Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2015
From insideHPC
Nvidia Pascal GPU is Just One Year Away
According to comments made at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) last week, the Pascal, next generation GPU is now just a year away.
From insideHPC
Podcast: Fighting Alzheimer’s with HPC
In this podcast, Dr. Rudy Tanzi from Harvard Medical School describes his pioneering research in Alzheimer’s disease and how HPC is critical to the path forward. "Dr. Tanzi currently spearheads the Alzheimer’s Genome Project,…
From Schneier on Security
BIOS Hacking
We've learned a lot about the NSA's abilities to hack a computer's BIOS so that the hack survives reinstalling the OS. Now we have a research presentation about it. From Wired: The BIOS boots a computer and helps load the operating…
From Putting People First
Design fiction personas illustrate possible impact of educational tech
People talk about the future of technology in education as though it’s right around the corner, but most of us get to that corner and see it disappearing around the next. This innovation-obsessed cycle continues as we are endlessly…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Oceans of Data Institute
Brought to my attention, the Oceans of Data Institute. " ... The Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) is dedicated to raising a generation equipped to unlock the potential of big data. From identifying the skills needed in the modern…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 23 March 2015
Some great links this week. Images to use in class, a video for a TV show (yes about girls computing), and lots more. One of my best collections in recent weeks if I do say so myself. Program Computers, Not Kids is a great post…
From insideHPC
Video: OFA Update by ORNL
"ORNL’s supercomputing program has grown from humble beginnings to deliver some of the most powerful systems in the world. On the way, it has helped researchers deliver practical breakthroughs and new scientific knowledge in …
From Putting People First
Design fiction, not science, hints at the future we actually want
The stories we tell ourselves about technology – typically, optimistic ones from would-be innovators, pessimistic ones from their critics – are usually too simple. Making them more complex can support a richer discussion about…
From Computational Complexity
Which mathematician had the biggest gap between fame and contribution?
(I was going to call this entry Who was the worst mathematician of all time? but Clyde Kruskal reminded me that its not (say) Goldbach's fault that his conjecture got so well known, in fact its a good thing! I'll come back to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Large Scale Graphics Visualization
Just noticed this new system. I have been working with GePhi: An interview with Leo Meyerovich:Who is behind Graphistry?Graphistry spun out of UC Berkeley’s Parallel Computing lab last year. It stems from my Ph.D. on the first…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Vinimaya Visual Marketplace Discovery
Mentioned last week in conjunction with delivering visual Marketplaces. Can you understand your market visually through search? Impressive approach. Vinimaya’s Visual Discovery capabilities provides users of MarketPlace an …
From Putting People First
Why face-to-face contact matters in our digital age
Psychologist Susan Pinker on the importance of face-to-face contact in our era of disbanded families and virtual connections. “Research shows that people who feel socially disconnected are at a greater risk of dying young – especially…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Providing App Development Services for the Enterprise
In CWorld: Which then makes me ask the question, what is the portfolio of services that are most important? Again, I suggest that a form of business process modeling could be key." ... IBM has built a team of experts on "devops…
From insideHPC
Podcast: Supercomputing BioFuels at TACC
In this TACC podcast, Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign describes the analysis and modeling of the cellulosome bond. The research could boost efforts to develop catalysts for biofuel production …
From insideHPC
Video: Prototyping Byte-Addressable NVM Access
In this video from the 2015 OFS Developer's Workshop, Bernard Metzler presents: Prototyping Byte-Addressable NVM Access.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tibco Spotfire Review
We were early users of Spotfire, and ultimately it became the standard for BI and analytics on our delivered Business Sphere systems. Was always impressed with the ease of use of their systems. Also how easily the analytics…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Introduction: Neural Networks in Machine Learning
We used neural networks for some classical needs in understanding customer data. Now they have expanded in use, via advanced hardware, to provide much 'deeper' results. Here an introduction, quite technical beyond the first…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Memory Implants for the Brain via Advisory Systems
I think we are some ways from being able to do this, at least in the sense it can be connected directly to the brain. Perhaps sooner as an external interface that forms a 'remembrance engine'. Search engines by themselves already…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building User Models with Twitter
Have recently had to look at how user models can be built from a Twitter stream. In particular for retail interactions. Took a look at some of IBM's Watson influenced services in Bluemix. Here a non technical piece in the.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data Paying Off
In Innovation Excellence: The payoff from big data. More clearly, it is the payoff from understanding your data and they using analytics to improve your process.
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Strange New Look at Time
New, more accurate clock makes us revisit the concept of time"We can measure time much better than the weight of something or an electrical current," he says, "but what time really is, is a question that I can't answer for you…
From insideHPC
Nimbis Services to Help Bolster Manufacturing with HPC
Today Nimbis Services announced a collaboration with SMLC and UCLA on HPC to bolster modeling and simulation in manufacturing.
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: HPC Research Scientist at PNNL
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA is seeking an HPC Research Scientist in our Job of the Week.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative
A reminder about the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) , who we connected with from time to time via Peter Fader. " .... the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) is the preeminent academic research center…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Pen
Neat. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google and AI
In the CACM: Google's Eric Schmidt downplays fear over AI. " ... He also says machine learning has the potential to help solve every problem. "I can't think of a field of study, a field of research — whether it's English, soft…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tweets vs Blog Posts
I blog first, and then write tweets (@FranzD) pointing to a select some of the blog entries. Blogging itself is declining, because it is just easier to write little tweets. Apparently Google has an algorithm where site posts…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CS Students will be Honored Guests at White House Science Fair
Be sure to tune into the White House Science Fair on Monday to see future computer science researchers like Sreya Atluri, Maureen “Reeny” Botros, and Sophia Sánchez-Maes. They are honored guests at the fifth White House Science…
From Schneier on Security
New Paper on Digital Intelligence
David Omand -- GCHQ director from 1996-1997, and the UK's security and intelligence coordinator from 2000-2005 -- has just published a new paper: "Understanding Digital Intelligence and the Norms That Might Govern It." Executive…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interview Questions for Computer Science Teachers
As I looked into why several posts from a while back were getting so many page views lately I realized that search values similar to “interview questions for computer science teachers” were probably responsible. The two pages…