Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2015
From The Eponymous Pickle
Humans Build Spaces
Is this what has caused us to construct spaces for social interactions with machines? Too simple, but will this cause us to find other ways to communicate and interact within real and imagined walls?Ebbe Altberg needs about…
From insideHPC
Lustre* at the Core of HPC and Big Data Convergence
Companies already using High-performance Computing (HPC) with a Lustre file system for simulations, such as those in the financial, oil and gas, and manufacturing sectors, want to convert some of their HPC cycles to Big Data …
From BLOG@CACM
SIGGRAPH Presents 2015 Awards
Five are honored for exceptional achievements in computer graphics and interactive techniques.
From Schneier on Security
Incenting Drug Dealers to Snitch on Each Other
Local police are trying to convince drug dealers to turn each other in by pointing out that it reduces competition. It's a comical tactic with serious results: "We offer a free service to help you eliminate your drug competition…
From insideHPC
Training the Next Generation of Code Developers for HPC
This is the first article in a two-part series by Rob Farber about the challenges facing the HPC community in training people to write code and develop algorithms for current and future, massively-parallel, massive-scale HPC …
From Putting People First
Thingclash: putting human values in the IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to be one of the most far reaching and fundamental shifts in how people interact with technology and their environment since the advent of the Internet. But, the rush to create new commercial…
From Putting People First
[Book] Aging and the Digital Life Course
Aging and the Digital Life Course Edited by David Prendergast and Chiara Garattini Series: Life Course, Culture and Aging: Global Transformations Publisher: Berghahn Books (June 30, 2015) Hardcover, 289 pages Abstract Across …
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Changing Definitions
How important is “backward compatibility” in math and CS? David Darling source Henri Lebesgue came the closest of anyone we know to changing the value of a mathematical quantity. Of course he did not do this—it was not like defining…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google is not a Conventional Company
By Larry Page, in the official Google Blog. G is for Google. Intriguing read. So what is next?They announce a new company called Alphabet. A collection of companies, the largest of which is Google itself ... " ... We are excited…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft and Big Data
Is Microsoft Putting Big Data At The Heart Of Their Business? – Data Science Central, by Bernard Marr. " ... It is now angling to become a key player in big data, too – offering a suite of services and tools including data hosting…
From Schneier on Security
Detecting Betrayal in Diplomacy Games
Interesting research detecting betrayal in the game of Diplomacy by analyzing interplayer messages. One harbinger was a shift in politeness. Players who were excessively polite in general were more likely to betray, and people…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Google Announces Science Fair’s 20 Young Finalists
Google announced the finalists for its annual international science fair. There are projects from all over the world covering a wide variety of fields, including computer science. All the projects are by scientists under 18…
From insideHPC
Intel Profiles Supercomputer Architect Alan Gara
The Intel Blog is featuring profile of Alan Gara, who has designed and built dozens of world-beating supercomputers.
The post Intel Profiles Supercomputer Architect Alan Gara appeared first on insideHPC.
From insideHPC
Interview: Asetek Rides Rapid Adoption of Liquid Cooling for HPC
The HPC industry's expanded use of liquid cooling was evident at the recent ISC 2015 conference in Frankfurt. To learn more, we caught up with Steve Branton from Asetek.
The post Interview: Asetek Rides Rapid Adoption of Liquid…From Computational Complexity
Ways to deal with the growing number of CS majors.
(Univ of MD at College Park is looking to hire a Comp Sci Lecturer. Here is the link: HERE) Univ of MD at College Park will have 2100 students in the CS program next year. Thats... a lot! CS is up across the country which is…
From insideHPC
Deadline Extended for SC15 Doctoral Showcase
The deadline for the SC15 Doctoral Showcase submissions has been extended to Aug. 21.
The post Deadline Extended for SC15 Doctoral Showcase appeared first on insideHPC.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Touching the Virtual
In CACM: Advances in haptics. We experimented with in retail spaces. Touch sensory interaction. " ... What is new is the concept of touchable holograms: not just projected into the air, and not just superimposed onto an actual…
From insideHPC
“HPC in a Box” from the Docker Workshop at ISC 2015
In this video from the Docker Workshop at ISC 2015, Christian Kniep from QNIB Solutions shows how he uses Docker in his efforts to provide a HPC software stack in a box, encapsulating each layer in the HPC stack within a Linux…
From insideHPC
Chips Evolve for Data Intensive Niches
"Data centric workloads are growing in importance in high-performance computing and, in an industry that has been dominated by a handful of technologies for several years, this has led users to look for new technologies which…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The exponential cost of progress
When looking at the resolution of computer chips over time, we see that it takes roughly 5 years to cut the transistor size in half. However, this is costly. The second Moore’s law says that the cost of building a modern chip…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Testing AI in Asean Businesses
Forrester look at how AI is being tested in Asean businesses. A number of good examples are mentioned.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Vertical Focus in Big Data Applications
As solution technologies get closer to business process, it makes sense to increase focus on the direct analytical and cognitive needs of verticals involved. Silicon Angle looks at this past week, where IBM bought a medical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Target Tests Beacons
Target announced plans to test beacons at stores in markets across the country, beaming special deals and recommendations through the retailer's mobile app to customers as they shop. Do you expect Target mobile app users to embrace…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Long Detailed Look at UX Strategy
In UX Matters, a long look at UX Strategy means. Not sure I would follow this plan in detail, but it is useful to see all the components." .... An important question that people ask me frequently at the UX STRAT events that.…
From XRDS
Digital Fabrication
In the past decade, digital fabrication (digital manufacturing) has gained immense attention as a topic of interest and research. Before we get into the specifics, let us first understand what digital fabrication (digital fab)…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 10 August 2015
Interesting week last week. I spent a couple of days at Harvard (a liberal arts college in Cambridge MA) learning about their plans to adapt their famous CS 50 course to match the new AP CS Principles course. There is a wiki …
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE Predix Cloud Predicts Machine Failures
We worked on a similar project in collaboration with Los Alamos Labs. In particular to do reliability and failure prediction for systems that were composed of elements that only rarely failed. So called 'Black Swans'. This…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facebook Analyzing Your E-Laughs
In Wired: Is this a way to segment people for engagement? How about linking it to images of the author? Which Facebook may also be tagging. Creepy factor? " ... To likely no one’s surprise, the most common expression ofAge…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Video Shopping
Online video: The next best thing to in-store shopping?Retailers of all sizes are catching on to the fact that video can be the next best thing to visiting the store in terms of product education and conversion. Do you see ways…
From insideHPC
Video: Next-Gen Hurricane Prediction
"Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 20015, storm prediction technology has seen dramatic forward movement, from improved software to better use of observations and increased computing power - all aimed at giving emergency…