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 The Eponymous Pickle
When BI Does not Work
Interesting piece on the issues with BI. ' ... When a user of a BI application complains about the application not being useful - something that I hear way too often - what does that really mean? I can count at least 11 possible…
From Putting People First
Urban resilience
Merging complex systems science and ecology, resilience scientists have broken new ground on understanding
From Putting People First
The digital disconnect
In relentless pursuit of ‘connecting,’ we miss out on each other The Seattle Times argues that while communication and gaming gadgets have convenienced and connected us in ways never before possible, they may also be profoundly…
From Putting People First
Danah Boyd: privacy depends on context
“We
From My Biased Coin
And More Fun News....
Right after Stuart Shieber sent me news on CS undergrad earnings, Harry Lewis sent me two additional links. The first is a nice Boston Globe piece on the increase on undergraduate majors in the sciences at Harvard. The second…
From My Biased Coin
Good News for Computer Science Majors
Undergraduate computer science majors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, are still getting paid well. If you don't want to be an engineer for an oil or chemical products company, we're still apparently…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Richer Geolocation
In MIT Tech Review, Getting More from Location Data: Companies are working to add value to geospatial information. For those already playing in this space much of this is known. It is a good piece to send on to those getting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Thoughts on a Second Life
Its been over a year since I have been to the virtual world Second Life. Before that I was a user, watched in real time as IBM programmers build their own spaces there, saw my company set up a (private) space for experimentation…
From Putting People First
Torino tags its monuments for tourists
The Italian city of Torino just launched “The Colors of Torino“, helping tourists through Microsoft’s Color Tags at monuments and tourist attractions. If you want to know more about a certain attraction (currently only 10 key…
From BLOG@CACM
A Personal View of the Future of Personal Computing
The future of computers will be created by a conjunction of several key aspects of technology.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualizing the Uses of the Internet
Richard L. James sends along a link to a BBC treemap visualization of the use of the Internet based on Nielsen data. You can float your mouse over the chart to get subcategories of Internet volume. A good example of the treemap…
From Putting People First
Guardian supplement on service design
The Guardian, one of the leading UK newspapers, has publish an eight-page supplement on service design – subtitled “Design innovation in the public and private sector – in association with the Service Design Network (that Experientia…
From BLOG@CACM
SIGCSE 2010: Keywords, Final Thoughts
The keywords for SIGCSE 2010 include computational thinking, parallel programming, compilers, introductory CS courses, and Initial Learning Environments like Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch.
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Which is fastest: integer addition or XOR?
The
From The Eponymous Pickle
What Smartphone Users Want
Readwriteweb reports on Compete's recent survey of smartphone users. It turns out that what they want most are ads, coupons and location-aware promotions. See the complete survey.
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Cipherlopods
This makes no sense to me, even though -- I suppose -- it's a squid cryptography joke.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Using Science to Teach and Learn Science
Keynote address, via the CACM: Physicist Carl E. Wieman
From BLOG@CACM
SIGCSE 2010: Carl E. Wieman Keynote
Physicist Carl E. Wieman’s keynote speech at SIGCSE 2010, "Science Education for the 21st Century: Using the Insights of Science to Teach/Learn Science," focused on a scientific approach to the teaching and learning of all sciences…
From Schneier on Security
Another Schneier Interview
This one on simple-talk.com.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Is Bubbly the Next Twitter?
I know a few of my colleagues and clients will cringe at this, but there is a new voice-centric, mobile social networking capability taking off in India. Is it the next Twitter?-
From The Eponymous Pickle
Badge Value and Loyalty
From Knowledge@Wharton, building retail loyalty with carefully chosen brands:'Badge' Value: Finding and Promoting Products That Inspire Customer Loyalty Alex Panos and his colleagues at TSG Consumer Partners, a San Francisco-based…
From Schneier on Security
Why DRM Doesn't Work
Funny comic.
From Putting People First
Experientia
Experientia has uploaded all its publicly available videos on specially created Vimeo and YouTube channels. In addition to high-def project videos, you can also find videos of a few lectures and presentations. vimeo.com/channels…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Charles Thacker Recognized With 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award
In recognition of his work in developing the modern personal computer, Charles P. Thacker was awarded the 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award. The Award, which comes with a $250,000 prize, is supported in part by Intel and Google, and…
From Schneier on Security
More Hollow Coins
A hollowed-out U.S. nickel can hold a microSD card. Pound and euro coins are also available. I blogged about this about a year ago as well.
From Putting People First
Citizens to be at heart of European policy making
A new report published jointly today by the British, Danish and Dutch governments challenges the way European institutions make decisions and argues that smart EU regulation must mean that businesses and citizens are put at the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
BART Examines the Use of Augmented Reality
I have done some examining of the Junaio package here recently, which permits the overlay of information on top of 3D reality representations on smart phones. Lisa Murphy just sent me a note which announces Junaio's partnership…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
FOCUS identifies
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Not Afraid to Make Mistakes
Imagine what you would be able to come up with if you were not afraid of making mistakes. Think of the creative results you might see when getting it wrong the first time bore no consequence. I don't know about you, but I'dTerri…
From BLOG@CACM
SIGCSE 2010: Sally Fincher v. Barbie
Sally Fincher’s keynote focused on the importance of representation, such as how computer scientists represent their work, how they represent their work to each other, and how they represent themselves to the world.