Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2021
From The Eponymous Pickle
2FA as Security
Good overview piece abut 2FA and beyond.
Is MFA Needed to Improve Security?
By Keith Kirkpatrick Commissioned by CACM Staff February 25, 2021
Many corporate and consumer-based systems and applications deploy short message…From Computational Complexity
Using number-of-PhD's as a measure of smartness is stupid.
In Thor:Ragnorak Bruce Banner mentions that he has 7 PhDs. Gee, I wonder how he managed to slip that into a conversation casually. Later in the movie:
Bruce: I don't know how to fly one of those (it an Alien Spacecraft)
Thor:Bruce…From The Eponymous Pickle
Universities Capturing More Value from Research
Sounds akin to our own work on gathering value from research. Our recent work with the DOD to understand what research it has paid for, and can be monetized or placed into public use. Good discussion.
Should Universities …From The Eponymous Pickle
BERT for Unsupervised Training
A nice, fairly compact, somewhat technical view of how to use BERT for unsupervised training problems. And some unexpected uses. True, everyone should know how to use this method. Click through for full detail.
For unsupervised…From The Eponymous Pickle
RPA Examined
See also aspects of business process modeling for extensions to the idea. And likely combination with broader methods of ML and AI
Some thoughts on RPA: By Maria Macaraig October 8, 2019 in Datafloq
Robotic process automation…From insideHPC
ECP: SuperLU Library Speeds Direct Solution of Large Sparse Linear Systems on HPC and Exascale Hardware
Technology consultant and writer Rob Farber wrote the following on behalf of the Exascale Computing Project. Lower-upper (LU) factorization is an important numerical algorithm used to solve systems of linear equations in science…
From insideHPC
Dr. Céline Merlet wins 2021 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for HPC
PRACE, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, has announced that French National Centre for Scientific Research researcher Dr. Céline Merlet from the Centre Inter-universitaire de Recherche et d’Ingénierie des Matériaux…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology
Contributed article, excerpt below in the March 2021 CACM.
My first reaction was No! But some very good points made ... '
The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology By Neil C. Thompson, Svenja Spanuth
Communications…From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
New, Old, Ancient Results
Nonexistence theorems and attempts at lower bounds Cropped from src Joshua Grochow is an assistant professor in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was a student of Ketan Mulmuley and…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
New, Old, Ancient Results
Nonexistence theorems and attempts at lower bounds Cropped from src Joshua Grochow is an assistant professor in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was a student of Ketan Mulmuley and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data and its Useful Nature as an Asset
Recall this echoes some of our own examination of 'data as an asset'. Thoughtful ideas here but I think it is still useful to consider it as an asset that can be combined with methods and other data to drive further value…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Talking Blockchain
Wladawsky talks Blockchain. Good thoughtful piece with lots of backup.
How Can Blockchain Become a Truly Transformative Technology?
I first became interested in blockchain technologies when in 2016 the World Economic Forum (WEF)…From The Eponymous Pickle
Scramble for Post Quantum
Moving more rapidly than expected.
The Scramble for Post-Quantum Cryptography
By Samuel Greengard , Commissioned by CACM Staff
Researchers are working to counter the threat to current communications posed by the nascent quantum…From The Eponymous Pickle
Ring Door Bell Goes Radar
Like some of the directions the doorbell tech is going, getting to be quite common.
Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 uses radar for bird’s-eye view of front door activity By Patrick Hearn
Ring’s latest addition to its lineup of smart…From insideHPC
Fending off Bitcoin Mining HPC Thieves – Idaho National Lab’s ‘Cryptojacking’ Detector
Demand for HPC resources from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency miners has only increased with the recent explosion in the cryptocurrency’s price – up 65 percent year-to-date. But with that demand has come advanced malware in
…
From Schneier on Security
Encoded Message in the Perseverance Mars Lander’s Parachute
NASA made an oblique reference to a coded message in the color pattern of the Perseverance Mars Lander ‘s parachute.
From insideHPC
HPE to Build Research Supercomputer for Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology
HPE’s string of HPC contract wins has continued with the company’s announcement today that it’s building a supercomputer for KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Funded by Swedish National Infrastructure for
…
From BLOG@CACM
NoSQL vs. SQL
Broadly, NoSQL has an absence of strict schemas for entities/attributes, while SQL rigidly relates/regulates the two.
From The Eponymous Pickle
You Need a Challenge Network
Good thought, agreed, always worked best when challenged.
Why You Need a ‘Challenge Network’ in K@W
In the following excerpt from his new book, Think Again, Wharton management professor Adam Grant explains why success oftenIn…From insideHPC
Multiscale COVID-19 Virus Model Aided by HPC at TACC, PSC, Chicago Research Computer Center
The Texas Advanced Computing Center has announced completion of what it said is the first complete, multiscale model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a project that leveraged HPC resources at TACC, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Real-Time Marker-Less Motion Capture for Animals
Real time feedback for animal movement and posture.
Real time Studies of animal Motion by Neural activity.By EPFL (Switzerland)
Nik Papageorgiou, December 10, 2020
An updated deep learning software toolbox developed at the Swiss…From insideHPC
Open Compute Project Foundation Announces the OCP Future Technologies Initiative
The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) has announced the formation of the OCP Future Technologies Initiative, a formal project within the Foundation whose mission is to build a future-focused Community within OCP to serve …
From insideHPC
NeoPhotonics 400G ZR Modules Support Extended Operation up to 80C Case Temperatures
SAN JOSE — February 25, 2021 – NeoPhotonics Corporation (NYSE: NPTN), a leading developer of silicon photonics and advanced hybrid photonic integrated circuit-based lasers, modules and subsystems for bandwidth-intensive, high…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digitization of Creativity and the Maker Movement.
A considerable piece. In particular note the connection to the 'Maker Movement', an approach we were introduced to as early as the 80s. Of course 3D printing has become a big component. Software tools to to produce models…
From insideHPC
RSTOR Updates Software Defined Cloud Platform for Hybrid, Multi-Cloud Infrastructures
SARATOGA, Calif. – Feb. 25, 2021 — RSTOR, a software defined cloud platform provider that enables enterprises to manage data across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures, has announced a series of customer website enhancements…
From Schneier on Security
Chinese Hackers Stole an NSA Windows Exploit in 2014
Check Point has evidence that (probably government affiliated) Chinese hackers stole and cloned an NSA Windows hacking tool years before (probably government affiliated) Russian hackers stole and then published the same tool.…
From Schneier on Security
National Security Risks of Late-Stage Capitalism
Early in 2020, cyberspace attackers apparently working for the Russian government compromised a piece of widely used network management software made by a company called SolarWinds. The hack gave the attackers access to the computer…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Free Virtual Workshop on Assessing and Improving AI Trustworthiness: Current Contexts, Potential Paths
On March 3-4 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will convene “Assessing and Improving AI Trustworthiness: Current Contexts, Potential Paths,” a public workshop sponsored…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI Recodes Software
Another intriguing application.
AI Recodes Legacy Software to Operate on Modern Platforms
IBM's AI-based tools let engineers explore ways to extract value from legacy enterprise software
Last year, IBM demonstrated how AI can perform…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Vampire Squid Fossil
A 30-million-year-old vampire squid fossil was found, lost, and then re-found in Hungary.
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 postinghere…