Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2012
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Kinect For Windows Is Out
I know you have been reading me write about Kinect for Windows for a while now so why is this news? The reason for that is simple
From The Eponymous Pickle
Conflict Management
An excellent piece by Ed Burghard on effective conflict management. Most people do not deal well with conflict, and this chkeclist of possible solutions can be very valuable.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Back in October, we told you about the ninth International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
From Wild WebMink
? Patents and Innovation
An interview with a pharmaceutical industry analyst on the BBC today illustrated a key point about patents and reminds us they are about stimulating, not rewarding, innovation. Explaining why AstraZeneca were having difficulties…
From Schneier on Security
Prisons in the U.S.
Really good article on the huge incarceration rate in the U.S., its causes, its effects, and its value:
Over all, there are now more people under "correctional supervision" in America -- more than six million -- than were in…From The Eponymous Pickle
More on Story Telling
Steve King writes in the Small Business Blog about the rise of storytelling and a number of projects underway in that space.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
OSTP Posts Comments to Public Access RFIs
Back in November, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued two Requests for Information (RFI) soliciting broad public input about “the long-term preservation of, and public access to, the results…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wireless Brain Wave Sensors
In SCiam: General, non technical article on wireless encephalogram monitors. A number of current gaming examples are mentioned.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visual Beauty, Usefulness and Objectivity
How do you bring together objective truth, analytical precision and visually pleasing visualizations? Can all the infographic spin be removed, or does the mere choice of data shown have its ow spin? Tableau software discusses…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Some Serious Fun With Kodu Programming
As regular readers know I am a huge fan of Kodu, the highly graphical, easy to program game development product from Microsoft Research. It is easy enough that an 8 year old can create some great fun games with it (and some smart…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Crowd Sourced Ale
A simple example of crowd sourcing, not sure if it a very good one, but the application in food and drink is unusual.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digital Signage Continued
I will have to mention Keith Kelsen's book: Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage once again. An excellent book that I am making my way through now. I particularly like the fact that it includes quantitative analysis ofMuch…
From Computational Complexity
Why do we have awards?
You have a month to get in your nominations for the Donald E. Knuth Prize and the SIGACT Distinguished Service Award. Why do we have these awards and others like the G
From Computational Complexity
Dusting off my bookshelf I find a book on FORTRAN
The following quote is from the back of a book that I dusted off and took off of my shelf recently: FORTRAN is one of the oldest high-level languages and remains the premier language for writing code for science and engineering…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Federal Move to Mobile
The government is usually late to such moves. They pioneer some aspects, then wait for a long time. But when they finally decide to move it legitimizes it for lots of other parts of the economy. The CIO on the Federal Mobile…
From Schneier on Security
The Idaho Loophole
Brian C. Kalt (2012), "The Idaho Loophole," Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 93, No. 2.
Abstract:This article argues that there is a 50-square-mile swath of Idaho in which one can commit felonies with impunity. This is because…
From Wild WebMink
? Yosemite HD
I need to go back.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
No Room in the Inn
I spent yesterday at Stevens Institute of Technology, an outstanding university across the river from New York City. The occasion was a high school computer science workshop for faculty and students. While the students wereAlice…
From Wild WebMink
ACTA
Are the European Commission just trying to provoke us? Having seen the depth of feeling over SOPA and PIPA, you would expect the European Commission to regard ACTA as a hot topic. But not a bit of it – they almost seem to relish…