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 The Eponymous Pickle
Book: Transforming Supply Chains in Disruption
Brought to my attention, not clear that this specifically considers the rare condition of pandemics and other disruption. Have not read as yet, via Informs/Analytics.
New book addresses digital supply network challenges in the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Green Energy Pilot using Smart Contracts
Good piece on current use of smart contracts.
California Agency Backs Green-Energy Pilot Using RSK’s Bitcoin Smart Contracts By Nathan DiCamillo in CoinDesk
The California Energy Commission, the state’s primary energy policy and…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Performance tip: constructing many non-trivial objects is slow
I started programming professionally when Java came out and right about when C++ was the “hot new thing”. Following the then-current fashion, I looked down at C and Pascal programming. I fully embraced object-oriented programming…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Fran Allen: 1932-2020
We lost a great computer scientist. Frances Allen was one of the leaders who helped create the field of compilers research. Fran was an elite researcher at IBM, and won a Turing Award for this pioneering work. Allen also collected…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmented Intelligence, the New AI
Hardly new. Computing has always augmented people doing computational and logical work. Its just that this work has now expanded to other formally human and animal insight. Like learning, pattern observation, forecasting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digitizing the Education Revolution
Changes have occurred, will they fundamentally influence how we learn and apply emerging tech? Does MOOC need the university? How people will invent and collaborate to produce new science and its application? Work is underway…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: New SQUID
There's a new SQUID: A new device that relies on flowing clouds of ultracold atoms promises potential tests of the intersection between the weirdness of the quantum world and the familiarity of the macroscopic world we experience…
From insideHPC
Kao Data Talks HPC-class Colocation Data Center Requirements in the UK’s ‘Innovation Corridor’
UK colocation provider Kao Data talks about the changing data center requirements of HPC organizations in the “Innovation Corridor,” between London and Cambridge. Kao Data Vice President Spencer Lamb talks with the late Rich
…
From insideHPC
Mode Analytics Raises $33 Million in Series D Funding, Led by H.I.G. Growth Partners
San Francisco – August 6, 2020 – Mode Analytics, the leader in advanced analytics, today announced that it has closed a $33 million round of Series D funding led by H.I.G. Growth Partners, along with Valor Equity Partners, Foundation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Addressing Information Overload from Polarization
Although mostly we had too little data to address a problem, the idea of finding data, determining its value in context and then prepping for sub tasks involved, could lead to too much. This article excerpt intrigued me. Polarization…
From The Eponymous Pickle
State and Future of IBM
Former exec and colleague Bob Herbold talks IBM in his blog:
IBM: Finally, A Bold Move Provides Some Hope
Posted on August 6, 2020 by Bob Herbold
One financial analyst calls IBM’s last ten years its wasted decade. In that period…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Voice Assistant for Doctors
Podcast of interest: Patient engagement,Voice Assistant
Harjinder Sandhu Founder and CEO of Saykara a Voice Assistant for Doctors – Voicebot Podcast Ep 161
Harjinder Sandhu founded Saykara in 2015 but his journey into healthcare…
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Intelligent Retail Clouds
More data, more interactions with parts of the business, new patterns to leverage in a changing world.
How is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Retail Landscape in Maize
Francis Oyewole heads up Business Development at Aura
How…
From insideHPC
1st Student Cluster Competition Focusing on Racial Inclusion Slated for January
The inaugural Winter Classic Invitational Student Cluster Competition to include historically black and minority universities in the supercomputing challenge arena is slated for Jan. 25, 2021. To date, participating colleges
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Huma-Like too Low a Bar
Good cautious point is made here. But I respond that in most cases we are assisting a human, or doing something rather narrow that a human does today. But quicker and without many kinds of human-like errors. So the bar
Why…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ethical Questions about AI Surgery
Wondered at first where the ethical questions were coming from. Access to advanced methods? No, it seems privacy was once again involved.
Researchers examine the ethical implications of AI in surgical settings
Kyle Wiggers
A new…
From insideHPC
Hyperion Research Invites Submissions for HPC Innovation Excellence Awards
Hyperion Research is accepting submissions for the 16th round of the HPC Innovation Excellence Awards, to be announced at the SC20 (virtual) conference in November. Award entries are invited all countries and must be submitted…
From Computational Complexity
Do Senators have an Advantage for being Dem VP Nominee?
This is a non-partisan post. Even so: I plan to vote for Joe Biden.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Testing Self Driving in Germany
The idea of autonomous vehicles moves on.
Mobileye wins permit to test autonomous vehicles in Germany By Kyle Wiggers in Venturebeat
Mobileye, Intel’s driverless vehicle R&D division, today announced that German certification…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Updates Audio Settings
Had noticed that that Google assistant seemed to better understand. Via Google:
' .... We recently updated the setting for voice and audio recordings in your Google Account and included more detail about how we use audio recordings…
From Schneier on Security
The NSA on the Risks of Exposing Location Data
The NSA has issued an advisory on the risks of location data. Mitigations reduce, but do not eliminate, location tracking risks in mobile devices. Most users rely on features disabled by such mitigations, making such safeguards…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Many Sat Nav Systems in Orbit
The continued increase of GPS systems. Will the data from multiple systems be commonly be shared? Or more likely withdrawn in conflict?
China Celebrates Completion of Rival Satellite Navigation System
in Associated Press
China…
From insideHPC
Summit Takes Center Stage in GE Wind Power Study
Scientists at GE Research have been authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy to access Oak Ridge National Lab’s (ORNL) Summit supercomputer, the world second most powerful system, to study wind power, projected to provide
…
From insideHPC
Unify Your Analytics, and Keep Your Data Where It Suits You
In this sponsored post, Joy King, VP, Vertica Product Management & Product Marketing, believes that we need to stop our fixation with “data in one place.” The days of the single data repository are behind us. If you try doing…
From insideHPC
RadioFreeHPC: HPC Market Growth; Student Cluster Competition — Winter Classic Invitational
by RadioFreeHPC Podcast HPC Market Projected Growth It’s a few weeks since we recorded this episode so maybe things have changed, but as of the recording the HPC market is projected to grow according to Hyperion’s studies. The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Robotic Bricklayer
From The Eponymous Pickle
Questions on the Value of Speaking Robotish
What is the meaning behind declaring something a language? We have many computing and many human languages. How much does their form influence the nature of communication between people and people, people and devices? What…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Opinions on State of the Art of Automated Machine Learning
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Suites to be Modified
Have now had to use G-Suites for a number of interactions, especially of university project communications. Always thought they were less logical, especially when compared to MS's office offerings. but then I started with
Google…
From insideHPC
Inspur NF5488A5 Breaks AI Server Performance Record in Latest MLPerf Benchmarks
San Jose, Aug. 5 – In the results released last week of MLPerf AI benchmark, Inspur NF5488A5 server set a new AI performance record in the Resnet50 training task, topping the list for single server performance. MLPerf (results…