Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2010
From Schneier on Security
Bringing Lots of Liquids on a Plane at Schiphol
This would worry me, if the liquid ban weren't already useless.
The reporter found the security flaw in the airport's duty-free shopping system. At Schiphol airport, passengers flying to countries outside the Schengan Agreement…From The Eponymous Pickle
SETI at 50 - No Evidence Yet
Searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Despite extensive crowd sourced efforts there has yet to be any evidence of ET. There are some useful comments (and the usual non-useful ones) in Slashdot.-
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Bringing the Epic Win to Real Life
Jane McGonigal said at TED 2010 that the world spends 3 billion hours per week playing games, but she'd like to see that number increase to 21 billion hours. You might wonder why we shouldn't be spending all that time on solving…
From The Eponymous Pickle
You Are Who You Know
Intriguing paper with privacy implications:You Are Who You Know:Inferring User Profiles in Online Social NetworksIn this paper, we ask the question: given attributes forsome fraction of the users in an online social network,-…
From Computational Complexity
Unique Games Redux
With spring quarter arriving, I will take a break from book writing on P v. NP and come back to blogging. I hit my goal of getting past the point of no return (about three draft chapters out of ten) but writing a book is a slow…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Searching for Assistant Director for CISE
The National Science Foundation is commencing a national search for the NSF’s Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and seeks your assistance in the identification of candidates. The…
From Schneier on Security
Security Trade-Offs and Sacred Values
Interesting research:
Psychologist Jeremy Ginges and his colleagues identified this backfire effect in studies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2007. They interviewed both Israelis and Palestinians who possessed sacred…From My Biased Coin
Google-Viacom Documents
I don't blog about my work as an expert witness, but for those who are interested in such things, since I (currently) have nothing to do with the case, I can happily point you to the court documents now out in public for thehere…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Architecture of Apps
John Battelle makes make the case that the architecture of apps is broken. They do not each rise above the level of a single purpose and do not communicate. -
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Virtual Events for Educators and School Administrators
I regularly receive announcements about Microsoft events for educators. Some of them are directly of interest to computer science teachers so obviously I blog about them. Some of them are really aimed at administrator or teachers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Netezza Retail Analytic Appliance
I have had a number of conversations with Netezza in the past. They announced their Retail Analytics Appliance this January. I just got an offer for their white paper (sign in required). Have not looked at it yet, but will.'…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Navigation in Rigorous Environments
Rockwell Collins handheld GPS receivers. ' ... For today's soldiers, handheld navigation is a necessity for situational awareness and surviving the rigorous environments of war.... ' -
From Computer Science Teachers Association
What Employers Want
I write this having just finished grading another set of programs. (Or is it that I am more or less always grading sets of programs, so that no matter when I blog I have always just finished grading?)
An employer survey has …From CERIAS Blog
Having an Impact on Cybersecurity Education
The 12th anniversary of CERIAS is looming (in May). As part of the display materials for our fast-approaching annual CERIAS Symposium (register now!), I wanted to get a sense of the impact of our educational activities in addition…
From Putting People First
Creating new concepts, products and services with user driven innovation
From the Nordic Innovation website: User driven innovation is emerging as one of the successful ways of creating breakthrough innovations for companies and organisations. In this project called “Create concept innovation with…
From Schneier on Security
Disabling Cars by Remote Control
Who didn't see this coming?
More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the…From Putting People First
The camera never lies
Brands are starting to catch on to lifelogging – a technique that uses a tiny digital camera to capture every moment of a consumer
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet Retailers and Location
More GIS based Business intelligence needed from the Knowledge@Wharton article outlined and linked to below. This also points to the prototyping and development of systems that can predictively analyze by location, which wasGeography…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Operations Room
Wim Vandevelde points me to Northwestern/Kellogg's blog on operations management: The Operations Room. ' ... is a forum for discussing current topics in operations management (OM). We have no particular agenda but are looking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Publix and Coupons.com
Well known retail grocery innovator Publix is linking with Coupons.com. A&P is playing too. It seems that more retailers are taking Internet promotion coupons seriously. As it says in the link's comments though, the execution…
From Computational Complexity
A prospective Theory Blogger wants your input (Guest Post)
(Guest Post by M.T. Hajiaghayi)
Title: Successful blogs
Now that I'm joining Univ. of Maryland, and there are at several famous bloggers there, I may consider starting a new blog as well. I'm not so sure that this happens…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet of Things Report
Mckinsey and the Internet of things. ReadwriteWeb provides an overview and link to their report. Good overview.-
From Schneier on Security
Casino Hack
Nice schneier | March 17, 2010 at 11:33 AM
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Year of Social Collaboration
If it is this year or next, I agree. Have been involved in many attempted methods at this. If it wouldn't always also get in the way as well. 2010's Collaboration Imperative: Where Social Technology and Enterprise Content Collide…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
New Teaching & Learning Resources for XNA and Web
Last week Microsoft put several curriculum modules on on the higher education part of the Faculty Connection. While aimed at the college/university space I think they may be useful for many high school people especially those…
From Putting People First
Can smiley faces save the global climate?
When rational appeals fall short, environmentalists enlist social and economic incentives–and even neuroscience–to get the public in on national efforts to combat climate change. Scientific American reports. Energy efficiency…
From My Biased Coin
More on SIGCOMM
The first round of SIGCOMM is pretty much done. (As usual, many reviews are still out, though the deadline has passed.) I had mentioned earlier that my first round papers, in general, seemed pretty terrible. My colleaguesby…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
MIT
MIT’s Dean of Engineering, Subra Suresh, has been nominated to be the new Director of NSF.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Engineering the Web's Third Decade
Very insightful piece, a reminder that the Web is very young and evolving. That could create lots of new problems and opportunities for business:From the CACM: Engineering the Web's Third DecadeAs Web technologies move beyond…
From The Eponymous Pickle
'Checking in' to a Box of Tampax for Charity
In Adage: " ... The CauseWorld App Gives Consumers Something Else to Do With Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, Would you check in to a box of Tampax like you'd check in to a bar on Foursquare? How about a jar of Miracle Whip? P&G…