Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2015
From Computational Complexity
The Impact Factor Disease
The Institute of Science Information (ISI) was founded in 1960 to help index the every growing collection of scientific journals. The founder of ISI, Eugene Garfield, developed a simple impact factor to give a rough estimateimpact…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Surface Pro 3 – First Thoughts
Thanks to a contest run by the Office Mix people I won a Surface Pro 3 for my school. And I get to use it which is great. I’ve had a Surface RT (first edition) for a while and while I like it the fact that it is Windows RT means…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Brokers are Watching You
In the CACM: " ... Digitization of analog data, along with advances in algorithms behind data analytics, has enabled a dramatic leap in the ability of data brokers to track individuals. ... ". Considerable, but largely non…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Critical Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Processes
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) recently announced a new program called Critical Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP). CRISP has an upcoming…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cognitively: How People Can and will Cooperate with Computers
Computers have already markedly changed the way we do work, in just a few decades. Three sources below that show how we are taking another major step forward, by cooperating with computers, and working along side them in new…
From Putting People First
Ezio Manzini’s introduction to design for social innovation
Design, When Everybody Designs – An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation By Ezio Manzini The MIT Press, 264 pages February 2015 In a changing world everyone designs: each individual person and each collective subject,…
From Schneier on Security
The Security of Data Deletion
Thousands of articles have called the December attack against Sony Pictures a wake-up call to industry. Regardless of whether the attacker was the North Korean government, a disgruntled former employee, or a group of random hackers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Snapchat and Showrooming
Did a long hands-on look in the early days of showrooming. See the tag below. Now some approaches in Adage where stores could use the ephemeral message service Snapchat to control it. I have my doubts. " ... How Snapchat Can…
From Geeking with Greg
More on what to advertise when there is no commercial intent
Some of the advertising out there is getting spooky. If you look at a product at many online stores, that product will then follow you around the web. Go to BBC News, for example, and there will be those dishes you were looking…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Knauff and Nejasmic recommend banning LaTeX
Two German psychology professors, Knauff and Nejasmic, recently published a paper on the benefits of Microsoft Word over LaTeX. The paper was reported in Nature. They show that you can copy a simple document (containing little…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unilever and Data Visualization
From FusionCharts: Big companies understand the value." ... In 2010, the company set itself the target of doubling its revenues in a decade or less – without doubling its costs. According to Greg Swimer, Vice President for Business…
From Schneier on Security
Surveillance Detection for Android Phones
It's called SnoopSnitch: SnoopSnitch is an app for Android devices that analyses your mobile radio traffic to tell if someone is listening in on your phone conversations or tracking your location. Unlike standard antivirus apps…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Instacart Fueling E-Commerce
This slogs along slowly, but we are finally seeing more interest in the idea. Informal polling of consumers in the early 2000s showed little interest. Now the model of getting most everything online is accepted. The pairing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Flywheel Power
A soluton we examined. The use of flywheels to store power to reduce charges for electical power spikes. In IEEE.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Top Papers in Data Science Survey
In KDNuggets, a summary of trends and interesting papers in data science in 2014, done by a survey of its readers. Overviews, readily scannable even if you don't want to dive into the technical depths, mostly from academic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Finalists in Innovation by Design
In Fastcodesign: Some interesting examples of using data visualization design. Certainly eye catching, but more artistic than providing interactive and objective information delivery. I like the examples showing projected information…
From Schneier on Security
Keystroke Logger Disguised as a USB Charger
It's called KeySweeper. More articles. Source code....
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Code Hunt for Review and Problem Solving
Code Hunt is something I have been experimenting with a bit this year. For those who are not familiar with it, Code Hunt “is an educational, browser-based coding game targeting teachers and students” (link to information about…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Washington News – Alerts and Updates
General News • The 114th Congress convened last week with Republicans controlling both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. The House has 246 Republicans, 188 Democrats, and 1 vacancy due to Rep. Michael Grimm’s…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fusion Charts Blog
Brought to my attention with some interesting data visualization posts. Fusion Charts Blog.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Beyond Customer Recognition for Retailers
Not a new thing, casinos have been doing it for years. The capability has been improving for some time. Now with cheaper hardware? What is more interesting is how the consumer might gesture back to truly interact with the…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Highlights from the New Class of TED Fellows
The new class of Fellows for TED2015 has recently been released, and among the 21 “game-changing thinkers” are Laura Boykin, a biologist and Jonathan Home, a physicist. We’ve chosen to highlight them here because even though …
From Schneier on Security
David Cameron's Plan to Ban Encryption in the UK
In the wake of the Paris terrorist shootings, David Cameron has said that he wants to ban encryption in the UK. Here's the quote: "If I am prime minister I will make sure that it is a comprehensive piece of legislation that does…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Your Cognitive Future
A cross industry report from IBM. Detailed look at what to expect and what to prepare for." ... Cognitive-based systems extend the capabilities of humans. They achieve this by learning and building knowledge, understanding natural…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Beaconing at Marsh Supermarkets
Continued indication that the interconnection of shoppers and physical spaces is progressing, this was reported on previously here in more detail, see tags below. Note in particular the mention of a Watch. Wearable solutions…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
ACM Names Its 2014 Fellows
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is out with its 2014 Fellows, 47 of its members from universities, corporations, and research labs being recognized “for their contributions to computing that are driving innovations…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
How Gameplay Affects Stories in Games
I am very interested in the role of storytelling in videogames. Although I do like games without stories as well, the story is often the part of a game that engages me the most. For my thesis proposal, I spent some time thinking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Robots for Retail
Discussion in Retailwire: Saw several demonstrations of this idea. Now there are examples in the hospitality industry that are worth watching. Consumers still need to be made comfortable with the idea. Levels of autonomy,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Defining Your Business
In Innovation Excellence: by Ty Montague. " ... Whitespace vs. Rightspace: How Quest-led Innovation Finds Right Space for Breakthrough Innovation ... " . Figuring out how to manage your innovation process. Have seen this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Automated Hypothesis Generation
Took a brief look at this at the request of a client, it is still in evolution. The Watson Chef is an interesting example, but it is overwhelmed today by dozens of recipe search engines that are 'good enough'. More generally…