Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2013
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sustainable Innovation Management
In Innovation Management: " ... The Results Are In: Product Leaders Report a Need for Speed and a Roadmap to Sustainable Innovation | Innovation Management ... Findings from the Fourth Product Portfolio Management Benchmark…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Code Academy Python and more
The recent Hour of Code activity was interesting. Here a professional observes the activity in a Middle School classroom. In the past I did professional programming. I also had to adapt some Python code relatively recently.…
From Putting People First
Reinventing the wheel
Experientia has been featured in RISD.edu, the website of the Rhode Island School of Design, where Experientia partner Jan-Christoph Zoels received his master’s degree in industrial design. The article offers a brief overview…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data for Real World Problems
Forbes writes about a number of real world problems solved by Big Data solutions. Some good very non technical examples. Ends with a good set of general suggestions about making the practice work in practice.
From Putting People First
UX review of Samsung Galaxy Smartwatch
Smartwatches are the future, but the Samsung Galaxy Gear is only partway there, writes Raluca Budiu, a senior researcher with Nielsen Norman Group, in her detailed and extensive UX review of the Samsung Galaxy Smartwatch. “One…
From Putting People First
The lack of closure experience in digital products and services
There’s an ever-growing tide of inactive, dormant, or extinct customer accounts and other online personal data swallowing up the digital landscape, writes Joe Macleo in UX Magazine. As designers, one of our objectives when creating…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watch the Date and Patience Please
Forms of this blog have been around since 2001. Now, some 8300 plus posts. It covers both my thoughts, history and sometimes breaking news in information technology. I had several messages recently where people reacted to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Now Let's Put Watson to Work
More on IBM's Watson AI ecosystem. I have enrolled. recall I have talked about our own work in this area, which mirrored IBM work in our enterprise. See much more about that in this blog. See their 5 steps to a Watson powered…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Buys More Robotics
They buy Bigdog robot makers. An MIT spinoff. Another interesting development, see their site which shows some impressive and even scary avatars. Recall Google has always been interested in advanced AI and analytics. The combination…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Defying Gravity
In HBS Working Knowledge: Some interesting points on dangers to Wal-Mart's future. How can these risks be managed? " ... How much longer will Walmart's business model be sustainable? Will it be endangered by its size,…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Bow Tie
Snappy-looking bow tie.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Who Knew The Secret?
Controlled release of secret information Peter Winkler is a world famous mathematician who works mostly on combinatorial problems. He is famous for many things, but his series of puzzle book are terrific—see here. Also he is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Engagement AI Goes Public in the UK
Not really AI, as I read it, not autonomous, but tele-operation, and the researching of how people would act and interact with local avatar robotics. What these avatars be acting as: Police, workers, information givers? The…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CS Teacher Interview: Emmanuel Schanzer
Over the summer I posted a series of interviews with computer science educators. (see the index at CS Educator Interviews: The Index) ) One of the people I really wanted to include was Emmanuel Schanzer who runs Bootstrap. Emmanuel…
From Schneier on Security
President Obama and the Intelligence Community
Really good article from the New Yorker.
From The Eponymous Pickle
IT as a Growth Engine for CPG
New from the GMA:" ... BCG and GMA study: CPG companies can benefit from viewing IT as a growth engine A large proportion of consumer packaged goods companies are following a less than optimal approach in their information technology…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Plots for Cyclical Patterns
A method that is new to me, in Stephen Few's Perceptual Edge blog: Cycle Plots. " ... A cycle plot is a type of line graph that is useful for displaying cyclical patterns across time. Cycle plots were first created in 1978…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
The Unsung Heroes of CSEDWeek
Today is the last school day of CS EdWeek and what a week it has been! The phenomenal success of Code.org's Hour of Code, a great CSTA CSEdWeek event in CO with our friends at Oracle, new legislation signed that will make computer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bots Make up Most of Net Traffic
In BBC Tech: About 61% of net traffic is by bots, the study says. Of course bots do different things. One might be reading this blog, another might be part of Internet of Things.Some might implement tracking mechanisms of…
From Schneier on Security
World War II Anecdote about Trust and Security
This is an interesting story from World War II about trust:
Jones notes that the Germans doubted their system because they knew the British could radio false orders to the German bombers with no trouble. As Jones recalls, "In…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Do we need academic copyright? Some historical perspective
It is commonly believed that we introduced copyright to entice authors into producing lots of quality work by providing them with increased financial incentives. Despite the contrary evidence, many people still insist that without…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Common Cognitive Traps in Innovation
In the HBR: (Requires free registration): Key point being made is that estimation error can be a key skill for building innovation. Always try to build numerical estimations of facts, then verify them with reality. " ... …
From The Eponymous Pickle
GS1 Consumer Goods Newsletter
We were long time participating members of the standards body called GS1. I now only sometimes read their writings. Beyond standards they often talk about retail data, environments and technologies. Their November newsletter…
From Apophenia
Email Sabbatical: December 13-January 10
I call this year my year of triplets. Over the last few months, I had my first child, finished my book, and kickstarted a research institute. In planning this year, one of the things that I promised myself was that when Ziv was…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Redefining Supply Chain
As part of a century and a half old, very successful enterprise, we had a supply chain group from well before I arrived there. It is essential to make the modern enterprise work. In Forbes:Redefining the Supply Chain" ...…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Faces of Computing Poster Contest Winners
In honor of Computer Science Education Week, CSTA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2nd annual Faces of Computing student poster contest. This year, over 640 posters were entered into the contest. These posters were…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Flavor Delivery
A classic problem, can flavor be delivered with digital stimulation? Research has been doing on for a long time. Getting to the Bottom of a Digital Lollipop - NYT Bits " ... While it might sound complicated, the technology…
From Schneier on Security
How the NSA Tracks Mobile Phone Data
Last week the Washington Post reported on how the NSA tracks mobile phones world-wide, and this week they followed up with source documents and more detail.
Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani are doing some fantastic reporting…From Computational Complexity
Approximate Computing
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sensors are Impacting the Supply Chain
Yes, they have for a long time. My domain for many years. But many new methods are now influencing the space. GigaOM explores. An extensive report I am reading now. " ... Collecting information is no longer the most…