Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2011
From CERIAS Blog
More than passive defense
I was watching a video today (more on that later) that reminded me of some history. It also brought to mind that too few defenders these days build forensics capture into their systems to help identify intruders. They also don't…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Bill Ford at TED
A superb talk by Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, at TED ’11. “The mobility model that we have today simply will not work tomorrow … We need an integrated system that uses real-time data to optimize personal…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The myth of the unavoidable specialization
In a recent essay, Malone et al. claimed that we were entering the age of hyperspecialization. Their core assumption: human beings are more efficient when doing specialized tasks. Thus, they claim, we are moving toward a future…
From The Noisy Channel
When I left Google last December, it was an open secret that Google was developing a social networking product. Now that Google has released Google+, I am at liberty to share my personal impressions. Let’s start with the clear…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-07-04
"We the corporations" – Move to Amend A very happy 4th to all my friends in the USA. A great way to celebrate is to go consider this timely Move To Amend campaign, aimed at creating a new Amendment to the US Constitution that…
From Putting People First
For ebook devotees, reading is a whole new experience
Matt Frassica asks
From The Eponymous Pickle
Business Intelligence and Analytics Survey
Computerworld's Business Intelligence and Analytics Surveyhttps://web.questback.com/idg/bi2011/ Computerworld is preparing a special report on business intelligence and analytics and would like to know the state of BIhttps…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data is the New Platform
The new view from the Accenture technology vision. Data is a platform in the enterprise. Quite clear, it has always been that.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Never Failed a Test so Guilty?
From Numbers Rule the World: Good piece on false negatives. Using the case of bicycler Lance Armstrong having never failed a steroid test, and as a result was 'obviously cheating'. Or is it? I remember reading of this recently…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Computational Thinking in Music
In Communications of the ACM
From Putting People First
For ebook devotees, reading is a whole new experience
Matt Frassica asks — in The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal (republished in USA Today) — what the increasing popularity of e-reader devices means for the experience of reading. Do we read differently when we can get (almost)…
From Putting People First
Help us say no to Italian internet censorship
AGCOM, Italy’s independent and autonomous administrative Authority for Communication Guarantees, is about to decide (on July 5) to controversially appoint itself – without any further Parliament approval needed – to take on the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retail Print Circulars
Steve Frenda on the beginning of the end of retail print circulars. Many millions are still printed, but is this the end of an era? Like books, I think they will survive for some time.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Mindjet on the iPhone
I see that the Mindjet App is now available. Portable mind managers can be very useful. Although useful on the iPhone, it would be most practical if it were available on the iPad as well. Also useful would be a means for direct…
From The Eponymous Pickle
An Encyclopedia of User Interaction and Design
Don Norman and others contribute to this new effort. A kind of free contributed book from a number of invited practitioners and experts in the space. Just starting to take a look at this.The Interaction Design Encyclopedia …
From Putting People First
The Encyclopedia of Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
Donald Norman alerts us – with strong recommendation – to check out the Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction now being assembled by Mads Soegaard and the team at Interaction-Design.org. A Seven chapters – Action Research…
From Putting People First
How print design is the future of interaction
Mike Kruzeniski is Creative Director at Microsoft, in the Windows Phone design studio, currently leading the Windows Phone Apps Design team. Kruzeniski gave a talk at SXSW Interactive, entitled “How Print Design is the Future…
From The Eponymous Pickle
PARC Wants to Reinvent the Internet
Is this a really novel approach? Always respected PARC's views, in the early days of enterprise innovation we met with them many times.
From My Biased Coin
Odd SODA Rules, and Other Conference Paper Complaints
Suresh points out we have some strange new SODA submission rules this year: Full submissions should begin with the title of the paper, each author's name, affiliation, and e-mail address, followed by a succinct statement…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid as an Emblem for Ocean Conservation
It's a proposal.
From Schneier on Security
TDSS Rootkit
There's a new version:
The latest TDL-4 version of the rootkit, which is used as a persistent backdoor to install other types of malware, infected 4.52 million machines in the first three months of this year, according to a …From The Eponymous Pickle
Multiple Person Interaction for Design
Images Changing your Behavior. It has been done in the form of advertising for a long time. How does this work when there are multiple people interacting? We explored this issue in the realm of retail store design and adaptation…
From Wild WebMink
FUD Barriers For Open Source Non-Profits?
In a post to a private mailing list I follow, Software Conservancy chief Bradley Kuhn has confirmed that an unexpected problem highlighted recently by CASH Music is indeed a real issue for open source groups in the USA seeking…
From Schneier on Security
Menwith Hill
Article on the NSA's Menwith Hill listening station in the UK.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Google: Green Tech Innovation as a Way Forward
Earlier this week, Google released a new report on energy innovation, in which it imagined a number of different
From The Eponymous Pickle
Anonymizing Data Protecting Privacy
Does Anonymizing Data Help Protect Customers' Privacy? When we looked at this we also suspected not, so were even often more careful by statistically generating samples using monte carlo techniques.
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-07-01
Google Takeout Google seems committed to what I've long called "the freedom to leave", and that's giving me a lot of confidence trying out Plus. (tags: google security privacy freedom) Community Standards: A Comparison of Facebook…
From Putting People First
Experientia teams with Innovhub, to make its services available to Milan SMEs at 50% of the cost
Innovhub, the innovation agency of the Milan Chamber of Commerce, has selected the international user experience design consultancy Experientia to help Milan-based SMEs to innovate, using the most advanced processes in web and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Infographical Data Journalism
Data is the new journalism? I am always skeptical of the term infographics. Information should be precise, clear, objective and of value. Anything that emphasises just certain aspects of data implies spin and misdirection…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
That Time in Grad School You Feel a Little Lost
Until you know exactly what your thesis project is going to be, it's easy to feel a little lost. Even if you know the kinds of things you want to do, but not exactly what the contribution will be, it's easy to wonder where you'll…