes. Already popular for IoT and developer workstations, MicroK8s now gains resilience for production …
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI for the Cloud
Teaching AI to speak code.
IBM Research’s Chief Scientist Talks AI for Cloud Migration in Informationweek
Part of the future is already here as AI increases its influence on hybrid cloud and the digital transformation equation,…From The Eponymous Pickle
AI and Seismology
An area we consulted on early and continue to follow. Some comment here on why current, otherwise excellent pattern recognition techniques do not predict earthquakes. Good update by CACM
Commissioned…From BLOG@CACM
What Everyone Knows and What No One Knows
Who cares about logic?
From insideHPC
Lenovo Offers Optimal Storage Platform for Intel DAOS
In this sponsored post, our friends over at Lenovo and Intel highlight how Lenovo is doing some exciting stuff with Intel’s DAOS software. DAOS, or Distributed Asynchronous Object Storage, is a scale-out HPC storage stack that…
From Computational Complexity
50 Years of PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) launched fifty years ago this month in the United States. The New York Times talks about its fifty reasons how the network mattered. I'll throw in my thoughts.
I was just slightly too oldas…From insideHPC
NTU Singapore Scientists Develop ‘Mini-brains’ to Help Robots Recognize Pain and to Self-repair
Singapore, 15 Oct. 2020 — Using a brain-inspired approach, scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a way for robots to have the artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize pain…
From insideHPC
Cambridge Quantum Computing Announces Update to t|ket⟩ Quantum Software Development Kit (Q-SDK)
Oct. 15, 2020 – Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) today announced the latest version of t|ket〉(pronounced “ticket”), its high-performance quantum software development kit (Q-SDK), which now enables quantum circuit execution on…
From insideHPC
Sandia: Material in House Paint Could Spur ‘Technology Revolution’
A new method to make non-volatile computer memory may have unlocked a problem been holding back machine learning and has the potential to revolutionize technologies like voice recognition, image processing and autonomous driving…
From The Eponymous Pickle
WalMart Competing with Geek Squad
Done well and priced well could attract and engage many consumers.
Has Walmart come up with an answer to Best Buy’s Geek Squad? In Retailwire by George Anderson
Walmart is taking part in a pilot program to test the viability…From insideHPC
NCSA’s Bill Gropp Voted IEEE CS 2022 President
Oct. 14, 2020 — The National Center for Supercomputing Application’s (NCSA) Director and Chief Scientist William “Bill” Gropp has been voted IEEE Computer Society 2021 president-elect and will serve as president in 2022. The …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
What If We Asked Students To Write Textbooks?
A professor friend on Facebook posted that a student emailed him to say that they textbook the were using was “crap.” I suggested in jest that he asked the student to write a better one. That’s pretty tough since how do you write…
From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
ACM India Celebration of Women in Computing AICWiC 2020
ACM India celebration of women in computing –a virtual event was organized by ACM-W India, ACM Nagpur Professional Chapter in association with ACM Nagpur Student Chapter of Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur,…
From insideHPC
What May Come from Exascale? Improved Medicines, Longer-range Batteries, Better Control of 3D Parts, for Starters
As Exascale Day (Oct. 18) approaches, we thought it appropriate to post a recent article from Scott Gibson of the Exascale Computing Project (ECP), an overview of the anticipated advances in scientific discovery enabled by exascale…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft says its AI can describe images 'as well as people do'
Recall some portion of this claim being made, but had not heard much new from Microsoft, Know sight impaired people who could use the capability. We also worked on the general idea of 'captioning', which turns out to be…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Duplex Books Haircuts.
Fascinated by 'booking' as a simplistic form of contextual conversational. And it is interesting that Google Duplex took so long to get to this variant. But is that significant? I can see 'booking' being a script for many…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Improving Amateur CGI with iPhone AR
Quite an interesting thought ... positioning you in your real world.
iPhone AR tech can improve amateur CGI
CamTrackAR uses iOS' AR know-how to make adding effects easier.
Daniel Cooper, @danielwcooper
Match Moving is the process…
From insideHPC
GCS Supports University Team deFAUlt in SC20 Student Cluster Competition
Berlin, Oct. 14, 2020 – The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) has announced it is repeating its role as sponsor of undergraduate students participating in the Student Cluster Competition at next month’s Supercomputing Conference…