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 Putting People First
A successful 21st century brand has to help create meaningful lives
An enormous study of how consumers around the world interact with brands finds that only the companies that make life better for consumers create impactful connections. For its second annual Meaningful Brands Index, Havas Media…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Tomorrow’s House Hearing on the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act
Tomorrow morning, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to consider whether to repeal, reauthorize, or revise the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). The Committee previously held a…
From Schneier on Security
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Crazy as these theories are, those propagating them are not -- they’re quite normal, in fact. But recent scientific research tells us this much: if you think one of the theories above is plausible, you probably"The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification and Loyalty
Rajat Paharia writes from Bunchball: " ... Next week, our book "Loyalty 3.0: How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification" comes out. We recently found out that if we can get 11,000 copies…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Triads and Dyads
Not dryads and naiads… src Charles Peirce, who is regarded among the greatest logicians and philosophers, wrote a paper in 1897 titled “The Logic of Relatives.” Now we might want a guide to the logic of our own relatives, and…
From Computational Complexity
STOC: Some NON-radical ideas
At the STOC business meeting Joan Feigenbaum (PC chair) raised some very good points. There was no real discussion (or perhaps the burning car was the discussion). Here are the issues and some thoughts as I see them. Note that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
CYC Corp
Been a long time since I looked there, or visited them, Doug Lenat's CYC group. I was reminded by a mention in a book ... worth a reexamination. Early pioneer in AI that we followed.
From Schneier on Security
Trust in IT
Ignore the sensationalist headline. This article is a good summary of the need for trust in IT, and provides some ideas for how to enable more of it.
Virtually everything we work with on a day-to-day basis is built by someone…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
TouchDevelop Demo: Simple Turtle Graphics
My latest TouchDevelop video demo. In this one we use a simple turtle graphics program to demonstrate: Turtle graphics, a basic loop, and some TouchDevelop editing features that you will find useful.
Creating our first turtle…From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Labs Buys Analytics
Have not heard much from WM labs of late, but these acquisitions are interesting. " ... Walmart, via its Silicon Valley innovation lab @WalmartLabs, has made another acquisition today, continuing its shopping spree. The company…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple IOS7 Redesign
Images Shown in this report show a flatter, simpler, fewer color design. I know that this is 'in' now, but my initial reaction that this mostly looks 'cheaper'. Long time users may accept the radical change, but new users might…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of June 10
June 11 Hearing: The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on improving federal information technology practices. 10:30 a.m., 342 Dirksen Building June 12 Hearing: The Senate Appropriations…
From Schneier on Security
Tagging and Location Technologies
Interesting speculative article.
From Apophenia
where “nothing to hide” fails as logic
Every April, I try to wade through mounds of paperwork to file my taxes. Like most Americans, I’m trying to follow the law and pay all of the taxes that I owe without getting screwed in the process. I try and make sure that every…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Does Prism Kill the Cloud?
In CWorld: Not sure I agree with the premise, but it is worth thinking about. Do concepts like the Cloud concentrate information and thus make it easier for governments to skim? Enabling methods like Prism? Strong automatic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
What is Shopper Marketing?
In Shopperception: Part 1 of what looks like a good introduction to the topic." ... If products are not purchased, nothing else matters. The best marketing and advertising campaigns in the planet fail if products stay on the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gamification for Employees
In CIO, more about using game dynamics to engage employees. We took a look at this with a number of potential applications, and found it was more difficult than we expected. Still useful to consider as part of a user engagement…
From My Biased Coin
Valiant's Book Out: Probably Approximately Correct
Les Valiant has a new book out: Probably Approximately Correct: Nature's Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex WorldI was sent a free copy last week, but was delayed in reading it due to my avocational vocation…
From Schneier on Security
Government Secrets and the Need for Whistle-blowers
Yesterday, we learned that the NSA received all calling records from Verizon customers for a three-month period starting in April. That's everything except the voice content: who called who, where they were, how long the call…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 10 June 2013
Finals today and tomorrow. Wednesday is last day for faculty and I’m done with school for the summer. Big plans though. I want to make a lot of videos, create all of my speaking PowerPoints, get projects ready and generally be…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pointing to This Blog
In preparation for a talk I am giving Tuesday on analytics applications I added a slide that would point to this blog. Aimed at people in the auditorium that want to use a search term they can remember. The name of this blog…
From My Biased Coin
Harvard Humanities
There's been a mild hubbub toward the end of the week here, due to a report and some articles (Boston Globe, WSJ) that the number of students majoring at the humanities at Harvard is in decline. (See also this post at ShotsBen…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Electronic Contact Lenses
In Technology Review: Another non new idea. Brought to the forefront by all the other embed-able ideas like Glass, and even retinal implants. Would take away the geek stigma of glasses. " ... Contact Lens Computer: Like…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rapid Prototyping for Design
MJ Perry points to a video about the use of 3D printing and rapid prototyping for design by an automobile company. Instructive piece.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Are We Nodes in the Internet of Things?
In GigaOM: Will we all become nodes on the Internet of Things? Our things may be, we are heading quickly in that direction. But please retain your own individuality. " ... A group of French researchers believe that the…
From Wild WebMink
Don’t Stop With The Trolls
My article in InfoWorld this week rounded up the news of the White House initiative to deal with patent trolls and repeated some proposals I’ve made before on other reforms we could make to relieve some of the pain of the dysfunction…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Focus the Technology on the Purpose
On the business purpose. Don't just try to stay out ahead of the technologies as they evolve. Almost all technologies are developments of previous ideas. Not measured by how many times their buzzwords are mentioned. Analytics…
From Apophenia
meandering thoughts on the NSA scandal
As an activist, a geek, and a privacy scholar, I’ve been watching the NSA scandal unfold with a mixture of curiosity, outrage, and skepticism. I don’t feel as though I have enough information yet to make an informed opinion about…
From The Eponymous Pickle
CIOs Promoting Gamification
An overplayed piece. Using game strategy can be useful for internal and externally facing capabilities. Consider it a deeper, more psychological part of the user interface. A useful design choice. Not a solution by itself…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart E-Commerce
Wal-Mart CEO predicts that their E-Commerce sales will be $10 Billion this year. Continued online surge from traditional retailing.