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
NSF: Significant Surge in CS Postdocs in Last Decade
Last December, we blogged about changes in the number of new Ph.D.s in computer science — a slight increase between 2009 and 2010, but the “fastest growth” of all science and engineering disciplines during the 10-year period…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Computational Fairy Tales the Book
Just about a year ago I wrote a post about a Computational Fairy Tale blog (Computational Tales) Briefly Dr. Jeremy Kubica, software engineer and manager at Google, has been putting together a set of examples of CS concepts written…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Dissecting a Squid
This was suprisingly interesting.
When a body is mysterious, you cut it open. You peel back the skin and take stock of its guts. It is the science of an arrow, the epistemology of a list. There and here and look: You tick off…From Schneier on Security
Me on Military Cyberattacks and Cyberweapons Treaties
I did a short Q&A for Network World.
From Wild WebMink
GPL Forked
A new project that forks the GPL shows that Github isn’t just for software developers. See my column in InfoWorld this week for more.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Security BYOD Tweet Chat
I have not been particularly fond of the public Tweet chat, an organized interaction between vendor experts and anyone who wants to join in. But lately I have participated in a few that have been enlightening. What is nice…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Solving the Turing Test by 2029?
At The Wall Street Journal’s
From My Biased Coin
On NPR (Morning Edition)
Groupon is being discussed on NPR (Morning Edition), which means we get a phone call again. Our graphs are reproduced on the site, and John Byers speaks for us (Giorgos and me with John).
From Schneier on Security
Naming Pets
Children are being warned that the name of their first pet should contain at least eight characters and a digit.
From Putting People First
Digital devices as embodied experiences in remote Indian village
In arguing that digital technologies enable embodied experiences that reshape the very ways in which we conceptualize our everyday life, Nishant Shah, founder and Director of Research for the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Windows 8 Developer Camps and Hackathons
A new series of Windows 8 developer events are coming soon! These are special two-day events, with a DevCamp on day one featuring a full day of sessions plus an InstallFest, followed on day two by a Hackathon with LightningWindows…
From Geeking with Greg
Puzzling outcomes in A/B testing
A fun upcoming KDD 2012 paper out of Microsoft, "Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: Five Puzzling Outcomes Explained" (PDF), has a lot of great insights into A/B testing and real issues you hit with A/B testing. It's…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Apple Patent for Head Mounted Display Tech
Now Apple has also entered the fray with a patent on head-mounted display technology, with a different approach. In Slashdot. In the next iPhone? If only it could be done with an App.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Smartphone Medical Sensors
In Medgadget: From LifeWatch AG (Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland) An Android smartphone packed with medical sensors. Quite remarkable: " .... The tests include one-lead ECG, body temperature, blood glucose, heart rate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Analytics at Work
Finally made it to the 2010 book: Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results by Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris and Robert Morison. A fairly good first introduction for the manager to business analytics. …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fog Computing
In Wired: Fighting leaks with the spread of believable misinformation. This is a very old idea, but using systems technology to do it effectively is not.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data Science Blog
A blog devoted to Data Science, and apparently often concerning Big Data: Data Science 101: Learning to be a Data Scientist. Short and generally accessible articles so far.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
First Person: Margo Seltzer on Women in CS
Harvard computer scientist and CCC Council member
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Teaching Teachers
Next week is the CSTA Computer Science & Information Technology Conference in Irvine CA. I
From Schneier on Security
So You Want to Be a Security Expert
I regularly receive e-mail from people who want advice on how to learn more about computer security, either as a course of study in college or as an IT person considering it as a career choice.
First, know that there are many…From Putting People First
Designing for context: the multiscreen ecosystem
In a long article, designer Avi Itzkovitch explains how, when connecting applications across smart devices, UX designers can create product ecosystems that dynamically respond to user contexts and thus provide enhanced experiences…
From Wild WebMink
Bosonics
What is a Higgs Boson? I think this animation from PHD Comics is brilliant.
From Wild WebMink
How ACTA Nearly Won
ACTA was defeated today in the European Parliament, but one British Liberal-Democrat MEP voted for it. Understanding why helps us to understand how the political system needs fixing for the internet age. Please read my long article…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Junaio Virtual Reality Update
Junaio has updated their mobile App capabilities for commercial augmented reality. Full report accessible here. Also see a short video explaining mobile augmented reality. New capabilities include scanning images, barcodes…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
James Paul Gee's Games for Change Keynote
Dr James Paul Gee is one of gaming's best advocates by promoting the fact that good games are good for learning. But what exactly is a 'good' game? What makes a game good for learning? Gee explains all of this in his Games for…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Paintable Batteries
From Work at Rice University. Including power delivery from a surface that could be charged with solar. Not quite ready for application, but the portable delivery of power is an increasingly important capability.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cell Phone Only
A third of US homes, like my own, are now cellphone only. Not unexpected, the trend has been moving quickly. Plus other revealing statistics.
From Putting People First
Big e-reader is watching you
Would George Orwell have been amused or disturbed by the development that Big Brother now knows exactly how long it takes readers to finish his novel, which parts they might have highlighted, and what they went on to pick up…
From Putting People First
Washington Post creates Chief Experience Officer position
Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth announced in a memo that the paper has named Laura Evans, who has spent most of her nine years at the Post as chief researcher, to the newly created position of VP, Chief Experience…
From Putting People First
Intel social research team experiments with mood-altering technology
A team of engineers, anthropologists and psychologists at Intel’s Oregon lab is busy developing ways of integrating human emotion and technology in ways that will, it hopes, lead the two to positively influence each other one…