Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2020
From Schneier on Security
On That Dusseldorf Hospital Ransomware Attack and the Resultant Death
Wired has a detailed story about the ransomware attack on a Dusseldorf hospital, the one that resulted in an ambulance being redirected to a more distant hospital and the patient dying. The police wanted to prosecute the ransomware…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Remote Work, Example in Film Production
New changes in remote work, an example:
The film crews being directed from a continent away By Richard Baimbridge Business reporter BBC
In a production studio in Kiev, Ukraine, a film director sits in front of a computer screen…From The Eponymous Pickle
Robo Taxis are Coming
More autonomy to be seen on the roads. How soon will we see applications in broad use?
Robotaxis get the green light for paid rides in California
The state’s public utility commission authorized two new programs to allow driverless…From The Eponymous Pickle
USAF Tests Robotics Security, Surveillance
Another inevitable move, for surveillance and implied force available. As I have mentioned for other security examples of use, the robot-dogs look scary.
US Air Force deploys robot security dogs to guard base but doesn't go …From insideHPC
insideHPC Guide to QCT Platform-on-Demand Designed for Converged Workloads
In this insideHPC technology guide, "insideHPC Guide to QCT Platform-on-Demand Designed for Converged Workloads,"as we’ll see, by relying on open source software and the latest high performance/low cost system architectures,
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From The Noisy Channel
Facets of Faceted Search
Faceted search is a fascinating topic. It’s a standard feature of site search, and one could write an entire book on the subject. In this post, I’ll focus on some nuances of faceted search that I feel have been neglected in the…
From Computational Complexity
Fun with birthdays, inspired by Nov 20
On Nov 20, 2020 the Google Doodle was of Benoit Mandelbrot for his 96th birthday. Why have a Doodle on his 96th bday? Anyway, the Doodle is here.
On Nov 20, 2020 I read that Joe Biden turned 78. Why no Google Doodle of him…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
The Making of a Computer Science Teacher
There is quite the conversation going on in the private Computer Science Educators group on Facebook about teacher preparation for CS educators. This is a very interesting group for CS educators BTW. Join if you are on Facebook…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning Long Horizon Planning
Another interesting piece from Berkeley - BAIR. Now looking at more complex planning. Long range planning that machines are not necessarily good at. But humans are also not so good at problems that require many option planning…
From Schneier on Security
More on the Security of the 2020 US Election
Last week I signed on to two joint letters about the security of the 2020 election. The first was as one of 59 election security experts, basically saying that while the election seems to have been both secure and accurate (voter…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The disagreeable scientist conjecture
If you are a nerd, the Internet is a candy store… if only you stay away from mainstream sites. Some of the best scientists have blogs, YouTube channels, they post their papers online. When they review a paper, they speak frankly…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Customer Management Must Change
Yes, consider the impact of uncertainty for longer periods as linked to a risk model.
Growth in Uncertainty: As Consumers Change, Customer Management Must Evolve as Well
By Richard Essigs, Ernst & Young LLP - 09/24/2020
Even before…From The Eponymous Pickle
Fraunhofer Modular Vehicle Concept
Interesting conceptually, practical in what future time? Thought provoking at least.
Flexible and Individual: Fraunhofer Team Develops Groundbreaking Vehicle Concept
Research News / November 17, 2020
How can individualized luxury…From The Eponymous Pickle
Automated Workflows are Rolling
Clearly, and this will continue. But doing it right will still be a challenge. The advantage will be to those that use the best approaches, applied to context with the right AI and analytics. Think Autonomous is the future…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Larping for Education
Admit I did not know what LARPing was. And thus not its use in education. Or is it just like interning? Or could it be linked to gaming? You could use 'fictitious' experiences to broaden the possibilities for learning. The…
From insideHPC
NETL, Cerebras Claim CFD Milestone
A collaboration between DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory and Cerebras Systems, maker of the CS-1 deep learning compute system, has demonstrated that CS-1 could perform a key computational fluid dynamics (CFD) workload…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSTC Subcommittee Report: Recommendations for Leveraging Cloud Computing Resources for Federally Funded Artificial Intelligence Research and Development
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) just released a new report that provides Recommendations for Leveraging Cloud Computing Resources for Federally Funded Artificial…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IOT Deep Learning Enabled
Of Course, a step forward we need to do systematically. Can this make our home devices learn from their experiences? Have them ask for help? Look for help from other sources? Try out solutions?
System Brings Deep Learning…From insideHPC
MBX Debuts Reference Platforms for Mixed Reality Deployments
Libertyville, IL – MBX Systems, a manufacturer of purpose-built and deployment-ready hardware devices for technology companies, today unveiled a line of portable and rackmount reference platforms optimized to deliver next-generation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Vint Cerf Talks Repairability
Below an intro, some good points.
Repairability Redux By Vinton G. Cerf
Communications of the ACM, December 2020, Vol. 63 No. 12, Page 5 10.1145/3429267
Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist Vinton G. Cerf
I wrote…From Schneier on Security
Indistinguishability Obfuscation
Quanta magazine recently published a breathless article on indistinguishability obfuscation — calling it the “‘crown jewel’ of cryptography” — and saying that it had finally been achieved, based on a recently published paper.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Insikt Group to Reduce Risk
Like the idea of risk reduction being specifically included, rarely done well enough, and especially useful ly and measurably. Just brought to my attention.
How Insikt Group’s Operational Outcomes Team Drives Action to Reduce…From The Eponymous Pickle
Magnetic Spray Transforms Objects Into Insect-Scale Robots for Biomed
Quite a remarkable statement. Just by itself. Just spray it on. Awaiting the demos. Back to my favorite small robotics theme.
Magnetic Spray Transforms Objects Into Insect-Scale Robots for Biomedical Applications By…From insideHPC
The Top Five Trends Driving the Need for New HPC/AI System Architectures
Earlier this month Ayar Labs hosted a webinar on the topic of “Disaggregated System Architectures for Next Generation HPC and AI Workloads,” discussing the need for new architecture and the approaches that are being taken to
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From insideHPC
Winners of Student Cluster Competition, Gordon Bell Prize Named at SC20
It was awards day at Virtual SC20, and among the most coveted and closely watched of them ate annual SC Student Cluster Competition and the ACM Gordon Bell Prize. This year’s cluster competition winner: Tsinghaua University,
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From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Programming is social
Software programming looks at a glance like work done best done in isolation. Nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. Though you may be working on your little program alone, you should not dismiss the social…
From insideHPC
TACC’s Frontera HPC System Expansion for ‘Urgent Computing’ – COVID-19, Hurricanes, Earthquakes
Frontera, deployed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center supercomputer and the ninth fastest HPC system in the world, will receive an expansion to support urgent computing and basic science, according to TACC. The expansion
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From insideHPC
Atos Launches HPC Software Suites
Paris, November 19, 2020 – Atos today announces its new HPC Software Suites designed to enable users to better manage their supercomputing environments, optimize performance and reduce energy consumption. These software suites…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Quadrennial Papers: Artificial Intelligence
As part of the rollout of the 2020 Computing Research Associations (CRA) Quadrennial Papers, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to publish the final group of papers around the “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” theme…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Smart Glasses are for Sale
Recall I have been following the idea of 'smart glasses' for a long time. Since we experimented very early on with prototype glasses to display maintenance diagrams and data in real time on the plant floor. That were never…