Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2013
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
House Intelligence Committee Tries Again With CISPA
On April 10 the House Intelligence Committee will review H.R. 624, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. The Committee approved an almost identical bill last year, and USACM released a statement expressing serious…
From My Biased Coin
Guest Post by Mikkel Thorup : Results vs. Techniques
[Mikkel Thorup graciously has offered a guest blog post, discussing what he looks for in conference papers, and possible implications for refereeing.] Results versus Techniques (Mikkel Thorup)-------------------------When I go…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Design Advantages of Augmented Reality
Last fall, we published a paper about augmented reality, cognitive theories, and learning. One of the tasks of the work was to specifically define what the design advantages of augmented reality are. I'd like to share our list…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Robotics Week: Free Robotics App
IEEE Spectrum tells us that this week is Robotics week. In honor of that they are offering a free App that covers many aspects of Robotics research and application. Great way to get up to speed/ I paid a few dollars when IMore…
From Schneier on Security
Nice Security Mindset Example
A real-world one-way function:
Alice and Bob procure the same edition of the white pages book for a particular town, say Cambridge. For each letter Alice wants to encrypt, she finds a person in the book whose last name starts…From Wild WebMink
How to increase donations to an open source project
Reblogged from Ian Skerrett: Lots of open source projects raise money from their user communities by soliciting donations. Most open source projects will have the 'Support' or 'Make a Donation' button on their home page or…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Driven Programming
In Adage: An emerging era for data driven programming. Programming media, not programming computers. Not really new, we explored this for decades, optimizing the application of ads to TV, then to online experiences. The article…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The 2013 Data 2.0 Summit
The Data 2.0 Summit will be held in San Francisco at the end of the month (April 30th 2013). Some of the speakers might interest the readers of this blog. For example, Alan Keahey from IBM is famous for his work on fisheye views…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Symposium on Visions on the Theory of Computing
In conjunction with the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, we are pleased to announce that registration is now open for a Symposium on Visions on the Theory of Computing. The Symposium will be held May 29-31 at the…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Lecture, Demo, Project
Or perhaps hear, see, do? I was asked about my teaching last week. What would my ideal class period look like. It was as they say a thinker. What I have been trying to do this semester was to mix things up a bit. Straight lecture…
From Schneier on Security
Bitcoins in the Mainstream Media
Interesting article from the New Yorker.
I'm often asked what I think about bitcoins. I haven't analyzed the security, but what I have seen looks good. The real issues are economic and political, and I don't have the expertise…From Putting People First
Book: Service Design by Industrial Designers
Service Design by Industrial Designers By Froukje Sleeswijk Visser Technical University Delft 2013, 104 pages Design practice is changing. The applications of design skills, knowledge, activities and processes seem to become…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Plan for Big Data
In McKinsey Quarterly: A good piece about planning for Big Data projects and value. The detailed article makes a considerable parallel to strategic planning methods. I quote only a final paragraph: " ... When a plan is…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
It's a Rosie the Riveter Moment!
Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni, Stanford University computer science students who refer to themselves as "good girls gone geek," are the founders of she++.
She++ is a catchy title, exciting challenge, and cleaver ideas for …From Daniel Lemire's Blog
We are sentenced to permanent cognitive stretching
If you want to get better at something, should remain in your comfort zone? Or should you, rather, be exposed to ideas or techniques slightly beyond your reach? It should be self-evident that the latter is the correct answer:…
From Schneier on Security
Elite Panic
I hadn't heard of this term before, but it's an interesting one. The excerpt below is from an interview with Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster:
The term…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Best Reviews & Notable Books and Articles of 2012
Computing Reviews (an ACM/ThinkLoud publication) has released the 2012 Best Reviews & Notable Books and Articles in Computer Science. The Best Review of 2012 is the review of The Universal Computer by George Hacken. Read the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Business Intelligence in Contexts
An area I am currently exploring again here a Good overview article. As the article suggests, there are benefits and barriers. In early tests, we sought to have methods that could scan an item at shelf edge and do visual product…
From Apophenia
Addressing Human Trafficking: Guidelines for Technological Interventions
Two years ago, when I started working on issues related to human trafficking and technology, I was frustrated by how few people recognized the potential of technology to help address the commercial sexual exploitation of children…
From Wild WebMink
Joining Open Invention Network
Reblogged from Meshed Insights & Knowledge: Open Invention Network is a novel company formed to operate patent defenses for open source developers. It owns a number of patents relevant to key open source technologies, runs a…
From Computational Complexity
Is the rule of threes a meta-urban legend?
Roger Ebert died on April 4, 2013 Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, 2013. I have heard the urban legend that celebrities die in threes.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Zero TV Homes
I lived in such a home through graduate school. Even in the early days of working at a large company whose business was built directly through TV media. Of course its not the same thing today. It seems most of these people…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Keep the Data Scientists Happy
Whatever they really are. This is not unusual for more creative employees. You have to balance focus with creativity. And seek creative ways to measure it. I would add the ability to collaborate internally and externally to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualization Apps for Office 365
Overview of their recent Visualization Apps development. A friend had mentioned to me that there have been considerable updates for Excel data visualization. Used Excel that way for years since the data was typically already…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bring Your Own Device to Work
This article and slide show touts it as the new normal. We experimented with the concept for years. Security issues remain. It still makes the IT groups nervous, as all lack of control does. Though it has become more common…
From Schneier on Security
Government Use of Hackers as an Object of Fear
Interesting article about the perception of hackers in popular culture, and how the government uses the general fear of them to push for more power:
But these more serious threats don't seem to loom as large as hackers in the…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 8 April 2013
According to the daffodils in the front of the house it really is spring. A small pile of snow in my backyard is fighting but I think it is doomed to failure. I just finished a quarter at school and getting my grades finishes…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Democracy for the Little Guy
In GigaOM: It points to two items mentioned here. Intuit's pushing the idea of an era of big data for the little guy. And also data visualization techniques that aim to make understanding data easier. and thus analytics easier…
From CERIAS Blog
On Competitions and Competence
This is a follow-up to my last post here, about the "cybersecurity profession" and education. I was moderating one of the panels at the most recent CERIAS Symposium, and a related topic came up.
Let's start with some short mental…From The Eponymous Pickle
Hacking Design
My favorite UK correspondent points me to a BBC World News video. ' ... "Hacking" has become a little-known, but fast-developing trend in the design world, involving online design communities interacting to reinvent and create…