Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2020
From insideHPC
insideHPC Guide to QCT Platform-on-Demand Designed for Converged Workloads – Part 4
In this insideHPC technology guide, “insideHPC Guide to QCT Platform-on-Demand Designed for Converged Workloads,”as we’ll see, by relying on open source software and the latest high performance/low cost system architectures,
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
L'Oreal Social Selling Platform
Some advances in Beauty care selling strategy.
L’Oreal Invests in Social Selling Platform as Part of E-Com Strategy
By CGT Staff
As part of its acceleration strategy in e-commerce, L’Oreal announced a minority investment in US…From The Eponymous Pickle
Homomorphic Encryption Environment
More on what IBM is doing in the space of 'Fully Homomorphic Encryption', which is now including 'quantum safe' capabilities. Here is a definition of that capability from the WP.
Now IBM is putting out an experimental capability…From The Eponymous Pickle
Whats Next for Remote Work
From The Eponymous Pickle
Vaccinated? Show us Proof.
In the NY Times, Interesting positioning. To travel, for work, for school? To get services? To Survive? Obvious, or chilling?
The New York Times
Natasha Singer
Recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine…From insideHPC
Nimbix Announces First Multi-cloud HPC Platform with Arm Support
Dallas, Dec. 15, 2020 — Nimbix, the high performance computing (HPC) cloud platform provider, today announced support for the Arm architecture in its JARVICE XE Enterprise HPC platform. With its latest software release, Nimbix…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unrolling the SolarWinds Attack and Implications
The recent SolarWinds hack, started this March, and was apparently much more serious than expected, including many government and defense applications. I will pass along the most interesting aspects of this, and aim to link…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Cognitive biases
One-sided bet: People commonly assume implicitly that their actions may only have good outcomes. For example, increasing the minimum wage in a country may only benefit the poor. Taking a lottery ticket only has the upside ofContinue…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retailers and Mandating Vaccines
Been hearing some of inoculation undercurrent, and about making it a condition of employment.
Are retailers facing a no-win decision in mandating vaccines for workers? by Tom Ryan in Retailwire
Surveys continue to show that…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC 2020 Highlights
The following is a guest blog from CCC Chair Liz Bradley. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC), like the rest of the world, had to shift our focus and restructure our activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some highlights…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Alexa Roadside Assistance
Been examining some voice in car applications of smart home solutions. Extending the confines of the home. Here is one sent to me by Walter Riker.
Alexa-enabled roadside assist provides fast, intuitive help for U.S. motorists…From Apophenia
The US Federal Government Needs a VP of Engineering, not a CTO
If you look at the roster of the Biden-Harris transition team, it’s quickly apparent that the incoming administration is tech-forward. Given the systematic dismantlement of the federal government over the last four years, and…
From insideHPC
PRACE: Call for Proposals for HPC Compute Resources from DECI-17 and EUDAT
The PRACE DECI programme provides cross-national access to European Tier-1 HPC resources (national systems). Access will be awarded for a period of 12 months, beginning 1 June 2021. More information is available here. For this…
From Computational Complexity
Optiland
Many of you have heard of Russell Impagliazzo's five worlds from his 1995 classic A personal view of average-case complexity In short
Algorithmica: P = NP or something "morally equivalent" like fast probabilistic algorithms…From insideHPC
Cambridge Quantum Computing Investing in Cybersecurity, Other Near-Term Quantum Solutions
Cambridge, UK, December 16, 2020 — Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC), a specialist in quantum software and quantum algorithms designed to leverage quantum hardware, today announced it will apply much of its recent fundraise on…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple Store Privacy Nutrition Labels
Nice idea. How about also security nutrition labels? Too hard, too scary?
Apple's Privacy Nutrition Labels, available now and good for business by Jonny Evans in Computerworld
Apple's iOS 14.3 introduces Privacy Nutrition…From insideHPC
Simplifying Persistent Container Storage for the Open Hybrid Cloud
This ESG Technical Validation documents remote testing of Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage with a focus on the ease of use and breadth of data services. Containers have become an important part of data center modernization…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger in Top 10 E-Commerce Companies
Been impressed by looks at what Kroger is doing.
Kroger breaks into top 10 U.S. e-commerce companies for first time By Marianne Wilson - jn CSA
The Kroger Co.’s digital investments are paying off.
The nation’s largest supermarket…From insideHPC
WekaIO and Rancher Labs in Alliance to Simplify Kubernetes Deployments
CAMPBELL, Calif. – December 16, 2020 – WekaIO (Weka), specializing in high-performance and scalable NVMe-optimized file storage, today announced that Weka File System (WekaFS), with its Kubernetes Container Storage Interface …
From insideHPC
CEA Outlines Indigenous Path to European Exascale
CEA, the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission, today presented what it said is a path to European exascale utilizing technologies that combine “finer 3D interconnect paths for greater bandwidth between chiplets…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Virtual reality… millions but not tens of millions… yet
In February 2016, I placed a bet against Greg Linden in these terms: within the next three years, starting in March of this year, we would sell at least 10 million VR units a year (12 continuous months) worldwide. According to…
From Schneier on Security
Cellebrite Can Break Signal
Cellebrite announced that it can break Signal. (Note that the company has heavily edited its blog post, but the original — with lots of technical details — was saved by the Wayback Machine.)
The whole…From Geeking with Greg
When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet.
About four years ago, Professor Daniel Lemire and I made a $100 bet on how quickly virtual reality would reach a broad, mainstream market. Specifically, my side of the bet was, "Virtual reality hardware (not counting cardboard)…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Electronic Skin Generates its Own Power
A useful play.
Solar-based Electronic Skin Generates Its Own Power
IEEE Spectrum Payal Dhar December 13, 2020
Researchers from the U.K.'s University of Glasgow have created an energy-generating electronic skin (eSkin) from…From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Going TikTok?
Admit I barely knew of it before. But lately been getting a lot of forwarded TikTok references. And some about Wal-Mart.
‘A true influencer program’: Inside Walmart’s growing army of employee TikTokers By Michael Waters in …From insideHPC
Quantum Corp. Names Brian Pawlowski Chief Development Officer
San Jose — Dec. 15, 2020 — Quantum Corp. (NASDAQ: QMCO) today announced the expansion of its Executive Leadership Team with the appointment of Brian Pawlowski as Chief Development Officer, alongside two senior executives to accelerate…
From Schneier on Security
How the SolarWinds Hackers Bypassed Duo’s Multi-Factor Authentication
This is interesting:
Toward the end of the second incident that Volexity worked involving Dark Halo, the actor was observed accessing the e-mail account of a user via OWA. This was unexpected for a few reasons, not least of which…From insideHPC
iXsystems Introduces TrueNAS Hybrid Cloud SaaS for MSPs
San Jose – December 15, 2020 — The TrueNAS Open Storage portfolio was expanded today with the addition of TrueCommand Cloud – a cloud-based service for 24×365 TrueNAS management. An upgrade to the iXsystems Channel Partner Program…
From insideHPC
Kao Data Announces Two Senior Director Appointments
London, December 15, 2020 – Kao Data, developer and operator of advanced, carrier neutral data centres for high performance colocation, has today announced two senior director appointments to underpin its next phase of campus…
From insideHPC
XenData Joins Active Archive Alliance
Boulder, Colo. – December 15, 2020 – The Active Archive Alliance today announced that XenData has joined the organization, promoting modern strategies to solve data growth challenges. XenData joins a growing number of industry…