Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2010
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Photography Business
I was previously involved with a startup company that sought to bridge the gap between amateur and professional photographers. There have since been many changes in this industry. This article is a good overview of where that…
From Wild WebMink
? Digital Liberty Activism
For @uupc listeners: How to take action on BBC DRM, the Digital Economy Bill, ACTA and the UK Elections.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Pushing the Drive-Through Concept
We looked at this through a number of drive-through supercenter concepts. A good overview article in the Chicago Tribune. Online is open 24/7, so why not have a way to get to goods at all times? If you don't have aisles and have…
From Schneier on Security
Security Cameras in the New York City Subways
The New York Times has an article about cameras in the subways. The article is all about how horrible it is that the cameras don't work:
Moreover, nearly half of the subway system
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACMPolicy Highlights from Communications of the ACM - March 2010 (Vol. 53, No. 3)
Below is a list of items with policy relevance from the March issue of Communications of the ACM. As always, much of the material in CACM is premium content, and free content one month may slip behind a pay wall the next. You…
From The Eponymous PickleFood Lion Tracking Shopper Data with Cameras
Several reports on how Food Lion is gathering video data from cameras in-store. They are using the videomining system to gather and analyze results. We talked to them at the innovation centers some years ago. We did similar internal…
From The Eponymous PickleHow Procter Remains a Global Marketer
In AdAge, a video: Video: At Induction to AAF Hall of Fame, Execs Discuss Importance of Multi-Brand Efforts.
From Computational ComplexitySIGACT Awards
ACM announced the following awards recently. Note that some of the awards are named after theorists and some awards went to theorists.
Any comments on their work are welcome.
See here for the formal list and more information…
From The Female Perspective of Computer ScienceTEDxCarletonU
Last night I attended a TED event for the first time ever. It was a TEDx (i.e. independently organized) event with a Carleton University flavour. The speakers were all professors, but attendees were members of the general Ottawa…
From Wild WebMink? Digging Deeper, Finding Salt
Breakthroughs at last in DeBill? Plus a great historical lesson, why Microsoft isn't the only aggressor against Google, and rare good news from Italy.
From Schneier on SecurityShould the Government Stop Outsourcing Code Development?
Information technology is increasingly everywhere, and it's the same technologies everywhere. The same operating systems are used in corporate and government computers. The same software controls critical infrastructure and home…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonExploring Problem-Solving Processes with Smithsonian and Microsoft
Something for the wider education community. I think we need to do more to teach problem-solving and critical thinking through out the curriculum so this online conference looks like it would be very helpful to many people in…
From My Biased CoinTwo Inspiring Posts
Inspiring me to blog, that is....
Matt blogs about the psychology of program committees. It's one of those things that would be funny except that it's true. So true. So, so true...One of the commenters raises an interesting…
From The Eponymous PickleEase of Blogging
Walter Riker expands his new blog on The Ease of Blogging. Read it and follow.-
From Schneier on SecurityLeaders Make Better Liars
According to new research:
The researchers found that subjects assigned leadership roles were buffered from the negative effects of lying. Across all measures, the high-power liars -- the leaders -- resembled truthtellers, showing…
From The Eponymous PickleOn Prediction Without Markets
Good overview and link to the original Cornell paper, here an abstract of that:' ... Though theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that markets do often outperform alternative mechanisms, less attention has been paid to…
From Wild WebMinklinks for 2010-03-30
Tech coalition pushes rewrite of online privacy law This is a welcome development, one we need to see replicated in other subject areas and other countries. Most of the law we have is based on assumptions from an era that has…
From The Eponymous PickleCloud Computing
CACM, the worlds preeminent computing professional society, gives a good view of cloud computing: Clearing the clouds away from the true potential and obstacles posed by this computing capability ... '
From The Eponymous PickleGeolocation Apocalypse?
The AdAge article is provocatively overblown, but the warnings are worth understanding. Geolocation is one of those tech things that are relatively easy with today's capabilities, so it is being taken up everywhere. The Semantic…
From Computational ComplexityTraveling Too Much
Three recent happenings made me think about the amount I travel.I hit the 50K club (Premier Executive) in United for the first time last year. At first I was excited about the extra perks. But then got depressed over so muchThe…
From Wild WebMinklinks for 2010-03-30
Tech coalition pushes rewrite of online privacy law This is a welcome development, one we need to see replicated in other subject areas and other countries. Most of the law we have is based on assumptions from an era that has…
From Schneier on SecurityJeremy Clarkson on Security Guards
Nice essay:
Of course, we know why he's really there. He's really there so that if the bridge is destroyed by terrorists, the authorities can appear on the television news and say they had taken all possible precautions. Plus…
From The Noisy ChannelCFP: HCIR 2010
The 4th Annual Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 2010) will be held in conjunction with the IIiX 2010 conference in New Brunswick, New Jersey on August 22, 2010. We’re pleased to announce…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonPlaying Video Games Will Not Get You a Job But Creating One Might
Last week I had a chance to hear Larry Hryb (AKA Major Nelson) of the Xbox Live team talk to a group of college students at Microsoft
From Putting People FirstShoppers choose green products to improve social status
Consumers are willing to sacrifice performance for perceived social status from green products, says the study Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation, published in the Journal of Personality…
From Daniel Lemire's BlogThe paperless campus: still a long way to go
Today I spent money from a research grant.
From The Eponymous PickleWhat's Behind Procter's Strong Quarter
A very good and relatively detailed article. The short answer: Innovation... What
From Schneier on SecurityMaster Thief
The amazing story of Gerald Blanchard.
Thorough as ever, Blanchard had spent many previous nights infiltrating the bank to do recon or to tamper with the locks while James acted as lookout, scanning the vicinity with binoculars…
From The Eponymous PickleOfficial Google CPG Blog on the ZMOT
Brought to my attention by Dave Knox. (His excellent blog) The Google CPG Blog On the Zero moment of truth. One thing I do note is that although they imply they came up with this term, very shortly after the first-moment-of-truth…
From The Eponymous PickleDel Monte and Social Media ROI
There always has to be some measure that people will agree to. Being a quant I like the numbers. Here a good view: ' ... Doug Chavez, head of digital marketing at Del Monte Foods, advises brands looking to provide a social-media…