Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2014
From Schneier on Security
North Korea DDoSed Off the Internet
North Korea has been knocked off the Internet by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Maybe the US did it, and maybe not. This whole incident is a perfect illustration of how technology is equalizing capability. In…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Speed of Change
Braden Kelley makes some good comments on the speed of change in Innovation Excellence, Statistics on change. I have wondered if we are ultimately slowing down. Further the gap between consumers expectation of changes and…
From Schneier on Security
2008 Cyberattack Against Turkish Oil Pipeline
Interesting article talks about the 2008 cyberattack against a Turkish oil pipeline: For western intelligence agencies, the blowout was a watershed event. Hackers had shut down alarms, cut off communications and super-pressurized…
From Wild WebMink
Is Santa to blame for the surveillance society?
Perhaps the reason we are not horrified by the surveillance society is because our parents normalised that behaviour by teaching us about Santa. Santa knows if you’ve been naughty or nice Santa knows where you’ve been & who you…
From Putting People First
Reinventing Banking – Toby Sterrett of Simple
[Video] “Designing Delightful Details for a UI Revolution” by Toby Sterrett at push.conference 2014 Toby Sterrett, Simple’s Director of UX, offers a deep dive on how Simple’s reinvented banking by placing customers at its core…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Baking Intelligence into the Network
In CWorld: " ... A well-known problem in the Internet of Things is that many connected devices operate in silos. Your Fitbit doesn't communicate with your Nest thermostat, for example.One way some companies are trying to solve…
From Computational Complexity
Undergraduate Research
I just received the Cornell Math Matters, dedicated to the memory of Eugene Dynkin who passed away on November 14 at the age of 90. In my freshman year at Cornell, Dynkin recruited me into his undergraduate research seminar…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ad Spending Falls
In Adage: " .. Top Ad Spenders Pull Back in Third Quarter ... Internet Display Spending Fell 1.7% as Desktop Page Views Fell ... Top spender P&G has now posted three consecutive quarters of year-over-year spending declines.
…From BLOG@CACM
Why the 'Data Lake' Is Really A 'Data Swamp'
The notion of putting all one's data into a "data lake" to encourage employees to run analytics has a serious flaw.
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Focuses, Simplifies
From the P&G Alumni Network. Large companies need to simplify and focus on profit." .. The Procter & Gamble Company today announced the sale of its Camay and Zest brands along with the transfer of a manufacturing facility in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
TNS and Headspace Neuromarketing
Although I had seen TNS mentioning these approaches, here is a direct collaboration. The approach seems to be a combination of EEG and eyetracking methods." ... TNS has long been associated with its strong brand and communications…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Releases Purchase Prediction Tool
In Mediapost: Most interesting idea, especially as it deals with a perhaps unique path to conversion. Very interesting problem from an analytical point of view. Includes where interactions occur on the journey. Read the rest…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Style of Artificial Intelligence
A re-look at NumentaNumenta has developed a cohesive theory, core software technology, and numerous applications all based on principles of the neocortex. This technology lays the groundwork for the new era of machine intelligence…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CRA 2015 Undergraduate Researchers Award Winners!
The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) have announced the winners of the 2015 Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award. This year’s nominees were a very impressive group. A number of them were…
From Schneier on Security
Reacting to the Sony Hack
First we thought North Korea was behind the Sony cyberattacks. Then we thought it was a couple of hacker guys with an axe to grind. Now we think North Korea is behind it again, but the connection is still tenuous. There have…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 22 December 2014
Christmas vacation for me. I love my students but I sure do need a break right now. Like a lot of teachers I can use the time to catch up with things at home and to get ready for the end of our semester which happens in January…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Modulating the Permanent
When does it become hard to compute? Thomas Muir coined the term “permanent” as a noun in his treatise on determinants in 1882. He took it from Augustin Cauchy’s distinction in 1815 between symmetric functions that alternate…
From XRDS
Health 2.0: the digital health revolution
Diana Lynn MacLeanIn the U.S., although medical records contain patient information, medical providers---including hospitals---own all patient records, which can be shared with insurance companies, pharmacies, researchers, and…
From XRDS
The essentials of a computer scientist's toolkit
Numair Khan
From XRDS
Staying in touch: how print and digital media can further student chapter outreach
Claudia Schulz
From XRDS
Vital technology
Jay Patel
From XRDS
An antidote to impostor syndrome
Dean Jackson, Taliver Heath
From XRDS
My $300 home cloud server: a story of blood, sweat, and eBay
Wolfgang Richter
From XRDS
Gathering people to gather data
Diana Lynn MacLeanAn interview with Paul Wicks, Vice President of Innovation at PatientsLikeMe, a patient network and real-time research platform.
From XRDS
Opportunities of social media in health and well-being
Munmun De ChoudhuryIntelligently leveraging data from millions of social media posts is a modern public health approach that has the potential to save many lives.
From XRDS
Here comes the #engagement: a serious health initiative made trendy
Fay Cobb Payton, KaMar GallowayCreating a user experience to communicate the seriousness of HIV prevention and awareness can be both educational while entertaining. This combination along with a sense of cultural influence helps…
From XRDS
Challenges in personal health tracking: the data isn't enough
Matthew KayIncreasingly, personal health data can be tracked and integrated from numerous streams quickly and easily, but our feedback lingers in the land of "show the user a graph and hope." How can we help people make sense…
From XRDS
Did I take my meds today?
Matthew L. LeePeople tend to believe they are more aware of their own health behaviors than they really are. In this article, we present technologies that employ ubiquitous home sensing to support awareness of healthy habits.
From XRDS
Seeing is believing
Megan MonroeWhy visualization will play a critical role in bringing big data decision making to a hospital bed near you.
From XRDS
The anatomy of a human disease network
Marinka Zitnik