blog archive

Scratch Programming for 'All'

In CACM, the evolution of a programming language for all. I have looked at the Scratch site, but have not tried it for a real application. My argument to these kinds of ideas is always: "Do we want everyone to become a car designer…

Ranking

An anonymous commenter asked an insightful question, worthy of a real answer: "Hi Prof, Why are you so obsessed with ranking things?"*Honestly, I don't think I am. I have 3 children, and I have thus far avoided assigning them…

Apologies for Slow Response Times

Friday Squid Blogging: Dentyne Ice Squid Ad

Weird.

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Data Security Bills

In a markup session yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved two bills on the protection of consumer data. S 1490, the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2009, takes a number of steps to increase the penalties…

Going (to) Google

Interview with Me

On CNet.com

Metagenomics and the Computing Challenges of Microbial Communities

Why should you care about microbial communities? Except for viruses, they are the most abundant life on Earth and have an overwhelming effect on our environment and our lives. Consider that about half the carbon dioxide on Earth…

Near Real-Time Flu Tracking at CDC

I was involved with a project that sought to use retail data to do something similar. With the potential to use it for epidemics or bioterror detection and tracking. Now ' ... The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

Limits of Social Media Marketing

A cautious piece about social media marketing. Its more than just starting up a free presence and expecting people to engage.

Entrpreneurial Resources

Useful: In Inc. Top Entrepreneurial bloggers and in Mashable: useful tools for Entrepreneurs.

IBM Sets up Indian Analytics Center

In my early days in the enterprise we worked directly with IBM to use their optimization software and resources to solve tough analytics problems. Over the years this changed to other sources of expertise augmenting our own.

IBM

Button Button

Here is the offer: If you press the button you will receive $200,000. The caveat: Someone you don't know will die. I was born during run of the original Twilight Zone but growing up watched them over and over again in reruns…

Blogging Informatics Education Europe IV, Day Two

The second day of Informatics Education IV in Freiburg, Germany, focused on accreditation, expanding enrollments, student engagement, parellelism, and interdisciplinarity.

FOCS/STOC and Asymmetry

I had a funny conversation with Madhu Sudan yesterday, with him relaying an idea he said he heard from Umesh Vazirani (and perhaps the trail goes on further from there) -- roughly that FOCS should double in size and STOC should…

The Doghouse: ADE 651

A divining rod to find explosives in Iraq:

ATSC’s promotional material claims that its device can find guns, ammunition, drugs, truffles, human bodies and even contraband ivory at distances up to a kilometer, underground, through…

Harvard Financial Aid

This post will talk about Harvard's financial aid program, and why it's a perfectly good thing to give money to Harvard, despite what you might read in the New York Times.I am motivated to write about this also because some weeks…

Who Needs Massively Multi-core?

Do consumers want massively multi-core?  Or would they rather have lower power consumption and better memory bandwidth?  Are we building what people want?

Computer Science in Practice

Seen in the stairwell of the Purdue Student Health Center...

Robb Cutler CSTA Past President

Internet Choice Perception

From O'Reilly:

' ... Individual perception of increased choice can occur while the overall choice pool is getting smallerThis gem from Whimsley makes the point - with extensive statistical modeling supporting the argument - that

Reading and Augmented Reality

An upcoming issue of Esquire plans to include a number of readable Q codes. So Engadget suggests that this is augmenting reality. It is augmenting reading, and I have seen a number of presentations by companies seeking to add…

Reinventing British manners the Post-It way

Wired UK asked Bill Moggridge and his IDEO team to tackle the urban rage problem that is rendering the UK cityscapes ever more aggressive. “Design thinking defines the practical way in which IDEO approaches its problems, but…

Social isolation and new technology

The Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion…

Strength in science collaboration

Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC News reports on how Google Wave is proving its worth in the scientific community, as one of the new collaboration tools which scientists are using to work together and conduct research. “The key to these…

Innovation

The Problems with Unscientific Security

From the Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, by a whole llist of authors: "A Call for Evidence-Based Security Tools":

Abstract: Since the 2001 attacks on the twin towers, policies on security have changed drastically…

On the Age of the Informavore

In the Edge: ' We are apparently now in a situation where modern technology is changing the way people behave, people talk, people react, people think, and people remember. And you encounter this not only in a theoretical way…

Mossad Hacked Syrian Official's Computer

It was unattended in a hotel room at the time:

Israel's Mossad espionage agency used Trojan Horse programs to gather intelligence about a nuclear facility in Syria the Israel Defense Forces destroyed in 2007, the German magazine…

Blogging Informatics Education Europe IV, Day One

Informatics Education Europe, a workshop sponsored by ACM, BCS, Intel, and Microsoft, is focusing on improving computing education across Europe.

Buyology Inc Launches

I have mentioned the work of Martin Lindstrom here a number of times and I am working with Buyology Inc, a US - based company that seeks to connect some of the newest neuroromarketing science with tough and profitable marketing…