Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2010
From The Eponymous Pickle
iPad as a Divergence Product
I know I have been somewhat skeptical of the iPad as a novel product. Here is an article in Adage which looks at it differently. Comparing it to the now long ago launch of the tablet computer: Good thoughts. " ... The tablet…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tesco Launches Mobile Site
My always observant UK retail correspondent reports that retailer Tesco has launched a mobile version of its remote site.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Enters eBook Market
A good overview of Google's entry into the ebook market, from an educational perspective. A very large number of texts are included.
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Who will need database administrators in 2020?
In response to my Why do we need database joins? post, many readers stressed the importance of strict database schemas to preserve data integrity. In short, we want database administrators (DBA) to input constraints at design…
From Wild WebMink
? Meta-Wikileaks
Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech Dan Gillmor on leaks and journalism: “By [Washington Post journalist] Krauthammer’s sick standards, the death squads should be converging soon on his own offices, as well as those of the Times…
From Schneier on Security
Profiling Lone Terrorists
Masters Thesis from the Naval Postgraduate School: "Patterns of Radicalization: Identifying the Markers and Warning Signs of Domestic Lone Wolf Terrorists in Our Midst."
Abstract:
This thesis will scrutinize the histories …From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
TEALS (Technology Education And Literacy in Schools)
Today
From BLOG@CACM
We're Too Late For 'First' in CS1
By the time students get to undergraduate CS1, they already have lots of ideas about computation. Objects, hardware, breadth, functions first--none of that really matters. There is no more "first" in CS1.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gmail Alert Monitor Update
A Gmail alert monitor I had not heard of: Scott's Gmail Alert (SGA) has been a great desktop notifier for a long time. In the just-released version 5, however, SGA has added a handful of new features which make it even better…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Procter CIO is Chief of the Year
In InformationWeek:Former long-time colleague Filippo Passerini of P&G is named CIO of the year. " ... How does Filippo Passerini and his team hope to digitize the company end to end? Not by playing it safe ... "
From Schneier on Security
FTC Privacy Report
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission released its privacy report: "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change."
From the press release:
One method of simplified choice the FTC staff recommends is a "Do Not Track" mechanism…From The Eponymous Pickle
Spherical Tours
Rently brought to my attention: Spherical Images." .... A London-based virtual tour company, Spherical Images provide HD quality virtual tours by photographing your venue using ground breaking technology - allowing you to bring…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tagging Starter Kits
Motorola is offering some out-of-the-box RFID starter kits for companies that want to understand the technology and its application. Good idea. " ... Motorola and its channel partners will offer new packages that companies…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Productive Obsessions
Intriguing Ideaconnection interview. The role of a kind of obsession in thinking. " .... IdeaConnection Interview with Eric Maisel, Co-author of Brainstorm, and Creative Recovery, and Author of Coaching the Artist Within, Fearless…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2010-12-06
ICANN had no role in seizing torrent domains It was done directly by Verisign, over the registrars' heads: "VeriSign received sealed court orders directing certain actions to be taken with respect to specific domain names, and…
From Schneier on Security
Cyberwar and the Future of Cyber Conflict
The world is gearing up for cyberwar. The U.S. Cyber Command became operational in November. NATO has enshrined cyber security among its new strategic priorities. The head of Britain
From Computational Complexity
Do Uniform Lower Bounds Matter?
From Ryan Willams' paper:
Non-uniform lower bounds establish impossibility results for computation in the physical world: it could be that P ? NP, yet NP-complete problems can still be ef?ciently solved using a
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonInteresting Links Post December 6th 2010
Well it is Computer Science Education week. Are you doing anything at your school for it this week? I attended three different CSTA chapter meetings in the last couple of weeks (northern New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire)…
From The Eponymous PickleOn Bayesian Networks
A very good overview article by Adnan Darwiche in the December Communications of the ACM: ... What are Bayesian networks and why are their applications growing across all fields? Regrettable that the full text is not available…
From The Eponymous PickleSocial Games as an Advertising Frontier
Good article in Mashable/Business: Reasons Why Social Games Are the Next Advertising Frontier I do like the idea, but also think it is much harder to implement successfully than a notice-click advertising interaction. A number…
From Wild WebMink? Now Accepting BitCoin
As an experiment, I’ve set up BitCoin on one of the systems here at Webmink Central. BitCoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency, with no central bank or authority. Instead, it relies of a mesh of collaborating but independent…
From Putting People FirstCisco
The UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph profiles Cordell Ratzlaff, director of user-centred design at Cisco Systems, and fomer head of Apple
From The Eponymous PicklePhysics Simulator using MS Surface: In Retail?
Remember Microsoft Surface? I barely do, and I saw a demonstration of it to show the dynamics of crowd interactions. I have rarely seen it mentioned beyond that early example. Yet I think it has value for certain kinds of innovation…
From The Eponymous PickleCard Trick and Data Compression
In Technology Review, a clever discovery: Card Trick Leads to New Bound on Data Compression A magician's card trick has prompted a mathematical re-evaluation of the limits on data compression ...
From Wild WebMinklinks for 2010-12-05
Shopping-enabled Wikipedia Page on Amazon While the creative commons license that covers Wikipedia allows it, this attempt to divert traffic away from Wikipedia without adding any significant value to either the pages or the…
From The Eponymous PickleiMotions Eyetracking Tool
A video on the IMotions eyetracking tool. More at their site. " ... To gain a new level of consumer insights to know how your customers perceive, behave and interact with your visual communication, products, interfaces, advertisement…
From The Eponymous PickleCommon Craft Explanatory Videos
My colleague Walter Riker (see his Ease of Blogging site) sends along a link to the site Common Craft. " ... little 3 minute videos for explanation on technology for fun and have not figured out how to monetize it. The video's…
From Wild WebMinklinks for 2010-12-04
Full Body Scanners: What's Next? definitive explanation from Bruce Schneier why the nude scanners at airports are a wate of money, and why the will always be accmpanied by unreasonably invasive personal seraches. (tags: travel…
From Wild WebMinkSmall Is Beautiful
On a whim I decided to go look for a domain name for my own link shortener. Within a few minutes I’d found that wmk.me was available, and even better that GoDaddy were selling it for $8.99 for the first year. I grabbed it and…
From The Eponymous PickleIPads in Academia
In CACM: Faculty innovators explore iPad use. I am still unconvinced that there are that many fundamental differences between say a small laptop and an iPad. Are they really unique?