Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Current Daylight saving time policies are insane
Daylight saving time (DST) is this insane practice whereas twice a year, clocks are moved forward or backward by an hour. It is still widespread throughout North...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Do NULL markers in SQL cause any harm?
The relational model, and by extension, the language SQL supports the notion of NULL marker. It is commonly used to indicate that some attribute is unknown or non...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Where are the “big problem” jobs?
Several authors, scientists and entrepreneurs have lamented our poor ability to innovate. It seems that industry is recruiting few people to work on hard problems...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Does academic research cause economic growth?
In most developed countries, government massively funds through academic grants, government laboratories, tax credits and research contracts. In Canada, the government...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Peer review without journals or conferences
Almost all scientists ask their peers to review their work outside of the formal process offered by journals and conferences. Young scientists are routinely told...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
What kind of researcher are you?
The politician. He will get people to collaborate on joint projects. How to recognize: He knows everyone! Pro: He makes things happen irrespective of the available...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
We are publishing a lot more! How will we cope?
The number of research articles published each year grows exponentially. We often estimate the rate of growth to between 4% to 6% a year. We are publishing a lot...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The big-O notation is a teaching tool
One of my clients once got upset. Indeed, the running time of our image processing algorithm grew by a factor of four when he doubled the resolution of an image...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
How fast should your dynamic arrays grow?
When programming in Java or C++, your arrays have fixed sizes. So if you have an array of 32 integers and you need an array with 33 integers, you may need to create...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Is learning useless stuff good for you?
We often require all students to learn things they may never need like latin, calculus, advanced trigonometry and classical literature. The implicit assumption...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
XML for databases: a dead idea
One of my colleagues is teaching an artificial intelligence class. In his class, he uses old videos where experts from the early eighties make predictions about...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
How I learned mathematics (as a kid)
As I reported elsewhere, I technically failed kindergarten. For example, one of the test we had to pass was the memorization of our home phone number. I refused...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Government regulations… as software
Socialists accuse me of being a libertarian. Libertarians accuse me of being a socialist. I am actually a pragmatist: I believe that we should set things up to...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Governments are full of bugs
The famous scifi author (and self-described libertarian) David Brin tells a fascinating tale about how he contributed to getting the lead out of gazoline. He explains...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Experience is everything
We learned recently that one of the leading opponents to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Mark Lynas, decided that he had it all wrong. GMOs save the Earth...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Are CAPTCHAs a good idea?
A CAPTCHA is a small test used to distinguish human users from robots. They are popular as an anti-spam tool. Until a few months ago, I had an annoying CAPTCHA...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Reflecting on 2012
The new year (2013) is here. So, it is time to reflect on what I have done and seen in 2012. As a researcher, one of the most interesting innovation in 2012 has...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Why do students pay for the research professors do?
Universities require their professors to publish research papers. Yet publishing your research has little to do with most of the teaching that goes on in universities...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
A simple trick to get things done even when you are busy
I have been overwhelmed with busy work for the last couple of weeks. Unavoidably, this has meant shorter emails, fewer follow-ups with collaborators and not as...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog