Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2011
From The Eponymous Pickle
Measuring the Emotional Consumer
An insightful interview. I believe there is much to be learned from the non-consious consumer. I still do not believe we know as much as we think we do about the process. Ogilvy Group UK vice chairman Rory Sutherland is a…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: SQUIDS Game
It's coming to the iPhone and iPad, then to other platforms:
In SQUIDS, players will command a small army of stretchy, springy sea creatures to protect an idyllic underwater kingdom from a sinister emerging threat. An infectious…From Schneier on Security
The Efficacy of Post-9/11 Counterterrorism
This is an interesting article. The authors argue that the whole war-on-terror nonsense is useless -- that's not new -- but that the security establishment knows it doesn't work and abandoned many of the draconian security measures…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Defined Hours of Work
Now that I consulting after retirement (contact me for more information, column on the left) I am better understanding the issue of defined hours of work much better than when I was office bound. In GigaOM, a review of where…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Complexity Science Blog
A new blog by Melanie Mitchell via the Santa Fe Institute that overs progress in the complexity sciences. Looks good so far. " ... The blog, whose full title is "Exploring complexity: Expositions, reviews, and perspectives…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sony Personal 3D Headset
From Computational Complexity
The Anti-Privacy Generation
A physicist I knew refused to fly on small commuter planes. He knew what could go wrong and he was sure they weren't safe. In fact flying even on small planes is statistically safer than driving a car. I thought about this story…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cheaper Tablets
Computer World Reports that the market is opening for a number of cheaper tablets in the $200-300 range, in particular pointing to an upcoming Amazon tablet. It is pointed out that Amazon, like Apple has a natural ecosystem…
From Putting People First
Ethnographic analysis to better address challenges in developing countries
Dr. Kusum Gopal, an anthropologist who has served as a United Nations (UN) Expert and Technical Advisor to government agencies, speaks to The Chronicle on challenges facing developing countries and offers solutions. Q: You mention…
From Schneier on Security
A Professional ATM Theft
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) lost $13M to an ATM theft earlier this year:
KrebsOnSecurity recently discovered previously undisclosed details of the successful escapade. According to sources close to theApparently…From BLOG@CACM
Why We Compute
Why do we, as researchers and practitioners, have this deep and abiding love of computing? Why do we compute? I suspect it is a deeper, more primal yearning, one that underlies all of science and engineering and that unites…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Readability in Programming Languages
I saw a side by side comparison of a bunch of scripting languages online recently. Scripting Languages: PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby My first, and second reaction was yuck! Now I have my biases
From The Eponymous Pickle
Awareness is the new Bottom Line
Paul D'Souza, who I just met, writes: That is what Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder & CEO of the Selling Power Magazine says -- when interviewing me about my book. We talk about how a heightened sense of awareness can improve…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Creative Computing with Scratch
I recently had the good fortune to participate in this year's Creative Computing workshop at MIT. The program, which ran from July 27-30, was organized by the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with Google's CS4HS initiative. The…
From Schneier on Security
Unredacted U.S. Diplomatic WikiLeaks Cables Published
It looks as if the entire mass of U.S. diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks had is available online somewhere. How this came about is a good illustration of how security can go wrong in ways you don't expect.
Near as I can tell…From The Eponymous Pickle
Learning Styles
Is there real evidence for clear differences in learning styles? I know many people who say they are visual rather than textual learners, is that a reasonable distinction? More here.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data eBook Free Download
This looks to be interesting, checking it out now: " ... We've taken the wraps off of "Big Data Now," a free collection that brings together much of the data coverage we've featured here on Radar over the last year .... " …
From Schneier on Security
Forged Google Certificate
There's been a forged Google certificate out in the wild for the past month and a half. Whoever has it -- evidence points to the Iranian government -- can, if they're in the right place, launch man-in-the-middle attacks against…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Private Character Editor
I get questions. Oh boy do I get questions. I don
From Putting People First
Human plus Machine
In the next ten years, smart machines will enter virtually every domain of our lives, including assisting doctors during surgery, fighting on battlefields, building things in factories, and assisting in classrooms, nursing homes…
From Putting People First
New interface design at the New York Times R&D Lab
Megan Garber of the Nieman Journalism Lab recently visited the New York Times R&D Lab and updates us on the latest interface developments there. The New York Times imagines the kitchen table of the future August 30, 2011 The…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Life, Complexity and Financial Markets
We experimented with several applications of complexity models. Not sure we every truly embraced the idea as a general problem solving technique, but it is one of those methods where the journey led you to useful learnings. …
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Buys Crime Analytics Company
An interesting acquisition. I2 is a company known for pattern recognition solutions. You do wonder how this will be linked to applications like Watson. Pattern recognition is a key component of any kind of intelligence. .…