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 Putting People First
Affective computing
Chapter twelve of the interaction-design.org resource is now available in preview. It deals with what HCI specialists call
From Putting People First
Jan Chipchase gets asked critical questions and responds
During the Pop!Tech conference, well known design researcher Jan Chipchase gave a talk about his research work. In the panel session an audience member asked two questions relating to personal motivations of doing this kind of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gartner View of IBM DemandTec Acquisition
A short post by Gartner on the proposed acquisition.. Some of the usual watch-outs with any acquisition. Certainly it is a means of bringing very specific retail and manufacturer analytics to cloud based big data. And at…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kaggle: Data Science as a Sport
Crowd sourcing prediction.. " ... Participate in competitions ... is an arena where you can match your data science skills against a global cadre of experts in statistics, mathematics, and machine learning. Whether you're a."…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Pharma Information Tech
In the Recorded Future Blog. A good look at IT in Pharmaceuticals using the temporal search engine Recorded Future. This search engine semantically analyzes future oriented statements and visually displays and analyzes their…
From Schneier on Security
Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
I have a love/hate relationship with the CATO Institute. Most of their analysis I strongly disagree with, but some of it I equally strongly agree with. Last September 11 -- the tenth anniversary of 9/11 -- CATO's David Rittgers…
From Schneier on Security
TSA Cupcake Update
The TSA claims that the cupcake they confiscated was in a jar. So this is a less obviously stupid story than I previously thought.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
IBM Determines Magnetic Memory Limits
Ahead of an article to be published in tomorrow’s
From Computational Complexity
Being Random and Trivial in Dagstuhl
This week I'm at the Computability, Complexity and Randomness workshop at Dagstuhl in Germany. This meeting brings together two groups, complexity theorists and computability theorists, who share a common love of Kolmogorov complexity…
From Schneier on Security
A Theory of Online Jihadist Sites
Very interesting:
The counterterrorism community has spent years trying to determine why so many people are engaged in online jihadi communities in such a meaningful way. After all, the life of an online administrator for aBut…From Putting People First
Elizabeth Churchill on emotion
Elizabeth Churchill, Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research, was the speaker at the October 2011 Creative Mornings event in San Francisco. In her talk she discussed how we hide, reveal and misinterpret emotion online…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Image Sensors for Multiple Contexts
In Engadget: A concept for compact 360 degree image capture. Always interested in new sensor capture devices. What came to me immediately was the possible use in merchandise stocking and location environments. I am sure there…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Shopping
Via Darrell Rigby of Bain Company:" ... Digital retailing is headed toward 15% to 20% of total sales globally and is already highly Profitable. But what seems like a dream come true for the shopper
From Apophenia
Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, Mary L. Gray to Join Microsoft Research
::bounce:: I am *ecstatic* to announce that Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, and Mary L. Gray are all joining Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, MA. See Jennifer Chayes’ announcement. ::bounce:: Three years ago (this week)…
From Putting People First
Tapping social networks for design research recruiting, by Jan Chipchase
Jan Chipchase thinks that 80 to 90% of current recruiting for design research/ethnographic studies (excluding focus groups) that is currently placed through recruiting agencies could from a skill and work-flow perspective, be…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NIH Requesting Input on Data and Informatics
The National Institutes’ of Health (NIH)
From Schneier on Security
Apple Split-Key Patent
Apple has a patent on splitting a key between a portable device and its power supply.
Clever idea.
From BLOG@CACM
Research Data Sustainability and Access
The dramatic growth of research data, the collaborative nature of international research, expectations for economic returns, and disciplinary differences all make data sustainability and access a pressing and difficult problem…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why Writers Should Tweet
In ReadWriteWeb:. I could think this to be more aptly titled: Why writers who can't write otherwise should Tweet ... I tweet to support my blog posts, but should we be using an abbreviated language to express ourself? The post…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ivory Does a Brand Refresh
Nice Forbes article on the Back to Basics Ivory brand refresh. As I have said before, it is the first Procter brand I was closely connected to, so there is a nostalgic connection with technical emphasis. Good to see it is being…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Microsoft Stores Thrilled to Become FIRST Sponsors!
In an exciting new partnership, Microsoft Stores across the country are teaming up with FIRST robotics teams to provide Kinect hardware and software development kits along with technical support.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Holds Smart Health and Wellbeing Webinar
Moments ago, the National Science Foundation (NSF) wrapped up an informational webinar about its new multi-disciplinary
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unilever Wants to get to the Future First
In Ad Age: Unilever's Keith Weed at CES on their view of the future. " ... Global CMO Talks About New Technologies and Why Apple's iAd Is Still In Unilever's Plans. ... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Applying Business Intelligence to Geospatial and Business Process
A long time investigation of ours. How do you link location and business? On the front or the back end? How do you evaluate it's application?
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSB Releases Report on NSF
Following an extensive review by a
From Schneier on Security
Protecting Your Privacy at International Borders
The EFF has published a good guide.
My own advice is here and here.
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Open Science: Why Is It So Hard?
Open access is the idea that scholarship should be accessible to all. Many believe that we should require publicly funded researchers to make their work available to the public. That is, if some professor discovers a new algorithm…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Of Movie Stars and Great Inventions
I write this having just read Richard Rhodes' biography of Hedy Lamarr, Hedy's Folly. It isn't a long book, and it was an easy read. Rhodes writes well (as we would expect for someone who has won a Pulitzer), and the book covers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tablets to replace Laptops
A study shows that a considerable percentage of consumers, 46%, think that tablets will replace laptops for common applications. Tablets are likely to also evolve to become more laptop like.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digital Signage, Part II
More Commentary by Keith Kelsen on the future of digital signage. One of my favorite retail innovation center topics. Engaging the shopper with technology.