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 The Eponymous Pickle
A Crusade Against Multiple Regression Analysis
In the EdgeYes, well known, but often ignored, is all the context in the model? Again in the realm of misusing statistics. A lengthy conversation with Richard Nisbett. A crusade, he says, that may be worth taking note of.…
From insideHPC
Video: HPE Solutions for Data-Driven Organizations
"As a result of a new alliance with Intel, HP is offering its HPC Solutions Framework based on HP Apollo servers, which are specialized for HPC and now optimized to support industry- specific software applications from leading…
From The Noisy Channel
I agree with the widely expressed concern that the ubiquity of AIs gendered as female is…
That said, I understand the desire to humanize AIs, and gender is part of what makes us human. I just wish we could approach humanization…
From The Noisy Channel
I agree that the last thing we need in the tech industry is a reinforcement of gender stereotypes.
But to answer your question, yes, the AIs to create the calendar invitations. And I wouldn’t even have seen most of the conversation had I…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Cultivating weirdness
The simplest and safest way to live your life is by cultivating “sameness”. Look around at what successful people do, and do the same thing. All your cool friends go to college? Go to college. They all work in a start-up? Work…
From Schneier on Security
Survey of the Dark Web
Interesting paper on the dark web: Daniel Moore & Thomas Rid, "Cryptopolitik and the Darknet," Survival, 2016. (Technical annex here -- requires the Tor browser.) They conclude that it's mostly used for illegal activity. No surprise…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 15 February 2016
What a week. No school Monday because of snow. Stayed home sick on Friday. The first is a a lot more common than the second. I really hate missing school. I’m feeling better now and enjoying scanning through the collected links…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data and Storytelling
Good piece. Though I retain my opinion that the accuracy and ability to interact with the data is more important. Your story still has to first be an accurate one, not just a narrative you would like to have the data support…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Rules of Data Visualization
In the National Geographic: Interview with Alberto Cairo. Interesting thoughts, But I still believe in simplification, accuracy and interactivity the most. You can add art and tell a good story to attract people and maybe…
From Computational Complexity
∑{p≤ n} 1/p = ln(ln(n)) + o(1). read it here because....
(Last April fools day I posted four links to stories that seemed absurd and asked which one was false. They all were true. I recently came across five stories that all seem absurd but are all real, but three of them can't wait…
From insideHPC
Comparing FDR and EDR InfiniBand
Over at the Dell HPC Blog, Olumide Olusanya and Munira Hussain have posted an interesting comparison of FDR and EDR InfiniBand. "In the first post, we shared OSU Micro-Benchmarks (latency and bandwidth) and HPL performance between…
From insideHPC
Video: Parallella Supercomputing
In this video from the 2015 RubyConf event in Columbia, Ray Hightower presents: Parallella Supercomputing. "Parallella is a single-board supercomputer smaller than a deck of cards. While today’s fastest laptops contain four processor…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ensemble Methods for Tuning Results
Good overview. We used these methods before they were well understood. Modern coding makes this much easier to do, and even to adapt as your data changes. In Python or R. Consider automating the method to tune your results…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Air Cargo
Some interesting thoughts, though speculations, embedded in this article. Makes sense for Amazon to test, control and optimize larger parts of its supply chain. Watching this.Is local air cargo firm hauling Amazon deliveries…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simplicity Should Break Ties.
In Gartner Blog: Completely agree. And I will take the argument a step further. Simplicity should also guide your ordering of methods under consideration. Keep it simple, visual, ordered and rational. With the agility to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Travel by Hyperloop?
In the BBC: Supply chain and travel in a low pressure pipe at up to 1000 Km/Hr? All it may need is some infrastructure. In process.
From Writing
Startup Ideas and Validation
Every startup begins with an idea. This is a talk I did as part of NerdWallet’s NerdTalks Series that discusses how to come up with startup ideas and validation techniques you can use to pick the ideas worth working on.
From Writing
Agility Requires Safety
To go faster in a car, you need not only a powerful engine, but also safety mechanisms like brakes, air bags, and seat belts. This is a talk I did as part of NerdWallet’s NerdTalks Series where I discuss the safety mechanisms…
From The Noisy Channel
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that Clara knows that Sightglass Coffee is Jason’s default…
coffee spot for meetings, since that’s how x.ai works. Also, Jason did specify the Mission as a location in the initial email to Clara.
From The Noisy Channel
I don’t know much about Clara, but I’m quite sure x.ai
is not. My understanding is that humans only intervene when the AI’s confidence level falls below a certain threshold.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon to Launch a Dragon Boat
Good piece. Amassing inventory from thousands of merchants around the world. Dragon Boat.The Zen of Retail Tech By Evan Schuman : What Amazon is doing with its supply chain could devastate the competitionA huge planned global…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Storeflix for Whole Picture Brand Insight
Late to this, but I note that the Storeflix site has been updated, with some new directions. Image based in-store analysis. Less emphasis on compliance. Some mention of analytics being driven, but no details at the site…
From insideHPC
Dona Crawford Retires from LLNL
Dona Crawford, Associate Director for Computation at NNSA’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), announced her retirement last week after 15 years of leading Livermore’s Computation Directorate. "Dona has successfully…
From Putting People First
“How we used design research to launch The New York Times en Español”
A year ago Juliette Melton led a design research field project to explore how The Times could best share its journalism with the Spanish-speaking world. What the team learned from that in-depth research — as well as from subsequent…
From Putting People First
[Paper] Understanding user motivations and drawbacks related to product repair
Understanding User Motivations and Drawbacks Related to Product Repair By Nazli Terzioglu, Dan Lockton, Clare Brass (Royal College of Arts) Conference Paper, Sustainable innovation 2015 The Centre for Sustainable Design, London…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE Addresses Scientific Impossibility
In FastCoCreate: Superbowl ads promote science and science process." ... What: GE Theater presents a series of digital short films using science to challenge a few longstanding expressions of impossibility.Who: General Electric…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Teaching AI Chitchat
Is it important to make AI more human? That was part of what we attempted in our 'big' idea. Have a piece of ad equity talk to you conversationally, and you can engage them. Did not work then, but technology has improved.…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: HPC Director at NYU Langone Medical Center
square-300The NYU Langone Medical Center is seeking an HPC Director in our Job of the Week. "The Director, High Performance Computing (HPC), under the supervision of the Senior Director, Research IT, and in close collaboration…
From The Noisy Channel
"A Conversation Between Two AIs" in ART + marketing
The other day, I was introduced to Jason at Clara Labs, a startup whose product is an AI personal assistant to schedule meetings. As it so…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging : Pajama Squid
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a pajama squid. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....