Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2019
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Difficult Conversations
Been a long-time student of the conversation. Since our construction of early chatbot systems. And internal sharing of knowledge. Its hard to have a conversation with specific goals and changing context. How do we have 'difficult'…
From The Noisy Channel
Broad and Ambiguous Search Queries
A typical approach for processing search queries is to retrieve a set of matching documents and then rank them with a relevance scoring function. This simple approach generally works well for unambiguous, specific search queries…
From insideHPC
Video: Data-Centric Parallel Programming
In this slidecast, Torsten Hoefler from ETH Zurich presents: Data-Centric Parallel Programming. "To maintain performance portability in the future, it is imperative to decouple architecture-specific programming paradigms from…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Glass Recognizes Numbers with AI
We continue to discover new ways we can link sensors and pattern recognition to create knowledge. Note the glass does not need to be plugged into power.
AI made from a sheet of glass can recognise numbers just by looking
A sheet…
From insideHPC
3 Ways to Unlock the Power of HPC and AI
A growing number of commercial businesses are implementing HPC solutions to derive actionable business insights, to run higher performance applications and to gain a competitive advantage. Complexities abound as HPC becomes more…
From CERIAS Blog
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
In IT security ("cybersecurity") today, there is a powerful herd mentality. In part, this is because it is driven by an interest in shiny new things. We see this with the massive pile-on to new technologies when they gain buzzword…
From CERIAS Blog
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
In IT security ("cybersecurity") today, there is a powerful herd mentality. In part, this is because it is driven by an interest in shiny new things. We see this with the massive pile-on to new technologies when they gain buzzword…
From CERIAS Blog
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
In IT security ("cybersecurity") today, there is a powerful herd mentality. In part, this is because it is driven by an interest in shiny new things. We see this with the massive pile-on to new technologies when they gain buzzword…
From Schneier on Security
Ransomware Recovery Firms Who Secretly Pay Hackers
ProPublica is reporting on companies that pretend to recover data locked up by ransomware, but just secretly pay the hackers and then mark up the cost to the victims....
From Writing
Terraform: Up & Running, 2nd edition Early Release is now available!
Today, I have two exciting announcements to share:
From Computational Complexity
Fortran is underated!
(Joint Post with David Marcus who was a classmate of mine at SUNY Stony Brook [now called Stony Brook University]. I was class of 1980, he was class of 1979. We were both math majors.)
David has been reading Problems with athis…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simulating Quantum Computing
The ability to simulate quantum physics in a useful way is interesting here.
AI can simulate quantum systems without massive computing power
It could help with both physics and quantum computers.
By Jon Fingas, @jonfingas in Engadget…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovations in Graph Representation Learning
From the Google AI Blog. Good introduction to semantic networks. And some technical information about where they are experimenting. To model something complex, you first need to have a basic representation, a graph is a good…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Iota and Alpha
Been following the Iota Blockchain, especially as it relates to implementation of smart contracts. Here a new post. I note that the post below is quite technical. I mention it here for followers in this space. For starters…
From insideHPC
ISC19 Student Cluster Competition: LINs Packed & Conjugates Gradient-ed
In this special guest feature, Dan Olds from OrionX shares first-hand coverage of the Student Cluster Competition at the recent ISC 2019 conference. "The benchmark results from the recently concluded ISC19 Student Cluster Competition…
From insideHPC
Flexibly Scalable High Performance Architectures with Embedded Photonics
"Data movement, dominated by energy costs and limited ‘chip-escape’ bandwidth densities, is a key physical layer roadblock to these systems’ scalability. Integrated silicon photonics with deeply embedded optical connectivity
…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Pre-conference Thoughts–CSTA 2019
I’m on my way to Phoenix AZ for the CSTA conference. For years I would get there early and leave late. This was especially true when I was on the CSTA Board and there were Board meetings to attend. Traveling on my own dime and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GM Gets Self Driviing Infusion
Another indication of self-driving seriousness by major automotive. Note thought the mention of revelations of Tech in consideration below.
GM's self-driving unit is close to receiving a $2.25 billion boost
SoftBank has been cleared…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Chatbots Overhyped?
Depends on definition and design. Chatbots need designed conversation and a method to link to focused relevant data and people as needed.
Chatbots are over hyped: Emerj Report shows banks overstate the traction and ROI of conversational…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 6th, 2019)
Jim Keller, the vice president of silicon engineering at Intel, is optimistic regarding the continued exponential progress in computing: “It’s going to keep going, Moore’s law is relentless.” England did away with free college…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Voice Assistant Kara Aimed at Physician Burnout
Ambient meaning not invoking with a wake work. Privacy of data and interaction a concern.
Voice assistant offers remedy for physician burnout
Saykara's digital assistant is aimed at freeing doctors from time-consuming EHR data…
From insideHPC
Podcast: Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI with Intel Nauta
"The recently announced Ready Solution, Deep Learning with Intel, is powered by Dell EMC servers and networking, new 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, and Nauta, Intel's recently released open source platform for…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: Software Engineer for Scientific and Math Libraries at Cray
Cray in Minnesota is seeking a Software Engineer for Scientific and Math Libraries in our Job of the Week. "The Cray Scientific and Math Libraries group has an opening for a motivated and skilled low-level software engineer to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unsupervised, Disentangled Learning
Intriguing piece in the Google AI Blog. Had always thought that unsupervised learning should be one essence of creativity Not examples we know, but new ones we can come up with. And here 'disentanglement' implies we can capture…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hypertaste for Chemical Sensing
We worked on automating taste and smell, but it was still not possible at the time. Could have used this to analyse coffee, green and roasted, to determine its use in blends. Counterfeiting too would be an application, also…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Baidu DuerOS Update
Been a while since I have seen an update on Baidu's DuerOS, voice platform and assistant. Here are some impressive numbers, especially regarding installed base, especially appliances.
Baidu’s DuerOS voice platform is now on
By…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Cars
Jalopnik asks the important question: "If squids ruled the earth, what would their cars be like?" As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Read my blog…
From Schneier on Security
Applied Cryptography is Banned in Oregon Prisons
My Applied Cryptography is on a list of books banned in Oregon prisons. It's not me -- and it's not cryptography -- it's that the prisons ban books that teach people to code. The subtitle is "Algorithms, Protocols, and Source…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Assistants and an Algorithmic Bill of Rights
From my alma mater magazine. Just reviewing for comment.
AI Assistants or Digital Despots
Why we need an algorithmic bill of rights.
By Kartik Hosanagar
My wife and I were recently in search of a babysitter for our preschooler. Our…
From insideHPC
Atos announces winners of 2019 Joseph Fourier Award
Today Atos announced the winners of the 2019 Joseph Fourier Award. The award aims to accelerate research and innovation by rewarding projects in the fields of numerical simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). "It’s really…