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 Eponymous Pickle
More on Cognitive Resources for Work
Jim Spohrer writes, adding to the thread of linking jobs to Cognitive solutions: .... Check out this fascinating TED talk which describes the need for more Cognitive Systems Engineers in the future:" ... It sounds counterintuitive…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mining Search Trends for Ad Buys
In Adage: Google mines search trends. " .... Two years ago, WPP's Mindshare created a tool for its client Kleenex that used Google search data to see where in the United Kingdom people were searching for things related to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Future of Work
In McKinsey:" ... A group of economists, tech entrepreneurs, and academics discuss whether technological advances will automate tasks more quickly than the United States can create jobs. ... The topic of job displacement has,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
History and Future of the Smartphone
In Computing Now: Good view of the history of the smart phone. Where is this now so common device going? How will it fit into the needs of the future? " A move to an increasingly biometric device. While supporting health…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Quantum Algorithms Via Linear Algebra
Announcing publication of our textbook with MIT Press By permission of Nataly Meerson, artist : source Richard Feynman had a knack for new ways of seeing. His Feynman diagrams not only enabled visualizing subatomic processes,…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Poaching off the Coast of Japan
There has been an increase in squid poaching by North Korea out of Japanese territorial waters. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From Schneier on Security
Surveillance Cartoon
Funny....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hershey Wants to Share Big Data
In Fortune: " ... Hershey turns Kisses and Hugs into hard data ... Hershey and its peers see data analysis from Palantir as an industrywide golden ticket.... But that’s not enough. A fledgling consortium of consumer packaged…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Academia as an ‘anxiety machine’
We learned recently of the suicide of Stefan Grimm, a successful professor at the prestigious Imperial College in London. Professors Grimm regularly published highly cited articles in the best journals. He was highly productive…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hyperspecialization
The recently mentioned concept of microservices led to a conversation with Jim Spohrer of the Cognitive Systems Institute. He pointed me to a related idea of hyperspecialization. " ... Prof Thomas Malone's idea of Hyperspecialization…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data Must Go Causal
Correspondent Stefan Conrady of Bayesialab writes about the need for big data to go causal. I have been reading much about the topic recently See the Causation tag below. He writes " ... we are substantially expanding our…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon Private Label Diapers
In Retailwire: Amazon competing with major CPG. Amazon has the consumer data to compete with Pampers. Amazon has sold P&G products directly for years. This will be interesting to follow. " ... Amazon has launched Amazon…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Service Sector Productivity
Productivity and competitiveness. In McKinsey. " ... Service-sector productivity largely determines a nation’s ability to compete in today’s global economy. An analysis of the comparative productivity levels of several leading…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Real Time Medical Wearable Updates
On wearable biosensors. A continuation of additional data gathering sensors and the implications for the need for new analytics and the skills to apply them. " ... Biomedical engineers are taking a cue from the technology…
From Schneier on Security
Corporations Misusing Our Data
In the Internet age, we have no choice but to entrust our data with private companies: e-mail providers, service providers, retailers, and so on. We realize that this data is at risk from hackers. But there's another risk as…
From Putting People First
Using sensors in design research
Elliott Hedman is the founder of the design consultancy mPath, where he’s pioneering a new approach to design research. It combines stress-testing sensors with traditional observational techniques. The idea is to uncover the…
From Putting People First
How US state governments can improve customer service
A McKinsey Center for Government survey finds that Americans are often dissatisfied with state services—and identifies significant opportunities for improvement. Deloitte measured the satisfaction of citizens by surveying approximately…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Reality of Retail Beacons
A useful look at the practical reality of retail beacons. In RetailWire. George Anderson writes:" ... It's time for a reality check when it comes to beacons. That, somewhat to my surprise, was the position of many industryBeacons…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson Analytics Ready to Test
Sign up here. Saw early demonstrations of and have used it for a while now. See my posts on this. Impressed by how they have implemented interactive and well integrated visualizations. Sometimes the visualizations are overdone…
From Schneier on Security
Olfactory Surveillance
The Denver police are using olfactometers to measure the concentration of cannabis in the air. I haven't found any technical information about these devices, their sensitivity, range, etc....
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
BRAIN Workshop, an exciting first day
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and National Science Foundation (NSF) are sponsoring a workshop on the Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science. Top researchers in computer science, cognitive science…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Department of Transportation Request for Information on Vehicle to Vehicle Communications
Recently, some Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Members visited the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to talk about possible synergies between the computing research community and DoT. Established in 1966,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Grocery and Mobile Innovation
Mobile evolves in grocery:Grocery is poised for mobile innovation, expert says The grocery category is well-positioned for mobile innovation, as most existing grocery store applications lack in features and functionality, Mobile…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Computer History–The Importance of Stories
I ran across quiz today (Do you recognize these Obsolete Technologies?) If you know me you are probably not surprised that I recognized all 15 of them. I’ve been around a while. Several of my friends on Facebook did as well.My…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wearing Our Intelligence
In Wired: Not exactly a 'how to' as the article title suggested, but a good view of why intelligence can also exist in our bodies and what we choose to wear and do with those devices. Also an overview of how intelligence has…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pre Disaster Planning for Transportation Networks
Good presentation today via the Cognitive Science Institute. About the integration of cognitive methods with mathematical optimization and database integration. Application to crucial supply chain risk problems and human evacuation…
From Schneier on Security
Quantum Attack on Public-Key Algorithm
This talk (and paper) describe a lattice-based public-key algorithm called Soliloquy developed by GCHQ, and a quantum-computer attack on it. News article....
From Computational Complexity
Favorite Theorems Recap
We've now completed five decades of favorite theorems.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Linkedin Data Science Secrets
In Fastcolabs: Linkedin has a huge amount of data, 97% of the Fortune 500 has a presence there. That data can be refashioned into a number of useful models and capabilities.
From Putting People First
There is no such thing as UX Design
Peter Merholz argues that the entire “field” of user experience emerged for one reason — to accommodate, and overcome, poor (or non-existent) product management practices. He now wants to retire the term: “‘User experience design’…