Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2012
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification Examples
I have now given several talks on the use of game dynamics for engagement and dreary task completion. I am often asked ... give me some real practical examples I can use. The Gamification Blog reports on some new examples they…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Science of Storytelling
In Forbes: A favorite research topic of mine. A form of neuroscience because we all do love the enchantment of a good story. What is a good ad if it is not a story well told? A good story is good theater, an arc with a beginning…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Hosts Digital Future
Yesterday P&G hosted a number of top Silicon Valley execs in their downtown offices. Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Nokia, Coke. .. etc. I have been reading some of the press coverage and feeds this morning…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Branding the Brain
A critical review of consumer neuroscience. Quite a lot of worthwhile interesting detail in both the scientific and commercial aspects ... " ... To appreciate the value of combining neuroscience with consumer psychology, it…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CRA Issues Consensus Paper on Postdoctoral Fellowships
Last February, the Computing Research Association (CRA) — the umbrella organization of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) — launched an effort to engage the computing research community in a conversation about postdoctoral…
From Computational Complexity
Scott wins the Waterman
The NSF's most prestigious prize, the Alan T. Waterman award, recognizes an outstanding young scientist (35 or under) in any field of science or engineering. Breaking with tradition this year the NSF picked not one but two winners…
From Wild WebMink
? OIN
Are you safer from software patents today, or more at risk? The news that the Open Invention Network (OIN) has extended the definition of “Linux” so that more software is covered by its patent pool is good news, no question.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Migrating to the Cloud
In Computing Now: About Testing, quality and security concerns for migration to the Cloud. . Some useful comments on important considerations.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Bastion: Narrating Your Every Move
Who knew that having your every move narrated back to you could be so satisfying? Far from annoying, the compelling nature of the voice-overs in Bastion demonstrate once again that you don't need complex technology to produce…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Two Computer Scientists Receive 2012 Alan Waterman Award
For the first time in the 37-year history of the distinguished honor, the National Science Foundation (NSF) today named two individuals — both computer scientists — as joint recipients of the 2012
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Teaching with Lousy Health
There are about 1800 students at Henry M. Gunn HS (Palo Alto, CA). Enrollment in CS has grown from 90 students three years ago to 110 to 130 last year to 190 this year. This has enabled me to be a full-time CS teacher (I remain…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Beauty Packaging to Link Real and Virtual Worlds
This was an area we explored at length. During a visit to China in 2003 I saw a remarkable number of examples in retail spaces. Now QR codes and smartphones combined can produce 'virtual spaces' anywhere the shopper is, removing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cray Takes on Big Data
Via Mark Montgomery of KYield. ... Supercomputing and big data appliances. Venerable Cray take a plunge into the thirst for big data understanding and analytics.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson Tries Finances
In another move forward for AI-style interactions, IBM is working with Citicorp:" ... IBM and Citigroup recently announced plans to explore how America's favorite supercomputer fits into the realm of digital banking. Under the…
From Wild WebMink
? Lessig! Doctorow! London!
The Open Rights Conference is coming up in London on March 24 and has a glittering array of speakers including Lawrence Lessig and Cory Doctorow. Read all about it over on ComputerWorldUK!
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Visualization Technologies for Human-Environment Interactions
The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) — the newest of the national synthesis centers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) focused on fostering synthetic, actionable science related to the structure…
From Schneier on Security
Cloud Computing As a Man-in-the-Middle Attack
This essay uses the interesting metaphor of the man-in-the-middle attacker to describe cloud providers like Facebook and Google. Basically, they get in the middle of our interactions with others and eavesdrop on the data going…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Register for CSTA's 2012 Annual CS&IT Conference
CSTA's Annual CS&IT Conference
This is the big and best professional development event of the year for middle and high school computer science educators. The program of session and workshops gets better every year and this year…From The Noisy Channel
Making Love with Data: Avinash Kaushik
Just watch the presentation, which stole the show at Strata 2012. The written word cannot do justice to Avinash’s passion and his extraordinary ability to communicate it.
From Schneier on Security
NSA's Secure Android Spec
The NSA has released its specification for a secure Android.
One of the interesting things it's requiring is that all data be tunneled through a secure VPN:
Inter-relationship to Other Elements of the Secure VoIP System The…From The Eponymous Pickle
Free Shopper Centric e-Book
From DemandTec. This was precisely the approach we emphasized for many years within the enterprise. It is all about how the shopper behaves in their increasingly changing locations. It is about the point of decision. Personalized…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Uplift Modeling
A new term? The term perhaps, but we have been doing this new thing for years. It deserves attention, now being lionized as the next big thing in predictive analytics, but is nothing new. The linked ComputerWorld article…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Key to Focus
A good interview by Todd Henry with Peter Bregman. On focus and priorities. " ... In this interview, Peter describes how he came to his 18 minute methodology, and how creatives can ensure that their priorities are making it…
From Computational Complexity
When a+b is harder than b+a
Is 1+4 a harder calculation than 4+1? It may be if you are 2+3 years old. I asked my 7-2 year old great niece Noelle the following sequence of questions. I include how long it took her to answer.
Bill: How old are you?
Noelle…From The Eponymous Pickle
iRobot Reorganizes
iRobot, the company that first brought practical robotics into the home, is reorganizing. Based on what they have done well, this makes sense. " ... iRobot has been branching out from its traditional household and military…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NIST Establishes National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence
At a press briefing featuring high-ranking Federal, state, and local officials on its Gaithersburg, MD, campus last month,
From Schneier on Security
How Changing Technology Affects Security
Security is a tradeoff, a balancing act between attacker and defender. Unfortunately, that balance is never static. Changes in technology affect both sides. Society uses new technologies to decrease what I call the scope of defection…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Using Kinect for Windows with XNA Curriculum
I mentioned Rob Miles new Using Kinect for Windows with XNA curriculum in Monday
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
How fast is bit packing?
Integers values are typically stored using 32 bits. Yet if you are given an array of integers between 0 and 131 072, you could store these numbers using as little as 17 bits each—a net saving of almost 50%. Programmers nearly…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Twitter as the Ultimate Business Intelligence Tool?
Twitter as a Business Intelligence tool? I can see see the idea of tweets acting as a continuous interaction of interest and attention that can determine what is happening throughout a business sphere. If the right kind of…