Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2009
From Computational Complexity
What is an Explicit Construction?
The Prob method (usually credited to Erdos) was once considered quite novel: You show something exists but you don't show how to construct it! An early example was lower bounds on the Ramsey Numbers: You can prove that theren…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Tool Predicts Browser View
A new Google tool predicts how much of a page will be visible to visitors on entering a site, before they scroll. This would be useful to understand the operational interaction of a site. The comments point out some limitations…
From CERIAS Blog
Drone
From Putting People First
How
The banking industry is missing out on a huge opportunity to transform itself from a transactional model to an engagement model, writes social media strategist Jay Deragon on AlwaysOn. “Think about what lies within the system…
From Putting People First
The future of collaboration begins with visualising human capital
Venessa Miemis, a Master’s degree candidate in Media Studies at the New School in New York City, contributed a user idea to Nokia’s Ideas Project website, anticipating a system whereby collaboration facilitated by social networks…
From Wild WebMink
? Changes, one thoughtful
From Schneier on Security
MagnePrint Technology for Credit/Debit Cards
This seems like a solution in search of a problem:
MagTek discovered that no two magnetic strips are identical. This is due to the manufacturing process. Similar to DNA, the structure of every magnetic stripe is different and…From The Eponymous Pickle
Corkboard Database
A really simple idea, Spaaze.com, resting almost entirely on its metaphor, an infinite corkboard display. More about it.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mirrors in the Brain
In the midst of reading Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Interconnect With Others, by Marco Iacoboni. A non-technical book about mirror neurons, which at least in the Rhesus monkey, and possibly in the great apes and…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Fall 2009 issue of Journal for Computing Teachers
The fall 2009 issue of Journal for Computing Teachers is available at
http://iste.org/jct (direct link is http://tinyurl.com/yfq9qjz).
JCT is a K-12 oriented online periodical where the emphasis is teaching about computing…From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Pushes 2D Barcodes
From Storefrontbacktalk: ' ... This week, Google said it was trying to breathe life into these barcodes by mailing 200,000 2D barcode stickers to small businesses throughout the country. Such a move could allow these mom-and…
From Schneier on Security
Australia Restores Some Sanity to Airport Screening
Carry-on baggage rules will be relaxed under a shake-up of aviation security announced by the Federal Government today.
The changes will see passengers again allowed to carry some sharp implements, such as nail…
From Putting People First
The challenge of co-production
A new discussion paper by NESTA, the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, argues that the key to reforming public services is to encourage users to design and deliver services in equal partnership with…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger Links Loyalty to Wireless Minutes
Retailers are starting to do more clever things with loyalty programs: ' ... The Kroger Co. is rolling out what it says is a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that rewards frequent shoppers with free wireless service using its…
From Schneier on Security
The Politics of Power in Cyberspace
Thoughful blog post by The Atlantic's Marc Ainbinder:
We allow Google, Amazon.com, credit companies and all manner of private corporations to collect intimate information about our lives, but we reflexively recoil when the government…From Computational Complexity
A hard problem inspired by an easy problem
The following problem was problem 1 (the easy one) on the Maryland Math Competition 2009 (I will later report on how the students did on it).
Show that for every set of three integers we can find two of them whose average Show…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Entropy-efficient Computing
Microprocessors and storage devices are subject to the second law of thermodynamics: using them turn usable energy (oil, hydrogen) into unusable energy (heat).
From Wild WebMink
? Settled but not cured
Well worth reading to understand Microsoft's world-view. Sadly Smith wasn't asked about the "patent promise" I mention below, …
From BLOG@CACM
Progress on the New AP CS
Progress on the new Advanced Placement exam in Computer Science is progressing, but it's still early to see how it's going to end up and whether it will achieve its goals.
From Putting People First
Mag+, a concept video on the future of digital magazines
Bonnier R&D, the research unit of Bonnier, the publisher of Popular Science, invited the designers from BERG London on a corporate collaborative research project into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices…
From Putting People First
Ubiquitous computing bridges devices and services
Mike Kuniavsky of ThingM was a speaker at XD Forum, Intuit’s internal user experience design conference, last week. His half-hour talk focused on the relationship between ubicomp devices and services. The talking points and slides…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New at Junaio
I recently mentioned Junaio and its IPhone App. A good example of the current state of 'augmented reality', as the term suggests its a means of adding useful information to your real environment via computer databases and interfaces…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ray Kurzweil's Future
Ray Kurzweil, noted technologist and futurist, predicts how technology will change us by 2020.-
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Programming Challenge 4 Girls (PC4G) Event in New Zealand
In November this year, a series of challenges using Alice was held at 4 venues around New Zealand. The events were staggered as the days were planned so that a visiting speaker could attend each event. The venues varied enormously…
From My Biased Coin
Avoiding Travel
I'm spending the morning as part of the committee for a thesis defense over in Europe. I'm watching the talk over Skype; we're using a conference call for sound (and as a backup); I have copies of the slides on my laptop.Is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coupon Chief
I recently got a note from Couponchief.com, which lets you search for coupons for online purchase. They write: ' ... Coupon Chief is one of the fastest growing coupon sites, with over 250k visitors/month. We have over 50k coupons…
From Schneier on Security
Facial Recognition Door Lock
Only $456.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Technical Guidelines Development Committee Meets After Two Year Hiatus
The Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), responsible to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for the drafting guidance for voting system standards, met last week for the first time since 2007. Since the last…
From Computational Complexity
Guest Post- Women in Theory Workshop
(Tal Rabin requested to post this so I am doing so. This post is essentially her email, so call it a guest post.)
There will be a Women In Theory workshop for female graduate students in theoretical computer science in Princeton…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Strategies for Lighting the Fire for Learning
On December 4, I attended a public presentation that was put on for the Seminar in University Teaching, a graduate course at Carleton. Popular psychology professor Tim Pychyl gave the talk, even though he is currently on sabbatical…