Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2011
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Science of Retailing: Assortment Planning
Today at UC, Heard Marshall Fisher talk about work in chapter 2 of his book: The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance which covers assortment planning. In the book…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Noise Pollution and Squid
It literally blows holes in their heads:
In the study, led by Michel Andr
From Schneier on SecurityFriday Squid Blogging: Squids in Space
There are live squids on the last Endeavor mission.
From Geeking with GregThe value of Google Maps directions logs
Ooo, this one is important. A clever and very fun paper, "Hyper-Local, Direction-Based Ranking of Places" (PDF), will be presented at VLDB 2011 later this year by a few Googlers. The core idea is that, when people ask for directions…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACMSony-Prompted Hearing Features Testimony from USACM Chair
Prompted by the massive data breaches of Sony's networks, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing May 3 on data theft and its effects on consumers. One…
From Wild WebMink? Special 301
I’ve read the USTR‘s Special 301 report so you don’t have to. The worrying conclusions are over on ComputerWorldUK.
From Schneier on SecurityForged Memory
A scary development in rootkits:
Rootkits typically modify certain areas in the memory of the running operating system (OS) to hijack execution control from the OS. Doing so forces the OS to present inaccurate results to detection…
From The Eponymous PickleGoogle Talks Location Strategy
In Fast Company, well worth understanding: Marissa Mayer Talks Location Strategy: The longtime VP tells us how a simple call for a pizza delivery influences the company's thinking on local products and searching.
From The Computing Community Consortium BlogNLM:
The National Library of Medicine has announced a software development challenge, seeking innovative software applications that use the library’s vast and free biomedical data. The goal is to further the agency’s “mission of supporting…
From The Eponymous PickleNearBuy Systems
Another example of location based interaction with retail and warehouse:" ... There are many business situations when you need to know
From Schneier on SecurityStolen Camera Finder
Here's a clever Web app that locates your stolen camera by searching the EXIF data on public photo databases for your camera's serial number.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonTeaching Students To Create Their Own Business
One of the things that I tell students when I do career talks is that it has never been easier to start a software business than it is today. Many great companies have been started in hard economic times (Microsoft for example)…
From BLOG@CACMWhen Everything Is Embarrassing: Designing With Teenage Girls
A discussion of the difficulties of conducting user-centered design with teenage girls.
From The Eponymous PickleFuzzy Look up In Excel
Something I could have used a long time ago, an add-in that does fuzzy look up in Excel. Thanks.
From The Eponymous PickleMobile Business Intelligence from Tableau
I continue to be impressed by Tableau's easy to use BI system, now providing mobile solutions, and touch interaction:" ... Tableau 6.1 provides many new and exciting capabilities to the Tableau products. Tableau 6.1 introduces…
From The Eponymous PickleWhy is Tesco Struggling in the US?
From the BBC: It is not quite so quick and easy as Tesco struggles in US. Some details.
From Computer Science Teachers AssociationChoosing Conference Sessions
The CS&IT Annual Conference is coming up and I am getting more excited all the time. As a computer science teacher, it's always been the best professional development I attend, as every session has something designed for teaching…
From Schneier on SecurityExtreme Authentication
Exactly how did they confirm it was Bin Laden's body?
Officials compared the DNA of the person killed at the Abbottabad compound with the bin Laden "family DNA" to determine that the 9/11 mastermind had in fact been killed,It…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonKodu Cup Submission Deadline is May 10th 2011
Just a reminder that the submission deadline for the Microsoft Kodu Cup is next week on May 10th, 2011.
There is still time to create a new game with Kodu and you could win $5,000 for yourself and your school and lots of…
From Computational ComplexityHow has the STRUCTURES, OH- I mean CCC Conference changed: Lets look at the Call For Papers
Complexity theory has changed over the years. How to really track these things? One way is to look at the list of topics on the Call For papers for the CCC conference (called STRUCTURES until the name changed, another sign of…
From Wild WebMink? Interference
Canada still in copyright “hall of shame” according to the US The US interference in the copyright policies of other countries – in order to create a benefit for US businesses – would be considered scandalous if it was, say,…
From The Eponymous PickleSMI Gaze Ware
Another eye-tracking system, here from SMI Vision, brought to my attention that is worth looking at. Listening to the buzz in the enterprise there is increasing interest in really understanding and leveraging the efficiency…
From Schneier on SecurityOsama's Death Causes Spike in Suspicious Package Reports
It's not that the risk is greater, it's that the fear is greater. Data from New York:
There were 10,566 reports of suspicious objects across the five boroughs in 2010. So far this year, the total was 2,775 as of Tuesday compared…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonMid Atlantic Developer Expo is Coming!
This event looks interesting. If you are in the mid-Atlantic (say around Virginia) and interested in a local, reasonably prices and potentially seriously educational conference about software development and more you will want…
From The Eponymous PickleLicensing Bar Code Scanning
Good piece in ReadWriteWeb on how ShopSavvy is successfully licensing capability to others, making the capability widely available on mobile. I have mentioned in previous posts that their latest capabilities for rapid retail…
From The Eponymous PickleOnions and Oil Prices
A colleague and I had a discussion about gasoline and oil pricing, and then I found this interesting post by M. J. Perry on Onions and Oil Pricing. What causes the volatility? Read their comments also.
From The Eponymous PickleFive Big Brands Betting on Social Gaming
Good examples in Mashable of the current use of gaming by some big brands:
"... Skeptics of social gaming for business purposes exist, but that
From The Eponymous PickleArtificial Intelligence Needs a Reboot?
I am inclined to agree, having worked in practical application of its ideas from the late 70s through the 80s. It needs to be fundamentally re-thought. Formal logic and even huge sets of fuzzy rules are not sufficient except…
From The Eponymous PickleCinci Business Intelligence Group Meeting
Sent by Subrata Debnath: of Analysis Express.Subrata Debnath found Cincinnati Business Intelligence Group - Business Social, Sponsored by Endeca on LinkedIn Events and thought you might be interested in going!http://events.linkedin…
From The Computing Community Consortium BlogCalling for 2011-12 Computing Innovation Fellows
Today, the Computing Community Consortium, a standing committee of