Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2016
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
New NAE Members
More computer scientists are elected to the academy Dan Mote, the President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), just announced this year’s class of members elected to the NAE. I am thrilled to see that several computer…
From insideHPC
Watson for President Foundation Explores AI as Commander-in-Chief
If the current set of Presidential candidates has you down, the Watson for President Foundation may just have an answer for you. As an independent organization not affiliated with Watson's creator, IBM, the foundation contends…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Imagining the future trumps intelligence…
Whenever I meet young people, I alway stress how their future will be very different from the present. To anyone who lived through the first Great War (1914-1918), they would have thought that the Second World War, if it were…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Deepmind Navigates a 3D Maze
In CACM: Pointing to an article in New Scientist: " ... Google DeepMind just entered the 90s. Fresh off their success in playing the ancient game of Go, DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence can navigate a 3D maze reminiscent…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Algorithms and Amazon Workers
In the BBC: Am particularly interested in how algorithms and workers interact. There has always been an interpretation of the results provided by computing, even close loop systems, like those in process control. What will…
From insideHPC
Video: AMD’s next Generation GPU and High Bandwidth Memory Architecture
"HBM is a new type of CPU/GPU memory (“RAM”) that vertically stacks memory chips, like floors in a skyscraper. In doing so, it shortens your information commute. Those towers connect to the CPU or GPU through an ultra-fast interconnect…
From Schneier on Security
Exploiting Google Maps for Fraud
The New York Times has a long article on fraudulent locksmiths. The scam is a basic one: quote a low price on the phone, but charge much more once you show up and do the work. But the method by which the scammers get victims…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 8 February 2016
We’re into the second semester at my school and things are off to a good start. Although we did miss a day last Friday because of snow. I had my programming students do some puzzles on Code Hunt. They could write and test code…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Magic To Do
Can we avoid accepting what we cannot verify? Cropped from biography source Arthur Clarke was a British writer of great breadth and huge impact. He was a science writer, of both fiction and non-fiction. His works are too many…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Artificial Intelligence in Business
Some statistics about the re-emergence of AI in Business. As pioneers of the use of AI in business, we have also started to see many queries asking: Is this the time to restart our efforts here? Why, How, with whom? All…
From insideHPC
Ellexus Launches Mistral Software for Balancing Shared Storage across HPC Clusters
Today Ellexus in the UK announced the release of Mistral, a "ground breaking" product for balancing shared storage across a high performance computing cluster. Developed in collaboration with ARM’s IT department, Mistral monitors…
From insideHPC
Video: Meet IME – The World’s First Burst Buffer
"DDN’s IME14K revolutionizes how information is saved and accessed by compute. IME software allows data to reside next to compute in a very fast, shared pool of non-volatile memory (NVM). This new data adjacency significantly…
From The Eponymous Pickle
SAP Testing Data Viz at Superbowl
In InformationWeek: SAP Uses Super Bowl 50 To Test Data Visualization, UX ... SAP's Fan Energy Zone in San Francisco's Super Bowl 50 celebrations is a giant test case in how users create, share, and process data in real-time…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Knitting Pattern
Surprisingly realistic for a knitted stuffed animal....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft to buy Swiftkey
In Fortune: When I first read this, I remembered seeing Swiftkey demonstrated. Though I never had it on one of my own devices, the aha came quickly. Quickly matching key patterns to retrieve used words. Now where else could…
From insideHPC
Video: Altera’s Stratix 10 – 14nm FPGA Targeting 1GHz Performance
altera2In this video from the 2015 Hot Chips Conference, Mike Hutton from Altera presents: Stratix 10 Altera’s 14nm FPGA Targeting 1GHz Performance. "Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs deliver breakthrough advantages in performance, power…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hidden Science Behind Superbowl Ads. Neuroscience?
In Adage: Lots about behavioral science to understand top ads, but no mention of neuroscience. Consumer behavior is different than neural behavior. Recall that in past years I have mentioned some of the neuromarketing techniques…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: Information Technologist at ICER at Michigan State
ICER at Michigan State is seeking an Information Technologist in our Job of the Week. "As a joint appointment between Michigan State University’s Information Technology Services and the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research, the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hololens Competition
Always want to see real commercial and industrial applications of augmented (now being called mixed reality) applications. Here the results of an App competition. Still a bit disappointing, more art than industry. What gets…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Brains Showing Way to Machine Learning
In Technology Review. Taking more hints from nature. Although I disagree that its a complete way to do computer programming. People still make sequential decision processes. Better Brain Imaging Could Show Computers a Smarter…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Making and Flying Complex Devices
A new jet engine takes a certification flight. Article in GE's Bikeshop. My new experiences show how complex the development, delivery and use of a jet engines can be. New kinds of analytics and data management are essential…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Microsoft Research Open Source Challenge
Now this is interesting. Not often you think of Microsoft and Open Source in the same sentence. Although it does seem to be happening more and more often. This looks like it is for university students. An internship at Microsoft…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Understanding API Ecosystems
In the CACM: Revealing the API Ecosystem and Enterprise Strategy via Visual Analytics. Valuable insights can be gained by applying visual analytic techniques to understand complex, emerging ecosystem dynamics and evolving…
From Apophenia
It’s not Cyberspace anymore
It’s been 20 years — 20 years!? — since John Perry Barlow wrote “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” — a rant in response to the government and corporate leaders who descend on a certain snowy resort town each year…
From Schneier on Security
NSA Reorganizing
The NSA is undergoing a major reorganization, combining its attack and defense sides into a single organization: In place of the Signals Intelligence and Information Assurance directorates the organizations that historically…
From insideHPC
Agenda Posted for HPC User Forum in Tucson, April 11-13
IDC has published the agenda for their next HPC User Forum. The event will take place April 11-13 in Tucson, AZ. "Don't miss the chance to hear top experts on these high-innovation, high-growth areas of the HPC market. At this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retail with AI and Retail
Interesting idea, but still too complex. Simple still works well. With new tech, see yourself on a mountain top from a store floor, or browse store aisles from your couch By Sharon Gaudin, in Computerworld As retailers look…
From XRDS
R software and tools for everyday use
Long, long time ago … I started with Octave and Matlab.They were amazing and allowed me to solve a lot of interesting problems in my research. I loved the command window of Octave, but I needed the productivity an IDE …Continue…
From updated sporadically at best
Computer Science PhD School Visits, Revisited
From insideHPC
Auburn University Launches Hopper Supercomputer from Lenovo
Today Auburn University unveiled its new $1 million supercomputer that will enhance research across campus, from microscopic gene sequencing to huge engineering tasks. The university is also initiating a plan to purchase a new…