Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2010
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Alerts
Have not followed the Google small business blog very closely, but recently there is an interesting article: Now Available with Google Apps: Google Alerts. " ... Google Alerts is a content monitoring service that notifies you…
From The Eponymous Pickle
How to Prototype and Influence People
In UX Magazine. On Rapid Prototyping and influence. The concept is intriguing ... prototyping is a valuable method, but how can it be done effectively. via Dave Cohen.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Is Kinect Doomed to Casual Gaming?
Dance Central by Harmonix appears to be one of the better Kinect launch titles (some say the best). I'm personally very excited about getting it for my birthday this weekend. I think my mom might even dance with me! ;)E3 2010…
From Schneier on Security
The Constitutionality of Full-Body Scanners
Jeffrey Rosen opines:
Although the Supreme Court hasn't evaluated airport screening technology, lower courts have emphasized, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in 2007, that "a particular airport security…From Putting People First
Understanding communities through ethnography
Digital marketing expert Dhiren Shingadia interviewed ethnographer and technology researcher Tricia Wang to learn how ethnography can provide new insights for companies seeking to understand communities. “My primary output is…
From Putting People First
The Absent Peer
Sebastian Greger, social interaction designer, internet sociologist and post-graduate student at the Media Lab of the Aalto University School of Art and Design in Helsinki, has published his Master’s research that aims to provide…
From Wild WebMink
? Crowdsource is not open source
I’ve heard a few conversations in the last week treating open source interchangeably with crowdsourcing. Despite sounding the same they are very different, and the key difference is the ownership of the outcome. Open source is…
From Wild WebMink
? Hidden Motives
Intellectual Property Appears to Figure Prominently In Wikileaks Cablegate Michael Geist shrewdly observes that, far from being the exclusive domain of military diplomacy as might be deduced from coverage, the Wikileaks diplomatic…
From Putting People First
Interview with Motorola UX designer Hwang Sung-gul
The Korean partner newspaper of the International Herald Tribune today published an interview with Hwang Sung-gul, the creative designer of mobile devices at Motorola Korea, about the thinking and work that goes into designing…
From Schneier on Security
Mohamed Osman Mohamud
I agree with Glenn Greenwald. I don't know if it's an actual terrorist that the FBI arrested, or if it's another case of entrapment.
All of the information about this episode -- all of it -- comes exclusively from an FBI affidavit…From Putting People First
Collaborative design strategies for community technology
Organizations designing for marginalized populations have many design approaches to inform their efforts to enact lasting change. Some are adapted from first-world commercial processes, and others were actively developed in the…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Artificial Intelligence and Game Programming
Recently the Advanced Placement Computer Science mailing list had an exchange looking for ideas/suggestions for games that students could program artificial indolence routines for. A number of suggestions came out - Connect Four…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Universal In Box
In Technology Review, news that Nokia is developing a universal in-box that will collect messages from many smartphone Apps. Is this a good idea? Sometimes, but it is also useful to have input separated by its transmitting…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Why do we need database joins?
In a recent post, I argued that the current NoSQL trend could be called NoJoin. My argument boils down to the fact that SQL entices you to normalize your data which creates complicated schemas. Meanwhile, NoSQL database systems…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neuromarketing Beyond Copy Testing: Sensory in Retail Context
This is the kind of research we continued to look at in the innovation center. How do shoppers actually interact non-consciously with complex environments like the retail store. Read the whole article from the linkFrom Sands…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Earth 6 Introduced
Google LatLong provides an overview of Google Earth 6. Based on this, the new update appears to be quite impressive. I have a particular interest in Historical Geo Mapping, and a number of new capabilities and data in this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Executive Social Media
Alison Bolen of SASCom writes about a executive meeting in Las Vegas sponsored by SAS, links to a video of the the panel discussion on social media. Good piece.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Can We Engineer the Supply Chain?
Yes you can, and I did it for years in the enterprise. From the Supply Chain Digest, by Dan Gilmore a look at the new book: Operation Rules: Delivering Customer Value through Flexible Operations by David Simchi-Levi of MIT. (Contains…
From Schneier on Security
Zoo Security
From a study on zoo security:
Among other measures, the scientists recommend not allowing animals to walk freely within the zoo grounds, and ensuring there is a physical barrier marking the zoo boundaries, and preventing individuals…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Call for CCC Council Nominations
The Computing Community Consortium today issued a call for nominations for individuals to serve on the CCC Council for the next three years.
From Putting People First
The experience design of a Japanese zoo
A couple of weeks ago the Design Center Busan (in Busan, South Korea) organised its first International Design Congress. The speakers featured not only the writer of this post (Mark Vanderbeeken – as reported here), but also…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of November 29
December 2
Hearing: The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on 'do-not-track' legislation. This would establish something similar to the do-not…From Wild WebMink
? For Your Safety
Australian Government adds Wikileaks to banned website list With WikiLeaks back in the news, this story from 2009 is more relevant than ever. Having rendered WikiLeaks “illegal” last year, it’s now easy to target it without causing…
From Schneier on Security
Causing Terror on the Cheap
Total cost for the Yemeni printer cartridge bomb plot: $4200.
"Two Nokia mobiles, $150 each, two HP printers, $300 each, plus shipping, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses add up to a total bill of $4,200. That is…From Computational Complexity
Complexity as Friction
What advantages can we get from computational hardness? Cryptography and pseudo-random number generators come to mind. But perhaps the universe made computation difficult for a reason, not unlike friction. In the physical world…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 29 November 2010
I hope everyone (US anyway) had a great Thanksgiving last week. For me it was a good time with fun, food and family. We had a great time with my new Kinect sensor with Xbox 360. A great way to work off Thanksgiving dinner. With…
From Michael Nielsen
The Mismeasurement of Science
Albert Einstein’s greatest scientific “blunder” (his word) came as a sequel to his greatest scientific achievement. That achievement was his theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity, which he introduced in 1915. Two…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Opting Out is Socially Neutral?
One would have thought that opting out of providing information that you might think is your own personal business would be your own choice. Essentially socially neutral. But some of the recent experience from Germans opting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cheating and Enraging Customers as a Business Model
Negative advertisement prospers because of Google's model. Comments and link to a NYTimes article. It is traffic, not the direction of the interaction that builds value online.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Four Square and Pepsico: The Rise of Blockbuster Location Apps
Steve Frenda, [email protected], Managing Director, Strategy and Development, The In-Store Marketing Institute writes: " .... The following pieces are relatively new and speak a great deal to the rapidly emerging1…