Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2016
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
I do not use a debugger
I learned to program with BASIC back when I was twelve. I would write elaborate programs and run them. Invariably, they would surprise me by failing to do what I expect. I would struggle for a time, but I’d eventually give up…
From insideHPC
Dell Brings Supercomputing Power to Mainstream Enterprises
"While traditional HPC has been critical to research programs that enable scientific and societal advancement, Dell is mainstreaming these capabilities to support enterprises of all sizes as they seek a competitive advantage …
From The Noisy Channel
Query Understanding: A Manifesto
Query understanding has been my obsession for years. But my recent work at Etsy and Pinterest has sharpened my thinking on the topic.
From Putting People First
‘Big data is people!’
The sum of our clickstreams is not an objective measure of who we are, but a personal portrait of our hopes and desires, argues Rebecca Lemov, associate professor of the history of science at Harvard University. When trying to…
From insideHPC
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Rolls Out Software Defined HPC Platform
Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) introduced new high-performance computing solutions that aim to accelerate HPC adoption by enabling faster time-to-value and increased competitive differentiation through better parallel…
From Schneier on Security
Security Behavior of Pro-ISIS Groups on Social Media
Interesting: Since the team had tracked these groups daily, researchers could observe the tactics that pro-ISIS groups use to evade authorities. They found that 15 percent of groups changed their names during the study period…
From insideHPC
Slidecast: Announcing the Nvidia Tesla P100 for PCIe Servers
In this slidecast, Marc Hamilton from describes the Nvidia Tesla P100 for PCIe Servers. "The Tesla P100 for PCIe is available in a standard PCIe form factor and is compatible with today’s GPU-accelerated servers. It is optimized…
From insideHPC
Cray Adds Intel Xeon Phi Processor to Flagship Line of Supercomputers
Today Cray introduced new performance breakthroughs that will provide customers with the fastest Cray XC supercomputers and Cray Sonexion storage systems to date. “Our customers are taking on increasingly complex computational…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Better Comments in Visual Studio
Thanks to Channel 9 I found an interesting extension for Visual Studio called Better Comments. "Better Comments is a Visual Studio extension that gives you the ability to customize the font and opacity of your comments independently…
From insideHPC
Supermicro Launches Wide Range of HPC Solutions at ISC 2016
SuperMicro is showcasing its High Performance Computing solutions at ISC 2016 this week in Frankfurt, Germany. "With Supermicro HPC solutions deep learning, engineering, and scientific fields can scale out compute clusters to…
From insideHPC
Asetek Demonstrates Leadership with Recent Global Installations
Sandia National Laboratories has already seen the benefits from a major Asetek liquid cooled HPC system that has been in use for over twelve months. The 600 teraflop Sky Bridge Supercomputer with 1,848 nodes was installed using…
From insideHPC
Cray Announces Big Wins at ISC 2016
Today Cray announced that the company has been awarded new contracts for its Cray XC40 supercomputer, two Cray CS400 cluster supercomputers, a Cray Urika-GX agile analytics platform, and its DataWarp applications I/O accelerator…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Diesign Thinking, Risk, Innovation
Thoughtful piece in Gartner Blog , especially about integrating risk management. At least that can be thought of quantitatively ....Design Thinking Lies at the Corner of Risk Management and Innovation, by John A. Wheeler …
From The Eponymous Pickle
William James on Attention
William James speaking on a number of very modern concerns. In Brainpickings: " .... Attention … is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects…
From Schneier on Security
CIA Director John Brennan Pretends Foreign Cryptography Doesn't Exist
Last week, CIA director John Brennan told a Senate committee that there wasn't any strong cryptography outside of the US. CIA director John Brennan told US senators they shouldn't worry about mandatory encryption backdoors hurting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytics is more than Self Service
Good thoughts in the SAP Digtalist Mag. " ... Why The Future of Analytics Is About More Than Self-Service ... " by Timo Elliott
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pizza Service with a Cognitive Smile?
Word that Pizza Hut plans to soon test robots for customer service in Asia. We examined much simpler kiosk-style interactions in retail. Do androids with AI driven service style do better? Cognitive with a smile? Plus…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Driverless Carts
More on driverless carts in retailwire. And a discussion. Maybe its not the smart of carts that is important, but the inconvenience.
From insideHPC
Requirements in HPC Environments
This is the second article in a series taken from the insideHPC Guide to Flexible HPC. Organizations that implement high-performance computing (HPC) technologies have a wide range of requirements. From small manufacturing suppliers…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Data Science Webinar- DevOps at Amazon: A Look at Our Tools and Processes
The AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows at the National Science Foundation (NSF) have organized another talk in their Data Science Seminar Series from Bill Vass on DevOps at Amazon: A Look at Our Tools and Processes. The…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
South Big Data Hub DataStart Program
The South Big Data Hub links talented students with tech startups through a DataStart program, which provides real-world experiences for students while helping entrepreneurial companies. Graduate students from six universities…
From Schneier on Security
Nude Photos as Loan Collateral
The New York Times is reporting that some women in China are being forced to supply nude photos of themselves as collateral for getting a loan. Aside from the awfulness of this practice, it's really bad collateral because it's…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 20 June 2016
I think my brain shut down when I left school last Monday to start the summer break. While I got a lot of personal business done last week my mind was really not on computer science. Oh I collected some good links (shared below)…
From insideHPC
Radio Free HPC Looks at Sunway TaihuLight – the World’s Fastest Supercomputer
In this podcast, Shahin Khan from OrionX joins the Radio Free HPC team for a look at the new TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. "The 93 Petaflop Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer is not a one-time effort from China…
From insideHPC
At ISC 2016, The Times, They Are A-Changin’
In this special guest feature, Kim McMahon and Brian E. Whitaker share their perspectives on the supercomputer industry from ISC 2016 in Frankfurt. "ISC hosts 147 exhibitors this year across hardware, software, and services, …
From insideHPC
Univa Grid Engine Supports New Intel Xeon Phi Processor
Today Univa announced the release of Univa Grid Engine Version 8.4.0 with preview support for the Intel Xeon Phi processor (formerly code-named “Knights Landing”), enabling enterprises to launch and control jobs on Intel Xeon…
From insideHPC
93 Petaflop Chinese Supercomputer is World’s Fastest on Latest TOP500 List
A new machine called Sunway TaihuLight in China is the fastest supercomputer on the planet. Announced today with the release of the latest TOP500 list, the 93 Petaflop machine sports over 10.6 Million compute cores. "The latest…
From insideHPC
New NVIDIA Tesla P100 Brings Pascal Architecture to HPC Applications
“Accelerated computing is the only path forward to keep up with researchers’ insatiable demand for HPC and AI supercomputing,” said Ian Buck, vice president of accelerated computing at NVIDIA. “Deploying CPU-only systems to meet…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Rules for VR
Hardly rules, more like general usefulness guidelines. Would like to see more detail here. What works for real enterprise examples?
From Phys.org Technology News
Few Utah police report drone use, cite tough FAA regulations
Law enforcement agencies have touted drones as a powerful new tool for searches and investigations, but police in Utah report they've stopped using the devices after getting bogged down by federal regulations.