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 Computing Community Consortium Blog
Vehicle-to-Grid Technology and SmartGeo: A Computing Research in Action Showcase
In the fall of 2012, the Computing Community Consortium launched its “Computing Research in Action” series in partnership with Patrick Sammon (Story Center Productions), Executive Producer of Codebreaker, the award-winning film…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Gmail's New Tabbed Layout and Advertising
Was wondering how Gmail's new tabbed layout, which uses an algorithm to separate primary and promotional email, might affect email advertising? I like the prefabricated categorization. But will this effectively allow me to…
From Schneier on Security
Circumventing Communications Blackouts
Rangzen looks like a really interesting ad hoc mesh networking system to circumvent government-imposed communications blackouts. I am particularly interested in how it uses reputation to determine who can be trusted, while maintaining…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Beware the Self-Taught Know It All
I spent last weekend with a room full of university computer science professors. As you might expect discussions covered a wide range of topics during breaks and meals. One item that came up was a problem several people had seen…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Garage Group
Jason Hauer of The Garage Group sends along an update of their work, which seems to be flourishing. In particular a very impressive list of companies they are working with, including P&G, Kantar, TNS, Cincinnati Children's…
From Schneier on Security
Book Review: <i>Rise of the Warrior Cop</i>
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, by Radley Balko, PublicAffairs, 2013, 400 pages.
War as a rhetorical concept is firmly embedded in American culture. Over the past several decades, federal…From The Eponymous Pickle
How Online Rating Affect Judgement
From MIT: " ... Views you can use? How online ratings affect your judgmentStudy: Positive comments create an illusory snowball effect, while negative responses get cancelled out. ... " . This was also covered well in Paul…
From BLOG@CACM
Are Data Miners Ready to Hang p the Hard Hat and Put on a Lab Coat?
We will find out this week at the annual ACM SIGKDD on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining conference in Chicago.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Animated US Population Distribution
MJ Perry quotes an animated visual that shows the changes in US population age distribution over the years 1900-2060. Shows the movement of the baby boom bulge over that time and other dynamics. I don't usually think that animated…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Irrational Decision Making
In Neurorelay colleague Gemma Calvert speaks about the irrational idea of rational consumer decision making. " ... The second Neuromarketing World Forum 2013 (Sao Paulo) gathered over 200 delegates from 22 diferent countries…
From Schneier on Security
The 2013 Cryptologic History Symposium
The 2013 Cryptologic History Symposium, sponsored by the NSA, will be held at John Hopkins University this October.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
All You Know Isn’t Enough
Lou Zulli and I got together recently to talk teaching and computer science education recently. One of the things we talked about was common points from the teachers we know and from those I have been interviewing lately on my…
From Putting People First
Adaptive Path’s Guide to experience mapping
Customers are increasingly choosing products and services based on the quality of the experiences they have with them. These experiences often break down when they span multiple channels. As a result, organizations need a holistic…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Investor Herd Dynamics
Crowd and herding dynamics were always an interest. With the thought of using them for physical retail understanding. Investing is different, but this post has perhaps some related insights. Perhaps for crowdsourcing behavior…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
First Day Activities Revisited
My district is starting school two weeks earlier this year. I have been thinking about how I could use the few extra days that I have gained before the AP test. I want to do a few activities at the beginning of the school year…
From Schneier on Security
NSA Increasing Security by Firing 90% of Its Sysadmins
General Keith Alexander thinks he can improve security by automating sysadmin duties such that 90% of them can be fired:
Using technology to automate much of the work now done by employees and contractors would make the NSA's…From The Eponymous Pickle
Pre Store and In-Store Brains
Sands Research is giving a webinar tomorrow at 2 PM EST that I just learned about. More about that here. An example of what companies are trying to do today using neuromarketing methods in-store. Will try to attend. " ... The…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Seeking Applicants
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has opened the application for the 2014 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). These Fellowships give 3 years of funding to students in research based science, technology, engineering…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Audi Releases Augmented Reality Manual
Metaio reports that Audi has released an augmented reality enabled manual, linked to a smartphone App." ... Metaio, world leader in augmented reality (AR) software and solutions and AUDI AG - global leader in luxury vehicles,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Body Language
Yet another example of nonconscious reactions. Body language. Well known, but not well codified. It has become common in recent years to use other measures like eye tracking, facial analysis neuroscience based methods. Here…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Age of Algorithms
A good view of Big Data and Analytics algorithms in the CSM. I like this article because it includes a number of real life application of analytics, several I had not heard of. It does incorrectly imply that all this is new…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Uncomfortable CEOs
Former colleague José Ignacio Sordo Galarza has a new site: The Uncomfortable CEO. And I have just finished his new book: The Uncomfortable CEO: Making Information Technology Overcome Business Uncertainty.An unusual book,…
From Computational Complexity
How much Trig does your governor know?
How much math should our public officials know? Basic probability and statistics so they can follow the arguments that their science advisers give them. And they should hire good objective science advisers and listen to them…
From Schneier on Security
Security at Sports Stadiums
Lots of sports stadiums have instituted Draconian new rules. Here are the rules for St. Louis Rams games:
Fans will be able to carry the following style and size bag, package, or container at stadium plaza areas, stadium gates…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 12 August 2013
Where has the summer gone. A week and a day before all teachers have to return to my school. Students the end of next week. It’s been a great summer but I’m looking forward to the new school year. How about you? Either way aI…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Building Dashboards in R
Have not tried this in my recent R exploration, but looks to be very useful. Be aware this is fairly technical.
From The Eponymous Pickle
London Recycling Bins are Following You
I have a recycling bin. It sits out at the curb once a week. When I saw this piece that was what I was thinking of. My bin tracking my recycling. Very different here. A piece of urban infrastructure to follow you via your…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hardest Part of Data Visualization
Much agree. Simplicity of development, and then simplicity of understanding through interaction are key elements. Tableau is good at this, but could also be better. I suggest taking a look at some of their examples. Paul…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Curious Tale of a Loss of E-Mail Privacy
In Forbes: An interview with Silent Circle co-founder Phil Zimmermann. Had not heard of the company. The company deleted its secure email service this past Friday. Are there other options for encrypted email that can prevent…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Think Big
I’m saying at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas for the final meeting of the CS 2013 task force. While this hotel doesn’t have a casino or other gaming it does have a lot of references to “The Donald” including oneAs…