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 The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Blue Sky Ideas Track Held at Foundations of Software Engineering Symposium
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsored another track in its Blue Sky Ideas Conference Track series at the 22nd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), November 16-22, 2014…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Tech Companies and Computer Science Education
It’s Computer Science Education week and my social media streams (blogs, Facebook and Twitter) are full of the news. The president was part of an event at the White House yesterday and wrote a line of code for example. Some of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Request for Open Source Exemplars of Watson Analytics and Bluemix
Jim Spohrer, Director, Global Top University Programs at IBM, writes:" ... A number of faculty and student researchers have begun trying out these services:Try IBM Watson Analytics on your datahttp://gizmodo.com/anyone-can-now…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Personalized Food Portals
In SNews: A prediction that:" ... 2015 will be the year that true shopper-centricity finally moves from concept to reality. How?A few leading food retailers will succeed in combining the one-on-one capability of loyalty marketing…
From Apophenia
Data & Civil Rights: What do we know? What don’t we know?
From algorithmic sentencing to workplace analytics, data is increasingly being used in areas of society that have had longstanding civil rights issues. This prompts a very real and challenging set of questions: What does the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Make an Offer on Amazon
Press release. Amazon competing with auction houses. But not an auction. Are there regulatory implicatons?; Continued following of auction structures in this blog. See the Auction link below." ... Here’s how it works: Sellers…
From Computational Complexity
Godel and Knuth Prize Nominations due soon. Which would you rather win? Or ...
(Alg Decision Theory conference in Kentucky: here.) Knuth Prize Nominations are due Jan 20, 2015. For info on the prize see here, if you want to nominate someone go here. Godel Prize Nominations are due Jan 31, 2015. For info…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google on MOOC Research
Overview report on a recent Google sponsored conference in China on improving MOOC, with an aim to innovation. Particularly interesting, mention of measurement of hybrid learning models. Also the inclusion of better social…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visible Light Communications
In Phys.org: We looked at this as a potential solution for laboratory spaces. It had its limitations, but has evolved to be a more intelligent process.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Creating a Category is Educating an Audience
Obvious, but worth emphasizing:" ... You have to focus on educating your target audience if you are trying to create an industry, says Mark Organ, who founded marketing-automation company Eloqua. Try to engage with your early…
From My Biased Coin
Stress
I've seen lots of news and posts recently on the general theme of stress in academia. Daniel Lemire blogs about Stefan Grimm, a professor who recently committed suicide, and talks about academia as an anxiety machine. More…
From Schneier on Security
NSA Hacking of Cell Phone Networks
The Intercept has published an article -- based on the Snowden documents -- about AURORAGOLD, an NSA surveillance operation against cell phone network operators and standards bodies worldwide. This is not a typical NSA surveillance…
From The Eponymous Pickle
ROI Value for Personalized Retail Data
In Retailwire: Lately have been looking at methods for determining the value of data. So this is a nice example that relates to the value of data for retail. It is a good case of linking value to business process where…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Nielsen and Measuring Media Change
In Adage: Nice piece that covers what Nielsen can and cannot measure. " .... Nielsen at a Tipping Point? Accelerating Change Confronts Methodical Researchers ... Viewers Falling Out of Nielsen's Core Competency: Live TV ..…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Audi RFID Development
A very simple example of RFID use in manufacturing. Simple examples make the best case for improvement. They can be extended later. " .... Audi Launches RFID Deployment for Tracking Assembled Vehicles Worldwide .... The carmaker…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Supply Chains and the Internet of Things
Thoughts by Microsoft and others. This was an area we examined assuming that RFID tagging would become ubiquitous. Tagging in some of the supply chain exists today. And we now have devices of all sorts showing their locations…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computer Science Education Week is Here
Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program designed to engage students of all ages in computer science. It is observed each year, in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Murray…
From My Biased Coin
CS 50 Fair (Live)
The madness that is the CS50 Fair at Harvard is going on now. Hundreds of students demo-ing their final projects. If you can't be there, you can watch the live stream. I did a brief stop-by this morning and saw some fun and…
From Schneier on Security
Rapiscan Full-Body Scanner for Sale
Government surplus. Only $8,000 on eBay. Note that this device has been analyzed before....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Beacons Proliferating Fast
An update on the use of solutions like the iBeacon. Expanding quickly." ... It matters that Apple's other retail-focused solutions -- Apple Pay, TouchID and iOS devices, including Apple Watch, mean the company now sits at the…
From Schneier on Security
Corporate Abuse of our Data
Last week, we learned about a striking piece of malware called Regin that has been infecting computer networks worldwide since 2008. It's more sophisticated than any known criminal malware, and everyone believes a government…
From Putting People First
Understanding human behaviour to improve mobile research design
Shirley Eadie, founding member and CEO of Pondering Panda, explored some of the idiosyncrasies of the human condition at last month’s MRMW Africa conference [Market Research in the Mobile World], in order to help attendees understand…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 8 December 2014
It’s Computer Science Education week aka CSEdWeek. A lot of links to Hour of Code resources came though my social media stream last week and I thought about listing most of them but decided that it was a bit late for that for…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using Light instead of Wires in Computers
Fascinating computing news out of the Stanford mag. " ... Stanford engineers take big step toward using light instead of wires inside computersUsing a new algorithm, Stanford engineers can design and build a prism-like silicon…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Don't Try to Innovate
Some interesting points in a Knowledge@Wharton article. I much like the point made in the first para by the Walmart VP: " ... Want to Create the Next Great Software Product? Don’t Try to Innovate ..... Ben Galbraith, vice…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Verse by and for Brainstorming
I mentioned IBM's new EMail idea Verse. Now an article in the NYT about how they developed it and how they use it. The general brainstorming approach described is similar to the way we approached idea generation and discussion…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
There Is No Best Programming Language
Three items from different places on the same topic requires a blog post. Well for me it does. This week’s topic was picking the best programming language. Now you should know that one of the easiest way to get computer scientists…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovating in Caine's Arcade
Late to this, but was impressed ... You can innovate. Having the pieces to innovate helps. But if you don't have them, you can invent them.Three Lessons From Caine's Arcade by Todd HenryIn early 2012 a short film by NirvanWhat…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Haptic Holograms
In New Scientist: Because we were dealing with products that improved sensory interactions like touch, we were always interested in how to connect digital and sensory. Here another interesting example. " ... Feeling is believing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualizing Astronomical Data
Astronomy is a science where understanding large amounts of data has been historically important. So it is natural that visualization has been important there. New examples here.