Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2010
From Schneier on Security
Defeating al Qaeda
Rare common sense:
But Gen Richards told the BBC it was not possible to defeat the Taliban or al-Qaeda militarily."You can't. We've all said this. David Petraeus has said it, I've said it.
"The trick is the balance of things…From Computational Complexity
Erdos Distance Problem SOLVED!
(All papers referred to in this post can be accessed from my website on the Erdos Distance Problem.).
In 1946 Erdos raised the following question: Given n points in the plane how many distinct distances between points are…
From Putting People First
Video message by Experientia
Experientia president Michele Visciola was invited to send a video message to the World Usability Day 2010 event in Tokyo, Japan. Michele, who is also European Regional Coordinator for the Usability Professional
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Program or be Programmed
I just completed Douglas Rushkoff's new book, Program or be Programmed, and found it an interesting read. He is a well-known author, having written several books on new media and popular culture. He writes in a style that is …
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of November 22
November 22
Event:
The AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy will host a panel discussion on cybersecurity moderated by former national cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke. USACM Chair Gene Spafford is part…From The Eponymous Pickle
Loyalty Leads Marketers Astray
An excellent short article by always interesting Byron Sharp: Loyalty Leads Marketers Astray. A recent editor's pick in Admap.I also want to plug his excellent book How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know. Must reading…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Why you may not like your job, even though everyone envies you
In a provoking post, Matt Welsh
From Wild WebMink
links for 2010-11-22
WebID 1.0 Interesting proposal for a lightweight mechanism for authenticated personal identity on the internet using existing web mechanisms. (tags: WebID Identity Authentication) Does the TSA ever catch terrorists? "Does the…
From Schneier on Security
Stuxnet News
New research, published late last week, has established that Stuxnet searches for frequency converter drives made by Fararo Paya of Iran and Vacon of Finland. In addition, Stuxnet is only interested…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 22 November 2010
Had an interesting end of the week last week. I visited the Bergen County Academies on Friday and on Saturday I attended a meeting of the Northern New Jersey CSTA Chapter. I was able to visit with some teachers I have known for…
From Putting People First
Invading Cyprus with user-centred design
A group of young designers are making their mark on Nicosia
From Putting People First
Can the developed world learn from Kenya
Using your mobile phone to do your banking and to buy goods and services is becoming more common, with the rise of the smartphone. In developing world countries like Kenya, the technology to do this has been around for several…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Network Structures that Promote Innovation
Forthcoming paper that looks quite interesting, " .... Which network structures favor the rapid spread of new ideas, behaviors, or technologies? This question has been studied extensively using epidemic models. Here we consider…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Decisions in Noisy Contexts
Good piece in Dan Ariely's always interesting blog: Good Decisions, Bad Outcomes. About attempting to make predictions in difficult environments, this can often come up in forecasting situations in the enterprise: " ... …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bluespring Improves Business Processes
Had an informative followup meeting with Bluespring Software last week. An impressive company which uses Visio and Office to deliver business process modeling via simulation methods. My grad school training and early enterprise…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Prepared Food Surge
A piece on the surge of prepared food in retail. Higher prices and profits, yet still an increased interest by shoppers for pre-prepared items.
From Putting People First
Growing up digital, wired for distraction
Matt Richtel reflects in a long New York Times article on the impact of growing up digital. The constant stream of stimuli offered by new technology, he says, poses a profound new challenge to focusing and learning. “Students…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2010-11-21
Government suppliers may be ordered to open up data I'll believe it when I see it. The whole point of outsourcing in government contexts (and not just IT – think of military security in Iraq) is to push the dirty business of…
From Putting People First
The reference user experience: four essays
The essays featured here stem from talks given at the Focusing on the User Experience session of this year
From Putting People First
Interactions Magazine
The current issue of Interactions Magazine is the last issue of editors Jon Kolko and Richard Anderson, who reflect on the results achieved. Also Don Norman reflects in his column, and raises some pointed criticism of Interactions…
From Putting People First
Singapore needs to place anthropology before technology
“We need to place anthropology before technology,” said Richard Seymour, Co-founder, Seymourpowell, at the sixth annual meeting of the International Advisory Panel (IAP) of the DesignSingapore Council, that came together to recommended…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Psych and Advertising
In Mind Hacks: a number of recently links in the general area of psychology and advertising. All of interest to the practitioner.
From Putting People First
Two Experientia presentations in Busan, South Korea
Last week, Experientia was in Busan, South Korea, at the invitation of the Busan Design Center. As part of its first Design Week, the Center organised two international conferences: one – the Busan International Design Congress…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CNN Labs: Sensors in Healthcare
CNN’s John Sutton has written a really great article describing sensor networks — and how they’re radically altering
From The Eponymous Pickle
Discovering the Benefits of the Semantic Enterprise
Mark Montgomery of Kyield video: " ... on the benefits and byproducts of employing our semantic enterprise system. The style is an informal lecture lasting about 15 minutes, which explores the revolutionary leap that can be…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Drink Recommending Vending Machines
Another idea about machines merchandising to people base on sensors. I have seen a number of examples of this, but none that were successful. If they are too good, they are perceived as invasive. If not they are seen as jokes…
From Putting People First
How college students evaluate and use information in the digital age
Project Information Literacy (PIL) is ongoing research project, based in the University of Washington’s Information School, that collects data from early adults enrolled in US colleges and universities, to understand how they…
From Putting People First
Harvard Forum essays on ICT4D
ITID (Information Technologies & International Development) has come out with a special issue devoted to papers emerging from the second Harvard Forum on ICTs, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction (audio cast). The…
From Putting People First
The attention-span myth
Can technology erode something that doesn
From Putting People First
Peter Merholz on advertising and marketing agencies delivering UX design
Peter Merholz, president of Adaptive Path, has written a long and eloquent rant against advertising and marketing agencies proclaiming to do user experience design. These agencies, he says, do not come at user experience from…