Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2023
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Welcomes Newly Appointed National Science Board Members
Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) welcomed the eight newly appointed National Science Board (NSB) Members to NSF headquarters to identify issues critical to NSF’s future. NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Surfing Research Data Waves
Key Data and Metadata gathered and collected for future use.
Surfing the Research Data Wave
University of Stuttgart (Germany), February 10, 2023
A new data exchange format developed by a team led by researchers at Germany's University…From Schneier on Security
Fines as a Security System
Tile has an interesting security solution to make its tracking tags harder to use for stalking:
The Anti-Theft Mode feature will make the devices invisible to Scan and Secure, the company’s in-app feature that lets you know if…From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
Above and Beyond Scholarship – Lauren Cairco Dukes, PhD
Year of Scholarship and Conference Attendance: ACM symposium on virtual reality software and technology, 2007 Country of residence at the time of receiving the ACM-W Scholarship: USA Lauren Cairco Dukes was a software engineer…
From Computational Complexity
It is more important than ever to teach your students probability (even non-stem students)
You are a college president. An online betting company says We will give you X dollars if you allow us to promote online gambling at your University.
I suspect you would say NO.
Too late- it's already happening. A link to a NY…From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Edie Schlain Windsor and same sex marriage
Edie Schlain Windsor was a senior systems programmer at IBM. There is more to life than computing though. She led the landmark US Supreme Court Case that was a milestone for the rights of same-sex couples in the US.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Talking to Chat AI. Early Chats:
Have been running ChatGPT from OpenAI for a couple of weeks now.
Nicely done, reasonably accurate so far for general questions. Here I asked about the uses of optimization. Queries, other interactions you want me to run?…From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Thanks to Rich
Richard DeMillo deserves, in my opinion, an award for his decades of research. A difficulty I believe is that he has worked on multiple areas and made important contributions to each of these areas. Let’s take a look at the top…
From The Eponymous Pickle
An Examination of Bing Chat's Secret Modes
Shaky implementation, getting access. These kinds of applications have to be very good, else they are worthless..
An examination of Bing Chat's Secret Modes in BleepingComputer
Bing Chat's secret modes turn it into a personal…From The Eponymous Pickle
Tesla Autopilots Still a Problem
Seems a fundamental are of their autopilot system. No resulting injuries known.
Tesla recalls 363,000 cars over self-driving software in the BBC
Tesla is updating its self-driving software after US safety officials raised concerns…From The Eponymous Pickle
Uses of Digital Twins in the Warehouse
Thoughtful look at Twin based modeling. 5 Cases.
Uses of Digital Twins in the Warehouse in SupplyChainBrain
The digital twin of a warehouse — a real-time, 3D virtual representation of an actual facility down to the space, people…From The Eponymous Pickle
Bing Chat Vulnerable to Attacks
Implications unclear, but Bing Chat appears not to be unstable under attacks. Still just in preview, but needs work.
Microsoft's ChatGPT-Powered Bing Reveals Its Codename and Rules, Argues With Users
By ZDNET, February 15, 2023…From The Eponymous Pickle
NVIDIA GTC Developer Conference: Metaverse: AI
NVIDIA GTC Developer Conference March 20-23, 2023
Keynote March 21
Metaverse/AI Developer sessions.
Here are short developer descriptions of developer sessions, this is useful because if shows the breadth and kind of metaverse…From The Eponymous Pickle
Considering Ambient IoT
Good intro and discussion, and in particular thoughts about how this finally implements 'smart' cheaply and with easier integration of sensors and low power requirements. The latter often comes up, we tested various retail 'in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Promise and Difficulty of Geothermal Energy
Have a long time interest in Geothermal Energy. I see that Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has a good state of the technology view of this effort in Youtube at: https://youtu.be/l6UGpaKnkS0
Sabine Hossenfelder @SabineHossenfelder…From The Eponymous Pickle
Tech Talk: The State of Data Mesh
New to me, may attend, details below and at the link.
ACM TechTalks
March 7 Talk, "State of Data Mesh" with Data Mesh Creator Zhamak Dehghani, CEO of Nextdata
Register now for the next free ACM TechTalk, "State of Data Mesh,"Leave…From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft Plans to Bring Ads to AI
Lets get it right first.
Microsoft is reportedly already planning to bring ads to Bing's AI chatbot
It's early days, but Microsoft is figuring out how to monetize the tool.
Kris Holt|@krisholt|February 17, 2023 in Engadget.
…From The Eponymous Pickle
What will it Take for Security to be Taken very Seriously?
Good considerable piece by Bruce Schneier, aiming at the Policy Makers. Intro:
What will it take for policy makers to take cybersecurity seriously? Not minimal-change seriously. Not here-and-there seriously…From The Eponymous Pickle
Labeling Your Retail Shelf Spaces
Worked this topic at some length in our lab and with retailers, still evolving. ...
Electronic shelf labels can significantly transform a store’s operations with an increasing array of benefits for retailers…From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Breakthrough Could Revolutionise computing
Multi tasking quantum?
Quantum breakthrough could revolutionise computing in the BBC
Twenty years ago Winfried Hensinger was told by other scientists that developing a powerful quantum computer was impossible. Now he has made…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Thermal Batteries from Squid Proteins
Researchers are making thermal batteries from “a synthetic material that’s derived from squid ring teeth protein.”
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered…From insideHPC
DOE Funding Opportunity for National Labs and Partners: $80M for Emerging Technologies R&D
Feb. 17, 2023 — Washington, DC — Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $80 million, provided by the Office of Science, to support fundamental research to drive the innovation cycle in support of the Accelerate Innovations…
From BLOG@CACM
Using GitHub CoPilot is Like Having a Superpower
With the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) and tools like GitHub CoPilot, I think we’re a step closer towards a world where software can be created by anyone. In fact, my colleague Brad Myers, who has investigated end-user…
From insideHPC
Frontier Pushes Boundaries: 86% of Nodes Engaged on Reactor Simulation Runs
Details have trickled out of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) indicating progress in preparing Frontier, the exascale-class supercomputer ranked no. 1 on the Top500 list of the most powerful systems, for full…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Putting Limits to Vehicle Tech
Limits of autonomous vehicle tech?
Carmakers Are Pushing Autonomous Tech. This Engineer Wants Limits. By The New York Times.February 16, 2023
Systems like General Motors Super Cruise can steer, brake and accelerate vehicles on…From The Eponymous Pickle
Walking-Flying Spidar
Complex but very interesting thing out of Tokyo, Can get you some ware fast and then walk the rest of the way. The arrival may be scary, but you then have the last 100 meters. Instructive pix at the link show complexity…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Training Data from Audiobooks?
Ultimately its all about training data. And the quality of that data. Of course a Google gets lots of language data, but its it the right quality and type? Authors giving up data that could replace them. 300 audiobooksAudiobook…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Priorities for Research in ChatGPT
ChatGPT: Five Priorities for Research (Opinion in CACM)
By Nature, February 3, 2023
A smartphone trying to connect to ChatGPT has message stating that it is too busy.
We are confident that science will find a way to benefit from…From The Eponymous Pickle
Israeli First Responders in Turkey
Emergency response combining rapid attention and needed data for complex care and communication.
Israeli First Responders in Turkey Use Real-Time Tech for Remote Victim Care
Times of Israel, Sharon Wrobel, February 9, 2023
Emergency…From Schneier on Security
Defending against AI Lobbyists
When is it time to start worrying about artificial intelligence interfering in our democracy? Maybe when an AI writes a letter to The New York Times opposing the regulation of its own technology.
That happened last month. And…