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 Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF announces opportunities with the BRAIN Initiative
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has three new announcements today related to the BRAIN Initiative and NSF’s Understanding the Brain activities: NSF 14-611 Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
The Busy Beaver Problem
Can the impossible become practical? Complex analysts gallery source Tibor Radó was a mathematician who was the PhD advisor to a number of computer scientists. They include Shen Lin, Paul Young, and several others. All were his…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet of Things in China
First I had seen of reports on the IOT in China. In GigaOM:" ... In conversations with companies doing business in China on the IoT front, the picture that emerged was clear. China is adapting to the internet of things like…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Skin Patch Monitors Health
From IdeaConnection:A discrete new 'skin-like' health monitor could be used to monitor a range of conditions from dry skin to cardiovascular disease.Created by a team from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Complexity Explorer
The following is a special contribution to this blog by Melanie Mitchell, Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University, and External Professor and Member of the Science Board at the Santa Fe Institute. Melanie is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Open Source Dominates Big Data
Interesting to see this historical view of a very recent development. The story of Hadoop. Also adds to the increasing interest and investment in open source. " ... The software’s “refreshingly unique approach to data management…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Teams and Risks
Recent interactions with the compliance community have tuned me into how risks need to be managed. In the HBR:" ... Many companies pay lip service to the value of taking risks without actually empowering employees to do so,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
3D Food Printer Approaches Ship Date
In GigaOM: A look at the concept of a 3D food printer. A whimsical idea we toyed with. Having a hard time understanding it useful application." ... Structur3D’s paste extruder is looking more and more polished as the startup…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Do It Without Code
One of the projects I like to assign involves counting the letters in a set of text. In other words, how many times does each unique letter appear in a string. How many “a”s, “b’”s, etc. I usually want some thing that looks like…
From Schneier on Security
Security Theater in China
The Chinese government checked ten thousand pigeons for "dangerous materials." Because fear....