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 Daniel Lemire's Blog
Is programming as cool as basketball?
Some of the best job prospects are in the software industry. Programming as a career has several benefits worth considering: though not stellar, the pay can be quite good (e.g., 6 figure salaries are common), you do not need…
From My Biased Coin
Lesson of the Day
Saturday I took two of my daughters to see a musical at Harvard. Amazingly, in the small theater, we were in front of a pair of students who seemed intent on talking throughout the performance. (One male, one female; the male…
From The Eponymous Pickle
TDWI Conference Live
Following is interesting, there are a number of ways to connect to it without being there. Nice Oppurtunity. I am following.
TDWI World Conference Videos,Live Tweets, and More
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Revolution
Imagine a world without shops or factoriesWhen you are in the middle of a torrent of change, innovation eclipsing innovation, it can be hard to know what is passing and what will last. But the BBC's Peter Day believes that, here…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using Mind Control in Medicine, Manufacturing.
In KurzweilAI: Mind control of systems and devices. . It has been around for a long time. With various levels of imprecision. But it is now moving quickly and we are likely to see it more often now. At what point will it replace…
From Schneier on Security
Bitcoin Explanation
This is the best explanation of the Bitcoin protocol that I have read.
From Computational Complexity
Inventions are Non-Communative: Amarzon vs Amarzon
(Tal Rabin, Shubhangi Saraf and Lisa Zhang asked me to remind you to publicize this: the bi-annual Women in theory (WIT workshop), NYC, May 28-30, 2014. Apps due Jan 20, 2014. Go here for all relevant information) If FAX machines…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Are Stereotypes Keeping Women Away From Science?
I received a link to the following infographic in honour of this week's Computer Science Education Week. It's about women in STEM in general, but has some interesting stats, so I figured I'd share it here. Enjoy!NJIT Online…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computer Science Education Week is Here and the President is Getting the Word Out!
Today, December 9, 2013, is Grace Murray Hopper’s Birthday (she would be 107 years old) and the beginning of Computer Science Education Week. These events are being commemorated and celebrated in many ways throughout the country…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
A Day of Trustworthiness: Festschrift for Fred Schneider
On December 5, 2013, the computer science department at Cornell University, along with Google and Microsoft, sponsored the Fred B. Schneider Symposium on Trustworthiness. This was a day focused on issues of computing systems…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shopping Pattern Tracking
In the WSJ: (May require registration) An area we experimented with for some time. Determining shopper behavior. Not necessarily tracking personal information, but how shoppers in general reacted to retail spaces. Common…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 9 December 2013
Today is Grace Hopper’s birthday. An amazing woman I was fortunate enough to meet while in college and hear speak several times during my career. It’s also part of Computer Science Education week and that is no coincidence. The…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Let's Hope Computer Science Education Week is an Impetus for Congress to Act
Editor's Note: One CSTA helped to launch CSEdWeek in 2009, our hope was that it would grow into an annual campaign that attracted partners and supporters from all levels of education and industry. This week we will be running…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tableau Software Reports
Tableau reports that Tableau is tops in business intelligence. I have used them since nearly their beginning, and I agree they are very good. But they do have credible competition, especially when you ultimately plan to take…
From Apophenia
how “context collapse” was coined: my recollection
Various academic folks keep writing to me asking me if I coined “context collapse” and so I went back in my record to try to figure it out. I feel the need to offer up my understanding of how this term came to be in an artifact…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neuromarketing Paper
A new paper.li of interest: Neurmarketing by Daniel Ladieu. Neuromarketing and associated interest in its hype cycle has increased sharply of late. Includes some of my writing.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coke Marketing Turns to Storytelling
A recent interest through a startup. So what can be done to create a story? Contructing ideal template and storyboards? Modern advertising has always been about telling a story. So how is this different? Is it just engagement…
From Putting People First
Robert Fabricant on scaling your UX strategy
Leading businesses like Google are exploring scalable strategies that make UX relevant to engineers and MBAs across their organizations. Robert Fabricant has posted a quick look at some of the different strategies that they are…
From Putting People First
Britain’s Ministry of Nudges
The title of this New York Times article sounds like a Monty Python sketch (intentionally, I guess). But the article is luckily quite a lot more serious, exploring how the British government – inspired by American behavioral…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Computing at Intel
Wave fingers, making faces: The future of computing at Intel, from CNET Mobile. We had early connections with Intel Corp at our innovation Centers, including visits of their top executives. In retail they are basically interested…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Principal Components Analysis in R
Principal Components Analysis and other Factor Analysis tools came up in a recent discussion. Here a discussion in Linkedin about such capabilities in R. Good example of how collaboration at all levels can occur there.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Government Data Visualization
Interesting work at the MIT Media Lab, where we were members for years. This looks like a good approach to examine further as a means of democratizing data. More at the Media Lab. This reminded me to get an update of their…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Explaining Hadoop: (More about How)
In Forbes: Hadoop came some time after I had the role, but I was often called upon to provide a minimally technical explanation of new Tech. Here is a good one about Hadoop. Giving a talk next week at Xavier University andUpdate…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Are You Looking Forward to Hour of Code?
After my last blog piece, I got to work on my Hour of Code activity. I was trying to decide where to hold an Hour of Code activity and who to invite. After much consideration, I decided that the easiest place to hold the event…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Uptalking for Affirmation is Spreading
When we seek affirmation we have our spoken sentences rise in frequency towards their conclusion. We experimented with the idea for analyzing 800 line calls. In the BBC: Some indication exists that the practice is driftingthe…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Teradata Blogs
Recently had cause to take a look at Teradata. I revisited their set of blogs, which cover database, big data and analytics topics. Paying good attention to innovation areass. Included is a blog by Bill Franks, whose book…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coffee too Cheap?
In Der Spiegel: Pricing analysis with neuromarketing. I agree with some of the commenters that the study seems to come from a warped hypothesis. But I have not seen much work done specifically done in the pricing space,"…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wearables to Exceed $8 Billion
A considerable move forward. What will the implications be for business, for the average consumer? Considering them as companion devices is also useful. And will they reshape the enterprise? " .... The consumer wearable…
From The Eponymous Pickle
RFID Solutions for Retailers
Am still tracking RFID solutions for retailers. This still have the most traction in apparel applications. Here an end to end solution. Addressing the usual dilemma, inventory. With the goal of increasing sales and efficiency…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Apple's iBeacon in Apple Stores
In CWworld: Apple is using them in their own stores. " ... Apple is taking a closer look at shoppers in its retail stores, under a new program that will push product-related information to their mobile devices using its iBeacon…