Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2016
From insideHPC
Podcast: What a Supercomputer Does
In this WBEZ podcast, Katherine Riley from Argonne explains what a supercomputer does. "Argonne National Laboratory is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The science and engineering research center has had a prominent place in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Anatomy of a Unicorn
McKinsey: Podcast: Anatomy of a unicorn: Why tech start-ups are staying privateUp-and-coming technology companies are no longer racing to list their shares on public markets. A massive increase in late-stage venture capital has…
From insideHPC
Interview: Seagate Powers Four TOP10 HPC Sites at ISC 2016
"So one of the things that we've really been very proud of, in terms of our progress, particularly in EMEA over the last 12 months, is we've deployed a number of really significant systems. If you remember when we were back together…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Spoken Voice Recognition
In Datanami: Has improved considerably recently ... I have been following improvements in Siri, Cortana and Echo, and the abilities are now considerable. Now can we just control how we speak when we use language to these devices…
From Schneier on Security
Intellectual Property as National Security
Interesting research: Debora Halbert, "Intellectual property theft and national security: Agendas and assumptions": Abstract: About a decade ago, intellectual property started getting systematically treated as a national security…
From insideHPC
Video: Univa Grid Engine Speeds Workloads with Intel Xeon Phi Processor
In this video from ISC 2016, Bill Bryce from Univa describes the company's innovative container technology helps customers manage their computing workloads with Univa Grid Engine. "Grid Engine 8.4.0 has many significant updates…
From insideHPC
TYAN Solutions for Flexible HPC
Organizations that implement high-performance computing (HPC) technologies have a wide range of requirements. From small manufacturing suppliers to national research institutions, using significant computing technologies is critical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gartner Says Shift in Tech Focus
Gartner produces interesting statistics. " ... While investment in new technology for products and services continues to be a priority (55% of the CEOs ranked it in their top 2), a focus on innovating in the way their companies…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Food Retail and Consumer Technology
Digital Tech in Retail:" ... The shopper is disrupting the retail food scene much more than technology, speakers at last week's FMI Connect show in Chicago said. Technology needs to shift from a focus on serving retailers to…
From Phys.org Technology News
Ethicist cites five considerations for a transforming society
New technology often raises new ethical questions—and those questions only multiply as technology advances.
From Phys.org Technology News
Too dangerous to talk? Some cities explore 911 texting
With gunshots ringing out just feet away, Eddie Justice hid in a bathroom in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and frantically texted his mother for help.
From Phys.org Technology News
Apple urges organ donation via new iPhone software
Apple wants to encourage millions of iPhone owners to register as organ donors through a software update that will add an easy sign-up button to the health information app that comes installed on every smartphone the company…
From Computational Complexity
Is determining if a poly over a finite field is 1-1 hard? Sure seems so.
When I teach cryptography to High School students I begin with shift and linear ciphers which are x --> x+s mod 26 (s is a shift, x is a letter of the alphabet. Hmm- x really IS a letter of the alphabet!) x--> ax+b mod2…
From Schneier on Security
"Dogs Raise Fireworks Threat Level to 'Gray'"
Funny: The Department of Canine Security urges dogs to remain on high alert and employ the tactic of See Something, Say Something. Remember to bark upon spotting anything suspicious; e.g. firecrackers, sparklers, Roman candles…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Teaching People to Innovate
In Innovation Excellence: Can you teach people to innovate? Good piece: by Jeffrey Phillips" ... The answer to this question is: no. You cannot teach people to innovate. You can teach them tools and techniques like TRIZ…
From insideHPC
Spartan HPC Service Launches Down Under
The University of Melbourne has launched a new HPC service called Spartan that combines traditional HPC with a flexible cloud computing component. "Many research projects demand high speed interconnect," said Bernard Meade, Head…
From insideHPC
Video: DEEP-ER Project Moves Europe Closer to Exascale
In this video from ISC 2016, Estela Suarez from the Jülich Supercomputing Centre provides an update on the DEEP-ER project, which is paving the way towards Exascale computing. "In the predecessor DEEP project, an innovative architecture…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wearables Replacing Smartphones?
A number of design changes seem to be pointing that way. More convenience and intelligence with better use of other senses could make it happen. More In CWorld.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 4th of July 2016
Happy US independence day for my friends in the US. Also happy birthday to Queen Sonja of Norway. My family in Norway jokes that the American embassy always throws a big party on the Queen’s birthday. I’m celebrating Independence…
From XRDS
Thoughts on Usability studies
In the last months, I conducted a few usability studies and upon reflecting on these I decided to share my experience as it might be helpful to anyone starting on usability. This article attemps at summarizing my experience and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Global Digital Flows
From McKinseyDigital globalization: The new era of global flowsBy James Manyika, Susan Lund, Jacques Bughin, Jonathan Woetzel, Kalin Stamenov, and Dhruv DhingraConventional wisdom says that globalization has stalled. But although…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Boxie Gathers Stories
I was reminded of this MIT Media Lab 'Lab Cast'. An old example, but made me think of gathering and telling stories. " .... Boxie is a mobile interactive robotic camera built with the goal of actively capturing stories about…
From insideHPC
New Ocean Current Simulations Reflect Climate Change
Researchers are using the Gordon supercomputer at SDSC to paint a new picture of global warming’s impact on the complex processes that drive ocean mixing in the vast eddies swirling off the California coast. "Nearly a fifth …
From insideHPC
Video: Megware Direct Liquid Cooling at ISC 2016
In this video from ISC 2016, Thomas Blum from Germany's Megware describes the company's innovative hot water cooling system. The Slide SX-LC system is cooled by 50 degree celsius water on the input side with an output water temperature…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Personal Pharmacy Assistant
Growth of the focused personal assistants. Named 'Pillo'. Had looked closely at how pharma use compliance could be achieved in the past.Meet 'Pillo,' the robot that aims to be your personal pharmacyThis precious robot isRyan…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IOT and Vending Machines: Coke and SAP
Good points, we had looked at related applications with vending, service communications and kiosks, before the advent of IOT. Cognitive application of supply chain efficiencies can also be considered.In Readwrite: IoT andAmanda…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Behavior as Permission to Act
Former colleague Martin Lindstrom looks at the shaping of store behavior. In Fastcompany: " ... How Your Grocery Store And Your Coworkers Unconsciously Shape Your Behavior ... Without realizing it, we're constantly recalibrating…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Designers Guide to AI
AI from a design perspective. Most often these days see it from a engineers or data science view. We should also consider it from the point of view of what the decision maker needs. Good lengthy piece." .... designersby…
From insideHPC
Supercomputing and the Search for Dark Matter
Over at CSCS, Simone Ulmer writes that Particle physicists using the Piz Daint supercomputer have determined what is known as the scalar quark content of the proton. The research will help efforts to detect and research dark …
From insideHPC
Video: Discovering the Origin of Stars Through 3D Visualization
This visualization from David Ellsworth and Tim Sandstrom at NASA/AMES shows the evolution of a giant molecular cloud over 700,000 years. It ran on the Pleiades supercomputer using the ORION2 code developed at the University …