Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2011
From Wild WebMink
? Writer
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fumbling the Future
Mini review and current perspective of the book:"Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer is the title of a classic 1998 book by D.K. Smith and R.C. Alexander that tells the gripping…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Foursquare and Amex Test Loyalty Marketing
A local merchant test to see how Foursquare can be used to build loyalty: " ... The pilot program started Friday and will run through Tuesday, March 15. Participating merchants have posted
From The Eponymous Pickle
Daylight Savings Time
A history of daylight savings time.
From The Eponymous Pickle
SMS Codes for Postage in Europe
In Readwriteweb: Could it be that postage stamps are on their way out? I am a long time student of the history of the postage system , and this makes sense. Of course as long as we still need the ability to send physical information…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tracking Haiti Water with RFID Tags
Another example of how touchless scanners using smartphone can be used for rapid identification. " ... Deep Springs International is using NFC-enabled phones provided by Nokia Research Center, as well as software designed by…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Social Media Success
What does social media success look like? " ... While firms are realizing that social media networks harbor the potential to provide intelligence and engage customers, it can be hard to form a picture of what success looks,…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Python Tools for Visual Studio
Microsoft has just released the Python Tools for Visual Studio add-in (Beta) . This add-in lets programmers write Python code with Ironpython, CPython, debug & profile it, and also supports High Performance Computing (Windows…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-03-12
Sun.com Will Disappear After June 1 Looks like we have even more link corrosion coming up. Would it really be so hard just to freeze all the content and leave it in place so that everyone's links keep working? (tags: Sun Web…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Legality of Selling Yellow Margarine
MJ Perry on the inefficiency of using laws to distort free markets. Using the US case of Margarine.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Senate Passes Patent Reform Bill
On March 8 the Senate passed a bill intended to reform the patent system. S. 23, the Patent Reform Act of 2011, would take steps to harmonize the U.S. patent system with those in the rest of the world. The most notable change…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Webcast Series for K-12 educators and teacher recognition program
I received the following from the Microsoft Innovative Educators program today and thought it was worth sharing.
We have a launched a new Microsoft Innovative Educator Webcast Series which will run monthly and cover a range…From The Eponymous Pickle
Posterous App Group Management
Posterous has announced updates to its mobile apps, for both iOS and Android. The updated versions of the apps bring support for creating and managing Posterous Groups, which is an email list-like service that can be used either…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning from Operations Research
In The Atlantic, a short post on using what is called 'Operations Research', and the value it has added to the efficiency of industry since WWII, improving everyone's lives. I am a long time practitioner. The article is non…
From Schneier on Security
Video Interview with Me
This three-part video interview with me was conducted at the RSA Conference last month.
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-03-11
Press Release: OpenLogic Scan Shows Open Source License Violations for iPhone and Android While OpenLogic understandably has an interest in promoting their services to companies engaged in the development of commercial software…
From Schneier on Security
FBI and the Future of Wiretapping
Last month I posted Susan Landau's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on government eavesdropping. In fairness to the other side, here's testimony of Valerie…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Top Read Posts February 2011
When I look at the blog statistics for this blog I am often surprised. Surprised because some posts that I expect a lot from get ignored while others get more attention than I ever dreamed of. Other times I see that posts written…
From Putting People First
Ethnography: Caught between myths
Qualitative researchers in the commercial sphere often feel they can only do
From Wild WebMink
? Is Apache Open-By-Rule?
The Apache Software Foundation is probably the most respected open source code community. Host to nearly 100 massively important projects like httpd, Subversion and Tomcat, it has thoughtfully and pragmatically built highly effective…
From BLOG@CACM
Algorithm Visualizations and Community Building
If you’re interested in using or developing algorithm visualizations (AVs), you should visit AlgoViz.org, a portal dedicated to creating a repository of AVs and building an active online community around them.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Open Source Location Service
In ReadwriteWeb: " ... Until now, Ushahidi has been most known as a service for reporting location during times of crisis ... Today, the company has taken a bit of a turn with the release of its open-source check-in service.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Turing Award Winner
The 2010 Turing Award goes to a Harvard researcher in machine learning:, much more here: ACM has named Leslie G. Valiant of Harvard University the winner of the 2010 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
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Ed Seidel, NSF’s Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and formerly the Director of the Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure,
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Resources for Teaching Security
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From The Eponymous Pickle
FourSquare Grows Up and Serves up Promotions
I have updated my mobile version of Foursquare, after having become disenchanted with the location based check-in game aspect. GigaOm posts on the new suggestion-based, promotion-offering aspects of the new Foursquare and what…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
2010 ACM A.M. Turing Award Recognizes Les Valiant
Les Valiant, the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been recognized for his work in machine learning and the theory of computation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
QR Media Site
A useful site on many aspects of QR codes, applications and related topics. Note their article on Macy's QR Code campaign.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Met a Girl from My First Ever Mini-Course Yesterday
I went to Almonte and District High School yesterday for a pilot project called Futures Fair. Community members were invited to give workshops and mock university lectures to students who could sign up for the topics they were…
From Putting People First
Repost: Reflections on the LIFT conference 2011
Two weeks ago, Core77 published my review of the LIFT conference in Geneva, Switzerland. In the interest of completeness, I also publish it here: All images by Ivo Näpflin, courtesy of LIFT Conference – Creative Commons Attribution…