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
Reminder Call for Proposals: Creating Visions for Computing Research
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) issued a new call for proposals for workshops that will catalyze and enable innovative research at the frontiers of computing. The CCC encourages creative ideas from all segments of the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Asimov on How People Get New Ideas
In Technology Review: Long ago, unpublished essay by beloved science and science fiction author Issac Asimov. His writings inspired me starting in Jr High. Good thoughts.
From Computational Complexity
Guest Post by Dr. Hajiaghayi: A new way to rank departments
(This is a guest post by MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi. His name is not a typo- the first name really is MohammadTaghi.) Due to our belief in the lack of transparency and well-defined measures in methods used by U.S News to rankhere…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Testing Machine to Machine Systems
Machines are easier to deal with than humans, at least when the machines are not compromised by humans. This will increase in importance. But is also implies the cognition of the process by humans. Much more from the talk…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Instructions and Removing Ambiguity
Recently I found the following image on Facebook. I plan to use it with my students this semester as a starting off point for conversation.
This is a perfect description of someone dealing with ambiguous instructions. Context…From The Eponymous Pickle
Protein Imaging Data
In Nature: Heard much about this topic in R&D when we were still in health care product development. " ... Data bank struggles as protein imaging ups its game Hybrid methods to solve structures of molecular machines create …
From The Eponymous Pickle
What's in Stock Nearby
In Adage: Macy's Links With Google To Show Mobile Users What's In Stock Nearby ... Find That Gift You've Been Looking for in the Right Size, Color and Price ... " . Call it Precision shopping.
From Schneier on Security
The NSA's Role in Commercial Cybersecurity
Susan Landau has a new paper on the NSA's increasing role in commercial cybersecurity. She argues that the NSA is the wrong organization to do this, and we need a more public and open government agency involved in commercial…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Good Thoughts on E-Mail Responses
Not about managing your email, but the often more important issue of how you should respond to serious questions in email. The most useful element: Pause. " ... There is a simple two-step method to making the pause work for…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
A New Twist on Flexagons?
For Martin Gardner’s 100th birthday Martin Gardner introduced many including myself to the joys of Discrete Mathematics. His glorious monthly column “Mathematical Games” for Scientific American included some continuous mathematics…
From Schneier on Security
Jumping Air Gaps with All-in-One Printers
Last week, Adi Shamir gave a presentation at Black Hat Europe on using all-in-one printers to control computers on the other side of air gaps. There's no paper yet, but two publications reported on the talk: Theoretically, if…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analyzing Ebola Data with Watson API
Technical.A report via the Cognitive Systems Institute.Note this is Under Development. Should not be used conclusively. It is an example of using Watson services via Bluemix.Vikash Singh Ruhil. Data Scientist ( Graduate Assistant…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Ebola-Fighting Robots
Could robots really aid in the Ebola fight? On November 7th, robotics researchers from around the country will come together to try to answer that question. They will see if robots can prevent the spread of Ebola by possibly …
From My Biased Coin
Cuckoo Filters
An upcoming paper appearing at CoNext will be of interest to any Bloom Filter user or aficionado:Cuckoo Filter: Practically Better than Bloom(Bin Fan, David Andersen, Michael Kaminsky, Michael Mitzenmacher)Let me describe agithub…
From Computational Complexity
MSR SVC Letters
The Committee for the Advancement of Theoretical Computer Science put together an open letter to several research leaders at Microsoft. We feel that there should have been a better way to close down this lab, one that would I…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF CISE Research Infrastructure (CRI) Program
The following is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) by the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Acting Assistant Director, Dr. Suzanne Iacono. Dear Colleagues: Through…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Debating Emotional Intelligence
How important is the concept? An interesting debate, that reminds me of the concept and what it has come to mean. The author concludes: " .... I can’t emphasize enough the crucial importance of EI-based competencies for success…
From The Eponymous Pickle
BBC Time Line of Computing
A slideshow style timeline of the emergence and use of computing, broadly defined. I dislike this style of presenting information, though I understand it is meant to give more room to advertising. Also clearly a UK view, based…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Successful Innovation
Related to topics like Should we build a physical or virtual place to emphasize innovation. Or should the process be more or less deliberate? I agree that culture is important, and culture can, to a degree, be molded" ...…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Social Robot for the Home: Jibo
The idea of a social, family robot is an interesting idea. None I have I have ever seen has worked very well, or has been very comforting. Shades of Kismet from the same lab. Now a new attempt, available in 2015, that is…
From Schneier on Security
Deanonymizing Taxi Passenger and Fare Data
Interesting essay on the sorts of things you can learn from anonymized taxi passenger and fare data....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Disruptor Foundation
A note from colleague Julie Anixter reminded me of the Disruptor Foundation, where she is executive in residence. " .... Co-founded by Professor Clayton Christensen and Craig Hatkoff in 2009, the Disruptor Foundation is a private…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Online TV Tracked Across Devices
Expected next step." ... Showing all viewers the same commercial six minutes into, say, an episode of "Modern Family" might soon be over. If you're watching it online.A new partnership between TV measurement company Nielsen and…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
USACM Submits Comments On National Privacy Research Strategy
On October 17, comments closed on a Request for Information from the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program. Agencies in this program are working on a National Privacy Research Strategy…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Spurring Innovation in Healthcare using MOOCS
The following is a guest post by Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. Her collaborators were Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School and Kevin Schulman…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Swash Gathers in-Store Display Data
A thread here since 07, the Swash brand, continues to move on. Now the collaboration between Whirlpool and P&G that removes clothing wrinkles is using a method to gather how their displays are being interacted with in the store…
From Schneier on Security
Whisper Tracks Users
The Guardian has reported that the app Whisper tracks users, and then published a second article explaining what it knows after Whisper denied the story. Here's Whisper's denial; be sure to also read the first comment from Moxie…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Picking Good Variable Names
Actually picking any sort of name is important in programming but we can focus on variable names for a bit. The CS Teaching Tips team tweets and posts a lot of great suggestions. Today they send out a tip about variable names…
From Computational Complexity
Martin Gardner Centennial
Martin Gardner was born on October 21, 1914, so today is his Centennial (he died on May 22, 2010, at the age of 95). We've mentioned him in the blog before:
From Schneier on Security
More Crypto Wars II
FBI Director James Comey again called for an end to secure encryption by putting in a backdoor. Here's his speech: There is a misconception that building a lawful intercept solution into a system requires a so-called "back door…