Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2016
From XRDS
Positive Computing: a novel research field to promote human wellbeing
Technology has undoubtedly improved at vertiginous speeds in the last decades. However, there is no evidence that all this technology is helping increase the people’s general wellbeing. Calvo and Peters have attributed this to…
From insideHPC
NSF Awards $110 Million for XSEDE 2.0
Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a $110 million award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and 18 partner institutions to continue and expand activities undertaken through the Extreme Science…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Blue Sky Ideas Conference Tracks
Are you helping organize a conference in the near future? Consider having a Blue Sky Ideas Conference Track! The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsors an initiative to bring special “Blue Sky Ideas” tracks to leading…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Dangers of Marketing Optimization
Have been involved in a number of marketing optimization projects in the brands. Are the new attempts at predictive analytics causing us to expect too much with these methods? We called this 'analytics', and now its called…
From insideHPC
Avere Systems Teams with Cycle Computing for High Performance Multi-cloud Orchestration
Today Avere Systems and Cycle Computing announced a technology integration that enables hybrid high-performance computing (HPC) in popular public cloud computing environments. By integrating the Avere vFXT Edge filer cloud bursting…
From insideHPC
Fujitsu Unveils Processor Details for Post-K Computer
The Fujitsu Journal has posted details on a recent Hot Chips presentation by Toshio Yoshida about the instruction set architecture (ISA) of the Post-K processor. "The Post-K processor employs the ARM ISA, developed by ARM Ltd…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Samsung Scoop Speaker
A competitor to the Amazon Echo? Indications of voice activation. Samsung Scoop. Advanced cognitive skills are unclear. But note Samsung previous devices like S Voice, and Otto, which hinted at cognitive AI skills." .. S…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visual Consulting Book
Friend and colleague David Sibbet who taught us many visualization techniques is writing a new book. Many links below at the tab to his work." ...President and Founder of The Grove Consultants International—organizational consultant…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visual Consulting
Friend and long time colleague David Sibbet writes about visualization. Read his site for insight and visual tools. " ... President and Founder of The Grove Consultants International—organizational consultant and information…
From Schneier on Security
Privacy Implications of Windows 10
The EFF has a good analysis of all the ways Windows 10 violates your privacy....
From Phys.org Technology News
Feds: Ignore that post about banning driver cellphone use
Briefly Monday, it looked like the federal government was going to push all 50 states to ban the use of cellphones and other wireless devices while people are driving.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Limits to Prediction
Santa Fe Institute workshop on the limits to prediction. Every practitioner knows there are limits to prediction. Systems may be chaotic, or influenced by unknown context. The implications? Fundamental thoughts. Have…
From Computational Complexity
Chrisitan Comment on the Jesus Wife Thing misses the important point
In 2012 a Professor of Divisinity at Harvard, Karen King, announced that she had a fragment that seemed to indicate that Jesus had a wife. It was later found to be fake. The article that really showed it was a fake was in the…
From insideHPC
ARM Ramps up for HPC with SVE Scalable Vector Extensions
Over at the ARM Community Blog, Nigel Stephens writes that the company has introduced scalable vector extensions (SVE) their A64 instruction set to bolster high performance computing. Fujitsu is developing a new HPC processor…
From insideHPC
Tutorial: GPU Performance Nuggets
In this video from the 2016 Blue Waters Symposium, GPU Performance Nuggets – Carl Pearson and Simon Garcia De Gonzalo from the University of Illinois present: GPU Performance Nuggets. "In this talk, we introduce a pair of Nvidia…
From insideHPC
SimScale Integrates with Autodesk Fusion 360
Today SimScale in Germany announced a partnership with Autodesk, a leader in 3D design and fabrication software. The SimScale add-in for Autodesk Fusion 360 aims at improving the design engineering workflow between the design…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Case Based Reasoning and Chatbots
Resources for integrating Case based reasoning (CBR) and bots. The integration could be a natural way to deliver intelligence in a bot. We used CBR in a number of early applications.
" ... The main goal of jCOLIBRI is to provide…
From insideHPC
Video: Combining Simulation & Experiment for Nanoscale 3-D Printing
In this video, ORNL researchers use supercomputers to simulate nanomanufacturing, the process of building microscopic devices atom by atom. Simulated here is the construction of a 250-nanometer 3-D cube by focused electron beam…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Re Emergence of Google Glass
According to this piece it has never gone away. We spoke with Google on uses, and never got a very supportive answer. I get the idea that at the time the snarky press had already eroded some of the possible augmented reality…
From insideHPC
SC16 Welcomes Families with On-Site Childcare
For the first time, SC16 will offer childcare in the convention center to registered attendees and exhibitors. "This will provide an opportunity for the family to be together while one or both parents enjoy either parts or all…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Algorithm/Problem Categories for AI and Data Science
Like this statement of solution categories: 10 Algorithm Categories for A.I., Big Data, and Data Science by Chris Pehura: Crunchers: These algorithms use small repetitive steps guided with simple rules to number crunch a complex…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Impact of AI on Jobs
Thoughtful piece with many interesting links. Good this pointed me back to Irving Wladawsky-Berger's blog. Was on a panel with him in the 90s.Irving Wladawsky-BergerA collection of observations, news and resources on the changing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Forklift Simulation Using VR
Interesting idea. If was one of the ideas we considered for warehouse and plant training, but the technology was not well enough evolved to make it workable. A related example addressed common issues of machine and line repair…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Great Innovative Idea- Processor Design Exploration for Vision Based Mobile Robots
The following Great Innovative Idea is from Christopher B. Harris, the Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering at Brown University. Harris presented his poster, Processor Design Exploration for…
From Schneier on Security
Research on the Timing of Security Warnings
fMRI experiments show that we are more likely to ignore security warnings when they interrupt other tasks. A new study from BYU, in collaboration with Google Chrome engineers, finds the status quo of warning messages appearing…
From Schneier on Security
Terrorist False Alarm at JFK Airport Demonstrates How Unprepared We Really Are
The detailed accounts of the terrorist-shooter false-alarm at Kennedy Airport in New York last week illustrate how completely and totally unprepared the airport authorities are for any real such event. I have two reactions to…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 22 August 2016
I meet my new freshmen students today. I hope they are as excited as I am. Should be a good year with lots of interesting things to try with my students. It starts with an attitude shown by this cartoon. I want to get them DOING…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sway Storytelling
Brought to my attention, Microsoft's Sway storytelling system. Lets you bring in other content from systems and create stories. Has been criticized as not different enough from Powerpoint to avoid its falling into its problems…
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Smart Dust
More on Neural Dust. More IOT nodes in more places? Heard this called 'motes' before, but this takes it smaller yet. The passive use of power generation is very interesting. Applications, especially in medical applications…
From insideHPC
OpenPOWER Summit Europe Comes to Barcelona Oct. 26-28
Today the OpenPOWER Foundation announced that their inaugural OpenPOWER Summit Europe will take place Oct. 26-28 in Barcelona, Spain. Held in conjunction with OpenStack Europe, the OpenPOWER Summit Europe, the event will feature…