Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2012
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification for Serious Business
In Ecommerce Times: A pretty broad view of what gamification means. Is it just Loyalty points? And sharing their level? It is a useful way to think about the loyalty idea, and start there as opposed to looking for an extreme…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
STEM related infographic from RackSpace
Interesting STEM related infographic from RackSpace the hosting/cloud company. It could use a little more computer science content in my opinion but that is not a fatal flaw.
Rackspace® — Spotlight On STEM Education [Infographic]…From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Laughing Squid
The small San Francisco film and video company is celebrating its 17th anniversary.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Windows 8
About to dive into a project using Windows 8. I have been researching its use. Wharton takes a look.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wolfram Alpha Offers : Predictive Interfaces
I see that Wolfram Research has some new discounted ways to purchase Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha that are available through December 31. See more here. Also see their latest blog post, on the predictive user interface: What…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
What Would Be Left, If…?
Apocalypses in math and theory, plus a complexity question src Douglas Adams wrote the watchword for today: Don’t Panic. Still, his novel and series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy begins with the impending destruction of…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Opportunity Begat Opportunity
Occasionally an opportunity comes along, out of the blue, that really makes you stand up and take notice. It is not something that has been on your radar, nor is it something that you had a vision for with developed goals on…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Federal Trade Commission Updates Online Privacy Rules For Pre-Teens
On Wednesday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the final updated rules for implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Passed in 1998, COPPA rules had not been updated to reflect changes in technology…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coursera Course: Data Analysis in R
What looks to be a useful free course, emphasizing biostatistics, in Coursera, starting January 22. " ... This course will focus on how to plan, carry out, and communicate analyses of real data sets. While we will cover the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Logistics in 2012 and Beyond
Useful predictive commentary on the upcoming changes in logistics and related context and technologies. Via Fabrizio Brasca is vice president, global logistics, JDA Software. He is responsible for developing innovative transportation…
From Schneier on Security
This Week's Overreactions
Schools go into lockdown over a thermometer, a car backfiring, a bank robbery a few blocks away, a student alone in a gym, a neighbor on the street, and some vague unfounded rumors. And one high-school kid was arrested for drawing…
From Schneier on Security
Amazon Replacement-Order Scam
Chris Cardinal discovered someone running such a scam on Amazon using his account: the scammer contacted Amazon pretending to be Chris, supplying his billing address (this is often easy to guess by digging into things…
From Wild WebMink
Could Cloud Terms of Use Kill Your Business?
Business service providers are unlikely to just cut you off on a whim. So why do the terms of use all cloud providers impose leave them with an unquestioned right to do so? The answer is that the legislative environment makes…
From Wild WebMink
Why Did Bern Switch?
I had the chance to discuss with a key instigator the background to the decision by the Swiss city of Bern to switch to open source. You can read about it in my column in ComputerWorldUK today.
From The Eponymous Pickle
How the Internet is Changing English
On the BBC: " ... Online, English has become a common language for users from around the world. In the process, the language itself is changing. ... " . Changing the process will change the data that flows through it.
From Putting People First
What’s the future of doctors when the sensors in your electronics diagnose disease?
In a future where biometrics are measured constantly and interpretation is aided by algorithm, what do we want our health professionals to actually do, asks Bradley Kreit on Fast Company. “As technologies enable us to bypass…
From Putting People First
Should there be a standard user interface for cars?
Writer Jason Torchinsky makes a case for a standard user interface for cars: “I know there’s already a number of official and unofficial standards in place — pedal location, use of a wheel for steering, turn indicator stalk location…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mapping Big Data in the US over Time
RecordedFuture maps the location of big data efforts in the US in the coming years. In their Blog. Also provides access to the data it used in their unique future data exploration visualization method. This allows you to overlay…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Science as Storytelling
Is data science storytelling? Yes, in the sense that everything that is analytical tells a narrative story. It must fit into some sort of preexisting narrative. So there has to be interaction with the storyteller, and the…
From Computational Complexity
Flash Fill
Sometimes it just takes a simple new feature in a popular piece of software to remind us how computer science just does cool stuff. Excel 2013 has a new feature, Flash Fill, where you can reformat data by giving an example or…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
USACM Offers Comments on Federal Cybersecurity R&D Strategy
The National Science Foundation (NSF) sought comments on the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Plan. The plan was released in late 2011, and NSF was interested in getting feedback from the research community on the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Boosting Productivity with Social Media
In the HBR Blogs: A video interview with Alexandra Samuel. Some interesting points here. Yes, I believe this can be done, selectively. I do not yet believe that managing the process can be effectively done with today's social…
From Putting People First
Seven questions with library anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster
In her work anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster applies anthropological principles to the study of the university’s libraries and their users. By focusing on the work that people are doing inside these spaces, they can identify…
From Putting People First
Dan Saffer on how we *should* interact with the automobiles of the (near) future
Smart Design’s Dan Saffer discusses on Fast Company on how we should interact with the automobiles of the (near) future: “What will this feel like, riding in our new robot cars? If the experience of being a “driver” in our new…
From Putting People First
How technology has restored the soul of politics
Longtime political operative Joe Trippi advocates a bottom-up, people-centered politics, and cheers the innovations of Obama 2012, saying they restored the primacy of the individual voter. “New technologies can manipulate, empower…
From CERIAS Blog
Desperate Convenience: Login with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn
Is your management thinking about allowing people to login to your precious systems by using their Facebook, Google or LinkedIn accounts? What are the risks? One consideration is password policies. I experimented to find out…
From CERIAS Blog
Login with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn
Is your management considering logins using Facebook, Google or LinkedIn accounts? What are the risks? One consideration is password policies. I experimented to find out what were the effective password policies in place: …
From Putting People First
Design in the service of austerity
The UK government’s deficit reduction plan may fall short of its targets, prompting speculation that austerity measures will have to continue into the next parliament. Local government officers who have already seen substantial…
From Schneier on Security
China Now Blocking Encryption
The "Great Firewall of China" is now able to detect and block encryption:
A number of companies providing "virtual private network" (VPN) services to users in China say the new system is able to "learn, discover and block" the…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
How To Become A CS Education Thought Leader
I don’t think many people set out to be thought leaders. I sure didn’t but yet I have been called that from time to time. I think that is more flattering than true in my case but I do know a number of people who I think of as…