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 Schneier on Security
Smart Pipe
Pretty impressive surveillance-economy satire....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sports Tactics and Conversion Rates
In Conversioner: Nicely done short piece that brings together a number of data and behavioral process methods to address selling. " ... Surprisingly, competitive sports are much like conversion optimization. Whether you’re…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Criticizing Neuromarketing
I have been connected to two startups in the neuromarketing domain. Is the hype fading for non conscious interaction applications of the neural kind? Have seen large enterprises making investments. Interesting research results…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmented Reality Projector Interfaces
In Computing Now An example of new approaches to collaborative interface. Haptic (touch) included.Spatial User Interfaces for Large-Scale Projector-Based Augmented RealityMichael R. Marner, University of South AustraliaRoss…
From Schneier on Security
Further Evidence Pointing to North Korea as Sony Hacker
The FBI has provided more evidence: Speaking at a Fordham Law School cybersecurity conference Wednesday, Comey said that he has "very high confidence" in the FBI's attribution of the attack to North Korea. And he named several…
From Putting People First
Quali-quantitative experiments in a Big Data world
Complementary social science? Quali-quantitative experiments in a Big Data world Anders Blok and Morten Axel Pedersen University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Big Data & Society – August 6, 2014 The rise of Big Data in the…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
There Are Many Primes
Various senses of ‘many’ from proofs of the infinitude of primes 2008 Bowen Lectures source Hillel Furstenberg is entering his 50th years as a professor of mathematics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He shared the 2006-07…
From Schneier on Security
How Browsers Store Passwords
Good information on how Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox store user passwords....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Third Party Sellers Set Record
In Retailwire: Have been involved with a third party seller on Amazon for some time. The process and dynamics are interesting to watch. The data use claim is interesting, had not heard that:" ... Despite concerns raised about…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Forbes on Watson Analytics
An overview of the idea. Continuing to follow. Have mentioned I think there are some useful integrated visualizations here that are quite good. Still unclear how much these analytical approaches are completely general, early…
From Schneier on Security
Hacking Attack Causes Physical Damage at German Steel Mill
This sort of thing is still very rare, but I fear it will become more common: ...hackers had struck an unnamed steel mill in Germany. They did so by manipulating and disrupting control systems to such a degree that a blast furnace…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hidden Costs of Manual Data Collection
The RFCode site blog was just brought to my attention. My investigation into data costs and data asset value led me to this. They have an Infographic on the cost of manual data collection. Also need information about the rsk…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Applications to 2015 LiSPI now accepted till January 23rd
The following is a Computing Research Policy Blog post by Brian Mosley, CRA Policy Analyst. Just wanted to put up a quick post that due to extra availability we are extending the deadline for nominations and applications to …
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Fast unary decoding
Computers store numbers in binary form using a fixed number of bits. For example, Java will store integers using 32 bits (when using the int type). This can be wasteful when you expect most integers to be small. For example,…
From BLOG@CACM
The NIPS Experiment
In the NIPS experiment, 10% of papers submitted to the Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation went through its review process twice, with results compared.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Classic Computer Chip at age 40: The 8080
In CWorld: I did some direct programming on this chip, so the milestone is historic for me. Where is the microprocessor going? Good background and directional innovations.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Security Concerns of Internet of Things Device Data
In CWorld: FTC describes the concerns of how such data can be used against you. " ... Will 2015 be the year when smart home hacking is a real threat? At CES 2015, the FTC chairwoman mentioned the security warning during her…
From The Eponymous Pickle
FuturICT World Model
Brought to my attention:The goal of FuturICT is to understand and manage complex, global, socially interactive systems, with a focus on sustainability and resilience. ... " Policy: FuturICT will build a Living Earth Platform…
From Computational Complexity
The History of the History of the History of Computer Science
In 2007, the science historian Martin Campbell-Kelly wrote an article The History of the History of Software, where he writes about how he initially wrote histories of the technical aspects of computer software back in the 70's…
From Schneier on Security
Attack Attribution in Cyberspace
When you're attacked by a missile, you can follow its trajectory back to where it was launched from. When you're attacked in cyberspace, figuring out who did it is much harder. The reality of international aggression in cyberspace…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mapping Your Knowledge Assets
In the HBR. An idea we attempted to do in more detail, with partial success. I like the idea of using a simpler template, rather than a full blown concept model. Then building detail downward, as needed. using the filter"…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retrain Your Brain: Think like a Freak
In Knowledge@Wharton " ... Are you sure it is a bad idea to quit a job? In Think Like a Freak, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) argue that we are often overly confident about what we think we know…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Neural and Cognitive Systems Deadline Approaching
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released a new multi-directorate program called Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS), which describes the first phase of NSF’s broader …
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
U.S. Copyright Office Considers DMCA Exemptions
The U.S. Copyright Office is accepting public input on proposed exemptions to the prohibitions against circumvention under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This process takes place every three years. The deadline…
From The Eponymous Pickle
MOOCs and Hype
In Knowledge@Wharton: " ... Today, though the hype has died down, the world’s largest provider of MOOCs – Coursera – keeps on innovating and developing its online platform to serve millions of learners. Coursera co-founder Daphne…
From Schneier on Security
Attributing the Sony Attack
No one has admitted taking down North Korea's Internet. It could have been an act of retaliation by the US government, but it could just as well have been an ordinary DDoS attack. The follow-on attack against Sony PlayStation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon in the Bathroom
In Retailwire: The next frontier, the bathroom, in all its functionality. In the Smart home we examined many aspects of this, most notably the testing of 'smart mirrors' for both augmentation using approaches like virtual"…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Overfitting in Analytics
Very good piece in KDNuggets on overfitting: A Technical concern for any kind of analytics, but increasingly important as Big Data is being explored. Although this is a technical piece, even novice practitioners need to understand…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Theory lags practice
Schools teach us theory so that we can be more productive workers. You learn grammar so that you can be a better writer. You learn about computer science, so that you may be a better programmer. You learn about electromagnetism…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Video Ads and Viewability
In Adage: A pointer to the fact that Google is providing more services to indicate how well ads on Youtube are playing. I recall hearing of another example where they were tracking Ad play and providing new kinds of analytics…