Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2013
From Schneier on Security
Transparency and Accountability
As part of the fallout of the Boston bombings, we're probably going to get some new laws that give the FBI additional investigative powers. As with the Patriot Act after 9/11, the debate over whether these new laws are helpful…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
2013 CSTA Board Election Results Announced
CSTA Election results are announced Congratulations on reelection to Patrice Gans, Dave Reed and new member Stephanie Hoeppner. Oh and I have been elected too. Pretty excited about that.
The Computer Science Teachers Association…From Putting People First
New NESTA paper on good and bad futurology
A new NESTA paper, Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, navigates the myths and realities of good and bad futurology, from economic forecasting to science fiction. Since time immemorial, people have tried to predict the future…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
This Week in Federal Policy
Topics to be addressed in Congressional hearings this week include: internet video, accessibility for people with disabilities, federal computing research, big data, patent reform, copyright reform, automated vehicle technologies…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Competition in Free Cloud Storage
ComputerWorld Reports that Google Drive has increased their free cloud storage to 15 GB. With Skydrive and Dropbox and iCloud and others the space available for no cost continues to expand. Very convenient for syncing between…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pepsi's Touch Tower
Touch Tower, which appears to be Pepsi's response to Coke's Freestyle machines, which now seem to be common but not universal. Coke says there are about 7000 of these in place and are meant to drive demand. We saw the Cokelate…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NBC News Features New Robotics Era
Today, a feature story in the technology section of NBC News, Dawn of the bot? New era nears, experts say, brings additional attention to the exciting future of robotics. Science fiction is quickly taking a back seat to science…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
New Study on Student STEM Interests
I recently came across an interesting publication that looks at patterns in STEM education and it provides some surprising insights into students' interests in STEM education and career pathways.
The report Where are the STEM…From Computational Complexity
Mother's Day Math
Problem: On Mothers day (May 12 this year) restaurants are very crowded because many people take their mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc out to lunch. (Grandparents day is in September but I think most people ignore…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Computer (and Math) Humor
I like this one in part because it is subtle. There are two basic standards for opening the curly brace in C-type languages. Not everyone will pick up on it. Is it important which way you do it? Actually no. It may not even…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Target Team With Facebook
In AdAge: Always looking for ways that big social media can leverage their participants, and this one is interesting. In particular how online can drive in store. " ... Target has partnered with Facebook to build a new digital…
From Schneier on Security
2007 NSA Manual on Internet Hacking
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sending Scent
A long followed idea. We did actual experiments in the space. Can digital scent signatures be transmtted and reconstructed? We found out no at the time. Another attempt at the idea. Still in Beta and looks unlikely, but…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 13 May 2013
Just about a month left of this school year for me. In between trying to keep things going with grading and teaching I’m starting to think about what I want to learn over the summer to use in class next year. Some of the links…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Scraping Tweets to Gather Data
In GigaOM: As one who frequently fumbles about for specific information in a Twitter stream, this looks good. " .... A new beta version of ScraperWiki makes it easy to relatively easy to scrape Twitter for certain phrases I…
From The Eponymous Pickle
PARC Future View
We visited them frequently in the early days of having an information technology research group. In recent years I have heard less from them. Here they are asked about their technological view of the future. No real surprises…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mobile BI Applications
Key steps for Mobile BI applications, a process I am now studying. But it is not only about the devices to be used, but what the decision process is.
From The Eponymous Pickle
When Elevators Phone Home
In GigaOM: This has been described before as the internet of things. But what are the most interesting that this network can do, beyond the obvious? Networking intelligent, analytic things will likely be the next revolution…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wikipedia Change Map
In ArsTechnica: An open source map of changes to the Wikipedia. Had we been successful in building an enterprise wikipedia inspired knowledge map, this could have show how innovation was being developed and spread. It could…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Advances on Group Isomorphism
Finally progress on this annoying problem David Rosenbaum is right now the world expert on one of my favorite problems, group isomorphism. He is a third-year PhD student at the University of Washington in Seattle under Paul Beame…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Origami and Math
In the BBC: Better Origami and the intricate relationship of form in nature and mathematics. " ... Paper folding isn’t just an art, it can help fit everything on spacecraft from solar panels to telescope mirrors. Two scientists…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Death of Statistical Practice
Excerpted from Steve Miller in Information Management:I’m still reeling from the provocative but important new book, “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How Live, Work and Think,” co-authored by Oxford professor Viktor…
From Putting People First
Mozilla’s new UX Quarterly
Mozilla’s user experience research and design team has just published the first Mozilla UX Quarterly. Crystal Beasley, Editor and Product Design Strategist, writes: “My hope is that this will be a tool to spread throughout the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Accepting Mobile Payments
A good overview of mobile payment alternatives. I have utilized a few of these, as a person who takes this kind of payment infrequently.
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Festival in Monterey
It's at the end of May. Note that it's being put on by the Calamari Entertainment Group.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From Schneier on Security
The <i>Onion</i> on Browser Security
Wise advice:
At Chase Bank, we recognize the value of online banking -- it’s quick, convenient, and available any time you need it. Unfortunately, though, the threats posed by malware and identity theft are very real and all…From The Eponymous Pickle
Associative Memories for Complex Data
Saffron Technology provides a new whitepaper (some registration required). I worked with Saffron, and they have unique views of complex data that are worth examining. A Distributed Associative Memory Base for Natural Intelligence…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification of Internal Process
Most examples of gamification have been external facing. Using them to improve engagement with a site, or increase loyalty. Have always been interested in how gamification can be used within a company to improve communications…
From Putting People First
Very successful launch of Experientia’s Talking Design lecture series
Click on image to view slideshow On Wednesday evening about 20 guests and 30 Experientia staff maxed out our little conference room to attend our very first Talking Design lecture and listen to Intel anthropologist Todd Harple…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
How Many Fart Apps Do We Need
The satirical publication TheOnion released a fart application on GitHub. One can add it to their web page and people who visit it will hear fart sounds when they scroll on it. Sophomoric? Obviously. But as an advertising gimmick…