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 Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 5 March 2012
I took some vacation days last week. Here in New Hampshire the weather has been wild. On Tuesday I went kayaking with my son and on Thursday we had a major snow storm. Even with the snow I was able to relax a bit. I collected…
From The Noisy Channel
Humans, Machines, and the Dimensions of Microwork
As per my previous post, I had a great time at the O’Reilly Strata Conference. It was a delight to participate in such a fantastic gathering of folks who work with big data. For those who missed my session, I’ve attached the…
From Putting People First
Life 2.0 supporting elderly people
The Life 2.0 project is a EU funded project that aims at supporting elderly people
From Putting People First
That Windows 8 experience? Confusing. Confusing as hell
Trying out Windows 8 on the desktop gives a strange feeling, writes Matthew Baxter-Reynolds on The Guardian’s Technology Blog. There’s a solid update to Windows 7, and then there’s a strange interface which jumps context. Plus…
From My Biased Coin
Making a Midterm is No Fun
I think one of most challenging parts of teaching a course is setting up exams. There are a lot of constraints:You want to cover, as reasonably as possible, all the material.You want to target somewhere around the median of the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sensors at the End of the Supply Chain: StoreFlix
I have had the pleasure to meet again with Phil Storage, CEO of StoreFlix and hear the advancements in his simple but high leverage, mobile-based technology. They have now implemented this with a number of distributors. He…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wicked Problems Free Book
Have been involved wicked problems for my entire career. We used to call them messy problems. Solved some, am still frustrated by others. Now there is a free online book on the subject . Just taking a look myself. The Wikipedia…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Defining Under-Rated
In JunkCharts: A conversation on the meaning of being under-rated. Starting in the restaurant review sense. The comments also provide some intriguing thoughts. And then much beyond. Anda followup post that is interesting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shopping on a 3D Web
From Intel Research: Shopping on a 3D Web. A 3D Web for everyone?
From Wild WebMink
Leaving Room For Mystery
This post is a bit unusual for me – apologies if it offends you –
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
I
I’m an introvert. That’s why you don’t see me at meetings and celebrations. If you do, I’m in a corner looking awkward. That’s why I’m not trying to build a large laboratory of busy graduate students. That’s why I crave time…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Teachers: It's Okay to Ask For Help!
I recently participated in a workshop held during SIGCSE 2012 in Raleigh, NC. The workshop was designed to expose beginners to a tool that will help students learn to program and to get excited about computer science. I am …
From My Biased Coin
Inaccessible
The major reason for my lack of blog posts recently is that I was cut off from the Internet for a week.* Surprisingly, the experience was not so bad. I actually enjoyed being offline, and even the pain of coming back was not…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
A great article about iRobot Corporation
From The Eponymous Pickle
Low Brand Engagement on Facebook
In AdAge: " ...The common view that Facebook "likes" equate to brand engagement took a hit last month when the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shared some interesting data with us. Researchers found that less than 1% of fans of the…
From Putting People First
Do m-health tools really work? Testing the impact of mobile technology on maternal and child healthcare
MobileActive has posted an in-depth new case study that focuses on evaluating mobile health interventions. Written by Kate Otto, the case study looks at testing the efficacy of using mobile phones in health care in Ethiopia.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retailers Challenge the Wallet
Multiple retailers, including Target and Wal-Mart, to take on the challenge of Google Wallet. The consortium is setting up their own mobile payment system to challenge Wallet. Is this a signal that the smartphone wallet will…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DARPA CLIQR Quest Challenge Underway
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is conducting a Cash for Locating and Identifying Quick Response codes (CLIQR) Quest Challenge, “a prize-based challenge that seeks
From The Eponymous Pickle
Nature Special Edition: Turing at 100
Pioneer of artificial intelligence Alan Turing is celebrated in the 100th anniversary of his birth. A special edition of Nature Magazine. " ... In this collection of features and opinion pieces, Nature celebrates the mind
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Unilever CMO Says Brands Must Adapt
The continued evolution of brands and their environment:Unilever Chief Keith Weed on How Brands Must Adapt to Evolution by Consumer SelectionUnilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed is to outline his vision for brand evolution…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Vision
Some squid can see aspects of light that are invisible to humans, including polarized light.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
USACM Comments on the Menlo Report
On Monday USACM submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the Menlo Report, which was issued in September 2011. The goal of the report was to extend ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Susan Graham Receives CRA
Congratulations to Susan Graham,
From Schneier on Security
Liars and Outliers: The Big Idea
My big idea is a big question. Every cooperative system contains parasites. How do we ensure that society's parasites don't destroy society's systems?
It's all about trust, really. Not the intimate trust we have in our close…From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantified Self
In the Economist: The trend of using technology to track your own health and then using social technology to compare data. Good piece describing the trend. I think it can improve the quality of your life. But I think it…
From Wild WebMink
? Hollow Point
Each time I am told I should unreservedly respect decisions made by authorities in secret, I remember this song by Chris Wood. I always cry. Folk music is still our folk memory. Bad laws restricting mention of trademark terms…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CISE, MPS Seeking to Advance Quantum Information Science
The
From Computational Complexity
Turing's Titanic Machine!
In the March CACM, Barry Cooper writes We quote Peter J. Denning introducing the ACM Ubiquity Symposium on "What is Computation?" as saying: "Researchers in biology and physics have claimed the discovery of natural computational…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Wouldn
Interesting new student competition from Time Warner Cable (TWC). As part of Connect a Million Minds (CAMM), the company’s five-year, $100 million commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, TWCWouldn’t…
From Schneier on Security
GPS Spoofers
Great movie-plot threat:
Financial institutions depend on timing that is accurate to the microsecond on a global scale so that stock exchanges in, say, London and New York are perfectly synchronised. One of the main ways ofHe…