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 Putting People First
Social Circles
Usability consultant Frank Spillers writes that he the recent release of Google’s social circles (part of the new ‘Google +’ social network) constitutes a social interface that accounts for real-world considerations. “Social…
From Putting People First
Smart Design
Smart Design’s think tank presents an ongoing discussion of how gender should be included in good design – all published in a new series on Fast Company. The Femme Den started thinking about gender and design five years ago as…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Play and Learning
In the CACM: Thinking about games and learning in play. Mary Flanagan was mentioned recently in the tagging images. She also directs the Tiltfactor Lab , a game research group that she founded in 2003 and that works to design…
From The Eponymous Pickle
3D Printing and US Manufacturing
In Forbes: Will the ability to print in 3D revive manufacturing? I much like the idea of remote delivery of digital instructions for manufacturing. We discovered some of the limitations of this as well.
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Boring Resumes
Good thoughts on sprucing up a boring resume. At very least this approach can get you noticed, and show that you are thinking intelligently and creatively.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Last Shuttle
I had the pleasure of seeing the last shuttle launch live this week from the Canaveral seashore. Ironic since I have been in Florida for long periods, saw many satellite launches, but missed the shuttle live. Even from a distance…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Student Media at the Imagine Cup
One of the things that is special about this year
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google+ is Growing and I Join in
Reports this morning that there are now millions of Google+ users and it continues to grow rapidly. I received an invite a few days ago and started to play with the system. Shortly afterward I saw a link in the Google Mobile…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Complex Technologies Improve More Slowly
From the Santa Fe InstituteA new study by several SFI-affiliated researchers demonstrates a way to measure the interconnectedness of a technology's components and predict which technologies are likeliest to advance rapidly and…
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-07-10
Shouldn't Free Mean The Same Thing Whether Followed By 'Culture' Or 'Software'? | Techdirt An excellent point being made here; if it is morally wrong to prevent someone expressing new software based on a previous work, why is…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Giving Robot Vacuums a Personality
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/how-to-give-robot-vacuums-a-personalityIn IEEE Spectrum:It's surprisingly easy for humans to endow robots with personalities. We've seen it happen most poignantly…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Imagine Cup New York City
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From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Agencies, National Science Board Seeking Input
Late last month, the White House announced a request for feedback on “Circular A-21″ — a 7-year-old document that specifies key principles for determining costs applicable to grants, contracts, and other agreements between the…
From My Biased Coin
Using Google Scholar for More Than Your h-Index
The comments from the last post (thanks, David Andersen) spurred me to mention the following.I do check Google Scholar for my own work fairly regularly. Not to keep continuously updated on my h-index (though, I suppose, that's…
From Wild WebMink
? Two Favourites in the UK
If you are a UK resident located in the UK (yes, Amazon really has bolted its service down that tightly here), there are free tracks by two of my absolute favourite artists available at the moment. I ordered the new album Perfect…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simplifying Human Machine Interaction
HP Labs India design work . Key directions to improve how computers communicate with humans.
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Egg
Interesting pictures. Article is in Italian, though. Google Translate translation.
From Wild WebMink
? Voicemail Cracking
I’m getting tired of all the news reports that are incorrectly accusing the News of the World of
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Interpolated Data for Speedy Cancer Detection
Magnetic resonance imaging is an attractive tool for detecting breast cancer, but its slow speed and poor resolution limit its viability. With hardware and software improvements, those problems are fixable: on the hardware end…
From My Biased Coin
h-index != impact
Suresh and Daniel Lemire (in Google+ posts) have pointed to the following paragraph from this blog:
The sad thing is that young people have now been terrified by the Impact and H factors, and I can’t give them much hope. When…From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-07-08
USTR New Exclusive Right for Copyright Holders: Importation Provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) | Knowledge Ecology International USTR continues its covert mission to extend copyright and its control ever…
From Schneier on Security
Organized Crime in Ireland Evolves As Security Increases
The whole article is interesting, but here's just one bit:
The favoured quick-fix money-making exercise of the average Irish organised crime gang had, for decades, been bank robberies. But a massive investment by banks in branch…From Wild WebMink
? Investing In Open Source
Does your company use open source software? Do they contribute to it in any way? If not, perhaps you should follow the Brazilian government’s lead. Read about it on ComputerWorldUK.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google New Search Stuff
Several interesting things in Google, a search by image with should give some hints about how well this can be done today. Similar to Google Googles on mobile. Also a voice search on the laptop, which I would rarely use. And…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Policy Highlights from Communications of the ACM
Below is a list of items with policy relevance from the April issue of Communications of the ACM. As always, much of the material in CACM is premium content, and free content one month may slip behind a pay wall the next. You…
From Computational Complexity
Scooped by 400 years
This article claims that finding the area under a curve by dividing up the region into rectangles is helpful. Maybe they could take some sort of... limiting process where the rectangles get skinnier. Who knows- they may be able…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Pixar Senior Scientist on Computer Animation
Here’s another great talk — by Tony DeRose, Senior Scientist and head of the Research Group at Pixar Animation Studios — at the recent
From Wild WebMink
links for 2011-07-07
UK looks to US on piracy blocking Ed Vaizey's views at outrageously uninformed if this report is correct. (tags: UK Internet) Open Rights Group | Meeting with Ed Vaizey Vaizey and the Conservatives seem to have no clue at all…
From Schneier on Security
Comparing al Qaeda and the IRA
Al Qaeda played all out, spent all its assets in a few years. In my dumb-ass 2005 article, I called the Al Qaeda method "real war" and the IRA's slow-perc campaign "nerf war." That was ignorance…
From Putting People First
Let
Jane Wakefield, BBC technology reporter, explores how the social experience of real shopping can help improve web retail, and how the online social shopping experience could become yet another threat to the high street. “Offline…