Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2012
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Glasses
Much in the news: Google Glasses. The not new, but apparently improved idea of putting displays into glasses that are location aware and connected. As I mentioned before, an idea we worked with a number of times for internal…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DoE to Launch
Later today, the Department of Energy (DoE) — together with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Itron, and Gridwise Alliance — will
From Schneier on Security
JetBlue Captain Clayton Osbon and Resilient Security
This is the most intelligent thing I've read about the JetBlue incident where a pilot had a mental breakdown in the cockpit:
For decades, public safety officials and those who fund them have focused on training and equipment…From Putting People First
Imperialist Tendencies, Part 2: A Backgrounder for Corporate Design Research
Jan Chipchase, Frog Design’s Executive Creative Director for Global Insights, continues his argumentation on the importance of corporate design research. After a somewhat confusing introduction (it’s very much for insiders),…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Women In Computer Science
Years ago, when I was a student at Taylor University (in what is now the Taylor Computer Science and Engineering department) there were more women in computer science than there are today. The women did as well as the men under…
From Putting People First
Project Glass, new disruptive interface concept by Google
Google released a YouTube video Wednesday showing the everyday uses of “Project Glass,” wrap-around virtual reality glasses with all the qualities of a smartphone
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Google unveiled details about its Project Glass initiative Wednesday, attracting quite a bit of buzz in the popular press. In a Google+ post co-authored by Babak Parviz, Steve Lee, and
From Computer Science Teachers Association
CSTA 2012 Board of Directors Election is Underway
The election for six open CSTA Board positions began on Wednesday, April 4 and will continue until May 2. If you are a CSTA member, you should have received an email on April 4 from ElectionBuddy, the online election service…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Talking to Data
In the CACM: " ... Some companies on the cutting edge of technology are combining data streaming with advanced data-analytics methods that let them tie information they already possess to what is happening now.... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualization and Dynamic Analysis
Stephen Few writes a useful piece. what do good interactions for visual analysis look like?:Interactive Dynamics for Visual AnalysisJeff Heer of Stanford University and Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland have co-authored…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytic Bridge Buzz Site for Data Science
New: Greenplum
From The Eponymous Pickle
Supply Chain Executives Talk
You are invited to attend the next OBAIS seminar scheduled on Friday, April 6, 1:30 PM in Lin 111, by Prof. Vinod Singhal from Georgia Institute of Technology, on an empirical investigation of firm performance and appointments…
From Schneier on Security
The Battle for Internet Governance
Good article on the current battle for Internet governance:
The War for the Internet was inevitable -- a time bomb built into its creation. The war grows out of tensions that came to a head as the Internet grew to serve populations…From The Eponymous Pickle
Psychology of Social Engagement
In Fastcompany: This is a bit pop psychology oriented, but worth examination. How much is our psychology changing as we communicate in radically new ways?
From Putting People First
Experientia working towards ECOFAMILIES
Experientia is partnering with the Centre Scientifique et Technique du B
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NPR Hosts Conversation About Last Week
NPR’s
From Putting People First
The UK Government
The UK Government has published an alpha release of its digital design principles with examples of how they have been used so far. 1. Start with needs 2. Do less 3. Design with data 4. Do the hard work to make it simple 5. Iterate…
From Putting People First
The elements of navigation
Petter Silfver, an interaction designer from Stockholm (Sweden), has published an article on Smashing Magazine on “the tiniest of details that goes into creating the main centerpiece of your digital product
From Putting People First
On Facebook, some friendly energy rivalry
Opower [is a company] that blends behavioral science and data analysis to find ways to help utilities get their customers to use less electricity. [Their] thinking is that it
From Putting People First
Capturing user research
Jim Ross, Principal of Design Research at Electronic Ink, provides a good technical overview on the methods of capturing information during user research.
From Putting People First
Transformative UX
Markus Latzina, SAP AG, and Joerg Beringer, SAP Labs, LLC. have republished an article they have written for Interactions Magazine on the Transformative User Experience. “Instead of designing for many discrete applications, the…
From Putting People First
Book: Cross-Cultural Technology Design
Cross-Cultural Technology Design Creating Culture-Sensitive Technology for Local Users by Huatong Sun Hardback, 352 pages Oxford University Press – Feb 2012 [Amazon link] The demand and opportunity for cross-cultural technology…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
2012 US Imagine Cup People
The voting is now open for the US Imagine Cup People
From Schneier on Security
Lost Smart Phones and Human Nature
Symantec deliberately "lost" a bunch of smart phones with tracking software on them, just to see what would happen:
Some 43 percent of finders clicked on an app labeled "online banking." And 53 percent clicked on a filed named…From The Eponymous Pickle
Printable Paper Robots
A simple idea. An MIT project that aims to create such devices by 2017. Directionally interesting, but does not seem to be very practical. Though as the example suggests, disposable mobile sensors might be the ideal initial…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Lecturing for a First Year Programming Class
I gave a guest lecture at Carleton last week. It was for the first programming class that both computer science and non-major students take, taught using Processing. I seized the opportunity to use some of my somewhat less conventional…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Y Online Shopping Mall
The Big Y Marketplace debuts. The idea has been tried a number of times in the past, not to particular success. Being a single place aggregator for online experiences and linking loyalty rewards. Will be useful to track.…
From Schneier on Security
Law Enforcement Forensics Tools Against Smart Phones
Turns out the password can be easily bypassed:
XRY works by first jailbreaking the handset. According to Micro Systemation, no
From The Computing Community Consortium BlogNSF Announces New Expeditions in Computing Awards
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) today announced four new Expeditions in Computing awards, providing each selected project team up to $10 million…
From Daniel Lemire's BlogIt is what you do, not what you own
Over 20 years ago, back when I was in high school, I went on a sailboat trip. I was so impressed that I decided to own a sailboat one day. I realized that a sailboat was expensive, and I guess I thought that owning a boat would…