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 insideHPC
Taking a Virtual Turn, ModSim 2020 Focuses on the AI Era
From the front lines of this year’s ModSim conference, Charity Plata, Computational Science Initiative, Communications, Brookhaven National Laboratory, send this report: Recently, the ninth annual Workshop on Modeling & Simulation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Platforms for Data Science
Good piece in O'Reilly about this question, largely-non technical and useful thoughts. Passing it on ...
Why Best-of-Breed is a Better Choice than All-in-One Platforms for Data Science
All-in-one platforms built from open source…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Doorbell Cameras Used by Criminals too
I have recently been asked about security issues with doorbell and other smart home camera systems. The following excerpt from The Verge shows a perhaps less than obvious use by criminals too, they could record/alert themselves…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Prime Air Approved for Trials
Promised some time ago. Now FAA approved. In specifically what parts of the supply chain is this expected to be useful? Some years away?
Amazon's Prime Air can officially begin drone delivery trials in the US
The FAA granted…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ikea Tries Virtual Influence, Happiness and More
So what is this? An assistant? An influencer in what sense? Just to engage us? An Android? To do what for whom? Assemble furniture or prepare meatballs? Explores 'happiness at home'. There is a video at the link, but…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Knowledge Graphs vs Property Graphs
Robert Coyne Writes and points to a number of their resources on this topic:
Thank you for attending our webinar: "Knowledge Graphs vs. Property Graphs --a brief overview and comparison". We hope you enjoyed the event. .... .
The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Accelerated Computation as Disruption
Some bits of thoughts on the topic. And new form of high performance computing (HPC)? Ultimately what are the limits of capabilities here, versus more standard supercomputing?
Is Quantum-Accelerated Computation the Next Big…
From BLOG@CACM
Preparation for Building the First Swiss Digital Computer (Ermeth)
Eduard Stiefel's study trip to the U.S. in 1948/1949.
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Mea Culpa
Plus more on the separating word problem Mea Culpa is not someone we introduced on the blog before. She does not come from the same world as Lofa Polir or Neil L. As in the French movie poster at right, the meaning is “my fault…
From insideHPC
Managing Complexity in the New Era of HPC
In this contributed article, Bill Wagner, CEO of Bright Computing, discusses how the HPC industry has entered an era of change in the past few years. New technologies, cloud, edge, and a broadening set of commercial use cases…
From Schneier on Security
Seny Kamara on "Crypto for the People"
Seny Kamara gave an excellent keynote talk this year at the (online) CRYPTO Conference. He talked about solving real-world crypto problems for marginalized communities around the world, instead of crypto problems for governments…
From Schneier on Security
Seny Kamara on "Crypto for the People"
Seny Kamara gave an excellent keynote talk this year at the (online) CRYPTO Conference. He talked about solving real-world crypto problems for marginalized communities around the world, instead of crypto problems for governments…
From Schneier on Security
Seny Kamara on "Crypto for the People"
Seny Kamara gave an excellent keynote talk this year at the (online) CRYPTO Conference. He talked about solving real-world crypto problems for marginalized communities around the world, instead of crypto problems for governments…
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Seeing Around the Corner
More on the topic. Mentioned a number of times here, a seemingly impossible idea. But very useful for driving applications to anticipate and avoid problems. Thought I have no application for this idea, the metaphor of getting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Exoskeletons Advancing
The exoskeleton idea is fascinating ... already in use in automotive. Anywhere that needs improved physical strength and manipulation. Military another area very likely.
U.S. Marines to Get 'Alpha' Exoskeleton for Super Strength…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Surveillance Capitalism
I was just pointed to Shoshanna Zuboff's latest Book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:
Our company had been interviewed for her 1988 book: In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power. as we ramped up
A…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Content Factories Emerge
We have many means of converting data and hypotheses to useful testable directions.
The Data-Driven Tech Engine at the Heart of Hollywood's Content Factories
The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Mims
July 11, 2020
A new breed of film…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
20,000 Comments and More
With more about the Separating Words Problem I.I.T. Madras page Anoop S K M is a PhD student in the theory group of I.I.T. Madras in Chennai, India. His comment two weeks ago Monday was the 20,000th reader comment (including…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Connecting Computers to the Brain: Update NeuralLink
Had heard of this some time ago. Apparently this updates. Still skeptical as to what the word 'connecting' means here. We can read brain signals readily, but can we control things that way? Look forward to see more. No…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Considering the AI Factory
Nicely covered by Irving:
The AI Factory: A New Kind of Digital Operating Model
“Whether you’re leading a digital start-up or working to revamp a traditional enterprise, it’s essential to understand the revolutionary impact AICompeting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Honeywell Talks Future of Quantum Computing
Honeywell gives a non technical (but necessarily incomplete) view of the state and future of quantum computing. And they are apparently bullish on its future. Note mention of their work with Microsoft on the topic.
The Future…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (August 29th 2020)
In children, higher video game time is positively associated with cognition (i.e., kids who play more video games are smarter). Note that it does not follow that playing video games makes you smarter; it could be that smarter…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Training Autonomous Drones
More advances in the use of data to train autonomous drones in many contexts. Likely to see many more autonomous drone applications. Moving the sensors to the data.
CMU Researchers Train Autonomous Drones Using Cross-Modal…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon's Smart Carts Launch in LA
Update on Amazon work with the 'smart cart,' which I have mentioned many times in this space. Note also Alexas as assistants. A new integration. Could an Alexa assistant provide enough help? Will this get other grocery players…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: How Squid Survive Freezing, Oxygen-Deprived Waters
Lots of interesting genetic details. 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 insideHPC
The Hyperion-insideHPC Interviews: Simon Burbridge Gives ARM a Hand – ‘Maybe We Don’t Need to Have Accelerators’
At this point in the career of HPC luminary Simon Burbridge of the University of Bristol, he’s focused on HPC system design based on ARM-designed processors. Citing the world’s top ranked supercomputer, Japan’s Fugaku, Burbridge…
From insideHPC
Article Retraction
Due to reporting error, insideHPC yesterday ran an article mistakenly reporting that supercomputers at the National Energy National Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab had recently been the target of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simulating Mask Effectiveness
Was alway surprised this was not better understood. Had for years done simulation of complex systems using high performance computing methods. Why not for mask applications? Too many possible variants in initial conditions…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Faster Testing
Iproving the sensor to be better faster, or cheaper is a way we did quick classification of possibilities. And thoughts to risk of application.
For Quick Coronavirus Testing, Israel Turns to Clever Algorithm
The New York Times…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: How Squid Survive Freezing, Oxygen-Deprived Waters
Lots of interesting genetic details.
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.