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
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of February 11
February 14 Hearing: The House Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a hearing on advanced cyber threats. 10 a.m., HVC-210 Capitol Visitors Center The Research Subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology will…
From Schneier on Security
Our New Regimes of Trust
Society runs on trust. Over the millennia, we've developed a variety of mechanisms to induce trustworthy behavior in society. These range from a sense of guilt when we cheat, to societal disapproval when we lie, to laws that …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CS Principles–An Update
The About the Program page for the CS Principles, A New First Course in Computing website has some updated documents since the last time I visited it. Of particular interest to me is a peek at what the questions look like. If…
From My Biased Coin
Daily Show
Anyone else watching Jon Stewart making fun of Harvard w/regard to the "cheating scandal".[I need the exact wording for the punch line -- "Open Internet? Is this Harvard or the University of Phoenix?"]
From Schneier on Security
Really Clever TLS Attack
This is an extremely clever man-in-the-middle timing attack against AES that exploits the interaction between how the protocol implements AES in CBC mode for encryption, and HMAC-SHA1 for authentication. (And this is a really…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The big-O notation is a teaching tool
One of my clients once got upset. Indeed, the running time of our image processing algorithm grew by a factor of four when he doubled the resolution of an image. No programmer would be surprised by this observation. (Hint: doubling…
From Schneier on Security
Platform Fragmentation as a Security Issue
Interesting article about the difficulty Google has pushing security updates onto Android phones. The problem is that the phone manufacturer is in charge, and there are a lot of different phone manufacturers of varying ability…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 11 February 2013
Last week was a great one for me. It ended with a massive snowstorm that hit New Hampshire Friday though Saturday. I love snow and we haven’t had as much as I would have liked. It did mean a snow day (no school) on Friday but…
From Apophenia
Networked Norms: How Tech Startups and Teen Practices Challenge Organizational Boundaries
At the ASTD TechKnowledge conference, I was asked to reflect on networked learning and how tomorrow’s workers will challenge today’s organizations. I did some reflecting on this topic and decided to draw on two strands of my…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Recipes and Components
Online grocery start up HelloFresh raises 'millions' in funding from Rocket, Kinnevik and others. More details. As an amateur cook I like the idea of task lists like recipes, and required component resources, mixing with the…
From Putting People First
Interview with Michael Griffiths, Director of Ethnographic Research, Ogilvy & Mather China
Michael B Griffiths is Director of Ethnography at Ogilvy & Mather, Greater China, Associate Research Fellow, White Rose East Asia Centre, and External Research Associate, Centre for International Business, University of Leeds…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Industrial design
Here’s a “must read” article for you HCI types: a New York Times obituary for John E. Karlin, a Bell Labs industrial psychologist who is responsible for 7-digit dialing, the layout of the touch tone pad, the length of the cord…
From Putting People First
UK Report: Notions of identity will be transformed in the next decade
Hyper-connectivity – where people are constantly connected to social networks and streams of information – will have a transforming effect on how we see ourselves and others in the next decade, according to a new report published…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Delete All EMails Simplifies Communications
In ComputerWorld: In a review of the new Blackberry phone the idea of a 'delete all' email button is mentioned. I remember that capability when I used a Backberry phone. I now use an iPhone. You could quickly wipe clean…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Recipe
Chorizo-stuffed squid with potatoes, capers and sage.
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
I Seem to Be a Physical Security Expert Now
This seems so obviously written by someone who Googled me on the Internet, without any other knowledge of who I am or what i do.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Sponsored Workshop for Multidisciplinary Research for Online Education (MROE)
The following is a special contribution to this blog from Douglas H. Fisher, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University. In this blog entry, Doug highlights the CCC-sponsored visioning…
From Schneier on Security
Millennials and Cybersecurity
This long report looks at risky online behavior among the Millennial generation, and finds that they respond positively to automatic reminders and prodding. No surprise, really.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Promoting Computer Science
Computer Science is an elective class in my high school district and in many other districts. The simple truth is that elective teachers must promote their courses to attract students. This year I have begun early promoting…
From Schneier on Security
Inauguration Security
A first-person account of the security surrounding the second inauguration of President Obama.
From Wild WebMink
US Hearing To Test Lemley Patents Proposal
A rare en banc hearing of the US federal circuit court today will re-hear the arguments over a fiercely-fought software patent case, CLS Bank vs Alice Corp (the aggressor here is actually Alice; CLS is named first as they sued…
From Wild WebMink
TDF Keeps Up The Pressure
The release of LibreOffice 4.0 continues the regular drumbeat of feature releases (coupled with maintaining a known-stable earlier version) that’s a signature strategy for The Document Foundation. While a lot of the long-term…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Improvisational Teaching
Yesterday I had a situation where several students were playing catch up after absences and the rest of the class had finished a programming exercise sooner than I had expected. It’s always nice being ahead of schedule but it…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Taleb on Accepting Uncertainty and Volatility
Nassim Nicholas Taleb reviewing his new book on Accepting Uncertainty, Embracing Volatility in Knowledge@Wharton. Over the years I have talked to many vendors that believed that they could directly solve the uncertaintyAntifragile…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data Startup to Solve Healthcare
Vincent Granville looks at a way to have big data fix healthcare. Even if Data Science does not solve the whole problem, the exercise might be valuable. An interesting proposal with some good comments.
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Polynomials Behaving Badly
Composite Moduli Ahead—Danger Ken Jeong is a doctor of internal medicine, and a stand-up comic, and a TV and movie actor. His full name is Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong, but he goes by “Dr. Ken.” His wife is also a doctor, but to date…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G CEO Drives Steps for Analytics
In InformationWeek: More from P&G's CEO on the relevance of analytics. He gives key steps in making analytics work in the large enterprise: Putting it at the center of how business is done .... It has been key at P&G for…
From Wild WebMink
CDB: Not Dead Yet
The Communications Data Bill may have come under heavy fire in Parliament, but it’s not dead yet – and it’s already cost us a fortune even without becoming law. Read more in ComputerWorldUK.
From Putting People First
Book: Beyond Smart Cities
(Wow, it covers Turin!) Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn and Innovate Tim Campbell Routledge, 2012 The promise of competitiveness and economic growth in so-called smart cities emphasizes highly educated talent,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Business Analytics in Retail: The Book
Large companies can afford the ability to use consultants who can help them understand such terms as 'Business Intelligence'. 'Predictive Analytics', "Big Data' or 'Data Mining'. But the small to medium size company often needs…