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 The Eponymous Pickle
Don't Need this Internet Thing
A significant percentage of US homes don't see the need for the Internet. Ars Technica reports on a US Commerce department survey/study. Highly surprising.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Opportunities in Shopper Marketing Grow
The GMA has reported in a recent study that shopper marketing (aka merchandising) is booming. More in a recent Progressive grocer article. " ... 83% of CPG companies say they will increase spending on shopper marketing, and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter Looks for a Billion with India Healthcare Startup
An interesting development showing P&G's interest in healthcare delivery. " ... Healthpoint Services is a small startup with a big goal: transforming rural healthcare for India by delivering a one-stop shop of pharmacy, clinic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Brain-Computer Interfaces and Daydreams
Is it possible to eavesdrop on a daydream? Is this a byproduct of the long awaited brain computer interface. In IEEE Spectrum.
From Computational Complexity
A Breakthrough Circuit Lower Bound
On October 8th, when in my graduate complexity course as we discussed the 1987 Razborov-Smolensky result that one can't compute the Modp by constant-depth polynomial-size circuits with AND, OR, NOT and Modq gates for primes p…
From Schneier on Security
Kahn, Diffie, Clark, and Me at Bletchley Park
Saturday, I visited Bletchley Park to speak at the Annual ACCU Security Fundraising Conference. They had a stellar line of speakers this year, and I was pleased to be a part of the day.
Talk #1: "The Art of Forensic Warfare…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
How Does Kinect Work?
Chances are you have heard about the Kinect for Xbox 360 which lets you play games without a controller. The Kinect is a full body motion sensing device that lets you use your body as the controller. You may be wondering how …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consultants Building Apps
Quite interesting piece in ReadWriteWeb. Consulting is by its nature a complex and expensive venture. It can price itself out of the needs it seeks to deliver. It does often consist of the buyer paying for a great deal of…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Public funding for science?
Terence Kealey has been arguing against public funding of science. Is it efficient to fund science with government dollars? He argues that when science is mostly funded by large government agencies, other funding souces are effectively…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Partner Intelligence
I met today with Doug Lautzenheiser of Partner Intelligence. " ... general manager of BI services, has over 20 years of experience in the industry and has served organizations such as Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, Wendy's…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Risk of inflight WiFi
Security guru Bruce Schneier suggests that the recent bomb plots could mean the end of in-flight Wifi. His blog can be very interesting in security topics.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Surprising the User
Certainly in a traditional sense the user interface should not surprise the user? But here is a refreshing contrary opinion.
From Schneier on Security
Young Man in "Old Man" Mask Boards Plane in Hong Kong
It's kind of an amazing story. A young Asian man used a rubber mask to disguise himself as an old Caucasian man and, with a passport photo that matched his disguise, got through all customs and airport security checks and onto…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Kinect
It took me a whole two days after launch to finally get it, but I now not only have a Kinect but my first Xbox console. After playing an evening with my husband, my brother and his friends, then again last night, I have to rate…
From Schneier on Security
The End of In-Flight Wi-Fi?
Okay, now the terrorists have really affected me personally: they're forcing us to turn off airplane Wi-Fi. No, it's not that the Yemeni package bombs had a Wi-Fi triggering mechanism -- they seem to have had a cell phone triggering…
From Apophenia
Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook
Sometimes, when I’m in the field, I find teens who have strategies for managing their online presence that are odd at first blush but make complete sense when you understand the context in which they operate. These teens use…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Greater Boston Chapter Has Great First Meeting
Massachusetts now has a local CSTA chapter! The first meeting of the Greater Boston CSTA chapter took place on October 23. Kelly Powers and Padmaja Bandaru, the co-presidents of the chapter, along with the support of the two …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mr. Peanut Speaks
Via the GMA Smartbrief. This reminds me of our own work with the long silent Mr. Clean brand image. I was part of a team that made Mr Clean get a personality and start to talk. He had been speechless since his debut in 1958…
From Wild WebMink
? Links: Copyright Reform
Following the UK government’s announcement last week, I’ve posted a link collection related to copyright reform with commentary over on ComputerWorldUK today.
From Putting People First
Magitti: The future of location apps from PARC?
Bo Begole, principal scientist and manager of PARC‘s (formerly Xerox PARC) Ubiquitous Computing Area, showed Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb an app that brings the concept of ‘ubicomp’ to a commercial reality. “Magitti is a…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 8 November 2010
Well we are really and truly into November now. Over the weekend we went back to Eastern Standard time in New Hampshire. The best thing about that is that for a little while it is easier for me to get up earlier. Does the same…
From Wild WebMink
? Challenging Intrusion
EPIC – EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program) EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US group) has challenged the US government over the new body scanners in use over there. The combination of scanners irradiating…
From Computational Complexity
The FOCS Experience
You can now watch videos of the recent FOCS talks online. Glencora, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the conference, has her favorites. If you watch any, check out the talk of Dan Spielman for no reason other than to see
From The Eponymous Pickle
About Face: Emotionally Effective Advertising
Now Reading: About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising by Dan Hill. Notably in chapter 4 he talks about focusing on faces. This is a particularly useful overview of how important faces are in advertising…
From The Noisy Channel
The Element of Surprise
Surprise is not a word that user interface designers typically like to hear. Indeed, the principle of least surprise (also called the principle of least astonishment) is that systems should always strive to act in a way that…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Recruiting for My Computer Science Classes
As the budget woes continue in California, my thoughts are turning to recruiting. If a sufficient number of students do not sign-up for the two computer science classes that I usually teach, then I will no long be teaching them…
From Wild WebMink
? Overhaul
Lessig Calls For WIPO To Lead Overhaul Of Copyright System Excellent move from a very wise and capable scholar – I have huge respect for him. He is completely right. The copyright system was never designed for a world where every…
From Putting People First
The enabling city
Italian social researcher Chiara Camponeschi has written a fascinating Creative-Commons licensed publication, The Enabling City: Place-Based Creative Problem-Solving and the Power of the Everyday (pdf), an innovative toolkit…
From Putting People First
Do people want location-based social networking?
Social networks want to know your location. But it
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gap Promo Location Case Study
An interesting case study in GigaOM of the use of a location-based check-in capability. What this shows is that people still do not completely understand the concept. " ... The Gap that used Facebook Places to offer free pairs…