Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2013
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Seeking Program Directors Within Division of Information & Intelligent Systems (IIS)
On June 21, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a nationwide search for multiple Program Directors in the Division of Information & Intelligent Systems (IIS) within the Directorate of Computer and Information Science…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Discarding the Loyalty Card
Albertson's drops the loyalty card. With all the data being generated by loyalty ideas, and new ones blooming, some retailers are moving the other way. And some very large retailers don't use them at all.
From Wild WebMink
Brazil Protests Peaceful, And Not About Bus Fares
In preparation for FISL (where I hope to be speaking next week), I have been continuing to try to understand the protests in Brazil, which are now regularly bringing crowds the size of a European town onto the streets. They aren’t…
From The Eponymous Pickle
R in Action
Some time ago I ordered the Book: R in Action: Data Analysis and Graphics with R, by Robert I Kabakoff. Have had cause to refer to it a number of times, but have now started a deeper dive. Covers data visualization examples…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Changing CIOs
A view of how the role of CIOs is changing. The short article makes the point that we have known for a long time. CIO's cannot be players that are in love with technology, they have to care deeply about the workings of and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE, AI and Modeling Hospitals with Corvix
Fascinating work by GE in the use of artificial intelligence in a system called Corvix. During the AI explosion of the 80s we talked to GE about what I would call manufacturing maintenance AI. It is good to see another"…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Foundation of the Internet of Things
In E-Commerce Times: Interesting idea, but how do we get all the things to work together? Were are the standards to make it work? Also good mention of how analytics can link into this same interoperable world. " ..…
From Wild WebMink
Endangered Downloads
I’ve posted an article in a few places commenting briefly on the implications of Github, Google and others (but notably not SourceForge) deciding not to offer downloads as a service to open source projects. My instinct tells…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Marketing Mix Criticized, Defended
Defense In AdAge: We used marketing mix since their very earliest inception. It is a relatively simple statistical technique that suggests the best investment of money to media and marketing channels. It has become a classical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Avoiding Pitfalls in Predictive Analytics
Venkat Viswanathan makes some useful comments. Some of them relate to my favorite suggestion: Simplify." Predictive analytics will almost always enable better business decisions. While customer behavior may have changed due…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: How the Acidification of the Oceans Affects Squid
It's not good.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From Wild WebMink
Too Much Power?
In InfoWorld this week, I’ve reprised my views about contributor agreements. The trigger for this was seeing Oracle erroneously change the license for the MySQL man pages from GPL to something nasty. Once they were told, they…
From Schneier on Security
Me on the Lou Dobbs Show
I was on the Lou Dobbs Show earlier this week.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Customer Engagement Analytics for Cultural Venues
Its all about engaging the customer. All companies, large, small and midsize need better ways to engage with and retain their customers. And as the context of engagement varies over time, how they engage will have to be adapted…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Kroger Checkout Time Technology
Good USA Today article on a number of methods that Kroger is using to improve checkout times. A high labor cost in retail, and frequent complaint of shoppers. We examined a number of shopper assisted checkout methods in our…
From Schneier on Security
US Offensive Cyberwar Policy
Today, the United States is conducting offensive cyberwar actions around the world.
More than passively eavesdropping, we're penetrating and damaging foreign networks for both espionage and to ready them for attack. We're creating…From The Eponymous Pickle
Black Swans Circling?
In the HBR Blog. Provocative piece on the number of changes occurring that could influence the near term future of P&G. And many other consumer goods companies. I take issue to some degree with the term being used .A black…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Drones Will Bring us Data
In Nature: We thought of using teams of robots to gather information from the plant and manufacturing spaces and outdoor staging yard floor. We did use satellite data when it became commercially available for agricultural monitoring…
From Schneier on Security
The Japanese Response to Terrorism
Lessons from Japan's response to Aum Shinrikyo:
Yet what's as remarkable as Aum's potential for mayhem is how little of it, on balance, they actually caused. Don't misunderstand me: Aum's crimes were horrific, not merely the…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Teaching Computer Science: Profession or Craft
A recent report on the quality of teacher training has stirred up a lot of discussion about how teachers should be prepared. With the ongoing shortage of qualified computer science teachers (putting aside the discussion of what…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
REACHING OUT TO CSTA's INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS
When you are a Computer Science teacher there is a universe of knowledge that you can transfer to your students, depending on the interest they show. You can teach how to code, design video games, robotics, Web design and many…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytics E Newsletter
The Informs Analytics e-Newsletter. Always informative. Subscribe. Latest articles:- Continuing education for analytics professionals- Big data paying off for big companies- Study: Top CPOs drive higher profit margins- Retail…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Three Theorems About Growth
Is a key to polynomial versus exponential complexity lurking here? Cropped from Abel Prize source Mikhail Gromov is a French-Russian mathematician who has made and continues to make fundamental contributions to many areas of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Welcome to Complex Event Processing
Thinking about real time processing. Getting more important every day. We addressed this for complex high speed manufacturing lines. Linking advanced analytics methods to rare failure processes using simulation techniques…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Corning and Electronically Tinted Windows
In IEEE Spectrum: An energy savings idea, but one that does increase the complexity of the smart home. Visited Corning some years ago and enjoyed their approaches to innovation.
From Schneier on Security
New Details on Skype Eavesdropping
This article, on the cozy relationship between the commercial personal-data industry and the intelligence industry, has new information on the security of Skype.
Skype, the Internet-based calling service, began its own secret…From Computational Complexity
Automate Me
An economist friend asked me if there were still productivity gains to be had for office workers (like us). After all, we have email, social networks, skype and other easy ways to connect with everyone not to mention search for…
From Schneier on Security
Love Letter to an NSA Agent
A fine piece: "A Love Letter to the NSA Agent who is Monitoring my Online Activity."
A similar sentiment is expressed in this video.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Your GPA Doesn’t Mean Anything Useful
A recent interview in the New York Times with Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google had some interesting things to say about the value of GPAs and standardized tests. Google, to no ones surprise, looks…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Waiting in Line
A long time interest of mine is covered in the current Knowledge @ Wharton, why and when do people balk in a queue? What are the dynamics involved and how can they be handled? Here studied in an emergency medical context.