Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2014
From The Eponymous Pickle
How Many Vs in Big Data?
Had a conversation about this recently. Three is quite sufficient to categorize the key aspects of Big Data (Volume, Velocity, Variety). This article explains them well. If I had to add another letter I would add an A for…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Little Squid
Beautiful photo. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wirelessly Charging Devices from your Washer
An unexpected thought covered in Engadget. " ... WattUp technology promises to deliver power over the same radio bands as a WiFi router and is apparently able to charge a smartphone from distances of up to 15 feet. The idea…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mending Networks
Network design is a favorite topic. It was taught in Operations Research classes. It was both analytical and visual. Combining two appealing ideas. Here, more about the form of networks that are best system resiliency.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Virtual Reality Boom Beyond Gaming
In Ars Technica: For a while there it seemed like VR was being used much less outside of gaming. Now the tide seems to have turned. This article is rich in surprising examples. " ... Considering that the new wave of virtual…
From Schneier on Security
Hacking Team Documentation
The Intercept has published the complete manuals for Hacking Team's attack software. This follows a detailed report on Hacking Team's products from August. Hacking Team sells computer and cell phone hacking capabilities to the…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Uncertainty in Computation Workshop
Mahsa Mirzargar, Ph.D. and Lace Padilla from the University of Utah contributed to this post. The Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Uncertainty in Computation Visioning Workshop was held in Washington DC in mid October, …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ant Size Radios
Back to idea of swarming intelligence, but now linking to an Internet of Things." ... Scientists at Stanford University have built ant-sized radios that could one day help track patients' temperatures, turn on coffee makers in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Enterprise Message from Microsoft
In Computing Now: I have started to wonder more about how the typical office utilities and methods, like Office 365, will integrate with the cognitive sciences. Documents are information, will they look the same when converted…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cognitive Systems Colloquium
Jim Spohrer writes, more at the live blogging link: " ... Today’s Cognitive Systems Colloquium at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., brings together leaders in science, technology and psychology to discuss the coming era…
From The Eponymous Pickle
White Noise for the Nose
We spent much time looking at how to deliver aromas Which are difficult to manage in complex spaces. Now some research indicates that you can use the equivalent of white noise to remove pungent aromas.
From Schneier on Security
Enigma Simulator
Good article, with pictures, diagrams, and code....
From Putting People First
Global Social Media Impact Study
The Global Social Media Impact Study based at the UCL Department of Anthropology (London, UK) is dedicated to understanding the implications of social networking sites for global humankind and society, and explaining their significance…
From Putting People First
Graphic novel explains our role in the world of Big Data
Big Data powers the modern world. What do we gain from Big Data? What do we lose? Al Jazeera America examines the role of technology and the implications of sharing personal information in the network’s first graphic novella,…
From Computational Complexity
Metrics in Academics
Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, winning the World Series last night. In honor of their victory let's talk metrics. Baseball has truly embraced metrics as evidenced in the book and movie Moneyball about focusing on…
From Putting People First
The BancoSmart ATM by Experientia for UniCredit selected for ADI Design Index
Last year Experientia designed the interface of an ATM of UniCredit, a major Italian bank. The interface is now rolled out across the bank’s ATMs in Italy, to great satisfaction of the bank and the customers alike, since interaction…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Service Robots at Lowes
Lowes has always been high on innovation. Now taking a new retail step forward. I like in particular the idea of the robots working collaboratively with live associates A Work force has to be collaborative. In Retailwire: …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Connected Health Focus
The latest Cisco Focus Magazine is devoted to Connected Health. " .... This month, Focus, Cisco’s monthly online publication, takes a look at the latest Connected Health trends and technology news. Data-driven decisions, better…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Less Stable Social Media World
Social media leading to a less stable world? In Knowledge@ Wharton: " ... While social media provides myriad benefits, the advances in connectivity and wealth may come at the expense of the state and the world’s stability,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Recomputing Visualizations
Recently did work on the area of laboratory data business intelligence, and this work at MIT came up:" ... In the age of big data, visualization tools are vital. With a single glance at a graphic display, a human being can recognize…
From Schneier on Security
The Risk of Unfounded Ebola Fears
Good essay. Worry about Ebola (or anything) manifests physically as what's known as a fight, flight, or freeze response. Biological systems ramp up or down to focus the body's resources on the threat at hand. Heart rate and blood…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson Analytics Preps the Data
In InfoWorld: Looking forward to seeing this. It is a very key thing to getting analytics done right. " ... "Often what business users do is rely on a data scientist or business analysts to help them, which can be too slow…
From Schneier on Security
Adobe Book Reader Surveillance
Details. Confirmation....
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM and Twitter form Partnership to Address Enterprise Decisions
Press release:" .. Twitter and IBM today announced a landmark partnership that will help transform how businesses and institutions understand their customers, markets and trends – and inform every business decision. The alliance…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Health Scanning with Sweat Sensors
From our local University of Cincinnati, whose board I was on for years: " ... A University of Cincinnati partnership is reporting a significant leap forward in health diagnostics that are more accurate than what’s availableUC…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analyzing Your Quantified Self
In Mashable: We are quantifying ourselves every day. A massive amount of data, mostly shared. But it is also a movement that is attempting to leverage their own data. I heard much this week about democratizing this ability…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Water Canary
Brought to my attention as a sensor and data gathering example: The Water Canary." ... The Water Canary is an inexpensive water-testing device that makes it possible to collect real-time water quality data from the field. With…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data Analytics Platforms
In Informationweek: " ... Data analysis is a do-or-die requirement for today's businesses. We analyze notable vendor choices, from Hadoop upstarts to traditional database players. ... "
From Schneier on Security
FDA Guidance on Medical Device Cybersecurity
The Food and Drug Administration has released guidelines regarding the security of medical devices. I admit that I have not read it....
From Putting People First
Experientia at EPIC: UX transforming a financial institution
In September 2014 Experientia gave a presentation on working as UX professionals with financial institutions at the EPIC conference in New York. The paper is now available on the EPIC site in HTML and PDF versions (free registration…