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
Made in the Future
Tim Brown of IDEO announces: Made in the Future. Looks to be of interest:Does changing how you make things change the way you live?The answer is “yes,” according to Made in the Future, an experimental project I collaboratedTo…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
My Students Are Not Me
Sometime in elementary school a teacher taught number bases. I was fascinated. It was interesting. It was fun. It made perfect sense to me. I spent hours converting numbers from one base to another. For some reason base 5 and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blocking the Mobile Augmented Web
A curious example that I was unaware of. I had heard of BuildAR through their partnering with AR company Metaio. Providing AR within standard Web browsers would greatly promote their use. " ... iPhone and iPad users that have…
From Computational Complexity
Favorite Theorems: Extended Formulations
From Writing
Six programming paradigms that will change how you think about coding
Every now and then, I stumble across a programming language that does something so different that it changes how I think about coding. In this post, I want to share some of my favorite finds.This is not your grandma's "functional…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Alfred Yarbus Centenary: Tracking Eye Movement
An intriguing piece on the history of eye movement tracking technologies, via the work of Alfred Yarbus, written by Tim Holmes:" ... These days, we take the ability to track eye-movements and then use them to gain insight into…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Developing Analytic Talent
Just received. A quick look indicated that this is a useful, only mildly technical look at what is being called Data Science. A guide and handbook for anyone interested into the topic. Will review further and post that here…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Flexible Packaging Machines
In AutomationWorld: "Consumer packaged goods companies are responding to retailers' needs for a wide range of goods by using flexible packaging machines that include sensing and communication technology. "Retailers are requiring…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sensors by Apple
What apple is doing with sensors. An overview of techniques, companies and people involved in sensor systems that could show up in Apple products.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Charting Global Negotation Styles
Some charted visual examples of cultural negotiation styles ...The charts sometimes seem like caricatures, interesting, but I would not bet on them. They do perhaps at most demonstrate that countries and cultures are different…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Rolls Out New Look to “CS Bits & Bytes”
The following is a special contribution to this blog by Gera Jochum. Jochum is the Communications Specialist for the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The…
From Schneier on Security
Heartbleed
Heartbleed is a catastrophic bug in OpenSSL: "The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used…
From Putting People First
Ethnography in action at Wells Fargo
Only a few years ago, the corporate view of retirement planning at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank tended to focus on dollars and cents — how much an individual needed to invest, by when and for how many years,” write Julien…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Don’t Just Grab the Wheel, Ask the Driver to Turn
We’re learning about classes and related topics like data hiding and using methods rather than public data in my programming class these days. One of the students asked why we couldn’t just access public data from calling programs…
From Putting People First
Tell me a story: augmented reality technology in museums
Museums around the world today face the challenge of increasing and maintaining visitor numbers, especially with younger audiences. A fall in visitors is seen by most as a negative outcome, both financially and in terms of wider…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computing Innovation in Neuroscience: Post from a CIFellow Alumnus
The following is a special contribution to this blog by Ian Stevenson. Stevenson was a 2011-2013 Computing Innovation Fellow (CIFellow) at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Glass at Work
In GigaOM: A better market than with consumers? " ... You might not see many consumers wearing Google Glass just yet but I have a hunch you’ll start seeing people in businesses with the wearable display on their heads. Google…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Changing the Organizational Leaders
In McKinsey: How do you make leaders aware of the need to change themselves in new contexts? Not easily done. " ... Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, famously wrote, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Updates on ChoreMonster
A former colleague's startup, new updates:" ... ChoreMonster, the platform that wants to encourage your kids to do their household tasks by rewarding them for achieving goals, has today released a major update for its Web and…
From BLOG@CACM
The Benefits of Working on Research As An Undergraduate Student
This article presents three practical benefits of working on research as an undergraduate student.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Making a Microscope Out of Paper
An interesting example of how devices can be redesigned in unexpected ways. Here a microscope made out of paper. An example of how remote 3D manufacture might require this kind of innovative design.
From Schneier on Security
"Unbreakable" Encryption Almost Certainly Isn't
This headline is provocative: "Human biology inspires 'unbreakable' encryption." The article is similarly nonsensical: Researchers at Lancaster University, UK have taken a hint from the way the human lungs and heart constantly…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Summer Hackers Immersion Program 2014
Mike Zamansky announced this program on his blog yesterday. (Announcing SHIP) It sounds amazing. It’s being run at St Joseph’s College in Brooklyn and is for students from all over New York City. Mike and his team are amazing…
From Putting People First
[Book] A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences
A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton & Whitney Quesenbery Rosenfeld Media, 2013 288 pages In their new book, A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, Sarah Horton and Whitney…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger is #3 In InformationWeek
Via Robert Migliara: Retailer Kroger is #3 in the 2014 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winners. (My former enterprise is #75)
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digital Receipts
In Supermarket News: Simple idea. For loyalty purchases only. Searchable. I recall a number of test shoppers asking for this capability. At ShopRite.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Computer Science as a School District Marketing Tool
We are seeing many indications these days that administrators are realizing that a strong computer science curriculum for students is a critical aspect of providing high quality education. Now it seems that school district are…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data Roundtable Replay
Last week attended my first Spreecast for an IBM Big Data Roundtable. You can see a replay of the entire event. An overview of impressions by practitioners, sellers and observers of the evolution of the technology. Not a introduction…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Dealing with an Always On IT Culture
In CWorld: It is clearly a culture. It is learned in school now, and at home, and utilizes multiple strata of communications and analysis and alerting capabilities. It blurs the state of business versus personal activity.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facebook and Advertising
In AdAge: Came up in a recent conversation. How can Facebook drive advertising? And in particular, how do they appeal to the small and medium sized business?