Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2017
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple HomePod as an Innovation
Interesting NYTimes piece which makes an odd suggestion in its title. The Apple HomePod, still untested in consumer context, is not really an innovation, but a copying of other devices already on the market. If it is better
Is…
From insideHPC
Micron Foundation Supports PEARC17 Student Program with STEM-Trek
Today the STEM-Trek nonprofit announced that donation from Micron Foundation will make it possible for more scholars to participate in the PEARC17 conference and student program. The Practice & Experience in Advanced Research…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building Dashboards with Story and Flow
Nicely done 12 page pdf from Tableau on building Dashboards.
... Making Flow Happen:
How to Build Dashboards That
Persuade, Inform and Engage
In data visualization, flow is crucial. Your audience should smoothly absorb and use the…
From insideHPC
Microway GPU Systems for HPC & Deep Learning at GTC 2017
In this video from the 2017 GPU Technology Conference, Eliot Eshelman from Microway describes the company's GPU expertise and wide range of accelerated HPC products. "Since 1982, Microway has delivered high performance computing…
From insideHPC
Mellanox Enables Composable Infrastructure on HPE Synergy Platform
“We are pleased to partner with Mellanox to now offer even higher performance networking as an integrated component of the HPE Synergy platform. The unmatched Ethernet switch fabric performance and latency will enable our financial…
From insideHPC
One Stop Systems Receives Supplier Excellence Award from Raytheon
Today One Stop Systems announced that Raytheon has recognized One Stop Systems with a Premier Supplier Excellence Award for their outstanding innovation, technical achievement and customer support. "We're very honored to receive…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Due Date Extended! — Call for Nominations – CRA/CCC Leadership in Science Policy Institute 2017
The following is a guest blog post by CRA Government Affairs Director, Peter Harsha. The deadline has been extended to June 23, 2017. As part of its mission to develop a next generation of leaders in the computing research community…
From insideHPC
Jay Boisseau on How Dell EMC is Democratizing High Performance Computing
In this video from the Dell EMC HPC Community meeting, Jay Boisseau describes the mission of the community and how Dell EMC is democratizing high performance computing. "The Dell EMC HPC Community is a worldwide technical forum…
From insideHPC
Intel® Architecture Deployment at Texas Tech University Relies on Intel® HPC Orchestrator
When it came time to perform a substantial upgrade of the TTU IT Division’s High Performance Computing Center at Texas Tech University, the challenge was to easily manage such a large expansion, which would effectively double…
From insideHPC
The HPC Transition to the Cloud
This is the first entry in an insideHPC series that explores the HPC transition to the cloud, and what your business needs to know about this evolution. Compiled in a complete Guide, we cover cloud computing, industry examples…
From Schneier on Security
Surveillance Intermediaries
Interesting law-journal article: "Surveillance Intermediaries," by Alan Z. Rozenshtein. Abstract:Apple's 2016 fight against a court order commanding it to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retail Shakeout of 2017
In Knowledge@Wharton
Who Will Survive the Retail Reckoning of 2017?
Legacy retailers’ ongoing struggle to stay relevant in a landscape increasingly dominated by Amazon and online upstarts has come to a head in the past year. Companies…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE Examines the Future of Work
In Quartz: via O'Reilly.
GE has no idea what the future of work will look like, and it appointed a finance executive to figure it out
GE recently appointed an executive to head up its efforts in “the future of work.” Her first…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Tries Grocery Kiosk
Not a new idea, but new implementation.
Walmart launches automated grocery kiosk
by Deena M. Amato-MCcoy In Chainstore Age
Walmart is once again raising the stakes in the online grocery game.
In another move that takes a direct
Walmart…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Privacy in Information-Rich Intelligent Infrastructure
Did you know that driverless cars communicate real-time location and other data to cloud aggregators like Google? This intelligent infrastructure monitoring compromises the privacy of drivers who continuously share their locations…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Polite Software
This piece mentions Byron Reeves research in UXMatters:
The 14 Characteristics of Polite Software, Part 1 By Awais Imran
With a list of 'polite' (human?) aspects of conversation. Are we polite? Do we expect software to be polite…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cyborg Insect Drones
Had heard this proposed years ago, now it is happening, in IEEE Spectrum:
Draper's Genetically Modified Cyborg Dragonfly Takes Flight
By Evan Ackerman
A live dragonfly with a cybernetic backpack and optical implants is now airborne…
From insideHPC
Video: How PRACE Powers HPC for European Industry
"Supercomputers are key to industrial and societal progress. The overarching goal of PRACE is to provide a federated Europe with a science-driven supercomputing infrastructure, and support European industries in becoming globally…
From insideHPC
ISC 2017 Names Erich Strohmaier and Yutong Lu as Conference Fellows
Today the ISC High Performance conference announced the appointment of Dr. Erich Strohmaier of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, and Prof. Yutong Lu from the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, China, as ISC…
From insideHPC
How R-Systems Powers Cloud HPC with Dell EMC
In this video from the Dell EMC HPC Community meeting, Michael Senizaiz and Brian Kucic from R-Systems describe how the company delivers HPC in the Cloud as part of Dell EMC customer solutions. "Dell provides technical expertise…
From insideHPC
Ohio Supercomputer Center runs Biggest Calculation Ever
Today the Ohio Supercomputer Center announced that is has run the single-largest scale calculation in the Center’s history. Scientel IT Corp used 16,800 cores of the Owens Cluster on May 24 to test database software optimized…
From insideHPC
How InfiniBand is Powering new capabilities for Machine Learning with RDMA
In this video from GTC 2017, Scot Schultz from Mellanox describes how high performance InfiniBand is powering new capabilities for Machine Learning with RDMA. "Mellanox Solutions accelerate many of the world’s leading artificial…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Smart Way to Build a Smart City
Good overall look from Govtech. Its understanding required architecture too.
The Smart Way to Build a Smart City (Industry Perspective)
City and digital government leaders must demonstrate clear value, tangible outcomes and engaging…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Training Robots to do Our Jobs
Meet the People Who Train the Robots (to Do Their Own Jobs)
By The New York Times
What if part of your job became teaching a computer everything you know about doing someone's job—perhaps your own?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Machine Learning Engineers
Good to see the practical and operational aspect of this. Usually assumed in other roles.Would hope this includes getting closer to business process and risk analysis. In O'Reilly
What are machine learning engineers?
A new role…
From Schneier on Security
Spear Phishing Attacks
Really interesting research: "Unpacking Spear Phishing Susceptibility," by Zinaida Benenson, Freya Gassmann, and Robert Landwirth. Abstract: We report the results of a field experiment where we sent to over 1200 university students…
From Putting People First
Developing a mobile chatbot for a Pittsburgh museum
The people at Studio, the design, development and workflow laboratory at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, are working on the design and the development of a “new kind of mobile museum experience”. Because they would like the share…
From Putting People First
First issue of Behavioural Public Policy now available for free online
Behavioural Public Policy is an interdisciplinary and international peer-reviewed journal devoted to behavioural research and its relevance to public policy. The study of human behaviour has recently taken on growing importance…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Indoor Positioning Systems
We did considerable research in how indoor location systems could be used and their influence on retail behavior. In Retailwire:
Indoor positioning systems are adding relevance to omnichannel shopping.
A richer experience, bridging…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Machine Learning is Wrong
An important point. Like I said in teaching forecasting classes, the forecast is always wrong, and that error should be considered in risk analysis. It does not mean it is not useful. Just always incorrect in any significant…