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 Eponymous Pickle
Combining Bio Sensor Tools
It makes sense to think of using multiple bio sensors and combining their capabilities, which is what these firms have done, worth a look. " ... Facial expression analysis specialist Emotient and eye tracking software solutions…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Comic
A squid comic about the importance of precise language in security warnings.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Comments on Data
In Google Blog: Commenting on how they deal with government information requests.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Consumer Advocates and Industry Endorse Cellphone Unlocking Bill at House Judiciary Committee Hearing
A legislative proposal to allow consumers to unlock their cellphones garnered support from consumer advocates, wireless industry executives, and a coalition of copyright owners at yesterday’s House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing…
From Schneier on Security
Audio Interview with Me
In this podcast interview, I talk about security, power, and the various things I have been thinking about recently.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Costco vs Amazon in Grocery
In BusinessWeek: " ... Amazon is expanding in the grocery business, which could create a headache for CEO Jeff Bezos' onetime mentor, Costco Wholesale CEO Jim Sinegal. Executives at Costco say they aren't overly worried but…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Cameron Wilson -> Code.org
Cameron Wilson, long-time Director of Public Policy for ACM, has been given a special assignment for 12 months to work at Code.org as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Government Relations. Code.org was founded by…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Think Like a Consumer
In AdAge: Think less like an executive, more like a consumer. Agree, an executive is not your typical consumer. In the many innovation center tours I gave for executives I saw the differences and they were obvious and jarring…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Unboxing GoldieBlox
Way back when, I missed out on the Roominate Kickstarter campaign, and I regretted it afterwards. So when GoldieBlox was proposed, I jumped on it. Plus, $30 to have the toy shipped right to me sounded like a pretty good deal…
From Schneier on Security
A Really Good Article on How Easy it Is to Crack Passwords
Ars Technica gave three experts a 16,000-entry encrypted password file, and asked them to break them. The winner got 90% of them, the loser 62% -- in a few hours.
The list of "plains," as many crackers refer to deciphered hashes…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Speaking Hello World – TouchDevelop
Regular readers know that I have been learning TouchDevelop in my spare time. I really hope to find some concentrated time over the summer to really dig in but for now I am discovering features as I need them. One of the sample…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Psst—It’s The Definition
Definitions are extremely important src Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali won the 2012 ACM Turing Award last March for their seminal work in cryptography. We are not a year late saying this—that is how the award is dated. By…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Multiple Prisms with Similar Purposes
The Prism system has been much in the news today, apparently a multiple dimension-ed data gathering and predictive analytics system, recently exposed as a government 'spying' system. The name sounded familiar to me and I found…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Senate Briefing on Accessible Information and Communication Technologies
Former U.S. Congressman Tony Coelho, who was the primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, moderated a Senate briefing yesterday on “The Impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons…
From Computational Complexity
Complexity Typecast
Lance: Welcome to another exciting typecast coming from sunny Stanford University. I'm with Bill at the 28th Conference on Computational Complexity. Hi Bill, I see you're now at Mizzou. Bill: Yes, my name tag says Univ. of Missouri…
From The Eponymous Pickle
CG Execs Share Marketing Insights
From CGT: Mention of a number of interesting items including the use of Big Data. The meeting was named: " "Datatopia: From Big Data to Meaningful Customer Dialogue." ... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fuzzy Logix
Newly brought to my attention and examining in more depth. Fuzzy Logix. " .... We enable companies to embed in-database analytics directly into their business processes, data warehouses, enterprise applications, devices and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Disruptive Technologies from McKinsey
McKinsey looks at disruptive technologies. " ... Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy, a report from the McKinsey Global Institute, cuts through the noise and identifies…
From The Eponymous Pickle
What Big Data Means
Bob Inmon provides a useful Venn diagram to describe what Big Data is and how it relates to other kinds of data. Text is certainly the most important part of unstructured big data. But what about other kinds of data, like images…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Collaboration with Lists and Search
In CWorld: Short view on the continued evolution of collaboration software. Its acceptance within the enterprise. As they say there, this started with a very simple idea, the to-do list. Most collaboration that exists…
From Putting People First
Participatory design in healthcare
Participatory Design in Healthcare: Patients and doctors can bridge critical information gaps is the title of a UX Magazine article by Andrii Glushko, a UX designer at SoftServe Inc. “What we now call participatory design went…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gary Cokins on EPM Analytics
A piece that overviews some of Gary Cokin's view on analytics. Have read and passed a few of his columns. Well done. He talks about Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), not a term we used: " ... Think of EPM as an umbrella…
From Putting People First
Technology puts power in the hands of the Millennial Generation
This week the Financial Times has run two reports on the Millennial Generation. Part Two (pdf) came out today, whereas Part One is from June 3. Part Two’s leading article is definitely worth exploring, particularly in how it…
From Putting People First
The future of human-centered design
“Throughout my career, and especially as a designer at IDEO,” writes Nathan Waterhouse, “I’ve been a passionate believer of the value of placing people first, of designing from an end–user perspective. [...] Perhaps it was the…
From Schneier on Security
The Cost of Terrorism in Pakistan
This study claims "terrorism has cost Pakistan around 33.02% of its real national income" between the years 1973 and 2008, or about 1% per year.
The St. Louis Fed puts the real gross national income of the U.S. at about $13$100…From Putting People First
Experientia presentation at EPIC London
EPIC, the premier international gathering on the current and future practice of ethnography in the business world, just announced the program of its upcoming conference in London (15-18 September) and Experientia is proud to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Indoor Positioning and Navigation
An important approach for retail navigation applications. We studied this for a number of inventory and checkout applications. Also in conjunction with tagging applications. Computing Now gives an update of current methods…
From Schneier on Security
Eugene Spafford Answers Questions on CNN.com
Excellent interview.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wisee Body Gesture Recognition
A UK correspondent sends along a BBC article on the use of Wifi for gesture recognition. We explored how gestures might be used in the store aisle. The simpler-cheaper aspects are of value in retail. " ... Researchers say…
From The Eponymous Pickle
FTC Looks at Internet of Things
An upcoming FTC workshop that looks to be of interest. The emphasis in consumer applications: " ... The workshop aims to help the FTC get to grips with this new smart, connected eco-system: to understand the types of companies…