Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2015
From insideHPC
Intelligent Light: Breaking the Disk IO Bottleneck in CFD by Eliminating It
"FieldView products and services from Intelligent Light have been specifically developed to help CFD users get more reliable results in less time from their CFD investments. Post-processing can be the most important step in the…
From insideHPC
Boosting Wind Power with Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is another tool that is helping the wind power sector up its game. "We are seeing movement from most engineering companies to cloud computing as the economics are better and the security of the cloud has improved…
From insideHPC
HPC4Health Selects Mellanox InfiniBand for Cancer and Genomics Research
Today Mellanox announced that the HPC4Health Consortium, led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University Health Network's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has selected its InfiniBand networking solutions to…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Learn more about the CS Postdoc Best Practices programs during National Postdoc Appreciation Week
This week (September 21-25) is the sixth annual National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW), sponsored by the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). NPAW, the nation’s largest celebration of postdoctoral scholars, was established…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cisco's New Headquarters
In our innovation collaboration with Cisco we visited their HQ many times. It has now been rebuilt. Much more about their facility. " ... I want Cisco to be viewed as having the most innovative employee experience in technology…
From Computational Complexity
When did Mathematicians realize that Fermat did not have a proof of FLT?
I recently came across the following passage which is about Fermat's Last Theorem (FLT). Pierre de Fermat had found a proof, but he did not bother to write it down. This is perhaps the most frustrating note in the history of…
From insideHPC
Video: Processing 1 Exabyte per Day for the SKA Radio Telescope
In this video from the Disruptive Technologies Panel at the HPC User Forum, Peter Braam from Cambridge University presents: Processing 1 EB per Day for the SKA Radio Telescope. "The Square Kilometre Array is an international …
From Schneier on Security
History of Hacktivism
Nice article by Dorothy Denning. Hacktivism emerged in the late 1980s at a time when hacking for fun and profit were becoming noticeable threats. Initially it took the form of computer viruses and worms that spread messages of…
From insideHPC
User Agency Panel Discussion on the NSCI Initiative
In this video from the 2015 HPC User Forum in Broomfield, Bob Sorenson from IDC moderates a User Agency panel discussion on the NSCI initiative. "You all have seen that usable statement inside the NSCI, and we are all about …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 21 September 2015
Lots of CS education news last week. New York City starts a ten year effort to get computer science education in everyone of the city’s 1700 schools. Mayor Bill deBlasio announced a 10-year plan to put Computer Science in every…
From Writing
Introducing Atomic Squirrel and The Startup Checklist
For the last several months, I’ve been working on a new project: my own company. It’s called Atomic Squirrel and our goal is to help you launch your startup.
From Writing
Introducing Atomic Squirrel and The Startup Checklist
For the last several months, I’ve been working on a new project: my own company. It’s called Atomic Squirrel and our goal is to help you launch your startup.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Designing for All Senses
In FastcoDesign:" .. Our perceptions of the world are built on multiple senses. They interact to help us make sense of our surroundings, so a car will seem to be traveling faster if it makes a lot of noise. And whether we want…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Eye Tracking Study of Product Similarity on Brand Location and Recognition.
Of retail interest from a recent conference: " ... Para-Sight: A visual search study into the effects of product similarity on brand location and recognition. by Tim Holmes ... ". Good to see this kind experimental research…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Microsoft To Invest $75 Million in Computer Science Education
Last week Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a $75 million commitment to increase their YouthSpark program to increase access to computer science for all youth worldwide. A big part of that in the US is apparently an expansion…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Physics and Decision Making
A very broad metaphor based on famous quantum thought experiments. But still an intriguing idea. Pointers to some related work by Kahneman and others. " ... This new theory is still in its infancy, but this type of thinking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tablets and Kids
Quite a long piece in Ars Technica on research regarding the value of early childhood experience with tablets. I am still old school. Books, laptops, visual media and tablets should be in everyone's training and grasp. "…
From The Eponymous Pickle
MedRespond Simulating Dialog
Simulation of dialog is interesting .... " .... We combine artificial intelligence, search and streaming media to create communication programs that simulate personal and relevant dialogue between patient/customer and healthHealth…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Mess of Unstructured Analytics
Dealing with the mess. Agree that this should not be. But we have more different kinds of unstructured data today than we ever had. In face we dealt with it since the content analytics days. Some very good points are made…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Working on the Edge of the Internet of Things
Heard 'the edge' being used more recently. And now we can architect what we want there and how it communicates. Set standards that will be useful in many contexts. Provide environments useful for our analytic needs. Make…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Science Glossary
Data Science Glossary. Not a bad idea in an area you are new to, or even not that new to, as new ideas arrive. Am about to look at some of the definitions. My criteria have always been: Can a non technical exec understandBob…
From insideHPC
Brüel & Kjær joins the Altair Partner Alliance
Altair has announced that Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement has joined the Altair Partner Alliance (APA), bringing its noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) software, Insight+, to HyperWorks customers. Insight+ creates…
From insideHPC
Video: PBS and Scheduling at NCI – The past, present and future
"A university environment can be a challenge in many ways, with a wide variety of differing demands from more than a hundred different research groups, so how can a High Performance Computing group hope to meet the requirements…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging; Giant Squid Sculpture at Burning Man
It looks impressive, maybe 20-30 feet long: "I think this might be the coolest thing I have ever built," said Barry Crawford about his giant, metal squid that was installed at Burning Man. The sculpture is entirely made of found…
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Assistants: IPSoft, Amelia and AI
Chetan Dube - CEO and president, IPsoft" ... For Chetan Dube, the dream of true artificial intelligence—a machine or program that does not simply regurgitate data but can instead interpret the myriad nuances of human speech and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Contract Guardian Updates
My friends at Contract Guardian continue to meet the challenge of compliance in complex contractual and regulatory agreements. Favorite topics of mine. Check them out." .... We have released a few new features in Contract Guardian…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Taming Some Inequalities
As used to solve a classic problem about distinguishing distributions Composite of src1, src2 Gregory Valiant and Paul Valiant are top researchers who are not unrelated to each other. Families like the Valiants and Blums could…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Taming Some Inequalities
As used to solve a classic problem about distinguishing distributions Composite of src1, src2 Gregory Valiant and Paul Valiant are top researchers who are not unrelated to each other. Families like the Valiants and Blums could…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shell Oil Using Analytics
How Shell Uses Analytics To Drive Business Success By Bernard Marr in DSCThe oil and gas industries are facing major challenges - the costs of extraction are rising and the turbulent state of international politics adds to the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Philosopher looks at AI
Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?In Sciam: A philosopher worries about computers’ ever accelerating abilities to outpace human skills Sums it up quite well. via Spohrer.