Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2021
From insideHPC
Pawsey Offers 1st Look at ‘Setonix’ $48M HPE Cray EX Supercomputer
Perth, Australia — The first phase of what the Pawsey Supcomputer Centre said will be the fastest public research supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere has been unveiled at its new home at the Pawsey Centre in Western Australia…
From The Eponymous Pickle
City Wide Quantum Data Network
China and Quantum Data Networks
City-Wide Quantum Data Network in China Is Largest Ever Built By New Scientist, September 20, 2021
China has been running a city-wide quantum communications network in Hefei, the largest quantum…From insideHPC
Sandia Materials and Computer Scientists Help Create Alloys for Hydrogen Energy Storage, Transmission
LIVERMORE, Calif., Sept. 20, 2021 — A Sandia National Laboratories team of materials scientists and computer scientists, with some international collaborators, have spent more than a year creating 12 new alloys — and modeling…
From BLOG@CACM
We Are Camille
Who is Camille Noûs, who has contributed to hundreds of papers on Google Scholar?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Next Generation Brain-Computer Systems
Has been kicked around for a long time, how ready is it?
Researchers Take Step Toward Next-Generation Brain-Computer Interface System
Brown University, August 12, 2021
A team of scientists from Brown University, Baylor University…From The Noisy Channel
On Search Leadership
As a high-class consultant, I don’t just talk to companies about the technical aspects of search. I also help them them address organizational challenges.
For example, how should a search team be structured? Should search be combined…From The Eponymous Pickle
Removing Location Tracking
Thwarting cellphone tracking.
Is Your Mobile Provider Tracking Your Location? This Technology Could Stop It.
By USC Viterbi School of Engineering, August 16, 2021
A new system devised by researchers at the University of Southern…From insideHPC
Taking Altair Structural & CFD Analysis to New Heights with the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC™ Processors
At the recent ISC 2021 virtual event in June, I sat down with Kevin Mayo of AMD and InsideHPC’s Doug Black. We discussed how the latest AMD EPYC™ processors are helping accelerate Altair applications for the most demanding engineering…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Book Review–System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot
System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot is what you get when a top philosopher, a top political scientist, and a top computer scientist get together to think deeply about technology and society and write…
From Computational Complexity
The New Jeopardy Champion is a `A CS grad student from a school in New Haven'
As of Sept 17, Matt Amodio has won 23 straight games in a row on Jeopardy and won over $800,000 in regular play. The following website is not quite up to date, but its close: here. Of course, that website will change.
1) They…From The Eponymous Pickle
Finding Unexpected Training Data?
Can we find data that will ultimately lead to novel results. Like the idea of fitting it to possible . In a primitive way we looked at means to learn from huge amounts of historical existing data we had. We note the 'at…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pitfalls of Binary Decisions
Good thoughts, but simple is also good.
Five ways to avoid the pitfalls of binary decisions
Before you decide, check how the question is framed to ensure you have all the information you need and have considered all your options…From The Eponymous Pickle
Ajit Joakar on Digital Twins
Nicely placed background on analytical method and design based on physical models.
The significance of Digital Twins in design and simulation By Ajit Jaokar
Background
I have been tracking Digital Twins closely…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (September 18th 2021)
4.5% of us are psychopaths. U.S. per capita CO2 emissions are lower than they were in 1918. 9/10 of People With Alzheimer’s Lose Some of Their Sense of Smell. Graphene-based hard drives could have ten times the storage capacity…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Biases in AI Systems
Excellent piece, broadly useful beyond AI applications.
May 12, 2021, Volume 19, issue 2
Download PDF version of this article PDF
A survey for practitioners
Ramya Srinivasan and Ajay Chander in CACM
…From The Eponymous Pickle
The Hacking of McD's Ice Cream Machine
A little surreal, but a reminder that anything can be hacked. I had heard of the problem from McDonalds, Had been unaware of some of the details involved. Just the intro below. Quite a story.
They Hacked McDonald’s Ice …From The Eponymous Pickle
Machine Learning Developed in Space
We have used computers in space for a long term, now a continuation of developing code there.
Raspberry Pi Heading into Space for Python Programming Challenge
ZDNet, Liam Tung, September 14, 2021
Upgraded Raspberry Pi computers…From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Testing Self Driving Cars with Ford
Unexpected thing. With a delivery angle too..
Walmart to Test Self-Driving Cars with Ford, Argo AI
CNBC, Michael Wayland, September 15, 2021
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is extending its self-driving vehicle program…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Debugging–Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast
Mike Zamansky had an interesting post called What They Used To Know that got me thinking about the old days. Now Mike is a youngster and didn’t really start in computers until the 1980s. I started in the 1970s with punch cards…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visirule Business Risk Advisor
Have never stopped looking at simplified rule based systems to examine model decisions. Some time ago we looked at some of Clive Spenser's work in this area. Simplified and impressive. Used similar methods in the 90s at…
From The Eponymous Pickle
HBR IdeaCast on AI and Marketing
Brought to my attention, the podcast below, and ongoing ...
A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management....
What We Still Need to Learn about AI in Marketing — and Beyond
Eva Ascarza,…From insideHPC
Riken Claims Quantum Breakthrough: Entanglement of Three Spin Qubits
Researchers at Japan’s RIKEN scientific research institute have claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing, increasing the number of silicon-based qubits that can be entangled to three from two, which they say improves the potential…
From BLOG@CACM
Tech Meetups In A Pandemic
By 2019, I generally thought there wasn't much that could surprise me about organizing meetups. Then Covid-19 hit. I was so wrong.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hybrid Smart Contracts
Uses and considerations:
5 Ways Hybrid Smart Contracts Are Changing the Blockchain Industry by 7wData
For years, the blockchain industry has been defined by the excitement around smart contracts, or tamper-proof digital agreements…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Ram’s Horn Squid Shells
You can find ram’s horn squid shells on beaches in Texas (and presumably elsewhere).
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.
Read my blog posting guidelines…From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Driven Video to Enhance Work Environment?
Seen hints of this in my increased use of Youtube for keeping connected with tech changes. Of course it is Google that is controlling the details of the AI driving what I see. Not always ideal, but if I could train it to…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Happy UnBirthday Ken
Mad Hatter: Now, statistics prove, prove that you’ve one birthday. March Hare: Imagine, just one birthday every year. Mad Hatter: Ah, but there are three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays! March Hare: Precisely why we’re gathered…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Computer Race in China
Why and in what direction?
Competing Visions Underpin China’s Quantum Computer Race
Alibaba builds their own qubits, Baidu remains quantum hardware-agnostic
By Craig S. Smith in Spectrum IEEE
China and the US are in a race to…From insideHPC
Cerebras Alliance Offers CS-2 AI Supercomputer as Cloud Service
High performance AI chip maker Cerebras, maker of the Wafer-Scale Engine, the world’s largest computer chip, today announced Cerebras Cloud @ Cirrascale, delivering its AI accelerator as a cloud service. The alliance combines…
From Schneier on Security
Zero-Click iMessage Exploit
Citizen Lab released a report on a zero-click iMessage exploit that is used in NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.
Apple patched the vulnerability; everyone needs to update their OS immediately.