Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2011
From Putting People First
Smarter, better cyborgs
Instead of augmenting reality, we should make technology more aware, argues Christopher Butler in this article for Print Magazine. “Though an initial AR [Augmented Reality] experience can be thrilling, it quickly becomes clear…
From Putting People First
Sciences of human understanding
Dirk Knemeyer has published a call to rely on foundational science(s) to better understand users. “The preponderance of research and publications on user studies deal more with principals and practices of the discipline and less…
From Putting People First
Brief rant on the future of interaction design
Interaction designer Bret Victor has published his “brief rant on the future of interaction design“. “To me, claiming that Pictures Under Glass [as in touch screens] is the future of interaction is like claiming that black-and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consumer Clouds
ReadWrite Web writes about the meaning of the cloud to the typical consumer. Useful, I have had several people ask me what the 'cloud' was. It is easy to define, but harder to specify the implications.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Policy Highlights from Communications of the ACM
Below is a list of items with policy relevance from the August issue of Communications of the ACM. As always, much of the material in CACM is premium content, and free content one month may slip behind a pay wall the next. You…
From Schneier on Security
Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)
It's taken me a few years, but I've come around to this buzzword. It highlights an important characteristic of a particular sort of Internet attacker.
A conventional hacker or criminal isn't interested in any particular target…From The Eponymous Pickle
Coke a Winner on Social Media
Good USA Today article on Coke's successful use of Twitter and Facebook. Includes a useful video. As I have said before, Coke is a well known brand, so can be a destination location on social media.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Technology and the Economy
Brian Arthur on how Technology is recreating the 21st century economy. We followed Arthur at the Santa Fe Institute when he was building interesting predictive economic models. " ... Digital technology runs deeper than merely…
From Computational Complexity
Making Money the (Computationally) Hard Way
Digital cash systems have come and gone but Bitcoin seems to be doing okay. By request I am giving a lecture about Bitcoin in my crypto class. Most of the material I find about Bitcoin is either very high level for a typicalpaper…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
For those who may have missed it,
From My Biased Coin
Programming for Non-Programming Exercises
One of the exercises I assigned last week proved interesting: Consider n points on a circle, labeled clockwise from 0 to n-1. Initially a wolf begins at 0 and there is a sheep at each of the remaining n-1 points. The wolf takes…
From The Eponymous Pickle
WalMart IPhone Apps Adds Functions
How can Apps best combine in-store and online sales? WalMart has rolled out some new App functionality that addresses this. In particular emphasizing the shopping list. We did considerable experimentation with shopping list…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Presenting New
At 11am EST today, key officials from the National Science Foundation (NSF), led by NSF Director
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Computer Science at the Microsoft Global Forum
This week Microsoft is hosting over 700 innovative teachers from around the world in Washington DC at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum. Unfortunately I
From Schneier on Security
Unlocking any iPad2 using a Smart Cover
This security bug is just plain weird.
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Sharpens R&D Focus
It makes sense for this evolution. Jeffrey Phillips of OVO Innovation points to this as part of a broader post. " ... do you want to innovate for the technology fan boys and get locked into a niche, or do you want to understand…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Requirements for Next Gen Marketers
In Adage: Very true. Agility, Digital, Data. Mostly it is about analytical methods and how to apply them in multiple analytical layers to support important management decisions. In media channels, in the aisle and supporting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Playing Virtual Games as Serious Business
Useful findings. We have seen these repeatedly in experiments. People are drawn by meaningless rewards, useless free offers, irrational propositions. But is tricking them into participation OK? If the ends are 'serious'? "…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Agencies Seek Input on Public Access to Scientific Data
Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ivory Soap is on Facebook
My first in-depth plant tour was to see Ivory Soap being made. There were aspects of it that had not changed since the 19th century. Its history is also interesting. Now it has jumped the centuries to have a Facebook page…
From The Eponymous Pickle
AisleBuyer Enables in Aisle Scanning
I have mentioned Aislebuyer here a number of times, established to empower shoppers in the retail aisle, Now an item that says they are working with the Big-Y chain to do in-aisle scanning. See also the AisleBuyer press release…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Code Blocked
I love coding. Once I get started, I get lost in the groove very easily. I love thinking about the best way to organize objects and design my UI. It feels good to find elegant ways to solve problems. So the fact that I haven't…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Successful Challenges & Visions Track a Centerpiece of SSRR 2011
The Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) latest Challenges & Visions track was held Nov. 3 at the 9th
From The Eponymous Pickle
Computer Controls Yeast
The article overplays this as a Cyborg, but the example is interesting. A computer causes a yeast to produce a protein via a flashing light, then measures it's growth, forming a feedback loop and controlling it.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson and Medical Knowledge
IBM selling medical knowledge via Watson. Selling knowledge via interaction, or as a means to teach?
From BLOG@CACM
A Futuristic Health IT Scenario
Our technology is the change agent for healthcare in the future.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Python, Visual Studio and Kinect
Python is rapidly growing in popularity in academia. Last week Microsoft announced Python Tools for Visual Studio
From My Biased Coin
A Tale of Talks
A bunch of talks today.Carla Gomes gave a talk at CRCS (Harvard's Center for Research on Computation and Society) to talk about her work on computational sustainability -- interdisciplinary research with "the overall goal ofBroad…
From The Eponymous Pickle
DemandTec Connects Weather and Planning
I have followed the idea of connecting accurate weather forecasts to planning and forecasting for some time. We watched as Wal-Mart did some early work to include this form of intelligence to minimize out-of-stocks and demand…
From Schneier on Security
Cutting Wallets Out of Drunks' Pockets on New York City Subways
It's a crime with finesse:
But he is actually a middle-aged or older man who has been doing this for a very long time. And he is a fading breed. "It's like a lost art," the lieutenant said. "It's all old-school guys who cut…