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
Amazon Echo and Shopping
In Retailwire: A look at how the Echo assistant and speaker and its implications for a new mode of shopping. Think of the potential cognitive interactions with a device anywhere in the home. A new Smart Home connection? "…
From Schneier on Security
Hacking Internet Voting from Wireless Routers
Good paper, and layman's explanation. Internet voting scares me. It gives hackers the potential to seriously disrupt our democratic processes....
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Robotics for Ebola Response
The following is a special contribution to this blog from Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair Gregory Hager (Johns Hopkins University). Imagine you have to change the IV on a writhing patient while wearing two layers of…
From Apophenia
me + National Museum of the American Indian
I’m pleased to share that I’m joining the Board of Trustees of Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2015. I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to help guide such an esteemed organization full…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Japan's Robot Week
A report from Japan's 2014 Robot Week in October. Which makes the case that software is becoming more important. It has always been important, in particular as we expect more contextual autonomy than ever before in applications…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bringing Clarity to Cognitive Computing
An overview of the topic of cognitive computing, from the recent Dataversity webinar. Via Steve Ardire." ... DATAVERSITY’s™ Cognitive Computing Forum is taking place this August in San Jose, and in advance of the event, the2014…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Moving Data Fast in Disaster
Several recent communications have led us to thinking about how data can be moved quickly and reliably in complex times. Which led to this piece:" ... Prototype technology developed by AT&T, IBM, and Applied Communications Sciences…
From Schneier on Security
The Future of Incident Response
Security is a combination of protection, detection, and response. It's taken the industry a long time to get to this point, though. The 1990s was the era of protection. Our industry was full of products that would protect your…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links–10 November 2014
Parent teacher conferences last week made for a couple of long nights. I confess though that I enjoy meeting parents and talking about their children. Some interesting stuff came though my sources last week as well. Here areA…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consciousness in Computing
The problems of computing consciousness. An interesting question, but more often wonder what value consciousness will have. Perhaps as a precursor to certain kinds of creativity?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Matrix Organization
A 1970s McKinsey's article on beyond the Matrix Organization. Where has the emergence of technology changed this? Not changed this? " .... Tom Peters examines the flaws of the matrix-organization design and explores several…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Davidow's Complete Product
Brought to my attention, a book review by Rob Thomas, on the Complete Product. " ... William Davidow wrote Marketing High Technology in 1986. While we have seen many phases in technology since then, its a timeless piece of work…
From Apophenia
What is Fairness?
What is “fairness”? And what happens when technology decides? Fairness is one of those values that Americans love to espouse. It’s just as beloved in technical circles, where it’s often introduced as one of the things that “neutral…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Taking Autocompletion Further
A simplistic metaphor for intelligence is autocompletion. We are very used to it today. We have knowledge, now how do we use that knowledge to predict what should be next in a given context? In Wired:" .... Now, a government…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why the IBM and Twitter Data Deal
It has been presented as a means to understand the pulse of the planet. A sensory coup previously impossible. Connecting the firehose of information created in twitter with the analytics and cognitive capabilities of IBM.Good…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
A Conjecture Of Ulam
A pointed question about the plane Stanisław Ulam was one of the great mathematicians of the last century. We talked about him in a recent post on his prime spiral and other strange mathematical facts. He is associated with several…
From Putting People First
Society’s sandbox
Steve Daniels, director at Makeshift magazine, explains why informal economies are the world’s biggest — and most overlooked — design research opportunity. “Informal economies are society’s sandbox, where early experimentation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google's Neural Turing Machine
This still does not mean we can replace our conventional machines with such neural networks, but it can have profound implication for analytics.Google's Secretive DeepMind Startup Unveils a "Neural Turing Machine"DeepMind has…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovation Asessents: Fun and Games
Had missed this previously. Worth a look.Innovation Assessment is one of the pillars of an innovation program. Evaluation should be done as an on-going activity and revised with the most valuable feedback gathered along the entire…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Optimization
Beyond responsive design. " ... Conversations on whether to build a responsive site or create dedicated landing pages are everywhere right now. Mobile traffic is rising and while marketers are trying to figure out which is the…
From Computational Complexity
George Dantzig >= 100
We celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Dantzig today. In his obituary post we talked about his work on optimization, particularly the simplex method for solving linear programs. For this centenary let's recall…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cognitive Process and the Executive
On cognitive assistance for the executive. First a short history of cognitive assistants from Jim Spohrer. Then a look at some of my previous writings on intelligent executive information systems. Some of this accumulates"…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Dried Squid Sold in Korean Baseball Stadiums
I'm not sure why this is news, except that it makes for a startling headline. (Is the New York Times now into clickbait?) It's not as if people are throwing squid onto the field, as Detroit hockey fans do with octopus. As usual…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bluemix Cloud Platform Services
For my current work with IBM Bluemix, as it provides Watson services, I have been assigned Jacob Krupski as my Cloud Platform Services representative. Here is his excellent blog, which has lots of interesting hints and information…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson Analytics Demonstration
Just received, an excellent demonstration of Watson Analytics, which I am currently taking a close look at. Full message here. " .... We’ve been working hard to prepare an engaging experience for you. We're bringing everyone…
From The Eponymous Pickle
McKinsey on the Future of Growth
In McKinsey:" ... Throughout history, economic growth has been fueled by two factors: the expanding pool of workers and their rising productivity. From the perspective of rising prosperity, however, it is productivity that makes…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Connected Products are Next
In Adage: " ... Products as their own media channel ... " .... But why should anyone in digital media care? Last week at Ad Age's Data Conference, global brands from Loreál to Coca-Cola converged to discuss how IoT-based data…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Complexity of IOT and Experience Design
In Radar: Some excellent points made here. " ... The Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging designers to rethink their craft. I recently sat down with Claire Rowland, independent designer and author of the forthcoming book…
From Schneier on Security
Co3 Systems Is Hiring
My company, Co3 Systems, is hiring both technical and nontechnical positions. If you live in the Boston area, click through and take a look....
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office announces new program to speed funding
On November 6, 2014, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) announced a new program with a simplified process for engaging with DARPA that will make it easier for businesses…