Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2011
From The Eponymous Pickle
Similar Image Search
A good introduction to similar image search in Google, here applied to specific sites.
From Putting People First
Enchanted Objects: The next wave of the web
David Rose (LinkedIn), CEO of Vitality (where he works on healthy behavior change) and lecturer at MIT Media Lab (and former CEO of Ambient Devices), gave a talk recently at TEDxBerkeley on how magic anticipates ubiquitous computing…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Do We Really Want Digital Textbooks?
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From Putting People First
What is Your Influence Score?
Imagine a world in which we are assigned a number that indicates how influential we are. This number would help determine whether you receive a job, a hotel-room upgrade or free samples at the supermarket. If your influence score…
From Putting People First
IBM reveals untapped mobile users of the future
Consumers have a growing appetite for health and wellness gadgets and this represents a burgeoning market opportunity for device manufacturers that has barely been tapped, according to a study from IBM. “There’s a huge group…
From Putting People First
Activate 2011: Technology powered by people
Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS, reports on how Activate 2011, the one-day conference in London on technology and development, made clear it’s not just about technology, but who uses it and how. “As the day…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Adventures in NUI Part 1
Yesterday I was giving a career talk to a group from Year Up in Microsoft
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Seeing Gaming in a New Light: Games for Change Festival 2011
I just got back from New York City for my first visit to the Games for Change Festival. In its eighth year, this year
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Sock Monkey Meets Policy Man
Sock Monkey met Cameron Wilson, ACM Director of Public Policy, at a meeting Cameron organized for several of the organizations working on K12 learning standards. The purpose of the meeting was to brief these organizations on …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shopper Engagement Study
I am late to this but see the POPAI Shopper Engagement Study." ... Nearly 95% of decisions are made by the subconscious mind. Yet when it comes to understanding how the minds of today
From The Eponymous Pickle
Chrome Book: Future or the Past
I asked for a review copy of the Google Chromebook. Still waiting. A sleek new concept of a laptop, which contains no disk drive and little memory. Support hardware for the Chrome browser, with the Cloud nearby. Samsung…
From CERIAS Blog
Bullies, Pirates and Lulz
Yet another breach of information has occurred, this time from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. A large amount of data about law enforcement operations was exposed, as was a considerable amount of personnel information…
From Computational Complexity
Blog Redesign
We redesigned the blog to use the newest Blogger features. This lets me not have to maintain the 2002 html code we had before and lets us have some new features like adding comments directly on the post page. We, of course,…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-06-25
JK Rowling reignites DRM debate (Wired UK) Fascinating use of power here by Rowling that has the potential to really change the eBook and DRM markets if others with her power follow suit. (tags: DRM Books Author Kindle) Light…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Stupidity is Contageous
In the WSJ: People feel and act smart if the are shown examples of intelligence. If they can identify or compare themselves to the examples they see. But as you often see in these kinds of social science studies, the sample…
From The Eponymous Pickle
All Passwords Are Weak
Depressing thoughts in this Tech Review article. Only one-time generated passwords are particularly strong. Will we all be condemned to remember all those passwords forever? Or use fingerprint or iris scans?
From The Noisy Channel
InSecret: A LinkedIn Hackday Master Tries Something Different
LinkedIn Hackdays are an awesome opportunity for innovation — learn more about them here. But first check out this unusual entry by Hackday master Dhananjay Ragade, whose previous hacks include the LinkedIn Year in Review: Don’t…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Advertising Value Equivalents
In the WSJ blog: The Numbers Guy, by Carl Bialik: Now Much is this Blog Post Worth? Addressing how in the rush to measure things, quantitative measures are often assigned to things that are just not quantifiable. Here discussed are…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Eating Humboldt Squid
Chris Cosentino, chef at Incanto in San Francisco, wants to serve you Humboldt squid.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
First Person:
A very impressive group of people came to CMU
From My Biased Coin
Probability Assignments Using Set
I'm gearing up for teaching my graduate course on randomized algorithms and probabilistic analysis next semester. It's been a while since I've taught it, and I'm somewhat uncertain what to do with the course, precisely since…
From Schneier on Security
Selling a Good Reputation on eBay
Here's someone who is selling positive feedback on eBay:
Hello, for sale is a picture of a tree. This tree is an original and was taken by me. I have gotten nothing but 100% feedback from people from this picture. Great Picture…From The Eponymous Pickle
QR Codes
Doing some experiments with QR codes and their use in publications. Also the recognition of their use by the average consumer and their ability to use them. I did a quick and unscientific survey at the local swim club lately…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fair Use
Its only 'Fair use' if you can pay the legal fees. Case study.
From Schneier on Security
Assisting a Hostage Taker via Facebook
It's a new world:
An armed Valdez, 36, held a woman hostage at a motel in a tense 16-hour, overnight standoff with SWAT teams, all while finding time to keep his family and friends updated on Facebook.[...]
In all, Valdez…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Robotics Research a Pillar of New $500M Advanced Manufacturing Partnership
In just a few minutes, President Obama will
From The Eponymous Pickle
Ad Targeting via Social
This sounds scary to me. Targeting via what my network looks like.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rethinking Databases for the Cloud
Some insightful thoughts about why the cloud is increasingly being thought about for enterprise database applications. Mentioned is ParAccel, designed in particular for difficult analytic applications, now becoming common. …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Online Grocery Sales to Double
Nielsen says that online Grocery sales will double. And Wal-Mart tests online grocery delivery in California. Step forward for online sales.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Presidential Event on Innovation, Competitiveness This Morning
President Obama is