Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2018
From The Eponymous Pickle
L'Oreal UV Sense
How L’Oréal designed the UV Sense to fit on your fingernail in DigitalTrends
Beauty tech is still in its infancy, but lifestyle brands are slowly warming up to the idea of incorporating technology to improve user experience and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Classic Math Problem Used for a Current Problem
This piece is quite technical, but love the fact that classical math is being used to drive some very modern problems. Great example for teaching? In particular note how this problem deals with rapidly changing contexts,
In…
From insideHPC
Fujitsu to Showcase Post-K Supercomputer CPU Prototype at ISC 2018
Today Fujitsu unveiled details about their ARM-powered Post K exascale supercomputer, which is planned for deployment at RIKEN in Japan sometime in 2021. Fujitsu has now completed the prototype CPU chip for the machine, which…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blockchain is not a Revolution
Good introductory piece in [email protected] Not mention of smart contracts.
Why Blockchain Isn’t a Revolution
The terms Bitcoin and blockchain are sometimes used interchangeably, but there’s actually some misunderstanding about…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Deepmind Builds a Picture of its World
Building a model of existing and changing context is a key part of our intelligence.
DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet focused on artificial intelligence (AI), has created a computer program that independently…
From insideHPC
Welcome to ISC High Performance 2018
In this special guest post, Martin Meuer and Thomas Meuer welcome attendees to ISC 2018, which takes place June 24-28 in Frankfurt, Germany. "Today ISC High Performance stands proudly as a globally recognized HPC event, driven…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Capturing the Giant Squid on Video
In this 2013 TED talk, oceanographer Edith Widder explains how her team captured the giant squid on video. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Read…
From My Biased Coin
STOC Lunch Sign-ups, and Reminder
Just a reminder that next week is the 50th STOC in Los Angeles! You can still come and register on site, so please come -- the program is STOC-full of good stuff. Especially all you Californians -- no excuse not to be there…
From Schneier on Security
The Effects of Iran's Telegram Ban
The Center for Human Rights in Iran has released a report outlining the effect's of that country's ban on Telegram, a secure messaging app used by about half of the country. The ban will disrupt the most important, uncensored…
From Computational Complexity
The Muffin Problem
I've been meaning to post on THE MUFFIN PROBLEM for at least a year. Its a project I've been working on for two years, but every time I wanted to post on it I thought.
I'm in the middle of a new result. I'll wait until I get…
From insideHPC
Asetek Provides Liquid Cooling QCT at NCHC in Taiwan
Today Asetek announced the deployment of the company's latest heat rejection technology at the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. "Announced in April, the new liquid cooled NCHC cluster
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Flu Foreasting with Smart Thermometers
We also looked at epidemic forecasting. Note the smart 'thermometers' mentioned here are taking human temperatures. A slight confusion when I first read this.
Smart Thermometers Improve Flu Forecasting By Joe Dysar
Researchers…
From insideHPC
Gidel Launches Lossless Compression IP that Reduces FPGA Power Consumption
Today Gidel announced a new compression IP and a renewed focus on compression and encryption algorithms for the HPC and Vision markets. The compression algorithm requires extremely low power, encoding more than 1 GB/sec utilizing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Network Effects Mean Less
Quite interesting, complex in part because we now have so many devices competing for time and interaction. I would imagine too there is a growing 'assistant effect' that attempts to drive people in a place and time and context…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Encryption via Quantum Mechanics
Related capability suggested here.
Toshiba devises way to send encrypted messages using quantum mechanics
Toshiba plans to demonstrate a working prototype within two years
Toshiba claims to have uncovered a way use the laws of quantum…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum and Blockchain
Quantum Is Key to Securing Blockchain, Say Russian Researchers
Asia Research News
By Alison Hadley
Russian researchers have used quantum key distribution (QKD) to address the issue of quantum blockchain security. Evgeniy Kiktenko…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Assistant Smart Displays Coming
Breaking out the smart display makes sense, allows you to choose quality. The emphasis on work applications may well indicate a push in that direction.
Here comes BYOSD (bring your own smart display)
A new wave of Google Assistant…
From insideHPC
Sylabs Launches Global Partner Program for HPC Containers
Today HPC startup Sylabs announced the launch of a new program for partners. The Sylabs Partner Program offers IT providers a licensing platform that they can use to deliver the commercially supported container platform SingularityPRO…
From insideHPC
Introducing HPE Performance Cluster Manager Software
Over at the HPE Blog, Bill Mannel writes that new HPE Performance Cluster Manager can help you reduce the time and resources spent administering HPC systems. "Managing HPC clusters can be challenging. Especially when you have…
From insideHPC
Atos and Dell EMC Centre of Excellence coming to Supercomputing Wales
Today Atos announced a new contract with Supercomputing Wales, the national supercomputing research facility for Wales that will result in a world-first Atos and Dell EMC supercomputing Centre of Excellence. This partnership
…
From Schneier on Security
Domain Name Stealing at Gunpoint
I missed this story when it came around last year: someone tried to steal a domain name at gunpoint. He was just sentenced to 20 years in jail....
From insideHPC
Prof Michael Resch to present GCS Smart Scale Strategy at ISC 2018
GCS will host a special session on its Smart Scale strategy at ISC 2018. "Prof. Michael Resch will provide insight into the current status and development of Germany’s Smart Scale initiative and of Germany’s position in the field…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Advanced Burger Built by an Advanced Robot
Been reading about entry level labor and autonomous machines. Some solutions have been around for some time, and the general repetitiveness of the requirements make it an obvious solution. Here more complex capabilities than…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Autonomy, Motivation, and Teaching Computer Science
Of the several courses I teach, my favorite course is call Honors Programming. Its a one semester course that is the first real programing course for my students. Its my favorite course because it is the one I have the most autonomy…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytics Magazine
Also, see more about Informs: https://www.informs.org/
Analytics Magazine: Sneak Preview
The upcoming July/August issue of Analytics magazine takes a look at an eclectic list of topics, from AI and the path to the intelligent…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft Establishes Research Data Hub
Useful depending on the nature of the data involved. Will it have sufficient metadata to be specifically useful? Good idea to create.
Microsoft launches an online research hub for sharing AI and science datasets By Maria…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Muffins and Integers
A novel cake-cutting puzzle reveals curiosities about numbers Alan Frank introduced the “Muffins Problem” nine years ago. Erich Friedman and Veit Elser found some early general results. Now Bill Gasarch along with John Dickerson…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Need for Explainable AI
FICO scores and all that. Transparency for decision understanding.
Opening Up Black Boxes with Explainable AI By Alex Woodie
One of the biggest challenges with deep learning is explaining to customers and regulators how the
Describing…
From insideHPC
Asetek Liquid Cooling comes to Latest Intel Compute Modules at ISC18
Today Asetek announced plans to showcase its latest liquid cooling technology integrated in Intel Compute Modules at ISC 2018 in Frankfurt. "Asetek is excited with this next step in the ongoing collaboration with Intel,” said…
From insideHPC
Quantum to Showcase End-to-End HPC Storage at ISC 2018
Today Quantum Corp. announced plans to showcase end-to-end storage capabilities for large-scale HPC environments at ISC 2018 in Frankfurt. "As storage requirements for sensor generated data, scientific research and advanced supercomputing…