Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2012
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 26 November 2012
Last week was Thanksgiving in the US and for me it meant a lot of good food and family time. Among other things my son and I built a new dock. It’s the kind of project that is easier when the level of the lake is low for the…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Thanks For Sharing
An exchange of expertise and gifts src William Bradford was the first civic authority to proclaim a day of Thanksgiving in North America. He became governor of the fledgeling Plymouth Colony in 1621, a month after the settlers…
From updated sporadically at best
On Productivity in Grad School
I was recently invited to be on a panel about being productive in graduate school. This invitation surprised and flattered me. I do not consider myself to be particularly productive as a graduate student: there are graduate…
From My Biased Coin
Assessing Computer Scientists
My colleague and frequent co-author John Byers knows that I can spend up to several hours a day actively worrying about my ranking as a computer scientist. While the automated daily Google Scholar updates (any new citationsAssessing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visual Thinking for Design
Visual Thinking for Design, by Colin Ware. Just placed on my list. I was influenced by my recent look at the integration and analytical and design thinking via the Design of Business by Roger Martin. At the link you can look…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Predicting the Future
Good thoughts from Brad Feld on predicting the future. Recall I have connected with and have discussed RecordedFuture here a number of times, which addresses a key part of doing this kind of work effectively. Collecting existing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
CoinStar and DVDs in Retail
At the recent CFO Dimensions conference in Chicago I was able to interview a number of CFO participants for SAP's Innovation Exchange (IXN). One that I was particularly interested in was Coinstar, the retail located kiosks that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Eye Tracking for Marketing Research
The enterprise spent many years experimenting with eyetracking methods. An early form of neuromarketing that originated in psychology departments. I am starting to review some of the vendors that are out there integrating technology…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bayes Theorem Visualization
Pointed out to me. The classic example of breast cancer detection, often used as an example of using Bayes Theorem to produce non intuitive statistical results. In this video a visualization technique is used to motivate the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Mindhacks mentions an article in the NYTimes that I have not yet read, about advances in artificial intelligence. Recall we did early work in using AI applied to research and manufacturing decision making in areas like blending…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Advances in Gesture Control
Integrated with software systems being made available today. A new example. Will this capability ultimately require the teaching of gesture control in the fine detail you need for playing a musical instrument? Or will AI be…
From Geeking with Greg
Code Maven and programming for teens
I recently launched Code Maven from Crunchzilla. It helps teens learn a little about what they can do if they learn more about programming.
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Promise of Neuromarketing
I was involved with several neuromarketing tests, both inside and outside the enterprise. There were always very large expectations in play. These expectations were in part driven by the use of the highly charged word 'brain'…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Another Squid Comic
Another squid comic.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
“What Will the Future Be Like?”
This week’s episode of David Pogue’s PBS NOVA Science NOW explores the future that is being created by computer scientists: “The technologies that will transform our lives decades from now are already taking shape in laboratories…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Indoor Maps
Google provides more indoor floor maps. This is something they have been doing for some time. We examined it for use in retail. Now over 10,000 maps exist for indoor spaces. See their indoor maps availability site. for…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Physicists View of Our Technological Future
In the year 2100: " ... Dr. Michio Kaku, celebrity physicist who has written New York Times Bestselling books, Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future, talked about the implications of this smart wall and much more…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM/DemandTec and New Partner Service
This is dated, but the application is interesting. Just brought to my attention by a colleague. We had looked at how competitive information could be integrated to analytic decision making. In the past this was done on a 'what…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Archimedes Bathtub
Recently started reading Archimedes Bathtub: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking, by David Perkins. Nicely done. Easily read. It includes a number of examples we also used in innovative thinking classes we used in the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bluebrain
Reverse engineering the human brain. Quite an idea,brought up a number of times, but I still don't quite see what we really know yet will make this possible for practical applications.
From Wild WebMink
Cause and Effect
Why do people take actions that actually make things worse as they attempt to solve complex problems? I was interviewed Monday for an upcoming documentary called “Orwell Upgraded“. They decided to release one of my answers as…
From Schneier on Security
Preventing Catastrophic Threats
"Recommendations to Prevent Catastrophic Threats." Federation of American Scientists, 9 November 2012. It's twelve specific sets of recommendations for twelve specific threats. See also this.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Commerce is Jumping
Thanksgiving sales are being driven through mobile rather than social. A look at the future? Driven by location, in other words anywhere, as opposed to social connectivity.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Rhodes Scholar Joy Buolamwini
This year’s CCC Thanksgiving feel-good story features Joy Buolamwini, a 2012 graduate of the Georgia Tech College of Computing who was recently named a 2013 Rhodes Scholar. “Born in Canada to African parents and having lived…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
What I do with my time
I am not a very productive person. I also do not work long hours. However, I sometimes give the impression that I productive. I have been asked to explain how I do it. Maybe the best answer is to explain what I do on a daily…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
ACM/IEEE-CS Computer Science Curricula 2013 - Ironman v0.8 Draft Available for Comments
Dear Colleagues,
We are happy to announce the availability of the ACM/IEEE-CS Computer Science Curricula 2013 - Ironman v0.8 draft. The draft is available at the CS2013 website (http://cs2013.org) or directly at:
http://cs2013…From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Marketing Toothpaste
Good overview of the use of mobile marketing for something as common as toothpaste. " ... Marketing toothpaste can be a challenge for brands because even though consumers may use their product every day, few get excited about…
From Schneier on Security
Cell Phone Surveillance
Good article on the different ways the police can eavesdrop on cell phone calls.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Seize the Professional Development!
The Philadelphia Area chapter started providing professional development workshops to our members because they asked for it. We regularly query our membership as to how we can best serve them, and providing professional development…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Developing New Ways to Search for Web Images
Collections of photos, images, and videos are quickly coming to dominate the content available on the Web. But how can text be used to search visual mediums? Currently internet search engines rely on the text with which the images…