Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2013
From Wild WebMink
Thaw
Icicles, originally uploaded by webmink. The thaw in the Deep South is in full swing; even these icicles have dripped away from the office window now.
From Schneier on Security
Thinking About Obscurity
This essay is worth reading:
Obscurity is the idea that when information is hard to obtain or understand, it is, to some degree, safe. Safety, here, doesn't mean inaccessible. Competent and determined data hunters armed with…From BLOG@CACM
Software Engineering in the Venice of the North
ESEC-FSE 2013 (in Saint Petersburg,, 18-26 August) is the place to be for software engineering in 2013.
From My Biased Coin
Here Comes Another One
And yet another security story -- this one titled find a bug, get expelled or something close to that in various places. I'm going to have to find out where I send an opinionated letter to Dawson college. Also, if you haven't…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facial Analysis and the Brand
In Mediapost: A good example of a non conscious detection of brand engagement i.e. 'neuromarketing' capability. Here using the analysis of faces during stimulus exposure as opposed to in-brain signals. Here taken up by some…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Is learning useless stuff good for you?
We often require all students to learn things they may never need like latin, calculus, advanced trigonometry and classical literature. The implicit assumption is that learning difficult things is intrinsically good. It trains…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tablet Adoption in the Enterprise
A broad overview of rising adoption of iPad's in the enterprise. Interesting stats. I do not like the use of the slide show format for this kind of information. Please condense it for me so I can assimilate it quickly. I…
From Schneier on Security
TSA Removing Rapiscan Full-Body Scanners from U.S. Airports
This is big news:
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn't write software to make passenger images…From The Eponymous Pickle
Too Many Patents
In Hoover. I have seen a great deal of junk and arbitrary thoughts patented. With the hope of bullying money from companies. There is much need for reform. Some useful thoughts here.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links Post 21 January 2013
One week until I face a new group of students. Unlike classroom visits in recent years these students are “mine” full time for a semester. Excited to say the least. For now I have a few interesting links to share.
The Computer…From Wild WebMink
Governance Lessons from Vert.x
The open discussion that the Vert.x community ended up having because of Tim Fox’s original announcement and the ripples it caused has produced fruit, in the shape of a proposal to join Eclipse. During the journey, there was…
From The Eponymous Pickle
True Impact Neuromarketing
Recently connected with Diana Lucaci of True Impact Marketing in Toronto. A Canadian firm that does neuromarketing studies. I was impressed with their list of clients and analytical perception of the problem.See also, their…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Vint Cerf appointed to National Science Board by President Obama
On January 16, President Obama announced his intention to appoint Vint Cerf – Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google – to the National Science Board. The 25-member National Science Board is the governance body…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
PCAST releases new assessment of Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
In 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) conducted a major review of the Federal government’s $4B multi-agency research and development program in networking and information technology (NITRD)…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Information Literacy
I had cause to look at the Information Literacy Blog yesterday. Articles covering information collaboration, which you can see have been of interest to me lately. Worth adding to your feed.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Concern About Millenials
I have always thought that concerns about adapting to epochal population groups are overplayed. My own experience has been that it is true that there are differences, that they are real, but the variability within the groupSo…
From Putting People First
Book: Ethnography and the City – Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork
Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork Richard E. Ocejo (Editor) Routledge, 2012, 272 pages (Amazon link) The only collection of its kind on the market, this reader gathers the work of some of the most esteemed…
From Putting People First
The irrational consumer: why economics is dead wrong about how we make choices
“The New Science of Pleasure,” a new paper by Daniel L. McFadden, reviews how psychology, biology, and neurology are ganging up on economics to prove that, when it comes to making decisions, people are anything but rational.…
From Writing
MySQL error: last packet sent to the server was XXX ms ago
I just spent a few weeks battling a strange, infrequent, hard-to-reproduce error when using JDBC to talk to MySQL. After about a dozen experiments, I think I've finally found a solution and I've decided to capture the details…
From Wild WebMink
Snowy Branches
Snowy Branches, originally uploaded by webmink. Snow is something of a novelty where we live, despite being in England. The mildness that results from being on the coast seems somehow magnified by the rivers and the shape of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Smarter Traffic Pilot
I notice in a current press release that the city of Cologne, Germany has completed a pilot of a smarter traffic system created by IBM. In graduate school we used analytical prediction methods to address much smaller traffic…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Cantor’s Theorem: The Movie
A short film about the famous diagonal method of Cantor Source: “One Water” Ed Talavera is the chair of the Department of Cinema and Interactive Communication in the University of Miami School of Communication. He is an award…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Modular Sensors: Node
In GigaOM, from CES, A video about the Node modular sensor. Integrating sensors into the net and analytic processes is an important next step to the 'thinking' web. Basic cost of the Bluetooth system is $150, with cheaper…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Curiosity as Gateway Competency
Good thought here. Developed broadly in Chief Learning Officer mag: " ... Curiosity may be the most helpful competency in business today. Start with genuine inquisitiveness, a bias toward asking and learning, and an authentic…
From updated sporadically at best
Cooking for One
You there. Eating takeout at your kitchen counter, pots and pans clean and neatly stowed. Third time this week. Your taste buds are getting a little bit bored and your stomach a little bit skeptical of that recycled deep-frythat…
From updated sporadically at best
How Science Really Works
The theme of the week is research, theory vs. practice.This past week, the #overlyhonestmethods Twitter hashtag went viral, my friend Phil Guo published an MIT Technology Review piece on the surprising importance of "grunt work…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
CSTA Standards Now Aligned to Other National Standards
Have you become familiar with the new CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards? I'm sure you are aware that the standards were revised and published in December 2011. Do you know that the standards are organized into five strands…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: The Search for the Colossal Squid
Now that videographers have bagged a giant squid, the search turns to the colossal squid.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Research for Small and Medium Sized Businesses
I cut my teeth in technology and business research in the enormous enterprise. That is a place where you have lots of flexibility that lets you bring in new methods, and test and deliver them easily. A large company can quickly…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Neuroscience Consultancy
Rafal Ohme, a former colleague in neuromarketing applications, has started a London based consultancy. There will be more here as I get to talk to them. FromMrWeb: " ... The new company promises to draw on advances in neuroscience…