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 The Eponymous Pickle
AR TV and Programming
In Mashable: Augmented television. " ... A new venture in television created by a San Francisco-based startup combines web content with television programming in a way that makes information-rich viewing experiences nearly seamless…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Extreme Scale Design Automation
The following is a special contribution to this blog by Josep Torrellas, Professor at the Departments of Computer Science and (by courtesy) Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign…
From Schneier on Security
A New Pencil-and-Paper Encryption Algorithm
Handycipher is a new pencil-and-paper symmetric encryption algorithm. I'd bet a gazillion dollars that it's not secure, although I haven't done the cryptanalysis myself....
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 28 April 2014
I’m officially on vacation this week. I’m not sure if there will be an interesting links post next week as I plan to take some time off of the Internet. In the mean time a couple of things I collected last week.
One big piece…From Computational Complexity
The Big bang Theory hits close to home
On a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory Sheldon gives up String theory because, after working on it for 20 years, he has nothing to show for his efforts. I have been asked `is anyone working on P vs NP or have they given …
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM and MS, Building on their Legacies
I attended some of these announcements this past week. How much does this change the direction of mega IT companies? Not too much I think. In GigaOM: A somewhat critical view. With pointers to new things coming. But the need…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blogging Today
An interesting view of how blogging has changed. What we have gained and lost. I have blogged, sometimes in several places, for several companies, from nearly the beginning. It has led me to many new things, and has led to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Oculus Neuro Gaming
Have had several conversations recently about the Oculus virtual reality system. A head mounted, but very visible form of wearable computing. So what is all the excitement versus Google Glass? Funding has increased?
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Views of Millennials
I like to see attempts at segmentation of population groups, especially with regard to their commercial habits. But also have considerable caution about the use of the data. Apparently millennials are frugal, based on their…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Institute of Human and Machine Cognition
I was just reminded of the IHMC. Who we worked with for several years experimenting with the capture of internal and customer knowledge. " ... Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition ... The Florida Institute for…
From Putting People First
The challenge of the car interface
Three articles – all published on Medium – confront the challenge of designing an effective car user interface: The State of In-Car UX by Geoff Teehan, Teehan+Lax No matter the price or the brand, the interfaces that adorn today…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Losing the Journal
One of my earliest analytics tasks was to look at the effect of alternative magazine article ads. So this was sad to see: " ... Sad Ending to the Ladies' Home Journal Era .... The magazine was once prestigious enough that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Delivering TV over the Internet
In Adage: " .... In the race to deliver TV over the Internet, Charlie Ergen's Dish Network Corp. is pulling ahead. And that may have implications for marketers and other media companies that have grown familiar with Mr. Ergen's…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building Long Lasting Authority
Very useful short piece. Is often brought up as key achievement: 5 Ways to Build Long-Lasting Authorityby John Jantsch
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Search Visual History
In Engadget: A mostly visual view of changes in Google search. A reminder of how the search giant has involved from Google? to a common verb. Also an indicator how how changes may drive it forward in newways. Many of us…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Selection of R Books and Resources
A good review of R books and online resources, several of which I have taken a look at. As usual these days, you don't have to buy a book to get quality information.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft Acquires Nokia
Microsoft completes $7.2B acquisition of Nokia
As expected, sets up 'Microsoft Mobile' subsidiary based in Finland ...
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: New Squid Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
It's called "Tentacles." As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile Payments Future
Are mobile payments finally ready to take off? In Bain, a survey. " ... We think that’s about to change, given an unprecedented rise in the momentum among consumers and investors—providing that the players can overcome the
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Manipulation Tricks in R
Often the most difficult things to do in a new language is manipulating data in a fairly straight forward manner. Then you can build upward from a set of simple steps. Here a good tutorial for the beginner using R in CWorld…
From Apophenia
Rekindling my blogging practice: Why I’m part of “The Message” on Medium
When I started blogging in 1997, it was a social practice. It was something that my friend Andrew and I started doing connected to an independent study that we were taking at Brown. As a result, we read each other’s work and…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
So Many Myths About Teens and Computing
For the last year and a half I have been back in the classroom as a full-time teacher. It’s a lot of fun working with the students. It’s been a bit eye-opening though about what young people can and cannot do with computers. …
From Putting People First
Why VC firms are snapping up designers
Irene Au, former head of Google’s User Interaction Team, is the latest designer to make her way to a venture capital firm. Here’s why VCs are so hot for designers and how consumers could ultimately benefit from the trend. “It’s…
From Putting People First
There’s a backlash against nudging – but it was never meant to solve every problem
Sceptics fail to grasp that this is a strategy that improves lives while treating citizens with dignity – unlike coercion, argues Cass Sunstein. It is true that nudges are not a sufficient approach to some of our most serious…
From Putting People First
What if doctors could prescribe behavior change?
Doctors have known for decades that, in order to prevent disease or its complications, they were going to have to get into people’s living rooms and convince them to change everyday behaviors that would very likely kill them.…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Galactic Sorting Networks
An improved sorting network to appear at STOC 2014 Teaching page source Michael Goodrich is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California at Irvine, and recently served a year as Chair of the UCI Computer Science Department…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Dealing with Bad News
Former P&G CIO and MS Exec Bob Herbold writes about how to deal with bad news. In particular to be sure it is reported on and dealt with. " ... The recent sequence of massive vehicle recalls by General Motors, started bySee…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Improving Application Support and Maintenance
In CIO: A good overview on the topic, often done haphazardly. " ... It is hardly surprising—given the overriding emphasis on creating new apps, supporting existing ones, and preventing future app problems—that nearly nine in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon App for Sellers
Have been involved in selling on Amazon for some time .... So understand the implications .... Automates a number of things sellers often do manually, considerable value here to examine. In Mashable: A Seller App." ... Amazon…
From Writing
Bitcoin by analogy
.bitcoin-message { padding: 7px; border: 1px solid #000; -webkit-border-radius: 8px; -moz-border-radius: 8px; border-radius: 8px; width: auto; margin: 3px auto; font-family: monospace;Hackers…