Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2013
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google as Dictionary
Further convenience for those that use Google for search: " ... From now on, Google's word search results will include synonyms, sample sentences, and some description of the word's etymology. The more detailed results even include…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unified Environments for Big Data Analytics
A good piece by correspondent Bill Franks, whose book on the topic I previously reviewed. It addresses some problems I am addressing in a project design now." ... It is challenging to make big data simple to access and easy…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pentagon as Silicon Value Incubator
In the NYT: Work by DARPA like the Darpanet and related activities have been happening for a long time. Part of my graduate education was funded by DOD scholarships. " ... For years, the Pentagon has knocked on Silicon Valley…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Online Account Deletion
In Techcrunch, A service that allows you to delete yourself from many common online services. There need to be more ways to clean up your online presence. A simple and clever idea, to avoid all the unwanted communications,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Mobile First View of Data Vizualization
A Bloomberg Video: One of the founders of Roambi talk this strategy. I tried it on the iPhone early on and was impressed what could be done. I like in particular their early look at how they are including a story concept.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Uptech II Announces Second Round
I am a big supporter of local startups and accelerators. Have have been involved directly in three local startups and advised several others. I see that the Uptech Kentucky accelerator has just announced its second round of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Decisions, Data and Predictive Models: Conversations
Letting Data be Your Compass: by Rob F. Walker. Nicely thought out piece on data, decisions and predictive models. Using the word prediction brings your models directly into the decision making process. I always emphasize this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G's CoverGirl and Print Augmentation
Nice to see this happening. Especially taking this beyond the now dated approach of QR Codes. Note the mention of Blippar technology. Which they say is: " .... a revolution for traditional print and marketing offering the …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Breakthrough 3D Scanner
In CIO Today: " ... The MakerBot Digitizer consists of a turntable with two lasers and a camera that can scan objects up to 8 inches in size. MakerBot says its Digitizer can capture details as small as 0.5mm and that its dimensional…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Games Matter in the Progress of AI
In IBM Research News: We used a number of game approaches to teach AI. But business decisions are much harder than games. So games are pointers to AI, but rarely directly applicable." ... Dr. Gerald Tesauro, the IBM Research…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bridging Divide Between Games and Brands
We looked at this very early on, but really want to see it work effectively. I think there is also value for the added dimension of data from social games ... " ... Mobile games are touted as a prime platform for marketers…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
FCC Requests Public Comments on Accessibility Waiver for E-Readers
The FCC is accepting public comments on a request by the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers to exempt e-readers from accessibility requirements applicable to “advanced communications services” under the 21st Century Communications…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
USACM Provides Feedback on Non-Web Accessibility Guidelines
USACM submitted feedback to the W3C on the latest draft of the “WC3 Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies.” The proposed guidance document seeks to provide informative guidance on…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: New Research in How Squids Change Color
Structural colors rely exclusively on the density and shape of the material rather than its chemical properties. The latest research from the UCSB team shows that specialized cells in the squid skin called iridocytes…
From Schneier on Security
How Security Becomes Banal
Interesting paper: "The Banality of Security: The Curious Case of Surveillance Cameras," by Benjamin Goold, Ian Loader, and Angélica Thumala (full paper is behind a paywall).
Abstract: Why do certain security goods become…From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
A World Without Randomness
What if there were no coin flips? src. Leonid Levin has originated many great ideas in our field. Indeed he had a share with Stephen Cook in the idea of -completeness as a universality property shared by SAT and several other…
From The Eponymous Pickle
3D Printing Support for Windows 3.1
In SlashGear: Another indication of advances supporting remote manufacture. " ... What the team at Microsoft is doing this week is going through how users of the next-generation update of Windows 8 will be able to work with…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Google's New Computer Science Teaching Fellows Program in South Carolina
In a couple of weeks, a team of Teaching Fellows from Google will begin leading various after-school computer science (CS) programs throughout the Charleston area. Based in South Carolina at Google's Berkeley County data center…
From Wild WebMink
Ballmer to leave Microsoft
Honestly it’s about time and exactly what the company needs if it’s to get fixed. Let’s hope they get someone who will truly embrace open source rather than firewalling it and paying lip-service to it while secretly attacking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New in Decision Analytics Talk
First descriptive slide for my upcoming talk on what's new in Decision Analytics. Comments? More to follow.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Complex Global Supply Chains
In GigaOM: " ... Thanks to the growth of 3D printing, intelligent robots, and open-source hardware, tomorrow’s supply chains will be faster, smaller, cheaper, and local. ... " . I agree that 3D printing will make stridesother…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Face Recognition Security Pins
I recently reported on the current state of face recognition. The most obvious use of all, why not use it as a pin for security? Too easily mimicked from images? An example in Finland. From a system called Uniqul. We…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Printing Wall Sized Displays
We experimented with using large format displays in retail to create dynamic contexts that could be altered to match categories and times. Displaying on the walls, floors and shelves themselves. The technology made this possible…
From Schneier on Security
Hacking Consumer Devices
Last weekend, a Texas couple apparently discovered that the electronic baby monitor in their children's bedroom had been hacked. According to a local TV station, the couple said they heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
TurtleArt–Turtle Graphics With Blocks
I ran into an article called How to Pick Your First Programming Language at Help Kids Code that talked about something called TurtleArt. Now there wasn’t a lot in the post that I agreed with but the idea of a "picture language…
From Putting People First
The UK’s Behavioural Design Lab
The UK’s Behavioural Design Lab is a new collaboration between Warwick Business School and the Design Council, uniting behavioural science with design-thinking. They help organisations transform a better understanding of people…
From Putting People First
Empowering women with Mobile Money. Enough research to support further investments.
Hannes Van Rensburg, founder and CEO of Fundamo, a VISA company based in South Africa, writes that there is enough research on empowering women with Mobile Money to support further investments. The industry have made big gains…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
NIST Working On Big Data Technology Roadmap
On September 30, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will host a Big Data workshop at its headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The focus of the workshop is to continue the work of the NIST Big Data Working Group…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Concise Grounding in Neuroscience
From Mindhacks: by the author of the Neurophilosopy blog, Mo Costandi " ... 50 Human Brain Ideas You Really Need to Know, .... As its title suggests, the book contains 50 short chapters, each devoted to an influential idea…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Dynamic Pricing for College Football Seat Prices
Via MJ Perry: In another of his investigations into the power of markets based on price. Notable here are the large number of parameters for the price: " .... University of Michigan becomes one of the NCAA’s early adopter…