Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2021
From The Eponymous Pickle
Spy Agencies look to Science
When there are no direct solutions, look to emerging tech. But do they have the same goals? Same limitations?
Spy Agencies Turn to Scientists as They Wrestle With Mysteries
By The New York Times via CACM July 9, 2021
The nation's…From Computational Complexity
Would you take this bet (Part 2) ?
Recall from my last post (here)
I offer you the following bet:
I will flip a coin.
If HEADS you get 1 dollar and we end there.
If TAILS I flip again
If HEADS you get 2 dollars and we end there.
If TAILS I flip again
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bio Neurons versus Computational
When we first learned of the use of the patterns of brain neurons to potentially use as reasoning devices, we took a course from actual neuroscientists. We very quickly learned that human bio neurons were very much more complex…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Evolving Bio Intelligence
Can this kind of generalized AI take us towards more generalized AI? A new shift in direction?
Potcast: Bio Eats World: Evolving Embodied Intelligence
by Li Fei-Fei, Surya Ganguli, Vijay Pande, and Lauren Richardson By…From The Eponymous Pickle
China Rise in Smart-Cities
Are we too regulated, too cautious of uses of automation? Interesting smart city stats.
A Global Smart-City Competition Highlights China's Rise in AI,
By Wired, July 9, 2021 in ACM/Wired
Four years ago, organizers created the…From The Eponymous Pickle
Document Data Model
Good overview .... and reminder of usefulness.
WHITE PAPER
Built around JSON-like documents, document databases are both natural and flexible for developers to work with. They promise higher developer…From The Eponymous Pickle
Digital Twins
Useful piece on Digital Twins and their definition and use. Adds to my current examination and use cases.
The Multiple Faces of Digital Twins By Alex Woodie in Datanami
Digital twins are emerging as a hot technology, particularly…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 10th 2021)
We use CRISPR, a state-of-the-art gene editing technique, to edit the genes of live human patients in a clinical trials. A clinical trial has begun concerning an HIV vaccine. Drinking alcohol could extend or reduce your lifeContinue…
From The Eponymous Pickle
McKinsey: Trends in Tech
Well done overview:
Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating world? We identified the trends that matter most
The top trends in tech
Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating…From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Security for Payment Processing
A space I worked in for a while. There is a lot of security that is required.
Data Security Rules Instituted for U.S. Payment Processing System By ZDNet July 9, 2021
New data security rules governing the payment system that…From insideHPC
HPC Integral to DoD’s Post-JEDI Cloud Strategy; Early Co-favorites: AWS and Azure
The Pentagon’s cancellation of the $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract won in 2019 by Microsoft – the biggest tech story of the week and surely one of the biggest of the year – has major implications for the HPC and Big…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Need of Advances for Electric Trucks
On the use of electric trucks, and what they will need to make them broadly viable.
Electric trucks can go the (short) distance
To electrify the entire industry, battery technology and charging infrastructure would have to improve…From insideHPC
Let’s Talk Exascale Code Development: WDMAPP—XGC, GENE, GEM
This is episode 82 of the Let’s Talk Exascale podcast, provided by the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project, exploring the expected impacts of exascale-class supercomputing. This is the third in a series on sharing…
From insideHPC
Announcing the Winners of the 2021 ISC Student Cluster Competition
The 2021 ISC Student Cluster Competition (SCC) has wrapped up, and now it’s time to honor the students who participated from around the world, as well as provide a little background on what transpired during the 10th Annual ISC…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building a Better Wallet
Digital wallets in the past have been insecure on some systems, and they are the primary user interface into cryptocurrency.
Square is building a hardware crypto wallet and service with the goal of making bitcoin 'more mainstream'…From The Eponymous Pickle
Identification Improvements Using Blurred Fingerprints
Fingerprint clear up analysis. An example of the use of Generative Adversarial Networks. But note the comment on auditing the results in court.
AI Clears Up Images of Fingerprints to Help with Identification
New Scientist,West…From The Eponymous Pickle
Challenge for Learning from Human Feedback using Minecraft
Berkeley Bair challenge competition here using a common gaming environment. Been a long time since I looked at Minecraft. Short extract of the idea below, more complete look at the link. Seems a novel look at a broader look…
From insideHPC
OCP Announces Leadership Changes
July 8, 2021 — The OCP Foundation and board of directors is excited to announce that Rebecca Weekly was elected to the position of chairperson of the Open Compute Project on July 1. Rebecca Weekly is Vice President, General Manager…
From insideHPC
Strangeworks Launches Early Access to Qiskit Runtime from IBM Quantum
July 8, 2021 – Austin-based quantum computing software company Strangeworks has announced it’s the first IBM partner to offer early preview access to Qiskit Runtime, a new IBM Quantum service designed to streamline computations…
From insideHPC
DOE Awards $15.6M for Climate Modeling
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today awarded $15.6 million for new research studying the properties, formation, and interactions between atmospheric clouds and the aerosols that form them. These projects will help scientists…
From insideHPC
TACC’s Stampede2 HPC Helps ID New RNA Molecules for Disease Study
Researchers at Ghent University, Amsterdam University of Medicine, National Chiao Tung University, UNSW Sydney, Illumina, and the Baylor College of Medicine have built one of the most comprehensive catalogs of the human transcriptome…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Algorithmic Impact Assessments
Welcome to Algorithmic Impact Assessments. I should note that I have done optimization and statistical models for decades, and this has very, very rarely come up. And then only when included in a risk analysis that indicated…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Using Blockchain for Validation
A trust/validation type of application for blockchain. In Coindesk
IBM, Heifer International to Assist Honduras Farmers Access Global Markets Using Blockchain
IBM's Food Trust network will help coffee and cocoa farmers and…From insideHPC
Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Servers Certified to Run Sunlight NexVisor for IoT and AI
July 08, 2021, Cambridge, England — Sunlight.io, the edge infrastructure company, today announced that it has certified Lenovo’s compact edge compute server — the ThinkSystem SE350 — for use with Sunlight’s hyperconverged infrastructure…
From insideHPC
ColdQuanta Claims ‘Cold Atom’ Quantum Milestone
ColdQuanta said it has achieved a quantum computing milestone by trapping and addressing 100 qubits in a large, dense 2-D cold atom array. Scheduled for availability later this year, the digital gate-based quantum computer (“Hilbert…
From BLOG@CACM
How Does One Calculate With A Circular Slide Rule?
The circular slide rule was widely used until the 1970s.
From Schneier on Security
Details of the REvil Ransomware Attack
ArsTechnica has a good story on the REvil ransomware attack of last weekend, with technical details:
This weekend’s attack was carried out with almost surgical precision. According to Cybereason, the REvil affiliates first gained…From The Eponymous Pickle
Will AI Rewrite Coding?
Inclined to think so. Increase efficiency, prevent errors and better ensure secure practices. Below intro describes the current progress and direction. Starting with assistant approaches and code checking. Note the mentionWill…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Automotive Cybersecurity
Vehicles in particular will require specialized cybersecurity as their autonomy increases.
Keeping Control of the Wheel By David Geer in ACM
The rising need for cybersecurity will trigger investments over the next few years…From The Eponymous Pickle
Victims Unaware
Surprising given todays world.
Data Breaches: Most Victims Unaware When Shown Evidence of Multiple Compromised Accounts
By University of Michigan News, June 23, 2021
Most of the 413 people asked by researchers about breaches that…