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
3D Design Delivered by Ponoko
(update)My son pointed me to design page of Kyle A. Koch: " ... a (former) industrial design student at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, known as DAAP. This is where I share things…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Information Empires
A fascinating book on the emergence of telecom to the Internet. And how individual innovation changes to corporate control. The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Vintage) by Tim Wu
From The Eponymous Pickle
Connected Vehicles
In Engadget: Note the integration with decision flow. Ford studies space robots to improve communications with connected cars. " ... by studying the way robots interact, Ford hopes to develop its cars' communications systems…
From BLOG@CACM
A Stable Future For Computing Education Requires Collaboration Beyond CS
If you were a superintendent of a big city school district, would you require every school in your district to teach computer science without reliable production of new teachers? We need schools and departments of education.…
From Computational Complexity
P = NP and the Weather
In the Beautiful World, my science fiction chapter of The Golden Ticket where P = NP in a strong way, I predicted that we could predict weather accurately enough to know whether it will rain about a year into the future. Besides…
From Schneier on Security
Susan Landau Article on the Snowden Documents
Really good article by Susan Landau on the Snowden documents and what they mean.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
The Bug Report on Computer Science Teacher Certification
Most of us involved in teaching computer science know that the issue of teacher certification is a bit of a mess. How much of a mess no one really knew. Until now. The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) has released…
From Putting People First
User modes as the raw ingredients of digital experience
The best way to design successful digital products is by understanding how users’ behaviour changes according to their mode, according to MEX. Modes can be defined as the common ways people engage with digital products depending…
From The Eponymous Pickle
5th Screen Digital Display Services
I was reminded today of 5th Screen Digital Display Services. They worked with us in our innovation centers to provide excellent examples of in-store marketing engagement. They have updated their site and blog. More information…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Predictive Analytics in R
Recommended by a friend who has seen a preprint, available in September:Modeling Techniques in Predictive Analytics: Business Problems and Solutions with R byThomas W. Miller I plan to review (send me a copy for quick review)…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Using the Tools We Teach
One of the classes I am teaching this year is called Explorations in Computer Science. It’s a step away from the pure applications course (Microsoft Office) in the direction of real computer science. We’ll still cover some of…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Coke All Digital Ahhs
In Mashable: Interesting comparison of digital and classical approaches. The strong sharing aspect is particularly interesting. " .... Coca-Cola's first all-digital campaign has resulted in 4 million visits to the 40 websites…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retailers Using Tweet Chats
In Supermarket News: A view of how grocers are using and can use tweet chats. Fairly obvious, but a good review of a retail strategy. Not much here about its use to promote private label, where I think it can provide value…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
First Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, Calling for Submissions
The following is a special contribution to this blog from Douglas H. Fisher, Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning, and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Important New Report on CS Teacher Certification
Over the years no topic has generated more frustration and concern for CSTA members than teacher certification/licensure and supplementary endorsement. As CSTA has been saying for a long time, teacher certification in this country…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
The Latest on the App Formerly Known as Carleton Quest
I've been making good progress on the app formerly known as Carleton Quest. I've rewritten the story to include more faculty-specific info and general school spirit, made fewer locations mandatory, and updated the UI. I submitted…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tablets as Cash Machines
From the BBC: Using tablets as cash machines. Progress in the UK: " The ATM of the future? " ... There are 66,134 cash machines in operation across the UK - an all-time high - yet they have changed little since they first appeared…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Facial Recognition in the Wild
In the NYT: Good overview about advances in facial and individual scanning and recognition. Pioneered for casino operations. Crowd scanning for security applications. As a possible replacement for user recognition passwords…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Software Defined Servers
Sent to me through a Vertica/Big Data connection. I don't typically talk about standard software. Don't claim to understand it completely, but the integration of hardware to specific key software and workloads is intriguing.…
From Schneier on Security
Measuring Entropy and its Applications to Encryption
There have been a bunch of articles about an information theory paper with vaguely sensational headlines like "Encryption is less secure than we thought" and "Research shakes crypto foundations." It's actually not that bad.
…From The Eponymous Pickle
On Better Decisons
Interesting piece from Bain & Company: Steps to better decisions. The technical and social aspects of the decision process have been a long time interest. We studied how the decision and innovation process intersected. Often…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Glass for First Response
A few years ago I worked with a group that was building real time communications Apps for firefighters. So this App could be used with police and firefighters to record and communicate video and audio. Alert first responders…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google and My Blog Takes a Hit
Google was down yesterday. About four hours I read somewhere. I track the hits that this blog gets. It uses a Google product Blogspot and is tracked through their analytics package. A rough look at previous Mondays indicate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Taking Google+ Seriously
Another in a series of Computerworld articles that describes why and how you should take Google+ seriously. Yes I know, another case of dependence on Google. Worth another look. have had to because of a client dependence…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blueprints for Brainlike Computing
In MIT's Tech Review. With links to more details. Computing more like we do, the article says. More like is the key. I remember there was much ado about how neural networks of the 80s were mimicking our brains computing.…
From Schneier on Security
Teens and Privacy
Not much surprising in this new survey.
Many teens ages 12-17 report that they usually figure out how to manage content sharing and privacy settings on their own. Focus group interviews with teens suggest that for their day-to…From The Eponymous Pickle
Predicting the Future in Big Pharma
Former colleague Lou Killeffer interviews ... Ken Savin ... Director, Process Chemistry & Special Projects at Eli Lilly & Company and the first At Lilly, Ken has collaborated on a number of cross-functional projects spanning…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CS Educator Interview: Tammy Andrew
Tammy Andrew and I met a bunch of years ago when we both taught summer school at a famous New England boarding school. We were teaching C++ back then. While I’m a Windows person and she is a FOSS person in a big way we’ve managed…
From Putting People First
Does big data have us ‘fooled by randomness’?
Being surrounded by data makes it easy to see the noise rather than the signal, and the trees rather than the forest, writes Andre Mouton in USA Today. “Nassim Nicholas Taleb achieved notoriety with several books written before…
From Putting People First
IBM on user experience design
IBM believes that all users have the right to an enjoyable experience when using a computer. They have therefore decided to share the knowledge they have acquired from their own practical experience to help others create hardware…