Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2018
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using Analytics to Improve Customer Engagement
Always thought this was obvious, and it did not have to be artificial anything, just had to promote understanding and efficiently leveraging shared data. Survey analysis here.
Organizations that turn data into insights are
by…
From The Eponymous Pickle
VR at the Olympics
While listening to the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics. I noted the statement that some of the things being seen on my 2 dimensional screen had been projected there from a VR model, and may (or may not) have been…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google AutoML Learns
Its long been suggested that the best AI is one that is the best learner. Then it can learn from other humans, other AIs and the masses of data we are gathering. Leading to an ultimate intelligence. This is not quite that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consciousness as Instinct
As a long ago reader of William James, always amazed at how modern it seemed. Now what does this mean, ultimately, for the goals of AI? Is Conscious alive?
What William James Got Right About Consciousness By Michael S. Gazzaniga…
From insideHPC
Supercomputing the Origin of Mass
In this video, Professor Derek Leinweber from the University of Adelaide presents his research in Lattice Quantum Field Theory; revealing the origin of mass in the universe. "While the fundamental interactions are well understood…
From insideHPC
Supercomputing Frontiers Europe Announces Keynote Speakers
The Supercomputing Frontiers conference has announced it Full Agenda and Keynote Speakers. The event takes place March 12-15 in Warsaw, Poland. "Supercomputing Frontiers is an annual international conference that provides a platform…
From Computational Complexity
A ``new'' ``application'' of Ramsey Theory/A Truly ``bad'' math song
Ian Parberry once told me (though I doubt he originated it- The first link I found says it was Mark Twain)
to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail
Indeed. Since I am teaching a grad course Ramsey theory and its…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tracking Human Movements
Scientists Develop Method to Track Human Movements More Accurately in EurekAlert
Researchers at the North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Hefei University of Technology in China, and the University of North Texas (UNT)…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Molecular Swarms
Letting Molecular Robots Swarm Like Birds Hokkaido University By Naoki Namba
Researchers at Hokkaido University and Kansai University in Japan have created DNA-assisted robots that autonomously swarm in response to chemical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Massive Drone Swarms for Entertainment
The massive use of drones at the Superbowl and Korean Opening of the Winter Olympics show the impressive use of multiple drone swarms for art and imply their future use for business and military applications. Clearly to bemurmuration…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (February 9th, 2018)
We shed 50 million skin cells every day. A mutant crayfish reproduces by cloning. To my knowledge, this might be the largest animal to reproduce by cloning. Before about 25 years ago, the species simply did not exist (…) it has…
From Schneier on Security
Calling Squid "Calamari" Makes It More Appetizing
Research shows that what a food is called affects how we think about it. Research paper. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Read my blog posting guidelines…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Priming the Computing Teacher Pump
Where are computer science teachers going to come from? That’s the big question. OK it is one of the big questions about Computer Science for All. Increasingly CS is moving to younger and younger grades and a lot of people are…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Improving the Internet
How Can the U.S. Improve Internet Security, Speed and Access?
Wharton's Kevin Werbach and Northeastern's Andrea Matwyshyn discuss how the U.S. can take internet connectivity to the next level.
A scrapped proposal for a nationalized…
From insideHPC
Nominations open for PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for HPC 2018
PRACE is once again seeking nominations for the Ada Lovelace Award for HPC 2018. The award recognizes women in Europe who are breaking new barriers in science and engineering.
The post Nominations open for PRACE Ada LovelaceinsideHPC…
From insideHPC
Reconstructing Nuclear Physics Experiments with Supercomputers
For the first time, scientists have used HPC to reconstruct the data collected by a nuclear physics experiment—an advance that could dramatically reduce the time it takes to make detailed data available for scientific discoveries…
From insideHPC
Call For Papers: Memsys 2018
The MEMSYS 2018 International Symposium on Memory Systems has issued its Call for Papers. The conference takes place Oct. 1-4 in Washington, D.C.. "The memory system has become extremely important. Memory is slow, and this is…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
The Struggle To Keep Programs Simple
Debugging code is hard. Really hard. The more complicated the code the harder it is to debug. Brian Kernighan said it well.
From insideHPC
Inside Saturnv – Insights from Nvidia’s Deep Learning Supercomputer
Phil Rogers from NVIDIA gave this talk at SC17. "Like its namesake, In this talk, we describe the architecture of SATURNV, and how we use it every day at NVIDIA to run our deep learning workloads for both production and research…
From Schneier on Security
Living in a Smart Home
In "The House that spied on Me," Kashmir Hill outfits her home to be as "smart" as possible and writes about the results....
From The Eponymous Pickle
More on Mycroft Assistant
With considerable detail. Not available until December 2018
Finally, an A.I. voice assistant that doesn’t collect and monetize your data By Luke Dormehl in Digital Trends. .... "
My full index of assistants, continually updated…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter & Gamble Is Genius in Digital Marketing Practices
On Procter's use of digital marketing practices.
Procter & Gamble is a Genius By Jack Neff. in AdAge
Procter & Gamble Co. was one of the first big marketers to jump into automated digital media buying, developing its own proprietary…
From BLOG@CACM
Let's Not Forget the 'Science' in 'Computer Science'
There is a growing trend to treat very difficult problems in computer science as purely engineering problems where solutions are approximated using data-driven approaches. This is a harmful trend, and we should be reminded that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unliklihood of Drone Delivery
Was much intrigued by the possibilities. The inefficiency of the last mile, and other near term issues. Perhaps for specialty contexts, but less likely for common delivery.
Why Drone Delivery Isn't Likely to Start Anytime Soon…
From insideHPC
Sylabs Startup Forms Commercial Entity Behind Singularity For Hpc
Today an HPC Startup called Sylabs entered the market to provide solutions and services based on Singularity, an open source container technology designed for high performance computing. Founded by the inventor and project lead…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon to Deliver from Whole Foods
Toured a Cincinnati Whole Foods twice recently, noting the diversity of SKUs. With exactly this thought in mind. Had examined some advanced sign tech in Whole Foods some years ago.
Amazon will start delivering Whole Foods…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Go Not the Future
Some good comparisons of previous approaches.We dabbled in several.
Why Amazon’s Grocery Store May Not Be the Future of Retail
By Nick Harrison, George Faigen, Duncan Brewer in the HBR
" ... Amazon Go may face challenges in both…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Location of Data Science
Intriguing, though I wonder if these differences are so specific to continent, or likely just by some narrower context. You then wonder how results, accuracy, application approach or risk inclusion also differ.
Different Continents…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Moves on Virtual Reality
Wal-Mart has always be advanced in tech, how they might implement VR should be interesting.
Walmart Latest Acquisition Is Virtual Reality Startup Spatialand
Walmart has acquired a small virtual reality shop, called Spatialand,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mckinsey on China in 2018
What can we expect in China in 2018?
By Gordon Orr in McKinsey
The nation could be shaped by geopolitics, momentum from robust economic growth, and a host of new leaders eager to implement new policy.
With so many new leaders put…