Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2013
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Tracking Your Location
Google has a lot of power, and continues to cleverly leverage it, mixing search behavior, location and purchasing choices:" ... Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Screenwriting and Storytelling
Have examined the approaches of screenwriting for storytelling. Not precisely on point, but worth looking at, see Blake Snyer's site. And his book: Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder…
From BLOG@CACM
Computing Does Not Support Its Infrastructure
All large, multinational companies that depend on their intellectual prowess are able to avoid most taxation. Two factors enable the trend: first intellectual property (IP) as product designs and software are hard to value in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blockbuster Closes, Reopens for Liquidation
This is quite a change, having lived through the era of readily available physical video media stores. Now Blockbuster video, once ubquitous, is closing its remaining 200 stores. Its Mail order DVD business, introduced as a…
From Putting People First
[Book] Connect: Design for an Empathic Society
![[Book] Connect: Design for an Empathic Society](/system/assets/0000/1953/030209_Vanderbeeken_Mark_250.small_square.jpg?1476779420&1260281963)
Connect: Design for an Empathic Society by Sabine Wildevuur, Dick van Dijk, Thomas Hammer-Jakobson, Mie Bjerre, Anne Äyväri, and Jesper Lund BIS Publishers, 2014 216 pages [Amazon link] Abstract The prospects are clear: we will…
From Putting People First
Ergonomics in the digital age
In this age of ubiquitous computing, what exactly are we doing to our bodies, asks Avinash Rajagopal in a highly recommended piece in Metropolis Magazine: “Today, our fingers are furiously swiping and typing, our shoulders are…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Street Light System with Audio and Video Recording
In is natural to include security and pattern recording systems in lighting. We tested the idea for retail. Here a new integration: " ... Las Vegas Installs “Intellistreets” Light Fixtures Capable Of Recording ConversationsThe…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Agile Mindsets
Agile is necessary. It should be a midset. But what does it really mean? Pearl Zhu: From the Future of CIO: " ... Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. At its core "agile" is a mindset, a way of looking at the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Panoramio Redesign
The Google Operating System reports that the image locating service Panoramio has been redesigned to make it look like a Google Maps extension. It was acquired by Google in 2007 and contains millions of photos. The image display…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unilever's CEO Talks the Future
Why Unilever's CEO takes the long-term approachUnilever CEO Paul Polman said his job is "to make others successful," which he achieves by taking a long-term approach based on a "deeper sense of purpose" as the company grapples…
From Putting People First
All technology is assistive technology
All technology is assistive technology, argues Sara Hendren in a long and very insightful article. “Honestly – what technology are you using that’s not assistive? Your smartphone? Your eyeglasses? Headphones? And those three…
From Putting People First
How a deeper customer understanding can energize innovation
In today’s crowded and competitive energy markets, many product manufacturers fall short in their marketing, writes Andy Beck, Executive Vice President of Makovsky’s energy and sustainability practice. “They’re forgetting a vital…
From Putting People First
Ubiquitous across globe, cellphones have become tool for doing good
With 96 percent of the world connected, organizations are using mobile phones to deliver, via texts, water, energy, financial services, health care, even education. “The number of such initiatives seems likely to increase. “The…
From Putting People First
How do you build an electricity bill for the 21st century?
The more confusing the bill, the more likely it is to be disputed, the less likely it is to be paid. So, from not only an image perspective, but a practical, financial one as well, Illinois-based electric company ComEd realized…
From Putting People First
The rise of the mobile-born
The mobile-born generation will drive a radical rethinking of office productivity, writes Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital, “Fast-forward a few years and we’ll see a new workplace with workstations akin to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
High Fidelity Fast Smart Scanning
In Engadget: We have many new opportunities for scanning these days. And more our smart phones have become scanners. But the nature of the context can make these hard to use consistently. Now emerges a smarter scanner designed…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fading Interest in the Humanities
In the NYT: Creating a worry in colleges. I further observe that Its harder to justify the costs, and as most everything has an important part of underlying technology, it becomes too easy to emphasize that. and where are "…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Tree Yarn-Bombed
This tree in San Mateo, CA, has been turned into a giant blue squid.
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 Female Perspective of Computer Science
Why Arts and Social Science Needs Code: Testimonials
Part 2 of my "Why are we learning this?" guide for arts and social science students is a set of testimonials from people in the field that learned to code. I'd like to share those testimonials here.Angelica Lim, PhD Candidate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter & Gamble and Unilever Honored
In Mediapost:" ... Procter & Gamble and Unilever are in the top spots among marketers of consumer packaged goods, and Wal-Mart Stores and Target are the most effective retail partners, according to Kantar Retail's annual PoweRanking…
From Schneier on Security
Another Snowden Lesson: People Are the Weak Security Link
There's a story that Edward Snowden successfully socially engineered other NSA employees into giving him their passwords.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Creativity Challenges from IDEO
In the HBR: From a group we used a number of times. For more on that click on the IDEO tag below. We practiced by setting up context creating locations. For more about that, click on the Innovation Center tag link below.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Army Powerpoint vs Tableau
When I first read this I thought this it gave the impression that Tableau and Powerpoint were competing for the same purpose. I see them having the same operational purpose. Getting a relatively non technical end user the power…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Getting Ready for Big Data
Whether you are or will be teaching Exploring Computer Science (ECS) or Computer Science Principles (CSP), the topic of data will begin to permeate your course. This topic is fairly new to many of us. I barely remember a college…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CS Teachers–Please help evaluate HoC Tutorials
I'm passing this along for Code.org who I am helping organize tutorials for an Hour of Code during CS education week. We need help evaluating the tutorials we have received to make sure we have high quality projects for people…
From Schneier on Security
Why the Government Should Help Leakers
In the Information Age, it's easier than ever to steal and publish data. Corporations and governments have to adjust to their secrets being exposed, regularly.
When massive amounts of government documents are leaked, journalists…From Putting People First
Medical advice just a touch away with smartphone apps
Devices once only in the hands of doctors, such as heart or blood pressure monitors, are now in the pockets of consumers, putting them in charge of their health and making medical care more accessible. Consumers are also increasingly…
From Putting People First
‘Why newsrooms need anthropologists’
Journalism and anthropology both purport to observe and analyse human behaviour and experience, albeit in different ways and over extremely divergent timescales. And they both serve up their findings to the wider world in order…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Hour of Code tutorials are ready to try
Received this update email from Code.org last night. Looks like an Hour of Code for CS Education week is getting real! And of course it is getting close. Now though you can try out some of the exercises people have been preparing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mistakes Made in Machine Learning
These are some of the best known examples of mistakes often made in machine learning i.e. predictive analytics projects. Well stated, the examples are good, and are worth repeating.