Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2013
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
White House Releases Strategy to Tackle Trade Secret Theft
A new White House strategy paper released on Wednesday outlines a five-pronged approach for protecting trade secrets of U.S. companies against a growing threat of theft and misappropriation. The strategy calls for (1) increased…
From BLOG@CACM
Apocalypse No! (Part 1)
The state of software is soooooo terrible!
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmented Reality Chipset
Metaio announces bringing this idea to market today. A good idea for prototyping applications of AR. I also see specialized applications of augmented reality that will combine AR with data analytic applications based on the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Crime Prediction with Selective Data
In GigaOm: Overview of a recent paper on crime prediction using Big Data. Nicely done, good example that whose principles can be reapplied in other domains. But again I would suggest that this more about visualizing selective…
From Computational Complexity
Interruptions
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Peer review without journals or conferences
Almost all scientists ask their peers to review their work outside of the formal process offered by journals and conferences. Young scientists are routinely told to take their manuscripts to a senior scientist and ask for a review…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Testimony on “Applications for Information Technology Research & Development” to House Science Committee Subcommittee on Research
On February 14, Kelly Gaither (Texas Advanced Computing Center), Kathryn McKinley (Microsoft Research), and Ed Lazowska (University of Washington and Computing Community Consortium) testified to the Subcommittee on Research of…
From Schneier on Security
More on Chinese Cyberattacks
Wow, is this a crazy media frenzy. We should know better. These attacks happen all the time, and just because the media is reporting about them with greater frequency doesn't mean that they're happening with greater frequency…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Price Chopper and Vine
In an interesting retail/CPG example. Twitter owned Vine is being used by Price Chopper for marketing with six second videos.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
At the AAAS Annual Meeting, How Fundamental Computing Research Touches Everyday Lives
Last Saturday, Erwin Gianchandani, formerly the director of the Computing Community Consortium and now the deputy director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Computer and Network Systems, organized and moderated…
From Schneier on Security
Age Biases in Perceptions of Trust
Interesting research (full article is behind a paywall):
Abstract: Older adults are disproportionately vulnerable to fraud, and federal agencies have speculated that excessive trust explains their greater vulnerability. Two…From Wild WebMink
Open Source Document Management
I’ve not tried a document management system before, but these videos of LibreOffice checking documents in & out of document management systems via the new CMIS interfaces added in LibreOffice 4.0 make it look really easy. I’d…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
A Friendly Survey of Programming Languages
I was sitting around thinking about high school computer science curriculum last night when the idea of a programming languages survey course came to mind. I’m a firm believer that spending all on ones time learning just oneI…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Preparing for Analytics 3.0
I like Thomas H Davenport's concise description of what he calls Analytics 3.0. Much as I dislike the numerical indexing of the approach. It is largely about what has mostly been called 'Big Data' recently, but taken from the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Finds Goldmine in Analytics
In the WSJ Blogs: Thomas H Davenport describes some his findings after meeting with Procter & Gamble. Exploring P&G's long time use of the analytics technology space. I was involved with its development and use there since the…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Anita's Quilt is Going Strong, But We Need Your Help
Anita's Quilt is a collection of inspiring stories from real women in technology. I wrote about its launch back in September, and wanted to draw your attention back to it now given the amazing content that has accumulated there…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
she++ Video Trailer Worth a Look
A couple of undergraduate students here at Stanford have launched she++, an effort to get more women involved in computing at the undergraduate level.
The clever name certainly doesn't hurt, nor does the location of their effort…From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Reveals their Glass
Today more about features and directions of the vaunted 'Google Glass' eye wear style interface. Now including voice commands. If this becomes popular it will very radically alter the public face of the use of computers. I…
From The Eponymous Pickle
CIOs Are Building App Stores
In Forbes: We saw it coming and it will progress. Apps are becoming part of the consumerization of data and process improvement via systems. Like the moves where management expected to have their personal data available on…
From Schneier on Security
Cheating at Chess
Good summary of cheating in tournament chess.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
I Can Look That Up For You
One of the things that has happened over the last few years is that I have learned what I needed on a just in time basis. That is to say that rather than trying to learn everything or even as much as possible about something …
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Hack on KC’s 1Gbps Google Fiber: Apply for travel scholarships by Feb 26
The following is a special contribution to the CCC blog from Will Barkis, Project Lead, Mozilla Ignite. Mozilla, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, KC Digital Drive and the Kauffman Foundation would like to…
From Wild WebMink
Rome’s Answer To Milton Keynes
High Roman Wall, originally uploaded by webmink. We went walking yesterday around the remains of the Roman town Calleva Atrebatum in Silchester, Hampshire. This was an large, bustling town at the focal point of England’s road…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
What kind of researcher are you?
The politician. He will get people to collaborate on joint projects. How to recognize: He knows everyone! Pro: He makes things happen irrespective of the available funding! Con: Sends you emails on a Saturday. The manager. His…
From Schneier on Security
Fixing Soccer Matches
How international soccer matches are fixed.
Right now, Dan Tan's programmers are busy reverse-engineering the safeguards of online betting houses. About $3 billion is wagered on sports every day, most of it on soccer, most…From Putting People First
Experientia partner part of Interaction14 organizing team
Interaction, the annual interaction design conference organized by IxDA (the global Interaction Design Association), will head to Amsterdam in in February 2014. Conference chair Alok Nandi asked Experientia partner Mark Vanderbeeken…
From BLOG@CACM
Research Questions About MOOCs
Predictions abound on the Internet that MOOCs are about to destroy the university. (Call it, "the MOOCopalypse.") From a stance informed by computing education research, what else would we like to know about MOOCs before we …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Human Robot Relationships
A good overview piece. A review of some of Sherry Turkle's work. We examined this when we looked at Japanese work on robot companions and help mates. The idea continues to evolve. Are we ready to integrate the emotional…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet Limit
In SCiam: When will the Internet reach its limit, and what are the implications? " ... The number of smartphones, tablets and other network-connected gadgets will outnumber humans by the end of the year.... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gartner Quadrant for Business Intelligence
I was sent a copy of Gartner's Magic Quadrant publication for business intelligence and analytics software. A simplistic view, but always a good place to start when trying to understand players in a field. I like the idea that…