ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1145/3561064.3561068
Nicholas Tran
{"title":"Review of \"The Algorithm Design Manual, 3rd ed. by Steven S. Skiena Springer, 2020 793 pages, Hardcover, $99.99\"","authors":"Nicholas Tran","doi":"10.1145/3561064.3561068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3561064.3561068","url":null,"abstract":"The Algorithm Design Manual is an aptly named undergraduate-level textbook that takes a utilitarian approach to presenting algorithms as a collection of off-the-shelf technologies that can be adapted to obtain practical solutions to real-world problems. Its intended audience is aspiring and practicing professional programmers, and its pedagogical emphasis is on facility in application rather than rigorous implementation or analysis of these technologies.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130623068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1145/3561064.3561066
W. Gasarch
{"title":"Review of \"The Engines of Cognition: Essays by the Less Wrong Community by Less Wrong Less Wrong Press 720 pages, Year: 2019 $30.00\"","authors":"W. Gasarch","doi":"10.1145/3561064.3561066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3561064.3561066","url":null,"abstract":"For those who read my review of the first Lesswrong collection of essays, A Map that Reflects the Territory3, this intro will give you a sense of what the Klingons call nlb' poH, the French call Déjà vu, and the English call Déjà vu.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125098926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1145/3561064.3561070
W. Gasarch
{"title":"Open problems column","authors":"W. Gasarch","doi":"10.1145/3561064.3561070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3561064.3561070","url":null,"abstract":"This Issue's Column! This issue's Open Problem Column is by William Gasarch, Emily Kaplitz, and Erik Metz.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124902873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1145/3561064.3561067
Frederic Green
{"title":"Review of \"Mathematical Muffin Morsels - Nobody wants a small piece by William Gasarch, Erik Metz, Jacob Prinz, and Daniel Smolyak World Scientific, 2021 210 pages, Softcover, $59.99.\"","authors":"Frederic Green","doi":"10.1145/3561064.3561067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3561064.3561067","url":null,"abstract":"You have 5 muffins and 3 (as usual) hungry students. They ask that you divide the muffins equitably between them. Do you cut every muffin into 3 parts, and give 5 separate pieces of size 1/3 to each student? Well no, because that's too easy, and more importantly no student wants any piece that's less than a third of a muffin. Can this be done? Indeed it can! It turns out you can guarantee that everyone gets a piece of size at least 5/12. Can everyone be guaranteed a bigger piece than that? Alas, the answer is no. That's the bad news. The good news is that one could write a book about it, and these guys wrote a great one.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126549663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1145/3561064.3561069
D. Kelley
{"title":"Technical report column","authors":"D. Kelley","doi":"10.1145/3561064.3561069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3561064.3561069","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to the Technical Reports Column. If your institution publishes technical reports that you'd like to have included here, please contact me at the email address above.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126040215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1145/3544979.3544984
D. Kelley
{"title":"Technical Report Column","authors":"D. Kelley","doi":"10.1145/3544979.3544984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3544979.3544984","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to the Technical Reports Column. If your institution publishes technical reports that you'd like to have included here, please contact me at the email address above.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133710157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1145/3544979.3544983
Erick Galinkin
{"title":"Review of The Geometry of Uncertainty by Fabio Cuzzolin","authors":"Erick Galinkin","doi":"10.1145/3544979.3544983","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3544979.3544983","url":null,"abstract":"The Geometry of Uncertainty is unlike any book on mathematics and computer science I've ever read. It's certainly not a textbook in the traditional sense - there are no exercises, and very little is presented as the \"right way\" to do something. In many ways, The Geometry of Uncertainty is like a survey paper: it critically analyzes decades of research and while some of the author's preferences are reflected, many perspectives are presented with little direct guidance about which approach ought to be favored. People have long used the phrase \"The Bible of X\" to describe the most well-known or well-respected text in a field. However, calling The Geometry of Uncertainty \"The Bible of Evidence Theory\" is truly apt in the sense that you come into the book with questions, and you leave the book with parables, historical insight, and a whole host of new, better informed questions. Truly, the book is not merely an introduction to belief function theory, it is instead a truly comprehensive view of an entire field of study from its conception up to the most bleeding edge research.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116988591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1145/3544979.3544981
Frederic Green
{"title":"The Book Review Column","authors":"Frederic Green","doi":"10.1145/3544979.3544981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3544979.3544981","url":null,"abstract":"In this column, we review these two books, each unique in its field: 1. Complexity Dichotomies for Counting Problems - Volume 1: Boolean Domain, by Jin-Yi Cai and Xi Chen. An expert and thorough introduction to this vibrant field of research. Review by Frederic Green. 2. The Geometry of Uncertainty, by Fabio Cuzzolin. An extensive treatise on belief and uncertainty theory. Review by Erick Galinkin.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124267998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACM SIGACT NewsPub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1145/3544979.3544982
Frederic Green
{"title":"Review of Complexity Dichotomies for Counting Problems Volume 1","authors":"Frederic Green","doi":"10.1145/3544979.3544982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3544979.3544982","url":null,"abstract":"This book is a definitive account of a field of research that has blossomed remarkably over the past two decades. Many of its chief developments are presented here, indeed in many cases having been obtained by its authors.","PeriodicalId":387985,"journal":{"name":"ACM SIGACT News","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128895361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}