Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2011
From The Eponymous Pickle
Personal Brand Audit
The Burghard Group Suggests:Simple steps for a personal brand Audit. Good set of straightforward ideas.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
An Exciting New Year
2011 was special, particularly with the arrival of our daughter Molly. But 2012 is looking pretty great, too!Although I wasn't able to get an NSF grant application in for Gram's House as planned, one of the researchers I was…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wearable Computing
A topic we followed.. Not an unexpected direction. Integrated computing and clothing. We are not far off today, with buzzing devices in pockets altering us to every sensing whim. I doubt m will stop at the clothing, skin deep…
From BLOG@CACM
We Needn't Be Malevolent Grumps in 2012
I propose that 2012 is the year to solve the nastiness problem in Computer Science. Zero tolerance for rude reviewers starts from midnight tonight.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Continuous Revisions
By Nicholas Carr: A consequence of e-books: the ability to continually revise. Yes, I agree ... If we want that, but the same technology allows us to specifically identify a book as unchanged. Technology books already suffer…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Finding New Customers
In Mashable: Intriguing thoughts on how to get new customers. Not an obvious set of examples." ... The subject of finding customers is one of the most mysterious in business development. I
From My Biased Coin
New Year's Thanks
There are many things I'm thankful for this year. Perhaps most notably, the new year marks the halfway point of my 3-year stint as "Area Dean for Computer Science". Not that I'm counting. I'm very thankful for that.Strangely…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Let
I was watching an episode of Mythbusters the other day. I always enjoy that show and while most of the attention goes to the two main stars my favorite is Grant Imahara. On this particular episode they were trying to determine…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Leveraging Semantics in 2012
Excellent post by Mark Montgomery: Strategic IT Alignment in 2012: Leverage Semantics ... read it here
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Explaining Why Computing is Important
IBM Fellow Grady Booch, co-creator of UML and object-oriented programming, has launched “a transmedia project” seeking to engage “audiences of all ages in the story of technology that has changed humanity.” He’s hoping to put…
From Schneier on Security
Studying Airport Security
Alan A. Kirschenbaum, Michele Mariani, Coen Van Gulijk, Sharon Lubasz, Carmit Rapaport, and Hinke Andriessen, "Airport Security: An Ethnographic Study," Journal of Air Transport Management, 18 (January 2012): 68-73 (full article…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Technology Evolution
In ReadWriteWeb. A look at Kevin Kelly's new book on technology evolution. Makes me want to read it. "... It's a highly ambitious and expansive book, which looks at technology from an evolutionary perspective. Over 350 pages…
From Computational Complexity
Complexity Year in Review 2011
Result of the Year goes to the new bounds on Matrix Multiplication by Andrew Stothers and Virginia Vassilevska Williams. It's not every year that we see progress on an important problem where we've had no progress since the 80's…
From Schneier on Security
Tying Up Phone Lines as a Cyberattack Tactic
There's a service that can be hired to tie up target phone lines indefinitely. The article talks about how this can be used as a diversionary tactic to mask a cyberattack, but that seems a bit odd to me. I'd be more concerned…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Top Ten CSTA Blog Posts of 2011
10. January 12, 2011- A Joint Call for Research Why Computer Science Education is Important for K-12. This post is well worth a second look to provide a good reminder that we make many statements about the necessity of CS for…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Grace Hopper Interview
An interview with computer pioneer Grace Hopper, who I met while working at the Pentagon. A reminder of how far we have come.
From Schneier on Security
Hacking Marconi's Wireless in 1903
A great story:
Yet before the demonstration could begin, the apparatus in the lecture theatre began to tap out a message. At first, it spelled out just one word repeated over and over. Then it changed into a facetious poem accusing…From The Eponymous Pickle
WiFi Vending Machines
In Japan, the home of universal vending, machines that will provide free registration-less WiFi and product. Assuming they will sell advertising for companies that want local exposure. The combination of smart phones and local…
From My Biased Coin
Cross-Cultural Learning Curve: Sending a Paper to Science
We decided to submit our paper on MIC and MINE to Science it's a venue that my co-authors were familiar with and very interested in applying to. I was happy to go along. Moreover, it seemed like the right venue, as we wanted…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
2011:
…became “the center of your world.” So says technology writer/editor
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sands Research Nails VW Ad
An interesting result that starts to connect new ad analysis methods with classic methods:------Wall St. Journal and AdWeek Agree with
From The Eponymous Pickle
Telling a Business Story with Slideshare
Telling a business story. Simple advice overall. " ... Because presentations are generally about very specific topics, companies use SlideShare for inbound marketing, to generate traffic through clients
From Schneier on Security
Butt Identification
Here's a new biometric: how you sit:
...researchers there developed a system that can recognize a person by the backside when the person takes a seat. The system performs a precise measurement of the person's posterior, its…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
My favorite posts from 2011
January: Innovating without permission Not even eventually consistent February: Taking scientific publishing to the next level Ten things Computer Science tells us about bureaucrats March: Know the biases of your operating system…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
msnbc.com’s Cosmic Log is out with its list of the top 11 scientific twists from 2011 this morning: The past year brought us the supercomputer that trounced
From Geeking with Greg
Quick links
Some of what has caught my attention recently:
From The Eponymous Pickle
Visualizing the Flavor Network
A flavor network. From FlowingData. The different relationships of flavor and location. An interesting example of visual relationships.
From My Biased Coin
Some of The Fun of Collaborating...The Other People
One of the things I enjoy most about working in algorithms is the breadth of work I get to do. And while I've worked on a variety of things, almost all have been squarely in Computer Science. (If one counts information theory…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Computer Science Entrepreneurs
During the last few weeks I have been fondly reminded of the joys I experienced when teaching and working with a student organization and encountering that rare student who has a passion, as well as the initiative to see that…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Common Statistical Mistakes
Very common examples. I have seen variants of all of these. Still, should be well known to all saavy managers. If you see anything that is similar to these examples, call your local statistical resource.