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 The Eponymous Pickle
Origami Robotics
We examined this idea broadly years ago, could the concept of Orgami be used to deliver certain forms of packaging? The concept here is very different, but with similar design inspiration: In IEEE Spectrum:" ... Harvard University…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Agile Careers: Swarms vs Teams
Swarming. Hearing lots about agile lately. Heard about agile development from Sogeti last night. Always thought it was a good idea, but needs to be executed well or it leads to chaos.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Tutorials, Projects and Problem Solving
Another recent confluence of posts on similar topics (list below) has caused me to spend some time thinking. And sooner or later I have to think though my fingers and get my thoughts out in a blog post. So here goes. Problem …
From Computational Complexity
Is 99.8% Secure Secure?
Guest post by Janos Simon A group of researchers (Arjen Lenstra and collaborators from EPFL Lausanne and James Hughes from Palo Alto) published a study, Ron was wrong Whit is right, of new vulnerabilities of cryptosystems.story…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Administration Issues Advanced Manufacturing Strategic Plan
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)
From Schneier on Security
Computer Security when Traveling to China
When Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, travels to that country, he follows a routine that seems straight from a spy film.
He leaves his cellphone and laptop at home and instead…
From Putting People First
Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University published a substantial new report from the Youth and Media project: “Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality” by Urs Gasser, Sandra Cortesi…
From Putting People First
Free eBook: Six Circles
As technology has advanced, the importance of how humans interact with systems, machines, and each other, have also advanced into a fusion of disciplines, coalescing under the banner of “user experience.” And though “experience”…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Updated Teaching Philosophy
I've recently updated my teaching philosophy. I tried to make it to-the-point and backed by research. I could have written a lot more, but think I captured the key aspects of how I teach. Would love any feedback you mightThough…
From The Eponymous Pickle
BOI Solutions
Just introduced to the new BOI Solutions. Have worked with their people for years. A Revolutionary approach to multimedia collaboration.... More to follow.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovation Center Supports P&G's Tide New Detergent
A rare public peek into P&G's innovation center by Jared Newman. Done for the introduction of Tide Pods.Fifty Cameras, a Fake Home and Virtual Reality: How Tide
From Schneier on Security
Another Piece of the Stuxnet Puzzle
We can now conclusively link Stuxnet to the centrifuge structure at the Natanz nuclear enrichment lab in Iran. Watch this new video presentation from Ralph Langner, the researcher who has done the most work on Stuxnet. It's…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Windows with Flash on Your iPad
From ComputerWorld: A curious way to get to flash on your iPad, and run things like Word. Could be very useful. Trying now.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamifying the Help Desk
From Lauren Carlson. This is an interesting and novel gamification example, of the class of applications where you are trying to get people to do tedious tasks. Gamifying support agent work: ".. Gamification is slowly but surely…
From Putting People First
Designing perceptual persuasion
All web designers use perceptual persuasion in their designs, but without knowing they do. Interaction designer Wouter Middendorf delves into the matter: “Persuasive design is hot. Especially on the web as designers found out…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Issues Advanced Computing Infrastructure Plan
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
From Computational Complexity
The Envelope Please
The conference that shares its namesake with this blog has announced their accepted papers. The 27th Conference on Computational Complexity itself will be held in Porto, Portugal June 26-29. If you go, stop by England on theCambridge…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
In This Week
Today’s issue of Nature
From Schneier on Security
Mobile Malware Is Increasing
According to a report by Juniper, mobile malware is increasing dramatically.
In 2011, we saw unprecedented growth of mobile malware attacks with a 155 percent increase across all platforms. Most noteworthy was the dramatic growth…From Putting People First
The future of television is not television
Television is breaking free of old paradigms and constraints. Consumers have no shortage of places to look for the content they want
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Next Round Of Imagine Cup Deadlines Coming Up
The Imagine Cup series of competitions has a new round of deadlines coming up over the next two weeks. The good news is that the barriers to entry in most of these is low enough that students still have time to get their actFor…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Glasses for All?
The rumor has been out there for years, that Google was developing a glasses-style interface for interaction and search. We examined the general idea for maintenance applications, which was offered by a couple of vendors inWill…
From CERIAS Blog
An Interesting Opportunity
As someone who is interested in information security and CERIAS (or why else would you be reading this blog?), you are undoubtedly already aware of the great need for education and research in information/cyber security areas…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Collaboration A Key Skill for the Elementary Classroom
Motivation often comes from the most unlikely of sources. My mother recently waxed nostalgic about life before computers. She said, "Life was much simpler then. The internet brings the evils of the world into our homes and shows…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Scientific Storytelling using Visualization
Useful thoughts. Tell a good story, get it to the right people, then provide the background as needed"Scientists frequently tell stories using visualizations of scientific data, in the process of disseminating findings to peers…
From Computational Complexity
Presidents Day Poll- what does the youth of american think about....
(In honor of President's day which was two days ago.)
On Presidents Day last year I had my classes fill out a form saying who they thought was the best, second best, third best, and worst president. I gave them a list and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Empower MediaMarketing Expands
I have had a number of interactions with Empower. They acquired retail data analytics specialists MIG last year. Now they have created the Empower Group by the acquisition of Powerhouse Factories to create services in creative…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G to Address Cost Cutting
An extended article on how P&G plans to address cost cutting. A periodic thing at all large enterprises.
From Schneier on Security
John Nash's 1955 Letter to the NSA
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
2012 STEM Video Game Challenge Launched
For the second year in a row,