Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2016
From insideHPC
12 Teams to Compete in ISC 2017 Student Cluster Competition
“The competition is an opportunity to showcase the world’s brightest computer science students’ expertise in a friendly, yet spirited competition,” said Martin Meuer, managing director of the ISC Group. “We are very pleased to…
From insideHPC
Call for Contributions: PRACEdays17 in Barcelona
PRACEdays17 has issued its Call for Contributions. The event takes place May 15-17 in Barcelona. "PRACE would like to receive contributions for presentations of excellent scientific merit from scientists and researchers from
…
From insideHPC
Radio Free HPC Looks at the Past and Future of the OS
In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at the future of Operating Systems in the new world of computing. In a world that seems to be moving to the cloud and microservices, what will happen to the monolithic OS we have…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft's Project Evo in Your Home
It seemed at first that Microsoft would not respond, now indications that the competition will begin.
Tech's Biggest Showdown is unfolding in your living room by Cade Metz.
Microsoft is joining Google and Amazon in the…
From insideHPC
Penguin Computing Lands 9 CTS-1 Open Compute Project Supercomputers on the TOP500
In this video from SC16, Dan Dowling from Penguin Computing describes the company's momentum with Nine CTS-1 supercomputers on the TOP500. The systems were procured under NNSA’s Tri-Laboratory Commodity Technology Systems program…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bots Coming for Your Job?
A software bot is coming for your job. What will you do now? By James Farrell in SiliconAngle
Broad overview, but interesting. Working with students now and this has been asked. Don't see it much in the curricula, which are based…
From Schneier on Security
Ransomware Meets Multi-level Marketing
A new ransomware, Popcorn Time, gives users the option of infecting others in lieu of paying the ransom. Related: a good general article on ransomware....
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Global Technology Policy Update – December 2016
ACM PUBLIC POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Cybersecurity Education and Research in Europe – The ACM Europe Policy Committee released a policy white paper “Advancing Cybersecurity Education and Research in Europe.” Committee Chair Fabrizio…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Opens Home to Third Party Devs: My Challange
Good, now lets see some really innovative efforts. With AI and pattern recognition embedded. Not just find me a recipe, or recite the last three headlines or tell me a joke or Order me a Pizza. Can do those already. We did…
From The Eponymous Pickle
FRCH Design for Kroger
Mentioned in the local paper.
Always a student of retail store design. Especially something different.
In the FRCH Site. Complete images at the link.
The Challenge:
FRCH was tasked with helping The Kroger Company create a community…
From insideHPC
Precisely Tuned Data-Intensive Algorithms Ascend the Graph500
When the latest version of the Graph 500 list was released Nov. 16 at the SC16 conference, there were two new entries in the top 10, both contributed by Khaled Ibrahim of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division. "Ibrahim…
From insideHPC
Building a Platform for Collaborative Scientific Research on AWS
"The pharmaceutical industry trend toward joint ventures and collaborations has created a need for new platforms in which to work together. We'll dive into architectural decisions for building collaborative systems. Examples
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmented vs Mixed Realities
I am still staying with augmented reality. When I see mixed I ask, mixed what? Augmented implies improvement.
Windows Looks At Mixed Reality & VR Methods In New Video
If you've ever wondered what all these terms mean, then Microsoft…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shouting at Cortana and the Value of Voice
Though a keen observer and frequent user of voice activation in the smart home, I rarely talk to my otherwise much in use laptop. I was at first impressed with aspects of MS Cortana, but soon found it boring. It did not support…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Anki's Personable and Cute Robotic Assistant
In CWorld: And comes with a systems development kit that allows it to use its sensors to learn about people and their environment. Its a kind of crowd sourcing tease we are seeing with Echo and now also with Siri. If we provide…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Mobile-First World
Was pointed out to me. The Growth of mobile in world. " ... Mobile offers hundreds of new opportunities to deliver value to consumers in moments of need. ,,, ". And advertisers learned a long time ago, you can culture need…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Home Vs Echo as Predictive Disk Jockey
Been testing Echo vs Google Home for potential in home and offices with AI driven . One way they are presented today is as easy to use access to music. Both work very well. And what you might really want is a way to predict…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coke Rethinks Digital Strategy
Sounds like we need a more adaptive approach. In Adage:
Coke CMO Defends TV as Cola Giant Rethinks Digital Approach By E.J. Schultz.
Coca-Cola Co. global Chief Marketing Officer Marcos de Quinto on Friday defended TV advertising…
From insideHPC
European PHENOMEN Project to Develop First Optically-driven Phonon Sources and Detectors
The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) is taking part in the European PHENOMEN project, which kicked off last September. Funded through the FET-Open program, it aims to lay the foundations of a new information technology…
From insideHPC
NCAR’s Evolving Infrastructure for Weather and Climate Research
Pamela Hill from NCAR/UCAR presented this talk at the DDN User Group at SC16. "With the game-changing SFA14K, NCAR now has the storage capacity and sustained compute performance to perform sophisticated modeling while substantially…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AmazonGo and the Retail Workforce
While most do not expect Amazon to start building many retail locations, the AmazonGo idea is at least an experiment in the feasibility of near frictionless physical checkout. Even less friction than online checkout. So can…
From Geeking with Greg
Book review: Chaos Monkeys
From The Eponymous Pickle
NASA Publishes GIFs for Feelings
NASA has been pushing social media. Good in general. Verge reports that they are now publishing a library of GIF feelings. Sorry, I want engineering-style information. And probably so do most of the STEM folks they want…
From Schneier on Security
Cybersecurity Fantasy Role-Playing Game
It's called Cryptomancer. Think computer hacking plus magic. I know nothing about it, but it feels reminiscent of Shadowrun. Reddit thread. RPG.net thread....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytic Personality Disorders
Nicely and satirically posed. Are we really all data janitors as opposed to data scientists? Well yes, to a degree. Data drives answers.
Analytic Personality Disorders (APD) by Dominic Vincent Ligot
Published on October 10,…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Electronic Screens Inspired by Squid
Squid-inspired electronic screens. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Publix Wins Pharmacy Satisfaction
In Chainstore Age: Publix Supermarkets, a former employer of mine, has won the pharmacy satisfaction award. The pharmacy with highest customer satisfaction is in a supermarket… by Marianne Wilson.
From insideHPC
New Plan: ECP Project to Deploy First Exascale System by 2021
Today the DOE Exascale Computing Project announced the following changes to their strategic plan. The ECP project now plans to deploy the first Exascale system in the U.S. in 2021, a full 1-2 years earlier than previously planned…
From Schneier on Security
Enigma Machine Sold for Almost Half a Million Dollars
A fully functional four-rotor Enigma machine sold for $463,500. Wow....
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Could Liberate Management Time
An HBR Video: A.I. Could Liberate 50% of Managers' Time
Here's what they should focus on. For more, read "How Artificial Intelligence Will Redefine Management." ... "