Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2014
From The Eponymous Pickle
Steve Ballmer on Machine Learning
In CWorld:Steve Ballmer, who headed Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, said when looking at what's ahead in computer science research, he's most excited about machine learning, the science of building algorithms so that computers can…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Details on Duracell Divestiture
I had covered this previously due to its technology component. Now Via the P&G Alumni Network:Announcement from P&G In line with our strategy to explore all options to exit the battery category, we have announced today our plan…
From Schneier on Security
Pew Research Survey on Privacy Perceptions
Pew Research has released a new survey on American's perceptions of privacy. The results are pretty much in line with all the other surveys on privacy I've read. As Cory Doctorow likes to say, we've reached "peak indifference…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Getting Serious about the Design of Social Computing Systems
This is a guest post, written by David W. McDonald, Chair and Associate Professor in the Human Centered Design and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. Designing a good application is hard. Designing a good…
From Computational Complexity
From Homework Solution to Research Paper
Inspired by the Dantzig Story I occasionally put an open problem on a class assignment. Never worked, though I did have a student get a research paper from solving a homework question the hard way. Teaching in the early 90's…
From My Biased Coin
The News Is Out
Harvard Computer Science was given a sizable gift from Steve Ballmer; we're excited at the opportunity to grow this gift will provide us over the next several years. For more news, see the Crimson article, the Boston Globe,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Twitter Says it gets Largest Daily Audience
Conversation with colleague yesterday about Twitter and its use. In some contexts it is still not well thought of, but I have long been a convert for its value for technical connects. It all depends on if the people you need…
From Schneier on Security
ISPs Blocking TLS Encryption
It's not happening often, but it seems that some ISPs are blocking STARTTLS messages and causing web encryption to fail. EFF has the story....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple Moves for the Enterprise
Funny, I remember previous attempts at this. In one case where the enterprise had to crack down to keep their personal and mobile systems from becoming too fragmented and expensive to maintain. Now another attempt. Apple…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Overlaying Journey Maps and Process Mapping
In e-commerce Times: Have not used the idea, but how about linking the idea to Business Process models? Why not have time flows and value flows in the same map? " ... You can look at the journey map and its supporting tools…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mozilla Extending Global Web and Content Creation Tools
Mozilla had not come into my thoughts or work for some time, but this piece was brought to my attention." ... Mozilla has announced today that it is entering a partnership with the GSMA to help enable internet access and local…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Business Excellence Function at Nestle
Late reporting this, but have never heard this being established as a function. Will be interesting to follow it. On the further reading it, is this about excellence or reorganization?" ... Over recent years, Nestlé has consistently…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Time not Money is the Key to Happiness
Video and text in Knowledge@Wharton." ... In a series of papers — “Happiness from Ordinary and Extraordinary Experiences,” co-authored with Dartmouth professor Amit Bhattcharjee; “How Happiness Affects Choice” and “The Shifting…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Microsoft takes .NET open source and cross-platform
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Three In The Room
A puzzle and a conference Zohar Manna is an expert on the mathematical concepts behind all types of programming. For example, his 1974 book the Mathematical Theory of Computation was one of the first on the foundations of computer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
US Data Privacy Confidence at New Low
In the BBC: Telling look at how US consumers are thinking about data privacy. " ... The vast majority - 91% - of Americans believe that consumers have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by companies…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Privacy and Security Briefing on Capitol Hill
In honor of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA) sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing titled Privacy and Security in a…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Checking out in the Aisle at Sainsbury
An approach we examined over the years in many forms. In aisle checkout. Recently took a close-up look at how Kroger was testing this idea with a handheld device. The Sainsbury test will also include store item location and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google's Culture of Innovation
In FastCompany: Very different from our approach. Driven by the culture. The culture supported innovation, but did not itself create innovation. You had to go outside for that. Even create specific places for it.
From Schneier on Security
Narrowly Constructing National Surveillance Law
Orin Kerr has a new article that argues for narrowly constructing national security law: This Essay argues that Congress should adopt a rule of narrow construction of the national security surveillance statutes. Under this interpretive…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The hubris of teachers
Today, kids left and right carry the label of some learning disability. Instead of telling kids that they are dumb or lazy, we narrow it down to some problem. It is clearly progress on the face of it. However, when I see that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Oracle on Modern HR in the Cloud
We actively used analytics in HR since the 80s. From Oracle: Analytics and faster onboarding will transform HRCompanies looking to differentiate themselves are turning to HR technology as it becomes clear that attracting and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Micro Robots Magnetically Driven
Continuing to follow the use of very small or very many simple robotics solutions. In IEEE Spectrum:" ... An engineered scallop that is only a fraction of a millimeter in size and that is capable of swimming in biomedically relevant…
From Computational Complexity
Non controversial thoughts on rankings
US News has a ranking of CS depts and various subcategories. Recently MohammadTaghi Hajiaghay and Luca Trevisan have suggested alternative rankings here (Moh) and here (Luca). These rankings inspire me to record some thoughts…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building User Models with Twitter
An outline about how Bluemix Watson services can be used with Twitter data to do User Modeling. With a fairly simple process. This is ultimately quite a powerful idea. Targeted advertising and loyalty engagement. Create…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Are Fingerprints Pins?
Good piece by Evan Schuman on the physical elements of security. " ... A judge’s ruling that a person can be forced to open his phone with his fingerprint ignores the fact that the fingerprint scan is just a substitute PIN,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Datawatch Wins Hackathon
I happened to be at a small portion of this Hackathon last week. Was an interesting experience. In CNN: " ... Datawatch .... a leading global provider of visual data discovery solutions, was the winner of a recent Internet of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Stressed Out by Work
In Knowledge@Wharton: " ... If you had asked any worker since the Industrial Revolution whether he or she was experiencing stress on the job, the answer would likely have been in the affirmative—and emphatic. But workplace experts…
From My Biased Coin
Veterans Day
Veterans Day is a federal holiday, but, at Harvard classes go on. This year, the holiday is observed for staff, but we'll be teaching.I can't easily find out when the practice of having classes on Veterans Day became standard…
From Schneier on Security
Sophisticated Targeted Attack Via Hotel Networks
Kaspersky Labs is reporting (detailed report here, technical details here) on a sophisticated hacker group that is targeting specific individuals around the world. "Darkhotel" is the name the group and its techniques has been…