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 My Biased Coin
An Exceptional Exponential Embedding
This week in class I get to teach one of my favorite probability arguments, which makes use of a very unusual embedding. Here's a short description (for the longer description, see the book or the original paper, where the idea…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Natural User Search Interfaces
In CACM: On 'Natural' Search User Interfaces: Users will speak rather than type, watch video rather than read, and use technology socially rather than alone ...Good thoughts about the future of search. Some results and research…
From The Eponymous Pickle
John McCarthy, Father of AI and Lisp Dies
We met John McCarthy at Stanford University, sometime in the 1980s. He was a very enthusiastic promoter of AI and in particular the use of game playing systems to deliver 'intelligence'. Checkers and Chess were early implementations…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Activities for CS Ed Week
CSEdWeek (December 4 through 10) is quickly approaching. This is an opportunity to spotlight your students and your program. Don't delay in making some plans and pledging your commitment at www.csedweek.org.
Every effort makes…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Robin Murphy, Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University (and a member of the CCC Council), and Mary Fern
From Schneier on Security
Blue Coat Products Enable Web Censorship in Syria
It's illegal for Blue Coat to sell its technology for this purpose, but there are lots of third-parties who are willing to act as middlemen:
"Blue Coat does not sell to Syria. We comply with US export laws and we do not allow…From The Eponymous Pickle
Your Business Channel
Newly brought to my attention YourBusiness Channel. See also their blog.A hub for business expertise ... yourBusinessChannel produces and distributes TV quality, engaging online video editorial.A YouTube partner, we have worked…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pharma Effects Data Sourcing
In Fastcompany: Adverse Events: Why Big Pharma Is Scared Of This Startup. " ... AdverseEvents, Inc. (AEI) is the first service provider to deliver accurate, real-time information on adverse drug events reported to the FDA.…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Computer Science is Everywhere! (Even Photography)
Last week I did a couple of workshops at the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology for National Science and Technology Week. I managed to improve the usual 'computer science connects to everything' theme to be more interactive…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Symphony IRI Group
I was recently reminded of Symphony IRI Group. " ... Helping the world
From Computational Complexity
It's Open Access Week
Open Access Week starts today. Interestingly a number of traditional journal publishers, like Springer, are sponsors as they try to figure out how to modify their business model in a changing publication environment. We'd love…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
We blogged about
From BLOG@CACM
Celebrate Open Access Week With ACM
Help your papers reach a wide audience with ACM's new service: Author-Izer.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 24 October 2011
I am constantly amazed by the opportunities to learn things online by virtual attendance at events these days. In the past week I listened to a keynote (Live streamed) by Gary Stager from Iowa, followed a lot of Twitter traffic…
From Schneier on Security
Facebook Patent to Track Users Even When They are Not Logged In to Facebook
Patent number 2,011,023,240:
Communicating Information in a Social Network System about Activities from Another Domain Abstract: In one embodiment, a method is described for tracking information about the activities of users…From Wild WebMink
Modern Hero Revisited
About a decade ago I started a “spool” of the comments I had been making on my personal website (which had been running since the late 90s – I actually started editing web pages in 1992, for IBM’s Person to Person product). It…
From Wild WebMink
In Sunlight
Today has been a beautiful day in Paris, spent walking and talking in the brilliant autumnal sunlight with dear and charming friends – which has been the theme for the whole weekend, actually. The distance between here and the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Decision Management Systems: Rules and Analytics
Business Rules and Predictive analytics from SAP. Link to an excerpt from a forthcoming book that I am looking at now. This topic has been much in my mind of late. We know that business process is delivered via rules, precise…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Patents Emerge As Significant Tech Strategy
I have see some evidence of this recently. Even among the smaller players. Good review of recent big company patent related events ... " ... Several experts say they expect these patent battles to sort themselves out over the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Deploying Cloud Computing
On deploying cloud computing. I had always thought this was easy, just point to other places for your data and services. But it is not really quite that simple. This slide show is a good introduction to the enterprise issues…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
How Database Design Fails Us, and What to do About It
Good database design is crucial to obtain a sound, consistent database, and — in turn — good database design methodologies are the best way to achieve the right design. These methodologies are taught to most Computer Science…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Lateral Marketing
Philip Kotler speaks about Lateral Marketing. In Innovation Excellence. Good thoughts.
From The Eponymous Pickle
KDDI and Neurosky
A dry-electroode NeuroSky headset and Android App from KDDI that measures your brainwaves. Accurate and useful for marketing? Analyzing the brains of soccer fans too. Or even control your iPhone. More about Neurosky.
From The Eponymous Pickle
CFO's and the Supply Chain
Have never thought of it in this way, but its a useful thought. In CFO mag:"Supply chain and finance are usually seen as separate and conflicting disciplines. In a retailing or manufacturing company, key performance indicators…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Shares About Social and Technology
If is fairly rare to see Wal-Mart in such an outspoken mood, but they were at the recent ANA conference regarding their marketing and technology directions. They believe that people want to share. In AdAge:" ... Speaking as…
From My Biased Coin
ITCS Review
The list of accepted papers for ITCS (Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science) is up. Some thoughts:1) I have expressed reservations in the past about ITCS, based on the idea that it was creating another conference similar…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data for the Future
From Recorded Future's blog a new white paper that describes their philosophy: " .... The white paper introduces the three dimensions
From The Eponymous Pickle
Valuing the Future
This makes me think about it's application in packages like Recorded Future. Though I have been taught that economic valuation is full of uncertainty, dismal science and all. Yet valuing future can augment analyses like scenario…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid T-Shirt
Pretty design.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Portals, Passwords, and Cloud Computing
Several of the Computer Science teachers in one district have established a portal which uses a "cloud concept" to provide information for parents of students in their classes. Some of the content is FERPA protected and in this…