Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2012
From Schneier on Security
Using Plant DNA for Authentication
Turns out you can create unique signatures from plant DNA. The idea is to spray this stuff on military components in order to verify authentic items and detect counterfeits, similar to SmartWater. It's a good idea in theory…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
One Option for How to Teach Kodu
I recently ran some workshops to prepare students to be peer mentors and to mentor younger students with Kodu. The method I suggest is to have mentors show students some small steps and then let the students try. The latest version…
From Michael Nielsen
If correlation doesn
That’s the question I address (very partially) in a new post on my data-driven intelligence blog. The post reviews some of the recent work on causal inference done by people such as Judea Pearl. In particular the post describes…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Atlantic on Big Data
A good, general article on the increasing use of big data in science. In The Atlantic. We can apply some of those same methods of transformation in science to business problems. Good examples are visualization, pattern…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Branded Apps
From Wild WebMink
Blast from the past
I found I still had a blog on java.net, so I’ve posted a quick note about FOSDEM there!
From Apophenia
How Parents Normalized Teen Password Sharing
In 2005, I started asking teenagers about their password habits. My original set of questions focused on teens’ attitudes about giving their password to their parents, but I quickly became enamored with teens’ stories of sharing…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Should you boycott academic publishers?
There is a growing list of famous scientists who have pledged to boycott Elsevier as a publisher. If I were in charge of Elsevier, I would be very nervous: academic publishers need famous authors more than the famous authors…
From Schneier on Security
Authentication by "Cognitive Footprint"
DARPA is funding research into new forms of biometrics that authenticate people as they use their computer: things like keystroke patterns, eye movements, mouse behavior, reading speed, and surfing and e-mail response behavior…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Crowd Sourcing Wal-Mart Product Selection
In TechCrunch: How do you get you new product on Wal-Mart's shelf? WalMart labs sponsors a contest to make it happen. Get more people involved in the search for consumer rich products. See their Getontheshelf site, which…
From Computational Complexity
What should we do?
Time for a post by tweet request.
Is a wave of action against big publishers' practices brewing?gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/els
From The Computing Community Consortium BlogVerisign Announces Internet Infrastructure Grant Program
Verisign has announced
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonInteresting Links 23 January 2012
Last week really reminded me of how much I miss being in the classroom. Two all-day workshops with a mix of students and adults. Lots of good learning going on. It was wonderful to see people “getting it” and learning some new…
From The Eponymous PickleBone Marrow Markets
MJ Perry reminds us of this issue. I researched the general area of organ and tissue selling during my Health systems research days. Glad to see this brought up again. It makes no sense, under appropriate physician board…
From The Eponymous PickleUsing Phone Behavior to Determine Credit Worthiness
In Slashdot. The use of a number of phone behavior measures to dive heuristics that influence credit score.
From The Eponymous PickleCardMunch Tested
I just tried out the business card scanner from LinkedIn called CardMunch. Loaded the App on my iPhone and scanned a few cards. I have tried other such scanners and they often require editing the contact data afterwards. CardMunch…
From The Eponymous PickleSmartBooks are Approaching
The very moment we saw the first hyper links in documentation, around 1985, we saw that the textbooks of the future were not just about text, but about many different kinds of media.GigaOm writes in an excellent article:"...introduced…
From The Eponymous PickleMarsh Brand Partners
I see that Marsh is now Marsh Brand Partners. They have redesigned their web site, changed their name and focus. A company that I have had the pleasure to interact with for several years. They state in their philosophy"…
From The Noisy ChannelThoughts About Job Performance
This is the season of annual reviews, at least at LinkedIn. Performance reviews can be daunting for both employees and managers — at least everywhere that I’ve worked. Not only are we as human beings terrible at delivering feedback…
From The Eponymous PickleTough Visualization Questions
Some tough questions in Excelcharts. Food for thought, these are not unexpected answers either. Worth considering the answers.
From The Eponymous PickleHealth and Social Networks
Health and Social Media. A recent area of exploration. Will this work if there is too much communication or if the message is unwelcome? What can make the message engaging and welcome?
From The Eponymous PickleP&G Working with Couponing Startup MoBeam
In the local papers: P&G is working with a west coast startup called MoBeam, which I originally brought into town for tests several years ago. I have mentioned their methods a number of times here. See alsoan earlier press…
From Wild WebMinkWild Again
I am no longer associated in any way with ForgeRock AS.
From The Noisy ChannelAre You Hitched?
Let me preface this post by saying that this is my personal blog, and that my opinions here are not necessarily those of my employer. With that out of the way, I love the premise of Hitch.me: a dating site for professionals based…
From The Eponymous PickleTablets as an Educational Tool
Interesting Study. In particular as an aid to education. How much different are they in effectiveness than using a laptop?
From The Eponymous PickleDeveloping Vision Without Sight
In CACM: Continued developments of the replacement and augmentation of human vision. Will the blind be able to see?
From My Biased CoinJanuary Flying By...
I'm enjoying a relatively snow-free January, but despite the extra time I've had on my hands from not having to shovel, I've had little time for blogging. Reasons abound.January is always busy, as we have graduate student admissions…
From The Eponymous PickleTablets as a Shopping Device
In GigaOM. Tablets as the ideal shopping device? Will we start seeing everyone with a Ping pong paddle style tablet as they course through brick and mortar? Or will the phone evolve just somewhat larger? Good piece to make…
From Computational ComplexityTeaching an Honors Section of Discrete Mathematics
A few years ago I was assigned to teach the HONORS section of Discrete Math (a course for sophomores who have had a year of programming and a year a calculus). They told me it was up to me to figure out what to do to make it …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonTime Flies When Learning Is Fun
I did some work workshops with the great people from Digital Wish again this week (see also Teaching Teachers and Students Together) We did a full day workshop on web development using Expression Web using the Heavy Metal Car…