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 The Computing Community Consortium Blog
National Lab to Remove Chinese Devices Due to Security Risks
According to an article in CRN Magazine, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has decided to remove networking devices created by a Chinese manufacturer because of security concerns. Even though the parts have been removed it may…
From Schneier on Security
The Politics and Philosophy of National Security
This essay explains why we're all living in failed Hobbesian states:
What do these three implications -- states have a great deal of freedom to determine what threatens a people and how to respond to those threats, and in making…From Computational Complexity
Slow Science
You likely have not heard about the Slow Science manifesto. They don't blog. They don't tweet. They give a broken link to their Facebook Page which has no posts. But they do have a point. Science needs time to think. Science…
From BLOG@CACM
Conferences: Publication, Communication, Sanction
Conferences have three roles; these roles should be separated.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Sometimes It’s the Little Things
I’ve been doing some things with Windows Phone development lately and having some fun with it. Being a long time conventional application developer I am finding some things that are in some ways small differences but in other…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GM and Ford Asking for Apps
In Technology Review The concept of an App takes another step forward: " ... GM and Ford Open Up Their Vehicles to App DevelopersSome car apps will mirror mobile ones, while others will add new functionality, the auto giants…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Governments are full of bugs
The famous scifi author (and self-described libertarian) David Brin tells a fascinating tale about how he contributed to getting the lead out of gazoline. He explains that an evil corporation (Ethyl Corporation) promoted leaded…
From Wild WebMink
WYWO
I’m going to experiment with a new (to me) format in ComputerWorld; a “while you were out” round-up of the most interesting links I’ve tweeted in the last seven days. The first is up today, for open source – let’s see how well…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rebirth of the PC
We are seeing the rebirth of the PC, says Intel CTO Justin Rattner at the CES meeting. I agree, these are heady times, it more than just about functional computing, Its about having functional gadgets that we carry with us…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
How to Do a Computer Science Open House
Like many of you I wanted to hold a Computer Science Open House during CSEd Week in December to showcase the work of my students and to educate parents, administrators and other guests about computer science. I utilized my Computer…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
The Sequester Is Delayed, But Not Forgotten
The major political debates last week focused on the so-called ‘fiscal cliff.’ The cliff included a series of tax increases and spending cuts (the cuts are sometimes referred to as ‘sequestration’) that were set to happen last…
From The Eponymous Pickle
UC in Top 20 of Big Data Analytics Schools
Via Jeff Camm Dean at the OBAIS program of the University of Cincinnati who reports that " ... our MS Business Analytics program is listed in Information Week as one of the "top 20 programs to fill the big data talent gap".…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Drop a Cam into the Network
Brought to my attention via CES: Dropcam. A way to quickly and inexpensively drop a camera into a Wifi network. And export the video to the cloud for recording, analysis. Examining potential for compliance applications that…
From Putting People First
Focus groups are dangerous and kill innovation
Gianfranco Zaccai is co-founder and president of the global design and innovation consultancy Continuum. And he doesn’t like focus groups very much (and neither do we): Why Focus Groups Kill Innovation, From The Designer Behind…
From Putting People First
Ethnographic research on vehicular design in China
Zach Hyman is based in Chongqing, China on a year long ethnographic dive into creative practices of vehicular design among resource-constrained users. After four months in the field, Zach shares with Ethnography Matters his first…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Back To The Past
The role of social interaction in mathematics Charlotte Simmons started her career as a pure mathematician, later moving into the history of mathematics. She is currently an administrator at her institution, but still finds time…
From Schneier on Security
Denial-of-Service Attack Against Facebook
Just claim the person is dead. All you need to do is fake an online obituary.
From My Biased Coin
Any Good Voronoi Code Out There?
Help! I've got a wacky idea I'd like to explore (pseudo-preliminary-pre-research stage) which will require some code, namely for Voronoi diagrams. What I'd like seems like it should be available. I think I want the following…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Enterprise and Consumer IT
Report on the crossover treatment between consumer and enterprise information technology, as presented in the CES conference. IT will have to worry about the increasingly sophisticated use of devices and data in the consumer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Forrester on SAP Big Data Predictive Analytics
An SAP press release that presents their current offerings and work in the space. " ... today announced that it has been ranked by Forrester Research Inc. as a leader in its report, "The Forrester Wave™: Big Data Predictive…
From Schneier on Security
Cat Smuggler
Not a cat burglar, a cat smuggler.
Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil. A prison official says that when they caught the animal, they found…From The Eponymous Pickle
Year of the Internet of Things
From Technology Review: Some thoughts about the internet of things. Everything tagged and tracked. Is that day finally here?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Library of Congress Saves Tweets
As mentioned previously the US Library of Congress is starting to save tweets. Now over 500 million a day are being archived. Researchers are already asking for access. Might they also be available to citizens in general?…
From The Eponymous Pickle
OSU, Allostatix Link to Measure Health
Some time ago I mentioned Allostatix, a company that has developed a means to construct an overall health measure, based on what is called the allostatic load, which can then predict health risk. They have been developing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Price Matching Online
In TheVerge: Target says they will start price-matching Amazon year round. As an attempt in part to defer losses to to show rooming activities of mobile enabled consumers.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
White House Staff Indicates Machine-Readable Data Will Become Normal Practice; Echoes USACM Recommendations From 2009
During his appearance at a meeting of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park indicated that there would be new government data policies announced in 2013. This…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Procedural Rhetoric and Theme in The Walking Dead
I've been thinking about procedural rhetoric and its relationship to a particular theme in a story. For example, a major theme in The Walking Dead is humanity: how do you maintain your humanity in such trying times, and howSPOILER…
From Wild WebMink
Beating A Dead FRAND
Of course FRAND terms are incompatible with software freedom, even if you can find a project that has devised a construct to allow it to attempt to accommodate that incompatibility. When a standard includes patents that are not…
From Schneier on Security
DHS Gets to Spy on Everyone
This Wall Street Journal investigative piece is a month old, but well worth reading. Basically, the Total Information Awareness program is back with a different name:
The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Reversi Sample Code
One of my earliest attempts at programming a computer to play against me was a version of Reversi I attempted some30+ years ago. Reversi is a great game for this as the rules are pretty simple. It is reasonably easy to determine…