Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2017
From The Eponymous Pickle
Linux Foundation Develops Blockchain
Continued interest in implementing blockchain:
Linux Foundation to develop tool for building blockchain business networks
The open-source project would enable smart contracts to be developed for any number of industries
By…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Note taking Alternatives
Been looking at alternative note taking and syncing services on multiple devices. For example have been trying Google Keep, which I much like for being visual, but it is just the basics, like a very advanced sticky notes systems…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Show Adds a Screen
Includes video calling capabilities. And adding the ability to provide image data beyond what is in the Alexa App. Note the point made about the speed of delivery made by Andrew Ng.
Amazon’s Touch-Screen Smart Speaker Solves…
From insideHPC
Leveraging HPC for Real-Time Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
W. Joe Allen from TACC gave this talk at the HPC User Forum. "The Agave Platform brings the power of high-performance computing into the clinic," said William (Joe) Allen, a life science researcher for TACC and lead author on…
From insideHPC
DOE to Fund HPC for Manufacturing
Today, DOE announced nearly $3.9 million for 13 projects designed to stimulate the use of high performance supercomputing in U.S. manufacturing. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing…
From insideHPC
SkyScale Announces “World’s Fastest Cloud Computing Service”
Today SkyScale announced the launch of its world-class, ultra-fast multi-GPU hardware platforms in the cloud, available for lease to customers desiring the fastest performance available as a service anywhere on the globe. "Employing…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Signed integer division by a power of two can be expensive!
Remember when you learned the long division algorithm in school? It was painful, right? It turns out that even on modern processors, divisions are expensive. So optimizing compilers try to avoid them whenever possible. An easy…
From insideHPC
One Stop Systems Showcases High-Density GPU Appliances at GTC 2017
One Stop Systems announced plans to exhibit a wide array of its high-density GPU appliances at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. "One Stop Systems offers a wide variety of GPU appliances with different power density
…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Jennifer Rexford Announced as the 2017 NCWIT Harrold and Notkin Award Recipient
Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member Dr. Jennifer Rexford, Professor and Computer Science Department Chair at Princeton University, has been named the recipient of the 2017 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
What Does the Next Virtual Assistant Need to do?
I agree with the three innovations needed for new assistants, like the rumored Apple/Siri:
Easy giving/taking/managing phone calls.
Have true conversations / interactions with your knowledge (probably the hardest to do well)
Be…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Marketer as Technologist
Its not a perception, at least in recent years. More likely is that the technologists don't know marketing. Or you insert the business process at hand. But in general that is easier to remedy. But is that done?
The Marketer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
How to Build an Alexa Skill
Another good example of what an Alexa skill means, both its abilities, its limitations and the underlying architecture. Instructive even if you don't build one. In VentureBeat:
" ... Who knew it would be an online retailer…
From Schneier on Security
Facebook's Observations on Information Operations and the 2016 US Election
Facebook published paper on the information operations it has seen, as well as some observations regarding the recent US election. It's interesting reading....
From Putting People First
Data ethnographies: how do people live with data?
Data Ethnographies is a Lab of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC), at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Data Ethnographies investigates the implications of the increasing ubiquity of data in everyday lives …
From Writing
Startup DNA: the formula behind successful startups in Silicon Valley
“Successful startups are all alike; every unsuccessful startup is unsuccessful in its own way.”
From Writing
Startup DNA: the formula behind successful startups in Silicon Valley
“Successful startups are all alike; every unsuccessful startup is unsuccessful in its own way.”
From The Eponymous Pickle
Recrafting the Pharma Journey
Like the attention to the Journey. Its a key part of process
Has CVS crafted a promising new drugstore shopping journey? By Tom Ryan
While announcing plans to expand healthier offerings, CVS revealed it is adding more in-store…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Harmon-Kardon and Cortana
More details, but still some time before release. Will Siri also participate?
Harman Kardon’s Cortana-powered speaker leaks ahead of launch
Microsoft wants in on the Google Home and Amazon Echo party. This Echo-lookalike is made…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft Reveals Hololens Progress
VRFocus on Upcoming applications to be shown at the Microsoft Build Event. Good indication of what is being worked on
Microsoft Build 2017 Sessions Revealed
The conference takes place later this week. May 10.
By Peter Graham
HoloLensMicrosoftMicrosoft…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gartner on Performance
Yes, we are fallible. Worth understanding how.
Optimize Performance through a Positive Interplay of Cognition, Emotion and Creativity
by Manjunath Bhat | April 21, 2017 | Submit a Comment
It has long been said that technology…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Real Time Aviation Data Analytics
More and more data is being gathered and acted upon in real time. Here is a nice example where students are participating, from the SAScom Blog. With video.
Students visualize aircraft data in real time using SAS 0
By Katie Howard…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DARPA Broad Agency Announcement- Lifelong Learning Machines (L2M)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) just released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) on Lifelong Learning Machines (L2M) with a June 21, 2017, response date. DARPA is soliciting highly innovative research proposals…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Pseudo Random Numbers Are Confusing
Random numbers are really useful in computer science. We use them a lot for simulations (or games – pretty much the same thing) and to make programs more interesting. But they are not as simple as might appear. First off they…
From insideHPC
AI Technology from China Helps Radiologists Detect Lung Cancer
Today Infervision introduced its innovative, deep learning solution to help radiologists identify suspicious lesions and nodules in lung cancer patients faster than ever before. The Infervision AI platform is the world’s first…
From insideHPC
MapD Open Sources High-Speed GPU-Powered Database
Today MapD Technologies released the MapD Core database to the open source community under the Apache 2 license, seeding a new generation of data applications. "Open source is sparking innovation for data science and analytics…
From insideHPC
IBM Supports New Faster Protocols for NVMe Flash Storage
Today IBM announced its development of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) solutions to provide clients the ability to significantly lower latencies in an effort to speed data to and from storage solutions and systems. "IBM's
…
From insideHPC
Radio Free HPC Reviews the ASC17 Student Cluster Competition
In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team reviews the results from the ASC17 Student Cluster Competition finals in Wuxi, China. "As the world's largest supercomputing competition, ASC17 received applications from 230 universities…
From Schneier on Security
Using Ultrasonic Beacons to Track Users
I've previously written about ad networks using ultrasonic communications to jump from one device to another. The idea is for devices like televisions to play ultrasonic codes in advertisements and for nearby smartphones to detect…
From insideHPC
Leaping Forward in Energy Efficiency with the DOME 64-bit μDataCenter
In this slidecast, Ronald P. Luijten from IBM Research in Zurich presents: DOME 64-bit μDataCenter. "I like to call it a datacenter in a shoebox. With the combination of power and energy efficiency, we believe the
…
From Putting People First
Why service design is the new black — Intel’s Todd Harple on fashion tech
The world of fashion is becoming increasingly digital — and not just wearable devices, but with clothing made from fabrics that actually integrate sensors and technology that can monitor and measure the wearer. As fashion starts…