Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2016
From The Eponymous Pickle
Another Messaging App or Service Concierge
In Verge: Did remind me of Hangouts at first, but then with AI and better voice recognition included. More assistant like. Concierge like. A replacement of Apps? That gets you to the service that you need. Built…
From Schneier on Security
Detecting Explosives
Really interesting article on the difficulties involved with explosive detection at airport security checkpoints. Abstract: The mid-air bombing of a Somali passenger jet in February was a wake-up call for security agencies and…
From insideHPC
Podcast: TACC Powers Zika Hackathon to Fight Disease
In this TACC podcast, Ari Kahn from the Texas Advanced Computing Center and Eddie Garcia from Cloudera describe a recent Hackathon in Austin designed to tackle data challenges in the fight against the Zika virus. The Texas Advanced…
From XRDS
42 Tips to Increase Your Website’s Rank from UConn Students
At the University of Connecticut, undergraduate students majoring in Computer Science studied Google’s PageRank algorithm as a practice on stochastic processes and their applications. After their research on the algorithm along…
From insideHPC
Nvidia M60 GPU to Speed Virtual Desktops on IBM Cloud
"With NVIDIA GPU technology on IBM Cloud, we are one step closer to offering supercomputing performance on a pay-as-you-go basis, which makes this new approach to tackling big data problems accessible to customers of all sizes…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple Store and Modern Retail
We used the Apple store as a model for potential future retail. In Retailwire, recent look and criticism of its redesign and implications for complex technical retail. Its still a crowded place, but is it now just aesthetics…
From insideHPC
Larry Smarr Presents: Using Supercomputers to Reveal your Inner Microbiome
"I have been collecting massive amounts of data from my own body over the last ten years, which reveals detailed examples of the episodic evolution of this coupled immune-microbial system. An elaborate software pipeline, running…
From Phys.org Technology News
Is Kelly Slater's artificial wave the future of surfing?
Surfers had never seen a spot like it: head-high waves unfurling like wrapping paper in pristine, tapering cylinders for more than a quarter-mile, with not a soul out to catch them.
From insideHPC
Supercomputing Hidden Lava Lakes
The Piz Daint supercomputer spotted a large reservoir of magma right below the tiny South Korean island of Ulleung. No harm to humans is expected, but the origin of the magma pool remains unclear.
The post Supercomputing Hidden…From insideHPC
IBM to Fight Zika with World Community Grid
"Enlisting the help of World Community Grid volunteers will enable us to computationally evaluate over 20 million compounds in just the initial phase and potentially up to 90 million compounds in future phases," said Carolina…
From Phys.org Technology News
Could Hollywood technology help your health?
The same technology used by the entertainment industry to animate characters such as Gollum in The Lord of The Rings films, will be used to help train elite athletes, for medical diagnosis and even to help improve prosthetic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amsterdam as a Smart City
Via MIT Sloan, only available for a limited time. What overlaps exist with supply chain issues? How about cognitive data interaction? May require registration. Possibly also available from EY. See also the Amsterdam Smart…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blackchain for Data data Origin and Accuracy
Have worked on several projects in the last few years that dealt directly with this broad concept. Is your data correct? Accurate? A governance challengeIn Information Management: " .... Blockchain technologies—the technical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Creates an Assistant
Technology review reports on today's I/O presentations:I like the model of a 'Concierge', it was the same method we used in our own bot experiment. Break up information sources into key segments of data, knowledge, people,"…
From Phys.org Technology News
Dynamic dazzle distorts speed
Dazzle camouflage, as used on World War I battleships to fool U-boat commanders, has been modernised for the twenty-first century with moving patterns.
From Phys.org Technology News
Football fans to get smartphone vote to substitute player
An English Premier League club wants to allow supporters to vote via smartphone for the player they want substituted during a match, a data analyst has told a Doha football conference.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Store your (Big) Data in the Code of Life?
The following is a special contribution to this blog by CCC Executive Council Member Mark D. Hill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Full disclosure: He is working with one of the authors—Luis Ceze—and Tom Wenisch on visioning…
From insideHPC
Dr. Pam McCauley to Keynote XSEDE16
Today XSEDE announced that Dr. Pamela McCauley has been named a plenary speaker for the XSEDE16 conference. In this dynamic keynote address, McCauley will discuss the impact of innovation on individuals, nations, and the global…
From insideHPC
Video: Best Practices in HPC Software Development
"Scientific code developers have increasingly been adopting software processes derived from the mainstream (non-scientific) community. Software practices are typically adopted when continuing without them becomes impractical.…
From insideHPC
Nvidia CTO Steve Oberlin to Discuss Rise of GPUs at NCSA 30th Anniversary
Steve Oberlin, chief technology officer for accelerated computing at NVIDIA, will give two NCSA 30th Anniversary Featured Lectures on May 26. The morning talk is tailored for NCSA staff, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Sensemaking in a Noisy World
CSIG invited talk today by K. Selcuk Candan Arizona State University : ... “Data-Driven Sensemaking in an Evolving, Noisy World”. which is almost always the challenge with real world data . Slides here.
From insideHPC
Slimming Down Supercomputer Power Bills
Any performance improvements that could be wrung out of supercomputers by adding more power have long been exhausted. New supercomputers demand new options that will give scientists a sleek, efficient partner in making new discoveries…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Let's Teach our Computers
Wired brings up a very old idea in AI. You should not have to write code that computers use to operate with. That's messy, prone to error and expensive, In particular it is hard to maintain as our world changes. Computers…
From insideHPC
Using Vectors on Intel Xeon Phi
The use of vector instructions can speed up applications tremendously when used correctly. The benefit is that much more work can be done in a clock cycle than by performing the operation one at a time. The Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor…
From Phys.org Technology News
'Technical issue' briefly cripples Swedish air traffic
"A technical issue" temporarily affected air traffic control operations in large parts of Sweden on Thursday, barring planes from taking off for 90 minutes, authorities said.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google's Renewed Focus on AI
Out of the Google I/O conference this week. Good overview. A continuation of their long time attention on the application of AI. Have been covering a number of these items in this blog. Continue to get queries from the enterprise…
From Computational Complexity
Upfronts
The US television industry has long fascinated me, an entertainment outlet driven by technology. David Sarnoff introduced television at the World's Fair in 1939 and developed the NBC network to provide content so people would…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gazerecorder Eye Tracking
Brought to my attention by a client connection. In Sourceforge, a new version 1.9 of Gazerecorder " ... WebCam Eye Tracking for usability testing ... " . See also their web site. A broad overview with images.
From BLOG@CACM
And the 2016 ICPC Winner Is . . .
The results are in for the 2016 ACM-ICPC World Finals
From The Eponymous Pickle
Measuring Conversions
In InternetRetailer: Been a bit out of marketing measurement lately, but its something we were keen on. Here suggesting we look closer at conversion cycles rather than rates. " ... The issue here is fundamental: how do weUseful…