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 Putting People First
eBook: Rethinking UX
Rethinking UX Formats: PDF, EPUB, Kindle (DRM-free) Pages: 62 Language: English Released: August 2013 Publisher: Smashing Magazine GmbH Abstract In “Rethinking UX”, various UX professionals share their lessons learned and provide…
From Putting People First
Exploring customer centricity in financial inclusion
CGAP (a World Bank affiliated but independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the world’s poor) has partnered with Janalakshmi Financial Services, one of India’s largest urban microfinance…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Science and Search
In Ars Technica: How media influences how science is perceived. In the past it was about how science was influenced by the popular press. Now the ubiquity of links and search and social strongly influence how the public sees…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cross Device Marketing
In Mobile Marketer: Not unexpected. " ... Cross-device advertising commands growing portion of media spend: report ... Interest in cross-device campaigns is growingOne-third of digital media budgets will be allocated to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
About Disengaged Employees
In the HBR blogs. (Some registration required)New data on employee engagement is in, and it's downright discouraging. As this post by HBR's Gretchen Gavett noted, Gallup's research shows that engagement among US workers is holding…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computing Researchers Get ‘Schooled’ on Science Policy at LiSPI 2013
The following is an article published in the August 2013 edition of Computing Research News. Computing Researchers Get ‘Schooled’ on Science Policy at LiSPI 2013 By Peter Harsha, CRA Director of Government Affairs and Fred Schneider…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Don't Panic
The cover of the famous fictional "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" reads, in big letters, "Don't panic." There isn't a definitive "teacher's guide to teaching computer science" but if there were I suspect it would have the …
From Computational Complexity
When Lance was 10 years old..
In honor of Lance's 50th birthday I ask the following: When Lance was 10 years old which of the following were true? (Disclosure- some of the below are from a birthday card.) A REMOTE meant a secluded spot off the beaten path…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Learning To Program By Programming Games
There seems to be no end to the development of games that meld making a game and playing a game. Kodu is one example I have been using for a while. It’s designed for younger students. Growing out of that is Project Spark ('Project…
From BLOG@CACM
Turing's 1936 Paper and the First Dutch Computers
The following question has polarized the computer-science community: Did Alan Turing's 1936 paper 'On Computable Numbers' influence the early history of computer building? "Yes, certainly" and "No, definitely not" are often-heard…
From Putting People First
Social scientists find story in data to attract more customers
Social scientists say that tech companies are showing an increased interest in their skills, especially with the rising importance of social networking and big data, and that their roles within those companies are changing. A…
From Schneier on Security
The Cryptopocalypse
There was a presentation at Black Hat last month warning us of a "factoring cryptopocalypse": a moment when factoring numbers and solving the discrete log problem become easy, and both RSA and DH break. This presentation was…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 19 August 2013
Summer ends for me tomorrow as my school starts with a professional development day for teachers. First full day with students is Friday. I’ve done some preparation over the summer but somehow not as much as I thought I would…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Enhanced Drivers Licenses for Data Mining
Next week California legislators are voting on an enhanced drivers license or EDL. More here. Such a license contains a RFID tag that points to a personal identification number. These can easily be read, but apparently only…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Threat of Medical Device Hacking
In Bloomberg: A very scary possibility. Though the article suggests that sufficient precautions are being taken for now. But the potential exists as new hacks emerge and technologies evolve. Note the comment about varying…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Science of Social Blog
The official blog of Dr Michael Wu on the science of social:Insights into social customer behaviors, big data, superfans, gamification, influence, relationships, and more… Voted a 2010 Influential Leader by CRM Magazine for his…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Home Control Center
Smartphone as home control center. Ultimately linking purchasing decisions made room by room to online and in-store behavior?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Augmenting the Catalog
Have been exploring the latest 2014 physical IKEA catalog, with is an already large (320 page plus) slick paper catalog that broadly and artistically explores IKEA's offerings. The catalog is then augmented by using the IKEA…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Preparing for Screenless Computing
In Quartz: " ... The spread of computing to every corner of our physical world doesn’t just mean a proliferation of screens large and small—it also means we’ll soon come to rely on mobile computers with no screens at all. “It…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Counting Deaths
In the WSJ Blog: The consequence of what is commonly call a harvesting effect, in statistical models. Using the data, often reported in the news, of how many people died in heat waves, or shoveling snow. Had always wondered…
From Putting People First
What’s lost when everything is recorded
Who wouldn’t delight in hearing Lincoln at Gettysburg in the same way we can go back and witness President Obama on the campaign trail? But with so much data capture and storage, which is preferable for our hearts and minds,…
From Putting People First
Lessons from monks about designing the technologies of the future
Our technologies are designed to maximize shareholder profit, and if that means distracting, confusing or aggregating the end-user, then so be it. But another path is possible, argues Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his new book The…
From Putting People First
A manifesto to connect experience design with content thinking
Under the title “Content re-framing: A digital disruption survival kit“, Bas Evers and Peter Bogaards have launched a manifesto to connect experience design with content thinking. New challenges are upon us content people. The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Seth Godin on Choke Points
Seth Godin describes the choke point, a clever view of a real challenge: " .... Sooner or later, all big public media companies go in search of a choke point, the place where they can find a leg up in terms of attention and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Simulation Training for Gen Y
In CLO Mag: The suggestion that simulation based training works better for generation Y, This can be described as game-based as well. Using interaction and sometimes score based competition to drive engagement with a simulation…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Samsung Smart Watch
I remain skeptical of the small format, but a Samsung Smart phone/watch is reportedly arriving in September.
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Ink as Food Coloring
Alton Brown suggests it for ice cream.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From Schneier on Security
<i>Wired</i> Names "Schneier on Security" to Best Blog List
I made the list of Wired's best "Government and Security" blogs.
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Picking N distinct numbers at random: how to do it fast?
To test my algorithms, I like to generate synthetic data. To do so, I often need to generate distinct randomly chosen numbers from a range of values. For example, maybe I want to pick 2 distinct integers in the interval [0,10]…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Making the Most of Your Messaging in 'Women in Computer Science' Outreach
If you've ever done outreach with girls to try to get them into computer science, you may have wondered what the best way to do it is. After all, we've been at this a while, and yet we haven't seen the level of progress we had…