Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2013
From Schneier on Security
Dry Ice Bombs at LAX
The news story about the guy who left dry ice bombs in restricted areas of LAX is really weird.
I can't get worked up over it, though. Dry ice bombs are a harmless prank. I set off a bunch of them when I was in college, although…From The Eponymous Pickle
Stores Tracking Phones
In Forbes: Ways to opt of being tracked in a store using your Smartphone. The obvious way is to turn off your Bluetooth and Wifi. The tracking approach is getting more common, but few know it is going on. " ... A number…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Population Pattern Viewer
From RTI International: More interesting public data visualizations of economic drivers.Web-Based Map Allows Users to See Intricate Patterns in U.S. Population: A new web-based mapping site allows users to see stark racialThe…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet of Things Kit
We worked with similar systems that tested RFID approaches. Kits, with all the required components, are very useful in understanding a technology space that includes physical pieces.IBM's do-it-yourself kit makes Internet of…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Workshop on Opportunities in Robotics, Automation, and Computer Science
Manufacturing currently comprises about 12% of the US GDP — roughly 1.8 trillion USD. Although there is a perception (and some truth) to the fact that manufacturing is leaving the US for low wage countries, there are many manufacturers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Invents a Plastic
Nice example of innovation in the enterprise, in an area not associated with the big CPG enterprise, but essential to its operation. Estimates of $1 Billion a year in cost savings. Plant to built in the US, nearby" ... Procter…
From Schneier on Security
Can I Be Trusted?
SlashDot asks the question:
I'm a big fan of Bruce Schneier, but just to play devil's advocate, let's say, hypothetically, that Schneier is actually in cahoots with the NSA. Who better to reinstate public trust in weakened cryptosystems…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Closing the Gender Gap in Computer Science infographic
I get email about posting things to my blog pretty regularly. Often the items have little or no relevance to my usual topics and I ignore them. Sometimes they are relevant, even very relevant. I know that some of them are atSource…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tiny Games
We also experimented with what we called micro games, to engage people that visited a web site. But also to get consumers to solve little problems, trading small creative efforts for fun. Here micro games are tailored for multiple…
From Schneier on Security
Defending Against Crypto Backdoors
We already know the NSA wants to eavesdrop on the Internet. It has secret agreements with telcos to get direct access to bulk Internet traffic. It has massive systems like TUMULT, TURMOIL, and TURBULENCE to sift through it all…
From Putting People First
How teachers in Africa are failed by mobile learning
Only projects that work with existing education systems will improve learning and cut poverty, says Niall Winters of the London Knowledge Lab at the University of London, and he argues for a user-centred approach (rather than…
From Putting People First
Book: Status Update by Alice E. Marwick
Last year, I posted about the very interesting PhD dissertation by Alice E. Marwick (downloadable here). Based on ethnographic research of the San Francisco technology scene, she explains how social media’s technologies are based…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
New National Robotics Initiative Solicitation Announced
A multi-agency partnership of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Teradata and P&G for Consumer Relationships
Press release from Teradata: " .. the leading analytic data solutions company, has signed a new multi-year agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company establishing Teradata as the foundation technology platform for P&G’s award…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Crowdsourcing for Better Employee Feedback
Pretty simple idea. " ... A new study links job satisfaction with review satisfaction. Use these 5 crowdsourcing techniques to improve your employee reviews--and your workers' happiness with their jobs. ... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cheaper, Better Home Robotics
Have had a long time interest in the use of home robotics. And experimented with their us in the enterprise, and with the customers of the enterprise. We examined iRobot offerings in some detail. Now a new contender described…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of October 21
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 Hearing: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing on “The Evolution of Wired Communications Networks.” 10:30 am, 2123 Rayburn House Office Building…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Review the First Sample Chapters For Our CS Book For Beginners
You may remember hearing about a project I've been involved with for the last couple of years. We're working on a book about computer science designed for beginners; something that could be used, for example, in my "introduction…
From Computational Complexity
Teaching without a net
As a grad student I was teaching the linear-time Median finding algorithm and I FORGOT that I needed to solve the more general problem of selection. After less than a minute of trying to see what was wrong I told them I am I…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Applying Data to the Education Landscape
Involved in just such a project. How do you understand how well education is working under alternative conditions? And how will education be adapted to changes? A very big challenge with new support. ViaWalter Riker. From…
From Putting People First
The Newspeak of ‘human-centred’ [Book]
Freedom vs Necessity in International Relations Human-Centred Approaches to Security and Development by David Chandler Zed Books Ltd 224 pages, 2013 [Amazon link] Human-centred understandings of the world have become increasingly…
From Putting People First
Conference Review: UX STRAT 2013, Part 1
UX STRAT, the first every user experience strategy conference, took place in September in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center. Pabini Gabriel-Petit was there and she published a first chapter – dealing…
From Schneier on Security
The Trajectories of Government and Corporate Surveillance
Historically, surveillance was difficult and expensive.
Over the decades, as technology advanced, surveillance became easier and easier. Today, we find ourselves in a world of ubiquitous surveillance, where everything is collected…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 21 October 2013
Windows 8.1 came out last week. I’ve updated one of my computers so far. Seems to go well so far. I’ll probably update the rest of my computers during the week. My school computers are still Windows 7 though. Hopefully that will…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytics at the Intersection of Humans and Machines
If makes much sense to combine human and machine intelligence. Include the ability of the researcher and find ways to integrate it with better user interfaces. In Smart Data Collective:" ... Combined with machine learning solutions…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning Innovation Entrepreneurship
In Innovation Excellence: Successful Innovative Entrepreneurship is Seldom Learnt at Business School. Quite true. Its more like being agile, using tacit and dynamic knowledge. It might be learn able in the right kind of internship…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Next Gen Databases
Via Gib Bassett:What problems do next Gen Databases solve? Good introductory read:" ... The past decades organisations have been working with relational databases to store their structured data. In the big data era however,NoSQL…
From My Biased Coin
NSF Coming Back Online
I was impressed how quickly the NSF got Fastlane back online. (I think it was turned on a few hours after the shutdown was ended.) But like many people, I'm awaiting to hear how the missed deadlines (or upcoming deadlines)this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Monopolies and Innovation
Clarence Hickman at Bell labs had invented a mag tape telephone answering machine in the 1934... But they decided to squelch turning it into a consumer product. Locked away the files, which were soon forgotten. And it would not…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Seeking Common Languages for Data Visualization
An item in Fierce CIO attracted my attention. Which pointed to Tom Davenport's HBR blog article this past April. About how P&G is creating and delivering standardized visualized data. Using examples of dashboard style displays…