Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2011
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
We’ve talked about the notion of hypercriticality
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Ada Lovelace Day: Natalia
I participate in Ada Lovelace Day every year by blogging about my tech heroines. This year, I had a really hard time deciding who to honour because there are so many worthy candidates! After some thought about what stage ofNatalia…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Hundreds of Squid Wash Up on Southern California Beaches
Humboldt squid are washing up on beaches across Southern California. Seems like it's no big deal; the squid just swam too close to shore.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Will the E-Book Kill the Footnote?
In the Sunday NYT. A breezy look at those old style sources of more information. I like the presence of more information. I prefer hyperlinks, but they only work if they are there and live. I don't think footnotes of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
InferX
I had the opportunity to talk to InferX yesterday. A company that uses distributed data mining techniques to work on business analysis and fraud problems. From both structured and unstructured data. Currently working with…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Indoor GPS
I looked at this topic for location applications in retail, and I see this article in Emerging Technology on a number of vendors in the area. I know there are others, including ZuluTime, which has launched a number of applications…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Business of Certainty
In Fast Company:" ... Foresight Is 20/20: Predictive Analytics And The Business Of Certainty ... Want to make really smart decisions for your company? It's simple as looking into the future and assessing the data--a serviceGood…
From The Eponymous Pickle
ThinkVine and Marketing Mix Modeling
Local company ThinkVine, who I worked with in the Enterprise, sends along this press release on marketing mix technologies. Excellent work. Note the mention of agent-based methods to address these problems. ThinkVine, a marketing…
From Schneier on Security
Security Seals on Voting Machines
Related to this blog post from Wednesday, here's a paper that looks at security seals on voting machines.
Andrew W. Appel, "Security Seals on Voting Machines: A Case Study," ACM Transactions on Information and System Security…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Be The Robot
One of the issues with computer science is that some people would rather move atoms than pixels. That is to say that virtual objects, even if they involve images on a screen, are less compelling to some than physical objects…
From Wild WebMink
? Communities and Control
What community? If you’re interested in the Tizen project, take a look at Dave Neary’s well-founded scepticism. The whole project has the sound of a force-fit that will lead to a poor community experience. A poor community experience…
From Schneier on Security
Dilbert on Security Standards
So true (the predecessor).
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Reminder: Visioning Proposals Due Oct. 14
A reminder that proposals responsive to the Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) call for workshop programs that will define visions and agendas for exciting frontiers of computing research are due by 5pm EDT next Friday, Oct…
From Schneier on Security
FBI-Sponsored Backdoors
From a review of Susan Landau's Surveillance or Security?:
To catch up with the new technologies of malfeasance, FBI director Robert Mueller traveled to Silicon Valley last November to persuade technology companies to build…From The Eponymous Pickle
Priming With Lies
In MindHacks, the post mentions facial coding, which we experimented with: A beautifully recursive study has shown that viewing an episode of the psychology of deception TV series Lie To Me makes people worse at distinguishing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Nielsen Relates Buzz to TV Ratings
An interesting result. Yet not overly surprising to me. People who have lots of spare time? " ... Today Nielsen, the venerable measurement service, shed light on the question of how online social media "buzz" relates to…
From My Biased Coin
Goodbye to Steve Jobs
My Mac laptop froze today. It was an unusual occurrence; I turned the machine off, and for a minute it wouldn't turn back on again. I was in a panic. Then it went back to normal. After the fact, I was wondering if my machine…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kodak Disrupted
Less than a decade ago we visited Kodak R&D and were impressed by their work with digital camera capabilities. It looked like they were making the transition to digital cameras and memories. Though that is not the way it ultimately…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Oracle Big Data Analytics Appliance
Continued competition, here from Oracle, to produce high speed appliances for big data. Shows the increasing need for business intelligence platforms. Note the inclusion of the R open source stat package, also good for data…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cheapest Tablet
I followed the hundred dollar laptop project for years. Now we have the $35 tablet. Designed for the rural poor in India. " ... The computer, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi, is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest"…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Computing Across Disciplines
I'm teaching two courses this term that have me thinking a lot about the ubiquity of computing across disciplines, and about the ever increasing need for young people to understand about computing. Even if they themselves will…
From BLOG@CACM
Yes, Computer Scientists Are Hypercritical
Are computer scientists hypercritical? Are we more critical than scientists and engineers in other disciplines? Some numbers from the National Science Foundation support the claim that we are hypercritical.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Lots of buzz this week about “Big Data,” and particularly the opportunities for government in this space. Our friend and colleague,
From Putting People First
Five myths about social media
Ramesh Srinivasan methodically breaks down five ‘myths’ about social media in this Washington Post article: Here are his myths (which few in the UX community would flatly believe in, I think): 1. Social media gives power to the…
From Computational Complexity
Steve Jobs 1955-2011
It's one of those events. You'll always remember where you were when you heard that Steve Jobs passed away. I was at dinner with several visiting computer scientists, holdovers from the CCC council meeting earlier in the day.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visual Teams Book
See a report on correspondent David Sibbet's new book: Visual Teams: Graphic Tools for Commitment, Innovation, and High Performance. To be released by October 11. Congratulations David, great work as always. Second book in…
From Wild WebMink
?
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma
From Schneier on Security
Status Report: <i>Liars and Outliers</i>
Last weekend, I completely reframed the book. I realized that the book isn't about security. It's about trust. I'm writing about how society induces people to behave in the group interest instead of some competing personal…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Actionable Data in Mobile Apps
An article for developers about how to get data from mobile Apps. But also gives the non-developer an indication of what is there. Mentions of a number of companies that are providing the ability to track this kind of data…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why Creative Ideas are Rejected
In CACM: Why creative ideas are rejected, and what you can do about it. A short article with some good thoughts.