Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2019
From The Eponymous Pickle
Predicting Lightning: Where/When
Skeptical. If we are talking about predicting the likelihood of lighting in an area an hour before it hits, thats done already in weather predictive maps. Suggests here that the accuracy is within a 30 km radius. Specifics…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Are 64-bit random identifiers free from collision?
It is common in software system to map objects to unique identifiers. For example, you might map all web pages on the Internet to a unique identifier. Often, these identifiers are integers. For example, many people like to use…
From insideHPC
SC19 Invited Talk: Next Generation Disaster Intelligence Using the Continuum of Computing and Data Technologies
Dr. Ilkay Altintas from SDSC gave this Invited Talk at SC19. "This talk will review some of our recent work on building this dynamic data driven cyberinfrastructure and impactful application solution architectures that showcase…
From The Eponymous Pickle
China Ready to Launch Its Digital Renminbi
World wide implications?
Technology Review: Chain Letter: MIT Technology Review
Blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and why they matter
12.12.19
Chain Letter from MIT Technology Review
#174: The next steps in China’s digital currency…
From Computational Complexity
Why is there no all-encompassing term for a course on Models of Computation?
In my last blog post I asked my readers to leave comments saying what the name of the course that has some of Regular Languages, Context Free Languages Decideability, P, NP (any maybe other stuff) in it. I suspected there would…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Nominations Sought for New CCC Council Members
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is charged with catalyzing and empowering the U.S. computing research community to articulate and advance major research directions for the field. Established in 2006 through a cooperative…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Appointment of Dr. Gurdip Singh as Division Director for the NSF/CISE Division of Computer and Network Systems
The following is a letter to the community from Erwin Gianchandani, Acting Assistant Director, of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). Dear Computer and Information…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Crypto Tax Formal Regulation at Hand?
Saw this in MIT Technology Reviews: Chain+Letter newsletter, much recommended as a place to stay up to date on the topic and related regulatory changes
The IRS really needs an exemption for crypto
By Matthew De Silva in Quartz…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon AWS Rolls out Quantum Computing Service: QAAS
Had not thought it was ready yet, but here it is. But perhaps as the article suggests, to study the application of QC, before its actual implementation. Linking with AWS, and the cloud data involved, can likely lead to tests…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Explain This Confusing Code
My major task today has been finishing off the semester exam for my Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles students. They’re not happy about having an exam but that’s life. Writing a good exam is difficult. Fortunately…
From insideHPC
Atos Launches Quantum Learning Machine User Group
Today Atos launched the global User Group of the Atos Quantum Learning Machine (QLM). Chaired by a representative from French multi-national energy company Total, the User Group ecosystem is supported by the Atos’ Quantum Scientific…
From insideHPC
Building a Tiered Digital Storage Environment Based on UserDefined Metadata to Enable eResearch
In this special guest feature, David Fellinger from the iRODS Consortium writes that, as eResearch has evolved to accommodate sensor and other types of big data, iRODS can enable complete workflow control, data lifecycle management…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Total Cost Visibility in the US Army
We recently participated in:
Graphs in Government: Achieving Total Cost Visibility for the U.S. Army
via Lauren McCormack, Neo4j Presentation below:
Thanks for your interest in the Graphs in Government: Achieving Total Cost Visibility…
From insideHPC
Lightbits Labs Launches Industry’s First NVMe/TCP Clustered Storage Solution
Today Lightbits Labs announced it has delivered the industry's first NVMe/TCP clustered storage solution with the company's LightOS technology. "At cloud scale, everything fails, so we built LightOS to capture all the benefits…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Intel's LIDAR for Inventory Logistics
We spent time experimenting with a means to determining accurate inventory and location accuracy positions in warehouses and on store shelves. Here a relatively new approach in the space. Originally noted in AppleNews.
Intel…
From insideHPC
Novel Therm Demonstrates Sustainable Data Center Tech at SC19
In this video from SC19, Greg Stewart from Novel Therm describes how the company provides HPC As a Service using geothermal energy. "Novel Therm has a unique solution that allows them to build low-cost HPC data centers that are…
From insideHPC
Lenovo and Intel Partner for VSC-4 Supercomputer in Vienna
Today Lenovo and Intel announced their collaboration to modernize HPC infrastructure at Austria’s most powerful supercomputer – the Vienna Scientific Cluster-4 (VSC-4). Built on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers and 2nd generation
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum to Model Traffic with Simulations
Another mention of D-Wave quantum in the news. Also the term 'Quantum-Style' is used for the first time I have seen,
Microsoft, Ford Try Using Quantum-Style Computing to Solve Seattle's Traffic Problem By GeekWire via ACM
Microsoft…
From The Eponymous Pickle
FDA and Food Blockchain
Yet another example of tracking and tracing movements of food goods in a supply chain. Saw early work on this problem by Wal-Mart.
FDA to pilot A.I., consider blockchain, to track and trace food
The FDA plans to pilot artificial…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Transistor Integrated with RAM
Intriguing integration. A further means to create IOT capabilities in place?
Reorganizing a Computer Chip: Transistors Can Now Process, Store Information
Purdue University News
By Kayla Wiles
December 9, 2019
Purdue University engineers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Chaotic Systems
Have done lots of work modeling corporate systems, and on occasion chaotic behavior was observed, but never in my observation was it effectively used to model and address a problem in practice. Good mostly non technical overview…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On an Economics of Eaches
Not a very new thing, but another way of looking at it, In Supply chain Brain.
Watch: The Economics of 'Eaches'
Thomas Goldsby: In SupplyChainBrain
Farewell to the age of economical bulk and pallet distribution. Now it's a question…
From Schneier on Security
Scaring People into Supporting Backdoors
Back in 1998, Tim May warned us of the "Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse": "terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers." I tended to cast it slightly differently. This is me from 2005: Beware the Four Horsemen…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Amazon’s new ARM servers: Graviton 2
Most servers on the Internet run on x64 processors, mostly made by Intel. Meanwhile, most smartphones run ARM processors. From a business perspective, these are different technologies. The x64 processors are mostly designed by…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Congratulations to the 2019 ACM Fellows
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) just announced their 2019 ACM Fellows. The ACM Fellows award is ACM’s most prestigious member grade, which “comprise an elite group that represents less than 1% of the Association…
From insideHPC
D-Wave and NEC to Accelerate Commercial Quantum Computing
Today D-Wave Systems announced the company has signed agreements with NEC Corporation to drive development of hybrid services that combine the best features of quantum and classical computers, and make it easy to incorporate
…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan 2019
The Director of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program is pleased to share the link for the updated Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan (2019)! This plan provides…
From insideHPC
Developing Better Vaccines with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Researchers from the University of Bristol and the French National Centre for Scientific Research, teamed up with computer technology giant Oracle and vaccine innovator startup Imophoron to find a way to make vaccines that are…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Barcode Developer Dies
We were one of the earliest experimenters and users of the Barcode in retail, starting in 1994. In the BBC: George Laurer, the US engineer who helped develop the barcode, has died at the age of 94. ... Much more on the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Goes More Local Yet
In a recent Google Blog entry, about local ads:
The holidays are a critical time of year for your stores, as shoppers stop in to get an item quickly or see it in person. Online research to find local stores continues to surge…