Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2020
From Schneier on Security
UAE Hack and Leak Operations
Interesting paper on recent hack-and-leak operations attributed to the UAE: Abstract: Four hack-and-leak operations in U.S. politics between 2016 and 2019, publicly attributed to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Saudi…
From Computational Complexity
Simons Institute Gets Another Decade
Great news out of the Simons Institute.
The Simons Foundation has ensured a second decade of research and innovation for the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, based at UC Berkeley, through a $35.5 million grant. The…From insideHPC
vScaler Integrates SLURM with GigaIO FabreX for Elastic HPC Cloud Device Scaling
Open source private HPC cloud specialist vScaler today announced the integration of SLURM workload manager with GigaIO’s FabreX for elastic scaling of PCI devices and HPC disaggregation. FabreX, which GigaIO describes as the
…
From insideHPC
Panasas PanFS 8: Architectural Overview
Panasas has released this timely new white paper “Panasas PanFS 8: Architectural Overview.” The report takes a “breadth-first” tour of the architecture of the PanFS® parallel file system, looking at its key components then diving…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why Computing Belongs within the Social Sciences
Thoughtful piece in the ACM. Full text at the link. While computers started from technology, it has evolved unpredictably into something also very deeply and even alarmingly sociological. Read the key insights below.
Why Computing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Takes Lead in ABI Research's Industrial Blockchain-as-a-Service
IBM continues to push blockchain technology adoption.
IBM Takes the Lead in ABI Research's Industrial Blockchain-as-a-Service Competitive Assessment
OYSTER BAY, N.Y., Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)…
From insideHPC
MVAPICH, Altair, Arm DevSummit Announce Conference Agendas
Several organizations have released updates on upcoming conferences and user group meetings. Here’s a summary with links to further information. The MVAPICH User Group Meeting (MUG ’20), built around an implementation of the
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Summit Supercomputing Cracking Covids Code
Saw the supercomputing systems tested with combinatorial problems. Will this be a coup for understanding Covid?
Has Summit Cracked Covid's Code?
IEEE Spectrum
Mark Anderson
August 2, 2020
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Computing Breakthrough?
Much more re technical aspects at the bottom:
Quantum Computing Breakthrough as Scientists Find Possible Solution to Technology's Biggest Hurdle
The Independent (UK)
Andrew Griffin
A study by scientists at Australia's University
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Blue Sky Conference Track at AAMAS 2020
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently sponsored a Blue Sky Ideas Conference Track at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, May 9 – 13, 2020, online. The Blue Sky Ideas talk presentations…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Spot Robot Does Disinfection
The perhaps obvious use of robots for disinfection is happening broadly, even with the much touted 'Spot' from Boston Dynamics.
For Robots, It's a Time to Shine (and Maybe Disinfect)
The New York Times
Lisa Prevost
August 4, 2020…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Computing Breakthrough?
Noise an issue, is this a solution? See article and further link from the click through.
Quantum Computing Breakthrough as Scientists Find Possible Solution to Technology's Biggest Hurdle
The Independent (UK)
Andrew Griffin
A study…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Air Force in Space with AI
More examples of military applications of AI.
Air Force Readies Launch of In-Orbit Network to Support AI Applications in Space
The Wall Street Journal
Sara Castellanos
The U.S. Air Force is partnering with technology startup Hypergiant…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Canadian AI Research
Brought to my attention again:
Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence
The Vector Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), excelling in machine…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Assistants Pave Way to Retail Future?
This sounded like an interesting premise, so passing it on:
Intelligent Mobile PDAs Pave the Way to the Future
Learn more
Fulfilling online…
From insideHPC
Pure Storage and Cohesity in Partnership to Deliver Rapid Recovery at Scale
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 12, 2020 – Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the storage-as-a-service in a multi-cloud world vendor, and Cohesity, the modern data management company that simplifies back up and data…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google goes for More AI Automation
More indications to the automation of the design and delivery of AI. See the quite technical paper referenced below.The trend most likely to continue.
Google’s TF-Coder tool automates machine learning model design
Kyle Wiggers…
From Schneier on Security
Cryptanalysis of an Old Zip Encryption Algorithm
Mike Stay broke an old zipfile encryption algorithm to recover $300,000 in bitcoin. DefCon talk here....
From insideHPC
Intel Optane Persistent Memory Tops IO500 List
Intel announced today that its Optane persistent memory (PMem), in combination with Intel’s open-source distributed asynchronous object storage (DAOS) solution, has taken the no. 1 position on the Virtual Institute for I/O IO500…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Reversible Classical Computing Workshop – Position Papers Submission Deadline Extended to August 21st
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) will hold a virtual workshop the week of Oct. 5-9 (with a reception on Fri., Oct. 2) to address the physics & engineering challenges in adiabatic/ reversible classical computing. This…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger to Compete with Amazon Beyond Grocery
Quite a move, will see how they can compete with established online players
Kroger to launch digital marketplace this fall
Partnership with e-commerce specialist Mirakl to extend Kroger Ship D-T-C pla
Russell Redman in SupermarketNews…
From insideHPC
Nissan Shifts to Oracle Cloud for CFD, 3D Visualization HPC Design Workloads
Oracle announced today that Nissan Motor Co. is migrating its on-premises engineering simulation HPC workloads to run on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Nissan uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural simulation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Knowledge Graphs vs Property Graphs
Upcoming Webinar of interest, register at the link.
Knowledge Graphs vs. Property Graphs — A Brief Overview and Comparison
by Kristi Lee-John | Jul 29, 2020 | Webinars, Knowledge Graphs, TopQuadrant
About This Webinar Aug 13
We…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Phones Create Earthquake Monitor
Saw similar applications suggested for some time. I am still a member of a CA based system that in part combines sensors and crowd sourcing monitors. I get alerts weekly. And will be alerted if people need to take quick action…
From Schneier on Security
Collecting and Selling Mobile Phone Location Data
The Wall Street Journal has an article about a company called Anomaly Six LLC that has an SDK that's used by "more than 500 mobile applications." Through that SDK, the company collects location data from users, which it then…
From The Eponymous Pickle
NReal Korean Mixed Reality Glasses
Another attempt at more generalized smart glasses, here aimed at mixed reality in particular. Casual everyday wearable, or context specific wearable for the job. linked closely to mobile.
Nreal Light mixed reality glasses launch…
From insideHPC
ORNL Offers Virtual Tour of Summit’s Supercomputer Center
Oak Ridge National Lab has released a virtual tour of the facility that houses Summit, the world’s second most power supercomputer. The tour is offered by the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) and the Oak Ridge…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Net Model Finds Small Objects in Dense Images
This sounds like a very interesting problem in general. Say looking for tiny errors in manufacturing. And a number of others.
NIST Neural Network Model Finds Small Objects in Dense Images
NIST
August 4, 2020
Computer scientists…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
New National Q-12 Education Partnership with Industry and Academic Leaders
The following is a press release from The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Recently, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and over a dozen…
From insideHPC
Prying an Integrated HPC Cluster from Vendors’ Hands: ‘We Had to Force Them to Get into the Same Room’
Sometimes, vendors just won’t take customers’ money for a cluster no matter how hard the customer pleads. Last month, HPC technology strategist Ryan Quick, co-founder and principal at Providentia Worldwide consulting firm, told…