Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2014
From Apophenia
Is the Oculus Rift sexist? (plus response to criticism)
Last week, I wrote a provocative opinion piece for Quartz called “Is the Oculus Rift sexist?” I’m reposting it on my blog for posterity, but also because I want to address some of the critiques that I received. First, the piece…
From My Biased Coin
Postdocs in Copenhagen
I apologize for the short notice, but my occasional co-author Rasmus Pagh is looking for postdocs for a big data project he recently had funded, with an application deadline on April 14th. For more information, you can seethis…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Announces Irene Qualters as Division Director of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure
On April 3, 2014, Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate, released the following letter to the community: Dear Colleagues…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Storytelling with Data
Good thoughts. Telling the story beyond what actually happened. That's good, but how do you also allow interaction and ensure objectivity? And connect to analytic tools? My concern with a story is that it is by its nature,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Analytics Handbook
In process, being developed by young students. Free with registration. " .... We're a group of UC Berkeley students and we're launching the Pt.1of our handbook series! We interviewed a group of Data Analysts and Data Scientists…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Managing Business Intelligence
In TDWI: A good goal and a graphic that brings a number of important issues to mind. But does not emphasize the key issue: How does the Intelligence map with key business processes? Good points: " ... Managing big-picture…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Stopping Brainstorming
Most of my career was delineated by brainstorming to do innovation in many contexts. This is an interesting anti brainstorming view. I agree that sticky voting was overplayed and sometimes it is just better to walk a woodland…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmented Reality Using Physical Maps
An augmented reality game that uses physical maps. We examined an application that had similarities, well before the smartphone era. It explored and utilized blue prints and knowledge maps using an image scanning device. The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Innovates in Asia, Opens Singapore Innovation Center
Another new center to add to dozens more global centers. See here for earlier innovation center coverage in this blog. The full article is a fairly detailed view. In Consumer Goods Technology:P&G Accelerates Innovation in Asia…
From Writing
So long, and thanks for all the t-shirts
In 2009, I joined LinkedIn as a Software Engineer. 5 years, 25 t-shirts, 50 hackdays, 4000 employees, several hundred million members, a billion dollars in revenue, and 1 IPO later, I'm moving on to my next play. My last dayLinkedIn…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
NJ CSTA Chapters Join Forces!
CSTA-Central NJ and CSTA-Northern NJ are working together with their advocacy efforts. A few members from each chapter focus on state-wide advocacy. The mission of this small advocacy group (CSNJ) is to establish K-12 Computer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
First CPG Brand Using In-Store Beacon from InMarket
After I mentioned iBeacon, I was sent a link to an example of a CPG in store use, appears to be the first major CPG brand doing this beyond test. InMarket's Mobile to Mortar Beacon. Again, consider the potential data from…
From Geeking with Greg
Quick links
What has caught my attention lately:
From The Eponymous Pickle
Practical Operational Details on iBeacon: An emergent Minority Report?
Covered here previously. ClickZ provides some additional details. I don't see it as revolutionary but its origin has made many people pay attention. This article presents an outline of operational details at the management…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Making Sense of Big Data
In Baseline: Regarding my favorite topic, how important visualization is to analytics. While here the term Big Data is heavily used, the idea is broader than that. Visualization is always the best first step in understanding…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Expansion of Wal-Mart Labs
On expansions of Wal-Mart Labs. I like to think that our many conversations with Wla-Mart led to some of the ideas and directions seen here. " .... One of the major projects this team is developing is our global platform, one…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Short Guide to Mobile Computing
In ClickZ: A short marketers guide to mobile computing. Nicely done, covers a number of issues I had not seen stated.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cisco Cloud Investment
Cisco makes cloud investments. " ... Cisco Systems says it will launch a cloud effort with a $1 billion investment over the next two years, including construction of data centers and the introduction of hosted services for businesses…
From BLOG@CACM
Exciting Follow-up With an ACM-W Scholarship Recipient
It's exciting to see how these scholarships can shape careers.
From Schneier on Security
Ephemeral Apps
Ephemeral messaging apps such as Snapchat, Wickr and Frankly, all of which advertise that your photo, message or update will only be accessible for a short period, are on the rise. Snapchat and Frankly, for example, claim they…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Too Much Forgiveness
I’m teaching a little web development to my freshmen this week. Not a lot – it’s not a web development course – just enough to give them some idea of what is behind the screen. I’ve had students create a very simple profile page…
From updated sporadically at best
Run Your Research Demo Site on the Cloud
Last week, Travis Hance and I spent hours wading through the many blog posts of the internet to figure out how to set up a simple conference management site running on our Jeeves language. Because we want to spare you thisdefinitive…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Topic Modeling in Machine Learning
I see that David Blei has been given the ACM-InfoSys award. In reading about his work in textual analysis I saw this was related to work we had done in 'content analysis' years ago, analyzing text from consumer comments. But…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On New TV Experiences and Technology
In AdAge; I am late to the use of smart HD TVs. Started an experimental look at how shoppers could experience TV programming, both broadcast and on demand, and simultaneously interact with the content and fellow watchers. Also…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Wait Wait… Don’t Fool Me!
It’s that time of year again Altered from NPR source. Faadosly Polir is back in contact with us. We have encountered him before, but this time he has company. He has teamed up with two well-known radio personalities to launch…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Wait Wait… Don’t Fool Me!
It’s that time of year again Altered from NPR source. Faadosly Polir is back in contact with us. We have encountered him before, but this time he has company. He has teamed up with two well-known radio personalities to launch…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Talent Analytics
Brought to my attention. Talent Analytics. Via Mike Kennedy. " ... Our unique dataset measures innate employee characteristics tied to business performance. Our cloud base Rapid Data Collection (RDC) methodology gathers and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building Commerce Anywhere Models
In Retailwire: Good overview of the topic. It is the big retailers that are starting to understand and leverage this." ... The classic multi-channel retail business model has recently been eclipsed by a "commerce anywhere" approach…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Seeking Deep Neighborhood Data
In Progressive Grocer: what we often discovered, data is not complete enough to effectively leverage. Its not only about siting, as covered here. Answer is to integrate other kinds of data. So the 'Big' here is not volume…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
DARPA Launches New Biological Technologies Office
Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the launch of a new office that will merge biology, engineering, and computer science to harness the power of natural systems for national security. The Biological…