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
AP CS No Longer Counts For High School Graduation in Georgia (for Now)
Georgia used to count AP CS as a fourth "science" class towards high school graduation. As of 1 October 2009, that is no longer true.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Brand Marketing Makeover
From Paul Gillin: Brand Marketing Due for a Makeover.' ..."Adaptive Brand marketing starts with the environment -- customers and a deep understanding of their needs and behaviors -- and then designs the most appropriate channel…
From Putting People First
Migropolis: Venice /Atlas of a Global Situation
In winter 2006, under the aegis of philosopher Wolfgang Scheppe, a collective of students from theIUAV University in Venice (including Experientia collaborator Miguel Cabanzo) fanned out to subject the city of Venice, Italy to…
From Putting People First
Computerworld New Zealand on user-centred web design
Computerworld New Zealand introduces user-centred web design. Introducing user-centred web design The first article in this series introduces the idea of User-Centred Design (UCD)
From Computational Complexity
Proud to be a Monomath
A girl told her father that history was much easier when he was in school. "Why?" he asked. She responded "Because there was so much less of it."
An old joke, but one that ran through my mind as I read the article The Last Days…From Schneier on Security
A Critical Essay on the TSA
A critical essay on the TSA from a former assistant police chief:
This is where I find myself now obsessing over TSA policy, or its apparent lack. Every one of us goes to work each day harboring prejudice. This is simply human…From Wild WebMink
links for 2009-10-29
From My Biased Coin
Ranking Networking Conferences
I'm curious if various readers out there would be willing to offer their ranking of networking conferences. The issue has come up in some conversations recently, and I was wondering what other possibly more informed sources…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
My Voice
I look forward to it every couple of months. I've been receiving the CSTA Voice since I became a member back in 2005. For years, being a member of CSTA meant getting my newsletter, filling out my end-of-year renewal form, and…
From Schneier on Security
Best Buy Sells Surveillance Tracker
Only $99.99:
Keep tabs on your child at all times with this small but sophisticated device that combines GPS and cellular technology to provide you with real-time location updates. The small and lightweight Little Buddy transmitter…From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter and Social Media
A good case study about P&G using Facebook to market Crest Whitestrips. '... the contest on Facebook asks participants to submit stories about connections they wish to make over the holiday season, for the chance to win a visit…
From BLOG@CACM
Developing Software For the Outer Space
Making good software is hard. Making software that has to work without defects on a different planet is extremely hard. Today Gerard Holzmann explained how NASA does it during his keynote at OOPSLA.
From Computational Complexity
FOCS Last Day
Last (but surely not least) day at FOCS 09!Jan Vondrak talked about some nice results that unify previous query complexity approaches in proving lower bounds for submodular function maximization. For a general class of functions…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The Secret Behind Radical Innovation
Our global knowledge grows in slow, incremental steps. Darwin and Einstein mostly reinterpreted existing ideas. However, practical implementations sometimes take the world by storm. You might think that the experts are responsible…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Irony Universal in Communication
A piece in Language Log talks about the universality of irony in communication. Also links to a number of other discussions previously held on the topic. One way to look at irony is as a form of inefficiency in communication,…
From Schneier on Security
Psychology and Security Resource Page
Ross Anderson has put together a great resource page on security and psychology:
At a deeper level, the psychology of security touches on fundamental scientific and philosophical problems. The 'Machiavellian Brain' hypothesis…From Wild WebMink
links for 2009-10-28
This has been a long time cooking, but finally allows the US Defence Department to proceed with clear guidance, ending much of the FUD that …
From The Eponymous Pickle
What is Social Search? Zakta Answers
Recently I took a first look at Zakta, a novel form of search engine that includes the ability to work socially with your searches, edit them, manipulate and use them as a means for knowledge-based collaboration. To me it's much…
From Apophenia
Choosing the Right Grad School
Lately, I've been getting all sorts of emails from folks applying to grad school who are seeking advice. I noticed that I was starting to say the same thing over and over again so I thought maybe it'd be better off to write some…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shneiderman on Future of Information Discovery
Here are Ben Shneiderman's slides from his keynote at the 2009 HCIR conference, posted by Daniel Tunkelang, worth a look.-
From The Eponymous Pickle
Compete
A colleague pointed me to compete.com from TNS, which acquired them last year. With a trial version of the package you can compare traffic at major web sites. Also includes a number of basic normalized metrics for sites. Quite…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Why Words Matter: Technology is not the same as Computing
Robb Cutler, CSTA Past President
From The Eponymous Pickle
Synchronized Blinking with Video
In Lucid Thoughts Steve Genco looks at the process of blinking based on some recent research which ' ... presents some really intriguing findings about when and why we blink and how blinking patterns provide important clues about…
From The Noisy Channel
Ben Shneiderman
From Putting People First
A reflection on energy efficiency and behaviour
Irene Cassarino, an Experientia collaborator, reports on the First European Conference on Energy Efficiency and Behaviour, which took place in Maastricht last week: What role do objects play in our life and culture? It depends…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Social Search from Google
I joined the Google Social Search experiment. When you join it, any time you do a search in Google it adds information and results from your social network. It gets network information from public information about your network…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of October 26
October 27
Hearing: The Technology and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on Department of Homeland Security science and technology research priorities. 2 p.m., 2318 Rayburn…From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of October 26
October 27
Hearing: The Technology and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on Department of Homeland Security science and technology research priorities. 2 p.m., 2318 Rayburn…From Schneier on Security
2006 Wal-Mart Hack
Interesting story of a 2006 Wal-Mart hack from, probably, Minsk.
From Wild WebMink
links for 2009-10-27
That's MySQL in the cloud as a web service. This is exactly the sort of thing that creates demand for service at the point of deployment…