Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2011
From BLOG@CACM
Again: The One Sure Way to Advance Software Engineering
There is one proven way to improve the state of software, following the the airline industry's spectacular improvements of safety. The IT industry ignores it. Why?
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-01-13
The Document Foundation joins OpenDoc Society
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Registration now open for the Microsoft bliink Web Design Competition
I told you it was coming. Yes, Bliink the web design competition is now open across the US. With registration now open for the Microsoft bliink Web Design Competition you can now:
Register for online training and virtual labs…From Putting People First
UX design in the financial services industry
Harald Felgner alerts us to a presentation by Amir Dotan of LAB49 where he shares his experiences working as a user experience architect in the financial services industry in London. The talk is structured in three parts: 1.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovation Speed Dating at Kimberly Clark
In Consumer Goods Technology (CGT): A major competitor of my former enterprise is doing some intriguing innovative work: " ... Kimberly-Clark recently used an innovative approach to market research called Rapid Innovation Sessions…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Exploring Intersections Between Semantics and the Cloud
Forging an interesting relationship between an SAP supported research institute and semantic data management and search. How the Cloud is specifically brought in, except in the most obvious sense, is still unclear. Still this…
From Michael Nielsen
What should a reasonable person believe about the Singularity?
In 1993, the science fiction author Vernor Vinge wrote a short essay proposing what he called the Technological Singularity. Here’s the sequence of events Vinge outlines: A: We will build computers of at least human intelligence…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Why Experience Matters
A recent Dilbert cartoon had a man saying
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Leroy Hood wins NAE Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize
Leroy Hood, President of Seattle
From Wild WebMink
? Google, Chrome and H.264
When Google announced yesterday that they were withdrawing from their Chrome browser embedded support in the HTML5 <video> tag for the H.264 encoding standard, there was immediate reaction. While some of it was either badly informed…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
A Joint Call for Research Why Computer Science Education is Important for K-12
A joint blog post by Chris Stephenson of CSTA, Alfred Thompson of Microsoft, and Mark Guzdial of Georgia Tech
As much as we believe and try to make the case that studying computer science is good for all students, there is a…From The Eponymous Pickle
Retail and Smartphones
Short local piece on the increasing use of linking smartphone Apps and coupons in retail. Nothing new here, except that people and the press are starting to take notice. I have seen more examples in recent weeks of people scanning with…
From Wild WebMink
? Hudson and Jenkins
Hudson’s future | Hudson Labs After making a valiant attempt to negotiate an amicable outcome with Oracle, the Hudson community may well decide to rename itself Jenkins, move off Oracle infrastructure and build open governance…
From Schneier on Security
Attacking High-Frequency Trading Networks
Turns out you can make money by manipulating the network latency.
cPacket has developed a proof of concept showing that these side-channel attacks can be used to create tiny delays in the transmission of market data and trades…From Putting People First
Distance Lab closed down
The BBC reports that the Distance Lab closed down. Distance Lab was a Scottish creative research initiative for digital media technology and design innovation, focused on addressing the many problems and opportunities found in…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
A Joint Call for Research on Why Computer Science Education is Important for K-12
As much as we believe and try to make the case that studying computer science is good for all students, there is a profound lack of research to actually support this contention. With the movement to data driven decision making…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sell to Their Shopping Lists
Good piece from Herb Sorensen's Views site. Read the whole thing.Sell to Their "Shopping Lists" (Tell'em Which to Buy!)December 20, 2010 - by Herb Sorensen, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor, TNS Retail and ShopperThis issue of theTo…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Taking Advantage of Emotion with Augmented Reality
I've been thinking about how augmented reality can take advantage of emotion to help people complete their tasks more efficiently. These musings were originally for a potential paper, but since this particular paper concept is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wharton Consumer Analytics Initiative
This is good news, I was impressed by what I saw the Interactive Media Initiative doing. Very empirically data based. They ask for the data! Certainly the previous emphasis on interactive media is important, but the not all…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Demarchy and probabilistic algorithms
Demarchy are political systems built using randomness. Demarchy has been used to designate political leaders in Ancient Greece and in France (during the French revolution).
From The Eponymous Pickle
Improved Google Goggles
The mouthful of a smartphone App called Google Goggles has been improved. It now recognizes print ads. More here. " ... With the new version of Google Goggles, consumers barely need to lift a finger to compare prices or getTesting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger Tests New Fujitsu Checkout
Kroger is testing a new Fujitsu Advantage self checkout system that is said to improve interaction with consumers and decrease checkout times. We extensively tested earlier systems in laboratory retail environments. More here…
From Putting People First
Design research and innovation: an interview with Don Norman
Jeroen Van Geel of Johnny Holland interviewed Donald Norman about innovation, design research, and emotional design. Earlier this year you wrote that design research doesn
From Schneier on Security
"Homeland Security Hasn't Made Us Safer"
This will be nothing new to readers of this blog, but it's nice to read other people saying it too.
From Wild WebMink
Public Information
OpenAM Book and eBook – Packt Publishing The first book about OpenAM is due for publication any day now. I hope they send me a review copy! Java/DevJam/2011/Fosdem/TalkSchedule I'm on the agenda for the Java dev-room at FOSDEM…
From Putting People First
Mobile youth around the world
Nielsen
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
GiveCamp Across America
GiveCamp Across America
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Interfaces
From CES, in Technology Review: On the Future of Interfaces. " ... The mouse and keyboard have been how nearly everyone has interacted with computers since Apple and Microsoft brought them to the mainstream in the mid 1980s.Agree…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Zest at Procter
Procter & Gamble has sold the soap brand Zest, which has an interesting ad history, nicely written about in AdAge.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
New Year, New You?
Yep, it's that time of year. The time where we start to reflect on all the good from last year and all the things we want to accomplish in the new year. Typically in our work environment, this happens in August. But my challenge…