Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2021
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 31st 2021)
Researchers built a microscope that might be 10 times better than the best available microscopes. Subsidizing college education can lower earnings due to lower job experience: The Post 9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) is among the largest…
From BLOG@CACM
Gaming the System: Definition
To game a programmed system means thwarting non-programmed intention.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pepper Robot Shelved
And the much touted Pepper robot from Japanese Softbank Group, has also been shelved. Much touted at one time as human friendly in many soft domains. Saw this impressively demonstrated in Japan.
Softbank Robotics Shelved By…From The Eponymous Pickle
Status of Autonomous Last-Mile
Had wondered the status of this, after I saw some neighborhood bans reported. have even volunteered to look at the Nuro example and report on it in situ. Risk of sharing sidewalks with people. Coming back?
Last-Mile Delivery…From The Eponymous Pickle
Bayesian Keyboards
Nice piece of how keyboards are made smart.
A Look Inside the Bayesian Keyboard
A visual tour of the data-driven features that make modern smartphone keyboards smart
Daniel Buschek in TowardsDatascience
What you type is what you…From The Eponymous Pickle
On Communication with Animals
Are we closer to communication with parrots, chimps, dolphins? Will it be a key aspect of AI?
On Communication By Vinton G. Cerf in CACM.
Communications of the ACM, August 2021, Vol. 64 No. 8, Page 5 10.1145/3472146
As I write…From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Pandemic Lag
In chess ratings and what other measures of cognitive development? src Henri Didon was a French priest and promoter of youth sports in the late 1800s. He coined the phrase Citius, Altius, Fortius, meaning faster-higher-stronger…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ear Worn eBP Sensor
I had understood that such BP methods were hard to do, my apologies if I was mistaken. Here considerable detail provided at the link.
FROM COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
eBP: An Ear-Worn Device for Frequent and Comfortable Blood Pressure…From insideHPC
Let’s Talk Exascale: Optimizing the North American Power Grid for Reliability and Decarbonization
In this episode of Let’s Talk Exascale from the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) the focus is on an ECP application development project called ExaSGD, shorthand for Optimizing Stochastic Grid Dynamics at…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Machine Learning and Science
Good intro and positioning. A bit of an overreach perhaps.
How will machine learning change science? by Tanya Petersen, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Techxplore
Machine learning has burst onto the scene in…From The Eponymous Pickle
A New Era for Mechanical CAD
Considerable piece. We actively worked with computer aided design, and used sketchpad too. Had always thought there would be better models for 'assistance' for its use. Early on we examined automated efficiency of designA…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Is the Dream of Self-Driving Car Over?
Are we slipping on compete autonomy? I don't think so. It may take longer than expected, but it will be here. It has too many long range benefits to ignore. It will also be delivered overseas and the pressure to catchWhy…
From insideHPC
DOE Resumes Webinar Series Aug. 4 on HPC Scientific Software Engineering Challenges and Best Practices
The IDEAS Productivity project, in partnership with the DOE Computing Facilities of the ALCF, OLCF, and NERSC and the DOE Exascale Computing Project (ECP) has resumed the webinar series on Best Practices for HPC Software Developers…
From Schneier on Security
Storing Encrypted Photos in Google’s Cloud
New paper: “Encrypted Cloud Photo Storage Using Google Photos“:
Abstract: Cloud photo services are widely used for persistent, convenient, and often free photo storage, which is especially useful for mobile devices. As users…From Schneier on Security
I Am Parting With My Crypto Library
The time has come for me to find a new home for my (paper) cryptography library. It’s about 150 linear feet of books, conference proceedings, journals, and monographs — mostly from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
My preference is…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Measuring memory usage: virtual versus real memory
Software developers are often concerned with the memory usage of their applications, and rightly so. Software that uses too much memory can fail, or be slow. Memory allocation will not work the same way under all systems. However…
From Computational Complexity
Covid Stats
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cost of Data Breaches
What it costs to have a Data Breach, useful data.
IBM Report: Data-Breach Costs Hit 17-Year High of $4.24M
Nancy Chenyizhi Liu | Editor in SdxCentral
July 28, 2021 12:01 AM
Data-breach costs jumped nearly 10% from an average of $3…From insideHPC
NSF Partnerships Expand National AI Research Institutes to 40 states
WASHINGTON — July 29, 2021 –Today, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced the establishment of 11 new NSF National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, building on the first round of seven institutes funded in…
From insideHPC
Wavicle Data Solutions Introduces Augment, ML-powered Data Management Platform
CHICAGO (July 29, 2021) – Chicago-based Wavicle Data Solutions, a leading data analytics firm offering cloud migration services and data management consulting, today announced the launch of Augment, the company’s new data management…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Weather Company Best Weather Forecast
We actively used weather prediction data and programs for supply chain models. I now use IBM's Weather Company almost daily. Quite good, very accurate, not perfect. Often small errors can make a big difference. Risk for…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Skin Is Naturally Anti-microbial
Often it feels like squid just evolved better than us mammals.
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 here.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Disrupting Ransomware by disrupting Cybercurrecy
Good piece in Schneier. Disrupt the chain of reward.
Disrupting Ransomware by Disrupting Bitcoin
Ransomware isn’t new; the idea dates back to 1986 with the “Brain” computer virus. Now, it’s become the criminal business model…From The Eponymous Pickle
Amex Uses Synthetic Data for Rare Fraud Patterns
Something we modeled even before machine learning to test 'nearness' to rare, or even nonexistent patterns.
Companies Beef Up AI Models with Synthetic Data By The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2021
Companies are building synthetic…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Playing with Bacon's Cipher
Bacon's cipher is a fairly well-known and simple cipher. Its considered a form of steganography. Unlike most steganography, the code is hidden in the text and not an image. The format is a 5-bit binary encoding where each letter…
From insideHPC
Verifying the Universe with Exascale Supercomputers
The ExaSky project, one of the critical Earth and Space Science applications being solved by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Exascale Computing Project (ECP), is preparing to use the nation’s forthcoming exascale supercomputers…
From insideHPC
Putting Data in The Driver Seat Can Change Everything
[Sponsored Post] When you have data in the driver’s seat, it’s a smooth ride. Any other operator, you risk a bumpy experience. The explosion of Digital Transformation is driving a rapid increase in investment in artificial intelligence…
From The Eponymous Pickle
What3Words Location Database
And we continue to follow up the complexity, security and implications of determining location. With a system called What3Words, which I had not heard of before. Described quickly below. See also: What3words.com
Lost in L.A…From The Eponymous Pickle
Concerns about QR Codes
Good points. I had not known that some of this data was always gathered. We did formally tesgrt the use of QR codes in store to get information about products being purchased. But at the time things like location dataLocation…
From insideHPC
Chenbro Launches RM252/RM352 Short Depth Edge Computing Server Chassis Series for 5G
Taipei, Taiwan, July 27, 2021 – Chenbro (TWSE: 8210), a maker of own-brand rackmount system, announced the RM252 and RM352 series, its latest short depth 2U and 3U edge computing server chassis, to support complex industrial …