Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2009
From Putting People First
Max Mara launches new website, designed by Experientia
Unfortunately we cannot talk about most of the work we do at Experientia unless the final product gets launched. But there are these nice moments when we can. Although Experientia is active in many fields — from mobile service…
From Schneier on Security
Texas Instruments Signing Keys Broken
Texas Instruments' calculators use RSA digital signatures to authenticate any updates to their operating system. Unfortunately, their signing keys are too short: 512-bits. Earlier this month, a collaborative effort factored…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Look at Clario Analytics as a Service
As part of a larger BI package exploration I took a look at Clario Analytics SaaS (Software as a service). You start by uploading your data via a secure FTP client to Clario. That process was easy, but I was not fully assured…
From BLOG@CACM
Smart Grids: Getting Personal
How many electronic devices do you own? It is tempting to answer, “Just a handful,” but the truth is much more nuanced. Here’s a simple experiment that will (quite literally) illuminate the truth. Some evening, after darkness…
From The Eponymous Pickle
More Personal Mobility
Honda has a Segway-like, unicycle form personal mobility device called the U-3X in the works that is more remarkable looking than the Segway. No specific dates for sales.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
FCC Will Tackle Net Neutrality
Earlier this week Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his intention to establish an expanded definition of net neutrality to "safeguard the free and open Internet."
Starting next month the…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
The most important Theoretical Computer Science problem is inconsequential
Some consider the P = NP problem to be the most important Theoretical Computer Science problem. It asks whether all problems whose solution can be verified quickly, can also be solved quickly. If you can answer this question,…
From Schneier on Security
<i>The Onion</i> on Security
"Authorities Called in to Examine Suspicious-Looking Ham."
From Computational Complexity
My two cents on P vs NP
There have been several posts on blogs about P vs NP and two expository articles. Is there anything else to add. I'm not sure, but here are my 2 cents.
QUESTION: If it is shown that P ≠ NP then how will this affect the…From Putting People First
Networked objects session at Lift Asia 2009 conference
Nicolas Nova reports on the
From Putting People First
Augmented reality gets off to a wobbly start
The New Scientist reviews the current state of Augmented Reality and is a bit concerned: “While some who back the technology think its time has now come, after more than a decade in development, others warn that undercooked applications…
From Putting People First
Information overload
Too many emails, texts and tweets can lead to rising anxiety, lower intelligence
From Putting People First
Communication and human development: the freedom connection?
Canada
From Putting People First
O2 launches
O2 is launching a new mobile phone network which it has dubbed as the first
From Wild WebMink
? Dealing With Abuse
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Why Google
From The Eponymous PickleBrand Retail as Theater
This reminds me of the work of Brenda Laurel, game developer and systems theorist, who wrote about computers and theater. The theater of the brand: Building entertainment experiences at retailCraig Hubbell EVP, PlayNetworkIn…
From The Noisy ChannelEthics of Blogging Panel Today
From Schneier on SecuritySears Spies on its Customers
It's not just hackers who steal financial and medical information:
Between April 2007 and January 2008, visitors to the Kmart and Sears web sites were invited to join an "online community" for which they would be paid $10 with…
From My Biased CoinExtending the Sketching of Sketches Result
I'm putting online a paper with Zhenming Liu and Kai-Min Chung (both graduate students at Harvard) that extends one of the results from Declaring Independence via the Sketching of Sketches by Indyk and McGregor (SODA 2008).They…
From The Eponymous PickleComputer Crime Legislation
Volokh posts on recently passed computer crime legislation. He quotes the entire act so that you can read it yourself. True it is legally cryptic, but you can get help if you need it. At least you have the whole thing to refer…
From The Eponymous PickleStephen Wolfram Talk
Stepehen Wolfram talks and does a Q&A on WolframAlpha and related topics they are working on. I need to get back to WolframAlpha to see how it is progressing. As I have said several times before, it is a good idea that needs…
From The Eponymous PickleMeijers Opens Online Shopping Concept
An interesting idea in these tighter times, a convenience-based personal shopper concept by Meijer in the Chicago area. Shoppers pick up their own orders hand delivered in the parking lot. Online, but there seems to be no otherwise…
From Schneier on SecurityMonopoly Sets for WWII POWs: More Information
I already blogged about this; there's more information in this new article:
Included in the items the German army allowed humanitarian groups to distribute in care packages to imprisoned soldiers, the game was too innocent to…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACMCommittee Considers Changes to Cybersecurity Research and Development
This morning the Research and Science Education Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee met to mark up legislation that would amend the Cyber Security Research and Development Act. Much of the bill will simply…
From Computational ComplexityAnother Reason to goto FOCS: Theory Day!
(Posted by request of Vijay V. Vazirani. Flame him for any spelling or grammar mistakes, or if you don't like the content.)
Another reason to goto FOCS: There will be a theory day on Saturday Oct 24:
Celebrating
50th…
From The Noisy ChannelGoby Goes Deep
At the first HCIR workshop in 2007, Michael Stonebraker stood up in the middle of an open discussion session and told all assembled that we needed to be thinking about the deep web. He certainly followed his own advice. He and…
From The Noisy ChannelHCIR 2009 Accepted Submissions
From The Eponymous PickleIBM Global CIO Study Promotes Analytics
Here is the place to download the study. Standardization, Security and analytics are emphasized. Requires a minimal registration.' .. A new global study of more than 2,500 Chief Information Officers (CIOs), released by IBM reveals…
From The Eponymous PickleMore Machine Vision
Machine vision has been around for a long time. For example systems in manufacturing lines that easily detect varying quality. Once you take such system in a human environment like a or aim to understand a video the solution…
From The Eponymous PickleDecline of Cursive
On the decline of cursive handwriting, in a recent article.I had discussions about this with a K-12 teacher relative, confirming the article. Little time is spent on the subject any more. As a child I had very precise handwriting…