Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2010
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google CPG Blog
I was reminded that Google has a Consumer Package Goods vertical blog that I had not visited in some time, check it out.
From Schneier on Security
Electronic Car Lock Denial-of-Service Attack
Inspector Richard Haycock told local newspapers that the possible use of the car lock jammers would help explain a recent spate of thefts from vehicles that have occurred without leaving any signs of forced entry.
"We…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
President Obama Recognizes Science Superstars
Earlier this week President Obama hosted the winners of a number of major STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) competitions. Two of the students who were invited to the White House for this event were Wilson To and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Senses and Sales
Roger Dooley writes about the use of more senses to promote sales. Along the way mentioning and quoting Dan Hill's new book: About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising, which I am in the midst of reading. …
From Computational Complexity
Will there be a 50th CCC? Will you be there?
At the 25th CCC Juris Hartmanis gave a great talk to celebrate having a 25th. Will there be a 50th? I asked people at the conference. What did they say? Watch the video!
So what do you think? Will there be a 50th CCC? Will…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The future is already here
It is not 9am yet. Nevertheless, I got a lot done: I attended the thesis proposal of my student Eduardo via Skype. I was literally in my basement with a fresh cup of coffee, attending a presentation hundreds of kilometers away…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2010-10-21
Every email and website to be stored "Every email, phone call and website visit is to be recorded and stored after the Coalition Government revived controversial Big Brother snooping plans." Despite promises from both the Conservatives…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Adding Human Intelligence to Software
From CACM: Whats interesting here is the connection to Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which we used to experiment with human intelligence tasks. There are some things that people can do far more quickly and accurately than machines…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Girl Scouts Fight Photoshopping
This is interesting, reminding me of the Dove ads of a few years ago. What are the implications of 'healthy media' ? Or is an act like this just censorship?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Primer for Using YouTube
An Adage primer for using YouTube as a marketing tool. I admit I am mostly a consumer of YouTube, and have just noticed some colleagues and companies starting to use it as means of communicating, and I like what I have seen…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Identifying People By Their Phones
More about using biometric behavior with devices like phones for identification." ... Tabletop touch screens such as Microsoft's Surface are designed for sharing and collaboration, but it's difficult for them to tell one person…
From Schneier on Security
Workshop on the Economics of Information Security
I am the program chair for WEIS 2011, which is to be held next June in Washington, DC.
Submissions are due at the end of February.
Please forward and repost the call for papers.
From BLOG@CACM
Fixing the Process of Computer Science Refereeing
There is a simple way to make refereeing better, almost overnight. It takes a bit of courage, but it would restore honesty and quality to the process.
From BLOG@CACM
Grace: A Manifesto For a New Educational Object-Oriented Programming Language
At SPLASH 2010, Andrew Black, Kim B. Bruce, and James Noble presented their manifesto for a new educational object-oriented programming language called Grace.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Store Simulation
I just took a renewed look at the general problem of simulating retail store operations. We worked with a UK vendor called Space Syntax on this at one time. I was also pointed to another vendor of interest: Red Dot Software…
From Wild WebMink
License Compliance: Not An Open Source Problem
The New York Times featured the activities of the GPL enforcement community recently. While there’s a part of me that’s pleased there are people doing this, I’m concerned that their actions – and those elsewhere, such as the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Video Traffic to Explode
Stan Dyck sends this along: " ...By 2014 90% of all Internet traffic will be video. Every device will lead with video. Phone. Tv. PC. #cisco ceo chambers at #Nvtc conference ... " --- from @jcbackusQuite a change, you can…
From Schneier on Security
Predator Software Pirated?
This isn't good:
Intelligent Integration Systems (IISi), a small Boston-based software development firm, alleges that their Geospatial Toolkit and Extended SQL Toolkit were pirated by Massachusetts-based Netezza for use byIISi…From Wild WebMink
? Gaming The System
When a company asks for your copyright “When a company says which of these conditions it will accept, that will show you how far it plans to depart from the principles of free software.” An interesting discussion by Richard Stallman…
From My Biased Coin
Guest Post over at Computational Complexity Blog
For those still receiving this feed, I have a guest post briefly describing some aspects of life as Area Dean over at the Computational Complexity blog.
From Computational Complexity
A Note from the Trenches (Guest Post from Michael Mitzenmacher)
Former blogger Michael Mitzenmacher talks about being chair and not blogging. In a day for guest posts, over at Geomblog, David Johnson wants to know practical applications of approximation algorithms. It's been about about…
From BLOG@CACM
Can Randomly Generated Code Fix Software Bugs?
Can the principles of evolution be applied to software code and used to improve it? Stephanie Forrest thinks so—and has some encouraging data to prove it.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Finding a Place For Computer Science Education
While I spend a lot of time, some of it laying awake at night, thinking about the state of pre-collegiate computer science education it seems like many more people are thinking about it lately. We can argue that everyone needs…
From The Eponymous Pickle
World Statistics Day
The Wolfram Blog posts on World Statistics Day. We use statistically analyzed data every day, but do not often think about the origin of the data, the analysis being used, and how it is displayed. Good time to start.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neuromarketing Labels
The BrandShow podcast gives a short and simple overview of the use of neuromarketing for non conscious analysis of a brand. Using Campbell Soup as an example.
From Apophenia
Combating Sexual Exploitation Online
Today, I testified in front of Martha Coakley and other members of the Massachusetts Attorney General Office as part of their Hearing on Sexual Solicitation Online. I spoke on behalf of my research (not as a part of Microsoft)…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Stock Exchange for Apps
It is true that it has become harder to find useful Apps. Too many, too obscure, or broad. There are the usual blogs and sites that describe new Apps, but I have not found them that useful. Now there is an exchange for new…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tibco Silver Spotfire
I am just now getting to look at Tibco Silver Spotfire business intelligence and visualization package. It is now available as a one year free trial. A clever marketing ploy I think, especially with regard to the length ofTableau…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Scratch Resistant Polymers
This note from Ideaconnection reminds me of some research work I did in this area long ago. As we carry around more things that need to be handled often and still be durable, there are many interesting challenges to material…
From Schneier on Security
Hiding in Plain Sight
When he's out and about near his Denver home, former Broncos quarterback John Elway has come up with a novel way to travel incognito