Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2009
From BLOG@CACM
How We Teach Introductory Computer Science Is Wrong
Research in educational psychology in the last 20 years calls into question our most common teaching methods in introductory courses: Teaching programming by having students program
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
ACM Washington Update, Vol. 13.8 (October 8, 2009)
CONTENTS
[1] Newsletter Highlights [2] ACM Argues for Computer Science Education in Kansas [3] FCC Chairman Plans to Create Net Neutrality Rules [4] House Committee Approves Two Technology Bills [5] Cybersecurity Research Legislation…From The Eponymous Pickle
Fujitsu Rugged RFID
Fujitsu has announced that it has developed a more rugged RFID chip. Based on some of my own recent discussions there are a number of useful applications, for example in military and firefighting. The ruggedness includes the…
From The Noisy Channel
Is Twitter Planning To Monetize The Firehose?
From The Eponymous Pickle
P vs NP Reviewed by Times
I mentioned this article some time ago, it was orginally in the Communications of the ACM, about one of the most difficult yet practical mathematical problems of the age. Now the NYT Science section has chimed in with their…
From The Eponymous Pickle
See Search Results as PDF
In what seems like a small thing, Google now lets you get a quick view of search results, Gmail and Google docs as a PDF. As a result you can preserve more formatting details in many cases. I can recall a number of times when…
From Schneier on Security
Detecting Forged Signatures Using Pen Pressure and Angle
Songhua Xu presented an interesting idea for measuring pen angle and pressure to present beautiful flower-like visual versions of a handwritten signature. You could argue that signatures are already a visual form…
From Wild WebMink
Links for 2009-10-08
I sat this week listening to the new President of the BCS responding to several unemployed Members in the audience of the AGM and telling them why the new CITP…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
A Report from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
The ninth Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing took place in Tucson, Arizona from September 30-October 3.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter Joins Inno360
In Consumer Goods Technology: P&G has joined Inno360 to promote worldwide innovation.' ... to unite global pioneers to co-develop the next-generation open innovation platform. P&G has been a part of open innovation since 2001…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Dow to Start Selling Solar Shingles
Have followed solar power ideas since the late 70s .... I remember this idea being posed back then. Now it has finally come to fruition. Launching in 2010. About 10% efficiency. ROI will be interesting it will be interesting…
From Schneier on Security
Hotel Safe Scam
This is interesting:
Since then, his scams have tended to take place in luxury hotels around the world. Typically, he would arrive at a hotel, claim to be a guest, and then tell security that he had forgotten the combination…From Schneier on Security
Detecting People Who Want to Do Harm
At a demonstration of the technology this week, project manager Robert P. Burns said the idea is to track a set of involuntary physiological reactions that might slip by a human observer. These occur when a person…
From Computational Complexity
The last Universal Mathematician was ???
The book Prime Obsessions has the following on Page 159:
You will see it written that Hadamard was the last of the universal mathematicians--- the last, that is, to encompass the whole of the subject, before it became so…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Sadker Awards for Teachers and Students
The Myra Sadker Foundation has established teacher and student awards to support the creation of teaching and learning materials that advance educational equity and social justice.
Myra Sadker was one of the early researchers…From The Eponymous Pickle
Marketing Maneuvers
In Forbes: Cheap Entrepreneurial marketing maneuvers for small business, including Twitter use.
From Schneier on Security
Computer-Assisted Witness Identification
Witnesses are much more accurate at identifying criminals when computers assist in the identification process, not police officers.
A major cause of miscarriages of justice could be avoided if computers, rather than detectives…From My Biased Coin
More Harvard Classes Available Online
Thanks to the Harvard Extension School, the lectures for several more Harvard courses have been put online. My understanding is that these are classes taught at Harvard that are also given through the extension school. I suspect…
From Wild WebMink
? Official Paperwork
Another "friend of the court" filing in the US Supreme Court in the reconsideration of the case law that makes software patents viable in the US. In this filing, the Free Software…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Videos from the Singularity Summit
Have only looked at a few, but some interesting videos from the summit. Are you ready to be uploaded? The concept of a technological singularity continues to intrigue me. I remain skeptical about its near-term occurrence.
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Getting a Ph.D. for the Money?
Many of my Ph.D. students have admitted to being motivated by financial gain. Stanford is famous for their graduate-students-turned-entrepreneurs. Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google fame come to mind. But I cannot yet point…
From The Noisy Channel
Google Meets The Press
I enjoyed my proverbial fifteen seconds of fame on CNN yesterday, and I even enjoyed lunch at the New York Times cafeteria today. But for a prime-time media show check out the live blogging of a chat that Google co-founder Sergey…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tesco in the US
Richard James sends along a link to a very detailed article about Tesco in the US: RETAIL CASE STUDY: ANATOMY OF A TESCO FRESH AND EASY NEIGHBORHOOD. Much written about but have yet to visit one of these. They conclude: ' ...…
From Schneier on Security
Don't Let Hacker Inmates Reprogram Prison Computers
You'd think this would be obvious:
Douglas Havard, 27, serving six years for stealing up to
From The Eponymous PickleIPhone App Interacts with SAS
Correspondent Sy Truong has just had an Iphone App called BI Flash approved. It allows you to deliver SAS reports and data to the IPhone, enter parameters, capture real time data on your Iphone ... and more. Mobile BI, whichMore…
From Computational ComplexityYou are coordially invited... Why?
When you get an invitation via email should you accept? How well targeted is it? Some real examples that I got.
EXAMPLE ONE:
I would like to invite you to participate at the workshop Ramsey Theory in Logic, Combinatorics…
From The Eponymous PickleGoogle Wave Video
Good, short, non-technical video all about Google Wave. Also, Businessweek asks if it will replace E-mail and Facebook. -
From The Eponymous PickleIPhone as a Security Camera
A $1.99 IPhone App called IP Camera can take a picture every 12 to 15 seconds and then posts the picture to a local network via WiFi. Effectively a security camera. Some limitations, but a nice direction. CNet review.
From Schneier on SecurityMalware that Forges Bank Statements
This is brilliant:
The sophisticated hack uses a Trojan horse program installed on the victim's machine that alters html coding before it's displayed in the user's browser, to either erase evidence of a money transfer transaction…
From The Noisy ChannelThe Noisy Channel, Live On CNN!
For anyone who