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 Computational Complexity
Non controversial thoughts on rankings
US News has a ranking of CS depts and various subcategories. Recently MohammadTaghi Hajiaghay and Luca Trevisan have suggested alternative rankings here (Moh) and...
From Computational Complexity
A few more notes about Sipser and Sipser-60th
While Lance was AT Mikefest (Sipser's 60th Bday conference), helping to organize it, emceeing the personal statements, I was... also there. A few notes Aside...
From Computational Complexity
Guest Post by Dr. Hajiaghayi: A new way to rank departments
(This is a guest post by MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi. His name is not a typo- the first name really is MohammadTaghi.) Due to our belief in the lack of transparency...
From Computational Complexity
Martin Gardner Centennial
Martin Gardner was born on October 21, 1914, so today is his Centennial (he died on May 22, 2010, at the age of 95). We've mentioned him in the blog before: ...
From Computational Complexity
Algorithms that never get coded up
(There was a passing ref to this topic in the comments to one of Scott's blogs, so I thought I would pick up the theme.) When I teach Formal Lang Theory I endCould...
From Computational Complexity
Luddite or not?
My first ever guest post for Lance was on Are you a luddite. I certainly am to some extent a luddite, but there are some things where it not clear if they are luddite...
From Computational Complexity
The Complexity of NIM. Open?
Recall 1-pile NIM: Let A be a finite set of Naturals. NIM(A) is the following game: There are n stones on the board. Players I and II alternate removing a\in A...
From Computational Complexity
Dagstuhl on Algebra in Computational Complexity
(Reminder- Theory day at UMCP: here is the link. ) There was a Dagstuhl on Algebra in Computational Complexity Sept 22-26. I learned stuff in the talks, over meals...
From Computational Complexity
Gentry and Lurie and Zhang can say they are genius's without bragin'- MacArthur Genius's
(If I mispell anything in this post, well, that"s why I'm not a MacArthur Genius, or any other kind of Genius.) Craig Gentry, of homomorphic encryption fame, won...
From Computational Complexity
Maryland Theory Day October 10!
Univ of Maryland at College Park is having a Theory Day Friday October 10. Free Registration and Free Lunch! (there are no economists coming to tell us therehere...
From Computational Complexity
A Statistical oddity ?
I keep a list of people that are famous-to-me that are old so that if someone dies I won't be surprised. When Lauren Bacall died recently I (1) knew who she...
From Computational Complexity
How hard is changing fields? Ask Sheldon!
In the last season of The Big Band Theory Sheldon wants to change field from String theory to something else (I don't recall if he settled on what it would be,...
From Computational Complexity
Quetions that arose teaching HS students crypto
I taught a 3-week, 3-hours-a-day course to HS student titled Computer Science: A Hands Off Approach. Given that time constraints and the fact that some already...
From Computational Complexity
The n^{1/3} barrier for 2-server PIR's broken! A lesson for us all!
Recall: PIR stands for Private Information Retrieval. Here is the model: A database is an n-bit string (my wife tells me this is not true). The user wants to find...
From Computational Complexity
How I know Moneyball is a true story. Do we clean up theorems and life too much?
A few years ago I saw the movie Moneyball about how the Oakland A's used intelligent statistics to... win? No, but to do better-than-expected. Even if I didn't...
From Computational Complexity
How NOT to bet
(True Story, but names are changed for no good reason.) Alice, Bob, and Carol are betting on who will be the Republican Nominee in 2016. Alice bets on Jeb Bush...
From Computational Complexity
The Change Problem and the Gap between Recreational and Serious Mathematics
In a prior post (here)I discussed the change problem: given a dollar, how many ways can you make change using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (and generalize...
From Computational Complexity
Need some book reviewed- faster than usual
I have been the SIGACT NEWS book review editor since 1997. I have tried to get about 10 books reviewed per column. I have succeeded- perhaps too well! I have gotten...
From Computational Complexity
What to call the top and bottom part of (n choose k)
In my last post I asked for candidates for names for the top and bottom part of (n choose k) . Here are the candidates and my comments on them and ... the winner...
From Computational Complexity