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 Putting People First
iPhone users are delusional, consultants say
Strand Consult suggests that iPhone users are suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome–the condition in which the kidnapped begin to show loyalty to their kidnappers. “Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic…
From Putting People First
Book: Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter
Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter Reflections on Research in and of Corporations Edited by Melissa Cefkin Berghahn Books (July 2009) Hardcover, 253 pages Businesses and other organizations are increasingly hiring anthropologists…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Opportunities in Traditional Trade Markets
Via Herb Sorensen, by Arnaud Frade, TNS Retail and ShopperOpportunities in the Traditional Trade of Emerging MarketsFour billion people live on less than two dollars a day in the developing world. These people represent a huge…
From Wild WebMink
? Messing With My Rights
From CERIAS Blog
An old canard reappears (sort of)
I have a set of keywords registered with Google Alerts that result in a notification whenever they show up in a new posting. This helps me keep track of some particular topics of interest.
One of them popped up recently withPractical…From My Biased Coin
Harvard Governance
Harry Lewis (and Fred Abernathy) take a stand against the Harvard Corporation. Required reading for anyone associated with Harvard, or interested in its current predicaments.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Broadband Penetration Lagging in US
An interesting set of statistics about broadband exposure per hundred people in the US. Small countries like Denmark and the Netherlands still prevail, but that may well be because these countries have concentrated populations…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Cephalopod Christmas Trees
Christmas is coming.
From BLOG@CACM
Twelve Tips For Department Heads from an NSF Perspective
Nuts and bolts advice for faculty and department heads on interacting with the National Science Foundation.
From Schneier on Security
Yet Another Schneier Interview
This one from Gulf News.
From Schneier on Security
Wondermark on Passwords
From The Eponymous Pickle
Finding Algorithms and Their Design
Part of what I do is to figure out how to apply algorithms to tough problems. A book I bought and enjoyed some time ago is The Algorithm Design Manual, by Steven S. Skiena, which I see now has a second edition. Not overly technical…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
House Passes Legislation on
On December 9 the House passed two bills that could affect how consumers use peer-to-peer software and how their personal information is used. We wrote about these bills when they passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Times Regrets the Error
I do read and sometimes quote the NYT on Science topics, but I suggest that those that completely trust such media should take care ... see the correction below, published on July 17, 1969 as Apollo approached the moon:' ...…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Problems With Self Serve Checkouts
We tested some of the earliest supermarket self-checkouts in the innovation centers. Shoppers like the idea, but were confused by their operation and were afraid they were accused of theft. I have seen them evolve in local Krogers…
From Schneier on Security
Obama's Cybersecurity Czar
Rumors are that RSA president Art Coviello declined the job. No surprise: it has no actual authority but a lot of responsibility.
Security experts have pointed out that previous cybersecurity positions, cybersecurity czars …From Wild WebMink
? Digging Below The Superficial Gloss
"If you think patents protect plucky innovators and their groundbreaking inventions, you haven't been paying attention." -- All too short article, but it explains the…
From Computational Complexity
A Blog Sabbatical
With the end of the fall quarter I will take a break from the blog for a few months. This is not another End, just a chance to move my creative juices in another endeavor, to expand my CACM article into a book to spread the gospel…
From Putting People First
Augmented Reality is overhyped and abused
Augmented Reality is overhyped and abused, writes Matthew Szymczyk in Advertising Age, and we’re in danger of killing off a rather useful technology. “As web-based augmented-reality applications have exploded, it’s more important…
From Putting People First
User-centred design for energy efficiency in buildings
The UK’s Technology Strategy Board is calling for individuals to take part in a five-day interactive workshop (
From My Biased Coin
News Items
The people at Microsoft Research New England are excited to announce that Boaz Barak will be joining them. I imagine the situation is similar to their hiring of Madhu Sudan. They continue to build up a remarkable collection…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Power of Your Listing in ...
What happens when your site disappears from Google. And who do you complain to?
From Apophenia
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Almost Done; Science Agencies See Modest Gains
Peter Harsha at the Computing Research Association has the specifics at the CRA Government Affairs Blog. In the current conference agreement most of the science agencies are receiving increases over the previous fiscal year…
From Schneier on Security
Reacting to Security Vulnerabilities
Last month, researchers found a security flaw in the SSL protocol, which is used to protect sensitive web data. The protocol is used for online commerce, webmail, and social networking sites. Basically, hackers could hijack an…
From Computational Complexity
Whats your Game Mr. Bond? Nim?
BILL: Clyde is teaching a graduate course titled Games, Game Theory, and the Theory of Games. He tells me that there are basically eight kinds of games governed by three 2-valued parameters. (1) 2-player or multi-player, (2)Nim…
From Putting People First
Microsoft social media researcher Danah Boyd in the news
Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft Research, is quite in the news these days, including a very nice profile in The Guardian: The Guardian – 9 December 2009 Danah Boyd: ‘People looked at me like I was an alien’…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gimmicky Augmented Reality
Useful AdAge piece on gimmicks and hyping augmented reality. The suggestions are useful. Though gimmicks can be useful in positioning the possibility of an emergent technology. I described AR at a restaurant to a colleague and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Folds
A description in New Scientist of a new way of mapping the spherical earth into flat projections. I have seen a number of examples of similar methods. They are clever, though I am not sure that such views, though more accurate…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
When Technicalities Interfere with Learning
I was observing a middle school computer science class the other day working on a 3D graphics project. The teacher was describing how to define colors using the RGBA model. In this model, numerical values are assigned to the…