Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2013
From Putting People First
Ethnography: Ellen Isaacs at TEDxBroadway
Ellen Isaacs (personal site), a user experience designer and ethnographer at PARC, spoke on January 28 at TEDx Broadway about the power of ethnography and how it might be useful in inspiring the future of Broadway. As per usual…
From Putting People First
Smart homes: our next digital privacy nightmare
The hyper-connected smart home of the future promises to change the way we live. More efficient energy usage, Internet-connected appliances that communicate with one another and cloud-enhanced home security are just some of the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Buzz and Lift
In AdAge: Buzz online creates little or any product lift in the short term for Coke. Article provides some interesting statistics, with uncertainties. The comments are also very interesting.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Behavior and Decisions in Organizations
A very nice piece in Bain&Company, Why we Behave and Decide the way we do. Lots of information out there on why individuals act the way they do. Even aspects of group behavior. But how do individuals behave within an organization…
From Schneier on Security
FinSpy
Twenty five countries are using the FinSpy surveillance software package (also called FinFisher) to spy on their own citizens:
The list of countries with servers running FinSpy is now Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Britain,…From Computational Complexity
Will they use EasyPope to pick the Pope in 2050?
AP press 2050: The new pope was elected in just 2 hours using EasyPope, the software based on EasyChair, software designed to deciding which papers get into a conference. The new Pope was quoted as saying How did they manage…
From Wild WebMink
Python Trademark Safe In Europe
Seems all that community pressure worked. The Python Software Foundation confirmed that the UK hoster that was threatening their name has withdrawn its trademark application. More at InfoWorld.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Considering the Cloud
Good Thoughtful podcast piece on the topicManaging TechnologyUp in the Cloud: Hype and High Expectations for Cloud ComputingCloud computing is creating waves in different industries across the developed world, helping both entrepreneurs…
From My Biased Coin
Cambridge Area Economics and Computation Day 2013
I was asked to advertise the upcoming Second Cambridge Area Economics and Computation Day (CAEC'13);information is available at http://caec.seas.harvard.edu/It's being co-chaired by Turing-award winner Silvio Micali and Harvard's…
From Schneier on Security
Gauss
Nice summary article on the state-sponsored Gauss malware.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Apply to be a Pilot Sites for the AP CS Principles Course
As you may know a new Advanced Placement Computer Science, usually called AP CS Principles, is being developed by/for the College Board. The College Board is now looking for new schools to pilot this course as part of the development…
From BLOG@CACM
How to Build on Code.org in Higher Education
The Code.org videos are terrific. What can we be doing in post-secondary education to support the vision?
From The Eponymous Pickle
World Peace via Vending Machines
A curious project from Coke using vending machines to promote world peace. Would they then need a vending App too?
From My Biased Coin
Update: Andrew Auernheimer Watch
Well, this is going to give me nightmares for a while. TechNewsWorld:"Andrew Auernheimer, a hacker known as "Weev," was sentenced Monday to 41 months in prison for obtaining the personal data of more than 100,000 iPad owners…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Framing Devices With an Interactive Twist
You may recall that I recommended inklewriter as one tool for testing story ideas. I recently found an interesting piece of interactive fiction made with it and I found it rather interesting. It's called First Draft of a Revolution…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
The Changing Face of Education and Computer Science
Any person involved with education today can tell you that it is an ever changing field. What was common place just a few short years ago has been replaced by something new. One of the biggest challenges teachers face is keeping…
From Schneier on Security
A 1962 Speculative Essay on Computers and Intelligence
From the CIA archives: Orrin Clotworthy, "Some Far-out Thoughts on Computers," Studies in Intelligence v. 6 (1962).
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Pioneers of the Internet and World Wide Web Receive Inaugural QE Prize for Engineering
Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, Sir Tim Berners Lee, Marc Andreessen, and Louis Pouzin were awarded the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering today at the Royal Academy of Engineering. This new £1million global prize recognizes…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of March 18
March 19 Hearing: The Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. 10 a.m., 2141 Rayburn Building The Oversight…
From Wild WebMink
Royal Charter or Star Chamber For Stars?
Alec Muffett points out that the new Royal Charter being rushed through the UK Parliament includes some drafting that appears to drag blogs, Twitter and other social media into the penalty net. This is an extremely worrying…
From Schneier on Security
Prison Escape
Audacious daytime prison escape by helicopter.
The escapees have since been recaptured.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sands Partners with NVISO
Just announced. A natural interaction for neuromarketing work. Surprised it it not more often done. Directly linking facial imaging with neuroscience technology. With emotion analysis. Taking that mobile is a further plus.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Visualization and BI Tools
Useful comments on the selection process. Again, I look for methods that do the most common things easily and directly. Ignore all the flash, all the visualization that obscures insight. And today, make sure it can be seen…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facebook Privacy
At a dinner last night had a heated conversation about how they were abandoning Facebook for privacy concerns. Professionals refusing to join as a result. Here some Apps that address the FB privacy issue. Or are these just…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 18 March 2013
Posting this a bit late today. I had a very busy weekend which included some snowboarding. That means I was much too tired and sore yesterday to get this ready. But I do have a bunch of links to share so I guess we should get…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Is genetically engineering intelligence worth it?
We have been hearing reports that China is planning to use genetic engineering to make its population smarter. In fact, there are claims that China has been practicing eugenics for quite some time. (Others think that this is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mining Suicide Notes
Locally a good example of predictive text analysis. Mining a large corpus of suicide notes at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital, to model and predict when suicide attempts actually happened. Plan to dig deeper into this example…
From updated sporadically at best
The Longest I Ever Sit Still
At the end of 2012, after months of extreme travel, extreme work, and extreme play, I craved balance. When I went home for the holidays I dusted off the copy of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones pretentious teenage-me had bought and never…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data in Wal-Mart's DNA
Gib Bassett of Teradata sends along a link to an article about Wal-Mart's use of Big Data. Nice detail that can be instructive to others in this space. If anyone can utilize the volume, velocity and variability of Big Data…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Happy St. Patrick’s Day—Again and Again and Again and Again
Leprechauns are tricky even when they’re not Neil L. is a Leprechaun. Today I wish to share my experience with him this morning of St. Patrick’s Day. Neil L. has visited me the last four years, so I was obviously expecting him…