Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2020
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using AI methods to Address the most Current Problems
Examples of AI augmented problem solving:
Benevolent AI
Because it matters.
Benevolent AI: Accelerating the journey from data to medicine.
Our work on Covid-19.
PRESS RELEASE
Potential treatment for COVID-19 identified by BenevolentAI…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Automating AI By Evolution
Akin to genetic algorithms, which we experimented with, but found that the combinatorics (very large number of solutions) of real world problems were too large or unstable for us to practically use. I can see the similarities…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Proof and Cake Envy
Our proofs can be big too [Mackenzie and Aziz] Haris Aziz and Simon Mackenzie are computer scientists at UNSW and CMU respectively. Of course UNSW is the University of New South Wales and CMU is the Carnegie Mellon University…
From insideHPC
NSF awards compute time on Frontera Supercomputer for 49 projects
The most powerful supercomputer in the world for academic research has established its mission for the coming year. "The NSF has approved allocations of supercomputing time on Frontera to 49 science projects for 2020-2021. Time…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Does Amazon Sell too Well?
Noted exactly this recently, ordered a couple of common things, seemingly not at all virus related, and I got a message back saying they were unavailable. Never before. More at Inc.
Amazon Is Changing Its Website To Do Something…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: Scientific Data Application Developer at CGSA in Milwaukee
The Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics (CGCA) at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee is seeking a Scientific Data Application Developer in our Job of the Week. "Successful candidates will be part of a large…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: On the Efficacy of Squid as Bait
How to use squid as bait. 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 here....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cybersecurity Risk
Advancing for some time now, but at least we should be able to assemble defenses for the inevitable?
Why Is Cybersecurity Not a Human-Scale Problem Anymore?
By Gaurav Banga
Communications of the ACM, April 2020, Vol. 63 No. 4,10…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning at Home with Google Earth
I was astounded by Google Earth from the very beginning, very precise and visual interactive geography. Here some hints from Google about how to use it effectively. Now here is the chance with your kids. Or for yourself.
Tips…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger CEO Talks Now and Next
Good overall view by a major player.
Kroger CEO talks about booming sales, supply chain advantage, shopping habits in BizJournal
Sales are soaring at Kroger Co., but CEO Rodney McMullen said today in a wide-ranging discussion he's…
From Schneier on Security
The DoD Isn't Fixing Its Security Problems
It has produced several reports outlining what's wrong and what needs to be fixed. It's not fixing them: GAO looked at three DoD-designed initiatives to see whether the Pentagon is following through on its own goals. In a majority…
From insideHPC
Q-CTRL to Accelerate Quantum Technology Solutions for National Security Applications
Today quantum startup Q-CTRL announced a strategic investment by In-Q-Tel (IQT), the not-for-profit strategic investor that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the national security communities of the U.S. and…
From insideHPC
NVIDIA Receives Approval to Proceed with Mellanox Acquisition
Today NVIDIA announced that it has received approval from all necessary authorities to proceed with its planned acquisition of Mellanox, as announced in March 2019. "This exciting transaction would unite two HPC industry leaders…
From insideHPC
SDSC makes Comet Supercomputer available for COVID-19 research
With the U.S. and many other countries working ‘round the clock to mitigate the devastating effects of the COVID-19 disease, SDSC is providing priority access to its high-performance computer systems and other resources to researchers…
From insideHPC
Supermicro Sets World Record Performance with AMD EPYC Processors
Today Supermicro announced that line of servers optimized for 2nd Gen AMD EPYC Processors have achieved 27 world record performance benchmarks and counting. In addition to the industry's first blade platform, Supermicro's entire…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Adoption for Retailers
Have always found that major retailers are ahead in finding and using new tech.
What are the biggest barriers to AI adoption for retailers? by Tom Ryan in Retailwire, with expert comment.
According to KPMG’s “Living in an AI
The…
From insideHPC
Video: Competence Centres in HPC – their Role in European Innovation
In this video from the HPE Conference, Bastian Koller from HLRS discusses Competence Centres in HPC and their role in European innovation. "The Centres of Excellence (CoE) develop leading edge technologies to promote the adoption…
From Universal Acceptance Steering Group
Task Force on Arabic script IDNs
In our 2014 World Report on IDNs, we reported on the work of ICANN’s Task Force on Arabic script IDNs, an initiative of the Middle East Strategy Working Group. The Task Force focuses on technical issues and solutions related …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using Kroger Pickup Service
My friend Walter Riker looks at Kroger Grocery Pickup,
Our First Attempt at The Kroger Pickup Service - We Like What We Found.
This past weekend my wife and I used Kroger's Grocery Pickup service for the first time.
To begin my…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Seeking Better Chatbots with Contextual Memory
Another example of looking at memory to establish context understanding for a chatbot
Deploying more conversational chatbots
Startup Posh has created chatbots that use “conversational memory” to have more natural exchanges.
Zach…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Rounding integers to even, efficiently
When dividing a numerator n by a divisor d, most programming languages round “down”. It means that 1/2 is 0. Mathematicians will insist that 1/2 and claim that you really are computing floor(1/2). But let me think like a programmer…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Ending School With a Whimper not a Bang
The other shoe dropped today. New Hampshire’s governor ordered public schools to continue emergency remote teaching for the rest of the school year. This was not unexpected as many other states have already come to the same conclusion…
From insideHPC
AMD Donates HPC Systems to fight COVID-19
AMD has announced a COVID-19 HPC fund to provide research institutions with computing resources to accelerate medical research on COVID-19 and other diseases. The fund will include an initial donation of $15 million of high-performance…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computing Researchers Respond to COVID-19: Voxel51; A Means of Tracking Social Distancing
Contributions to this post were provided by the Voxel51 team. Empty parks, X’s taped to the floor in check-out lines, virtual family holidays, these are all part of the new norm thanks to COVID-19. One of the most dangerous…
From insideHPC
Using Magnetic Circuits for Energy Efficient Big Data Processing
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have found a way to make the new generation of smart computers more energy efficient. "Traditionally, silicon chips have formed the building…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cyber Warranties
Warranties for data?
Cyber Warranties: Market Fix or Marketing Trick?
By Daniel W. Woods, Tyler Moore
Communications of the ACM, April 2020, Vol. 63 No. 4, Pages 104-107 10.1145/3360310
When buying a second-hand car you are at the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
One Way Aisles
Will be seeing how this will be implemented at local grocery retail.
UPDATE: Walmart, Kroger, Hy-Vee, Giant go with one-way aisles to combat coronavirus
Meijer, BJ’s Wholesale Club also ramp up social distancing efforts
Russell
EDITOR'S…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building Private 5G Networks
Assume we will be getting useful information from these tests.
German Industrial Firms to Build Private 5G Networks
The Wall Street Journal
Catherine Stupp
Automakers BMW and Volkswagen, chemicals company BASF, airline Deutsche Lufthansa…
From Schneier on Security
California Needlessly Reduces Privacy During COVID-19 Pandemic
This one isn't even related to contact tracing: On March 17, 2020, the federal government relaxed a number of telehealth-related regulatory requirements due to COVID-19. On April 3, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CISE, SBE and the Evolving and Expanding Role of Ethics at NSF and Beyond
Contributions to this post were provided by Fred Kronz, SBE/NSF. The responsible and ethical conduct of research involves not only a responsibility to generate and disseminate knowledge with rigor and integrity, but also a responsibility…