Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2013
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Master the Mainframe 2013
Something different. Something from IBM. A teacher friend of mine forward the following announcement the other day. This contest is open to high school and university students in the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec). Sorry…
From My Biased Coin
Reviewing Bad
A pun title, relating to two quick things.First, I had the wonderful experience of getting to see (through a special deal set up by Harvard's faculty development office) All the Way at the American Repertory Theater. It's aMalcolm…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tibco Spotfire Acquires Extended Results
TIBCO Software Acquires Extended ResultsTIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) today announced it has acquired Extended Results, a privately-held provider of mobile business intelligence software and services. Extended Results makes…
From Putting People First
How Public Design? A conference at Mindlab
MindLab, a cross-ministerial innovation unit in Denmark, hosted the seminar titled ‘How Public Design?’ for the second time on 2 and 3 September. This event gathered a distinguished group of decision-makers, researchers, experts…
From Putting People First
Is design still about making things?
The future of design is a broad and slippery subject, one examined number of designers and critics at the recent Alvar Aalto Design Seminar in Jyväskylä, Finland. “With a distinct focus on product and furniture design – as befitting…
From Putting People First
How robots can trick you into loving them
The secret to robots with better social skills? Exploiting human nature. Maggie Koerth-Baker, science editor of BoingBoing.net, explores “how [designers can make] robots trick you in loving them” for the New York Times Magazine…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fewer Skeuomorphs
Brought to mind after loading the new flat design IOS7, which contains fewer skeuomorphs. Which are: Skeuomorphism A skeuomorph /ˈskjuːəmɔrf/ is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to structures that were…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Getting Millennials to Love and Share your Product
In Adage: " ... How to Get Millennials to Love and Share Your Product ... This Generation Wants to Be Engaged and Feel Good About Themselves ... "
From Putting People First
EthnographyMatters on the relationships between ethnography, fiction and design
This month’s theme of EthnographyMatters, edited by Nicolas Nova, is about the relationships between ethnography, speculative fiction and design. “In design circles, the current interest in “design fiction” is geared towards…
From Putting People First
Two recent reports by Pew Internet
Both studies are about the USA market. Location-based services (Released on September 12, 2013) The role of location in digital life is changing as growing numbers of internet users are adding a new layer of location information…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Big Data Fellowship Opportunity
Every year, AAAS administers the Science & Technology Policy Fellowship program, which brings over 200 scientists and engineers to DC each year to work for the federal government. The goal of the Fellowship is to educate scientists…
From Putting People First
A Manifesto for Smart Citizens
We, citizens of all cities, take the fate of the places we live in into our own hands. We care about the familiar buildings and the parks, the shops, the schools, the roads and the trees, but far more about the quality of the…
From Putting People First
Book: Design Anthropology
Design Anthropology: Theory and Practice Editor(s): Wendy Gunn, Ton Otto, Rachel Charlotte Smith Bloomsbury Academic, 2013 304 pages Design is a key site of cultural production and change in contemporary society. Anthropologists…
From Putting People First
The Internet of Things and the mythical smart fridge
In this article for UX Magazine, Avi Itzkovitch explores the opportunities the Internet of Things presents to designers. Because the smart fridge is the cliché people usually refer to when discussing the Internet of Things, he…
From Putting People First
Who Commits Virtual Identity Suicide?
Who Commits Virtual Identity Suicide? Differences in Privacy Concerns, Internet Addiction, and Personality Between Facebook Users and Quitters Stefan Stieger, Christoph Burger, Manuel Bohn, and Martin Voracek. Cyberpsychology…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rescuing Infographics or Making them right
Readers here know my impatience with what are called infographics. More set up to look graphically impressive and clever than to inform. I don't think they can be rescued in their current form. Do give me a clutterless line…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Millennial Consumer
In Time: More intent on Browsing than on Splurging?" ... The millennial generation is easily the most studied demographic since their parents, the Baby Boomers. This is not only because Americans are always fascinated by youth…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Long Range Strategic Planning
In HBS Working Knowledge: A quick look at long range strategic planning. I say that regardless if the work is not predictive, the path to achieving it is still of value. " ... How Relevant is Long-Range Strategic Planning…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Branded Google Glass Apps
Presenting Branded Google Glass Apps. Another move forward? " ... Google Glass may have just 10,000 users, but that hasn't stopped a handful of brands from developing apps -- or "Glassware," in Google speak -- for the wearable…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Videos for My C# Class
I've been creating short videos for my honors programming class. They are short and intended for my students to use for review. I’m not saying they are great but since there are up on YouTube I thought that a post with a sort…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Office Design
Over the years have been involved in looking at office design. Sometimes leading with advanced tech design, sometimes not. Today, for the first time for a while, I was in a pretty standard box cubicle office. Little boxesAwesome…
From Computational Complexity
tl;dr
Every now and then we need new words and phrases come into our lexicon, like the unfortunate "twerking", but here's another "tl;dr", short for "too long; didn't read". I'm guessing it started as an insult/excuse not to read a…
From updated sporadically at best
Why I'm Not Taking a Vacation from Facebook
The internet does not seem to like Facebook these days. Studies are coming out (for instance, this PLOS ONE study) suggesting that Facebook decreases happiness in young adults. In solidarity with the teenagers, Kayak foundertaking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G and Predictive Analytics
Nice example of the use of Predictive analytics by my alma mater. " ... By converting to a smart building system that uses predictive analytics to detect building performance abnormalities before they occur, we not only achieved…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Y&R Says Consumers Lie
Not unexpected, but the details are impressive. Full presentation." Secrets & Lies Study from Y&R Revealsthe Hidden Side of Global Consumers A New Consumer Mainstream Emerges Generation WorldNEW YORK, NY September 18 --…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Who Wins in the New Economy
In Small Business Labs by Steve KingOutlines Who may win in the new economy.Noted economist Tyler Cowen's Who Will Prosper in the New World discusses what type of people he thinks will win and lose in the new economy. He defines…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Tracking Things
Received several offers about the Tile App. A little tag you can put on things and then track and locate with your smart phone. About $20 each. Available by end of year. Track the usual things like computers and luggage.Track…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sensors as Teenagers
In the Cisco Blog: An excellent piece by Bill Franks of Teradata. About the Internet of the things and how it will operate, and about the information it will generate. Some excellent points, good read. " ... The primary…
From Schneier on Security
Yochai Benkler on the NSA
Excellent essay:
We have learned that in pursuit of its bureaucratic mission to obtain signals intelligence in a pervasively networked world, the NSA has mounted a systematic campaign against the foundations of American power…From The Eponymous Pickle
Monitoring the Future of Cloud Computing
Recorded Future uses their novel Web semantic analysis methods to look at the future of Cloud computing. Visually answering questions like: " ... As businesses continue to modernize, technological innovation accelerates. Cloud…