Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2015
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualizing Sets
Interesting example of a novel data visualization. From Microsoft Labs.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Morse Code Project
Project ideas come from all sorts of places. Textbooks, other teachers I work with, blogs, random conversations, conferences (do you know about Nifty Assignments from SIGCSE?) and more. Some of the best come from students. Not…
From Schneier on Security
Yet Another Computer Side Channel
Researchers have managed to get two computers to communicate using heat and thermal sensors. It's not really viable communication -- the bit rate is eight per hour over fifteen inches -- but it's neat....
From insideHPC
HPC News Roundup for March 27, 2015
I'm on my way home from a series of Springtime HPC conferences with boatload of new videos and interviews on the latest in high performance computing. Here are some notable items that may have not made it to the front page.
The…From insideHPC
HPC Market Update from Intersect360 Research
"The drive toward exascale computing, a renewed emphasis on data-centric processing, energy efficiency concerns, and the limitations of memory and I/O performance are all working to reshape High Performance Computing platforms…
From insideHPC
Video: Special Training Session for HPC Systems Managers and Users
In this video from the 2015 HPC Advisory Council Switzerland Conference, Oded Paz presents: Special Training Session for HPC Systems Managers and Users: EDR InfiniBand, Multicast Operations (setup flow and diagnostic tools),The…
From Putting People First
Sharp methodological critiques on current Big Data practices
Two methodological critiques on Big Data that caught our attention: In the Financial Times, economist and journalist Tim Harford points out that sampling bias and statistical errors are, if anything, magnified in Big Data research…
From XRDS
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students
From XRDS
Stay weird, stay different
Sean Follmer
From XRDS
Inbox
XRDS Staff
From XRDS
Alice and Bob in the new world
Shashank Agrawal
From XRDS
ACM-W chapters at home and abroad: An initiative on women, not of women
Claudia Schulz
From XRDS
Chronicling ciphers
Jay Patel
From XRDS
The Ph.D. journey: tips from somebody who managed to defend his thesis
Vaggelis Giannikas
From XRDS
Computer science faculty careers at liberal arts colleges
Janet Davis, Jeannie Albrecht, Christine Alvarado, Tzu-Yi Chen, Amy Csizmar Dalal, Sohie Lee
From XRDS
Exception handling evaluation of large APIs
Maria Kechagia
From XRDS
On the evolution of security bugs
Dimitris Mitropoulos
From XRDS
Kristin Lauter on cryptography and mathematics
Shashank Agrawal, Billy RathjeThere are unique challenges posed by cryptography research. This interview examines potential threats to modern security techniques and how to overcome them.
From XRDS
Fully homomorphic encryption: cryptography's holy grail
David J. WuFor more than 30 years, cryptographers have embarked on a quest to construct an encryption scheme that would enable arbitrary computation on encrypted data. Conceptually simple, yet notoriously difficult to achieve…
From XRDS
Encrypted search
Seny KamaraThe need to embed search functionality into every aspect of technology has produced an abundance of information that is difficult to secure. Can advances in cryptography resolve the inherent conflicts of big data?
From XRDS
Secure your data and compute on it, too
Mike RosulekModern cryptography provides techniques to perform useful computations on sensitive data.
From XRDS
Exploring the risks to identity security and privacy in cyberspace
Jason R. C. NurseCyberspace, a world of great promise, but also, of great peril. Pirates, predators, and hackers galore, are you and your online identity at risk in this wild frontier?
From XRDS
The Wrens of Bletchley Park
Michael SmithThe lives and times of the British women who operated Colossus, and their all-important role in events leading to D-Day and the close of the Second World War.
From XRDS
Profile Ian Pratt: pioneering security through virtualization
Adrian Scoică
From XRDS
Cyber security centre: University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Luke Garratt
From XRDS
Ancient and modern cryptography
Finn Kuusisto
From XRDS
Counting stars: pattern counting in networks
Tomaz Hočevar
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification at SAP in May 2015
First example I had heard of a major software company being involved seriously in gamification. With mention of the key analytcs involved. Available soon. Will be fun to see that the pilots are, You can sign up at the link…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
2015 UCLA Summer Institute on Mobile Health Technology Research
Using mobile technologies to more rapidly and accurately assess and modify behavior, biological states and contextual variables has great potential to transform medical research. Recent advances in mobile technologies and the…
From BLOG@CACM
Agile Methods: A Follow-Up ACM Webinar
A follow-up session to the ACM webinar Agile Methods: The Good, the Hype and the Ugly will take place on March 27.