Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2021
From Computational Complexity
An Investment Puzzle and Speculation as to Why Some Think it's Hard
This is a Guest Post by David Marcus. He gives a puzzle and its solution, which is interesting, and then speculates as to why some people get it wrong.
--------------------------------------------------------------------…From The Eponymous Pickle
Building 3D Earth Models
For those with interest in the recent eruptions in Iceland and also those with interest in Photogrammetry 3D models of the earth, here is a 3D model of the eruptions. Still under development. First is a simplified Youtubehttps…
From Apophenia
Behind every algorithm, there be politics.
In my first class in computer science, I was taught that an algorithm is simply a way of expressing formal rules given to a computer. Computers like rules. They follow them. Turns out that bureaucracy and legal systems like rules…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Evolution of Ransomware and Related Extortion
Thoughtful podcast and transcript from Recorded Future, Telling the evolution of extortion methods and responses.
Ransomware and Extortion Evolve More Brazen Tactics By Caitlin Mattingly of Recorded Future.
For this week’s show…From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Summing Up the Primes
Given the millennia that people have contemplated prime numbers, our continuing ignorance concerning the primes is stultifying—Richard Crandall and Carl Pomerance Sources: her site, Oberlin interview Lola Thompson is an Associate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
First Multi-Node Quantum Network Paves the Way for the Quantum Internet
Though still a small number of qubits, but the connectivity into a 'quantum internet' appears to be a big step forward.
First Multi-Node Quantum Network Paves the Way for the Quantum Internet By ZDNet April 16, 2021
Researchers…From The Eponymous Pickle
Grants for Taming Big Data
Key aspects to manage and manage large unwieldy data from may sources
DOE Will Spend $10M on Research to Tame Massive Data Sets By U.S. Department of Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $10 million in funding on…From The Eponymous Pickle
Uses of AI for Small Business
Fairly obvious, but the stats show you that small business understands the needs and possibilities.
The Growing Importance of AI for Small Businesses
AI has become enormously important for small businesses in recent years. Posted…From The Eponymous Pickle
Phonons and Quantum Monte Carlo
More looks at material science.
A Successful Phonon Calculation Within the Quantum Monte Carlo Framework By Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology April 6, 2021
Phonon dispersion of diamond calculated at the variational…From CERIAS Blog
Riffing on the Ph.D. Degree
I recenty was having a discussion with someone about the Ph.D. option for a degree here. The person said “I don’t want a Ph.D. because I don’t ever intend to do research at a university.” Thus began a conversation about how…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cyber Threats to Supply Chains
Schneier reports on the DNI annual assessment. With lots of interesting comments and other coverage in his blog. Would also like to emphasize supply chain implications. We move so much, from raw materials to finished products…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quanta Magazine: Brain Rotates Memories to Save Them
Made me think of how this kind of structure could be used in machine learning to perform a kind of maintenance and change managemebt as new data is acquired. Even lead to creativity based on current knowledge.
The Brain ‘Rotates…From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft and AI Company Nuance
A good piece on why Microsoft is squiring Nuance, which also reminded me I had tested and used their package Dragon for speech recognition applications. But how will Cortana integrate, if at all?
Why Microsoft’s new AI acquisition…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (April 17th 2021)
Moderna built their COVID 19 vaccine without having the virus on site. They viewed it as a software problem. Human and mice with red hair have elevated pain thresholds. Tumors (cancer) consume high levels of sugar. You wouldContinue…
From The Eponymous Pickle
App Calcs Infection Risk in Rooms
Wonder at the broad claims to accuracy here, but the components are interesting. Note the HEADS reference below.
App Calculates Corona Infection Risk in Rooms
Max Planck Gessellschaft (Germany), April 9, 2021
A free Web application…From The Eponymous Pickle
Salesforce Builds an AI Platform
Interesting example of the effort and its building ...
Building a Successful Enterprise AI Platform By Arpeet Kale
Introduction
In 2016, I started as a fresh grad software engineer at a small startup called MetaMind, which was…From Schneier on Security
Details on the Unlocking of the San Bernardino Terrorist’s iPhone
The Washington Post has published a long story on the unlocking of the San Bernardino Terrorist’s iPhone 5C in 2016. We all thought it was an Israeli company called Cellebrite. It was actually an Australian company called Azimuth…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Whats Next in AI? From Geoffrey Hinton
This sounded interesting, have always read Hinton's pieces. About to read this. Will give some thoughts about it later.
Geoffrey Hinton Has a Hunch about What's Next for AI By MIT Technology Review, April 16, 2021 from CACM…From insideHPC
The Linux Foundation Launches Research Division to Explore Open Source Ecosystems and Impact
The Linux Foundation has announced a research arm whose mission is to broaden understanding of open source projects, ecosystem dynamics and impact, the organization said. “Through a series of research projects and related content…
From insideHPC
Univ. of Chicago’s Polsky Center Launches Venture Conference for Midwest Deep Tech Startups from Universities and National Labs
CHICAGO– The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is pleased to announce the launch of DeepTechU, a venture conference showcasing deep tech innovation and 48 investor-ready companies from …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Record Gaming Sales
Implications? Increase of spare time? Increase of game hardware sales. Less serious work being done? Opportunities for more gamification? Will this continue postpandemic?
We're still spending record amounts on gaming, a …From The Eponymous Pickle
Omnichannel Profitable in Post Pandemic?
Been asked similar questions in recent interactions. What will the change be and should retailers react?
Can omnichannel be as profitable for retailers as in-store sales? in Retailwire by Yogesh Kulkarni with further expert…From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
Report on ACM W India Pune Professional Chapter Virtual Regional Celebration
A virtual ACM W regional celebration India was organised by ACM W Pune Professional chapter in association with Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering on 3rd March 2021
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Development and Policymaking
Obvious, and exists well beyond AI into all decision oriented computation. Must be done as part of a process understanding model of how decisions are made and implemented, under regulation and compliance. So ultimately complex…
From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
Report on ACM W Winter School for Women on Natural Language Processing
DA-IICT with ACM-W hosted an ACM Winter School on Natural Language Processing during 4 January to 14 January 2021.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Lowes Supporting AI Research
Lowes has always been doing interesting things in retail. Now is supporting AI in education.
Lowe's Puts $1.5 Million Into AI Research at UNC Charlotte, By The Charlotte Observer (NC), April 15,Home…From The Eponymous Pickle
Measuring Consciousness
More brain research addresses complexities of intelligence.
Researchers Find Better Way to Measure Consciousness
University of Wisconsin-Madison News, Chris Barncard, March 16, 2021
Analysis of neural signals in monkeys by University…From The Eponymous Pickle
Farm Automation Advances
More picks on my agriculture and botany advances. Some good related statistics.
Automating the Farm, By Esther Shein, Commissioned by CACM Staff
Step inside the cab of the John Deere 8RX Tractor, and you may be surprisedFarming…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CSTA 2021 Scholarships
Are you looking to attend the CSTA 2021 Conference but funding is an issue? There are a great many scholarships available that can help. Visit the scholarship site for full details and application information. I copied a lotNote…
From Schneier on Security
NSA Discloses Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange
Amongst the 100+ vulnerabilities patch in this month’s Patch Tuesday, there are four in Microsoft Exchange that were disclosed by the NSA.