Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2012
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Arati Prabhakar Named New DARPA Director
As our colleagues on CRA’s Policy Blog have just noted, it appears Arati Prabhakar
From The Eponymous Pickle
Robot Takes Inventory
In IEEE Spectrum: A whimsical robot takes inventory in a bookstore. " ... has bigger plans for the future, where "in-store robots might handle tasks such as folding clothing items, stocking shelves, and helping customers to…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NITRD Steering Group to Host Third Workshop on Wireless Spectrum R&D
The National Coordination Office (NCO) for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program
From The Eponymous Pickle
Future of Physical Retailing: Magical Experience
GigaOM writes about showrooming, the increasing tendency of shoppers to experience a product at a store, and then buy it online or elsewhere by searching or scanning it to compare prices and features. We saw this tendency early…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Tip Calculator Hands On Lab for Windows Phone
This is the basic instructions for the demo I did as part of the Mobile App Development throwdown at the CS & IT Conference July 10th, 2012,
Open Visual Studio (you can get it as part of the Windows Phone SDK) and create a new…From Schneier on Security
Attacking Fences
From an article on the cocaine trade between Mexico and the U.S.:
"They erect this fence," he said, "only to go out there a few days later and discover that these guys have a catapult, and they're flinging hundred-pound bales…From The Eponymous Pickle
Agile Business Intelligence
Just brought to my attention again, the local consultancy Analysis Express, which talks Agile Business Intelligence. See also their blog: Their CEO Subrata Debnath does an excellent job of promoting business analytics. They…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Are You Here at CSIT?
The CSTA annual CS&IT conference began this morning and it looks as though it will be another spectacular two days of professional development for computer science and IT teachers.
Today is workshop day with four half-day workshops…From Schneier on Security
Sensible Comments about Terrorism
Two, at least:
- "Bee stings killed as many in UK as terrorists, says watchdog."
- "Americans Are as Likely to Be Killed by Their Own Furniture as by Terrorism."
Is this a new trend in common sense?
In case you forgot, here'sessay…From The Eponymous Pickle
Power of Low Self Confidence
Surprising statement on the face of it, from the HBR. Bottom line, it makes you more sensitive to feedback, and the ability to adjust your approaches to be more successful.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cost of Digital Information
A rarely examined cost. Some stats I have seen nowhere else. " ... From confidential customer information, to intellectual property, to financial transactions, organizations possess massive amounts of information that must be…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neuromarketing PR
Mind Hacks takes a hack at Neuromarketing. I think there is something to be considered here. There is value in trying new methods to augment traditional ones, but just cryptically invoking support is not enough to make you…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Code School's Git Lesson: Not a Huge Fan
Code School recently put out a free lesson on Git with the tagline "Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?" With the promise of it being so short I decided to give it a try. My take is that the implementation of the tutorialContext…
From Wild WebMink
MinkCast: Mandriva Rides Again
I interviewed
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NIH Seeking Proposals for 2013 Director
The
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of July 9
July 10 Discussion: Deputy Chief Technology Officer Daniel Weitzner will be featured in a discussion on federal Internet policy making. 12 noon, The Hudson Institute, 1015 15th St. NW, Washington. (also available online) July…
From Schneier on Security
Students Hack DHS Drone
A team at the University of Texas successfully spoofed the GPS and took control of a DHS drone, for about $1,000 in off-the-shelf parts. Does anyone think that the bad guys won't be able to do this?
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 9 July 2012
I am writing this from Irvine California where I have come for the CSTA CS & IT Conference. I have already had a bunch of great conversations with people who arrived yesterday. The networking (a fancy word for meeting great new…
From Putting People First
Design alone can
Making products attractive and user-friendly is a smart idea, but it is no substitute for R&D and investment, argues James Woudhuysen, a professor of forecasting and innovation at De Montfort University, on Spiked, a British…
From Putting People First
In a Fisher-Price lab, apps become child
At a Fisher-Price lab, researchers watch children at play to come up with ideas for new products, including toys that incorporate apps on iPads and iPhones. At Fisher-Price,
From Putting People First
Perspectives in experience design
Milan Guenther, founding partner of enterprise design associates, explores the word “user” in “user experience”, and compares it to customer experience, employee experience and brand experience. “For me, the word Experience in…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Checking Out With QThru
A Seattle startup that seeks to deliver smartphone enabled scanning and retail checkout. More detail at the Qthru site. We examined this approach a number of times, its advantage is that it can utilize the shoppers own devices…
From The Noisy Channel
HCIR 2012 Challenge: People Search
As we get ready for the Sixth Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval this October in Cambridge, MA, people around the world are working on their entries for the third
From The Eponymous Pickle
PowerHouse Factories: Brand Culture Plus Data with Analytics
Reconnected this past week with PowerHouse Factories. Impressed by their linking branding with data and analytics. Build the brand, but immediately link in how you plan to improve the brands operation. And utilize all the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
QR Codes on Book Covers
QR codes showing up on all book covers of some publishers. Like Simon and Schuster. Not unexpected as more consumers are getting used to seeing the codes in many places. Makes sense to continue to re-market using the devices…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Grilling Quantum Circuits
Polynomial algebra turns up the heat Amlan Chakrabarti is currently finishing a postdoc at Princeton University, while on leave from the University of Calcutta in India. He has been working in Niraj Jha’s group at the Engineering…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Less Than Wisdom of Crowds
In the NYT: A number of recent examples have shown that the crowd, as exemplified by well known wisdom aggregations like Intrade, is not always correct. Sometimes you are much better off with experts in a focused area than…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consumers More Loyal to Store Search
In Progressive Grocer: Intriguing review of research which says that shoppers search by store for online coupons rather than by brand, and as a result see store loyalty as more important, at least in some categories. Consider…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Operations Research Blogs from Informs
A list of blogs and other social networking connections sponsored by Informs. Includes communities and focused topics that deal with analytics
From The Eponymous Pickle
Stack Ranking Stifles Creativity
In Forbes: Microsoft example. I am inclined to agree, an approach that strictly forces grading on a curve tends to make people less creative, take fewer risks, and not talk openly to their management. Not sure how much this…