blog archive

New Pew study on tone of social network sites

Pew Internet & American Life Project just released a new study called “The tone of life on social networking sites” where they examine adult meanness and cruelty. This complements their piece on “Teens, kindness, and cruelty…

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid's Beard

It's an acoustic bluegrass band.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.

Shiny Packages

Dan Ariely on the effect of packaging design on choice.  Good exploration based on eye tracking research.  " ... when making such simple choices, consumers can spot and choose most of their preferred items in as little as a third…

STOC 2012 accepts are posted

STOC 2012 paper accepts are posted here. Travel support for grad students (which I am involved with) is posted here.

On a quick glance:

1. I tried counting the paper for how many were in which categories. I got dizzy so I stopped

Captchas

Funny.

Choosing Relevant KPI's

A slide show in Information Management that has some useful information.  Though this contains useful information, it is also an example of how the style of information delivery can get in the way of the content.  I guess making…

The Ups and the Downs

Why does it always feel as thought we are moving one step forward and two steps back?

After holding an annual summer camp in January (Yes, here in New Zealand it is summer) for 23 students in various stages of programming expertise…

Activating Brand Advocates

In Chief Marketer. Thoughts on how to activate your brand advocates. For years I saw apathy to this idea in the enterprise.  No more.

Dan Lockton on behavioural heuristics

Behavioural change researcher Dan Lockton discusses an approach which has emerged out of some of the ethnographic work he has been doing for the Empower project, working on CarbonCulture with More Associates, where asking users…

User Interface is the next battlefield in consumer electronics

User Interface (UI) is the next battlefield in consumer electronics and, as products mature, the race to differentiate based on the UI will accelerate. Rather than compare minor differences in features sets, consumers will increasingly…

Packaging Design

Thoughts on packaging design from a recent conference.  " ... "Packaging is the number one medium to communicate the brand," said Michael Okoroafor, VP global packaging at H.J. Heinz. ... " 

All Grown Up Now: Service and Serial Reciprocity

Computing is central to the debate about so many aspects of our present and future that we have a duty and responsibility to be active and enthusiastic participants. In many cases, though, I fear we are still overly enamoredpaying…

Key Imagine Cup 2012 Dates Approaching

Randy Guthrie wrote a long information packed post about Key Imagine Cup 2012 Dates Approaching in the very near future. If you or your students are entering the Imagine Cup I highly recommend you read Randy’s post or at least…

Class Size Incentives

There's an interesting story in today's Crimson about a possible rise in "limited enrollment" classes at Harvard.  (See this older Crimson article as well.)  There may, of course, be didactic reasons for limiting the number of…

Eolas Verdict A Hollow Victory

With news breaking that apparently Eolas decade-plus attempt to tax innovation on the internet is finally over, I look at the context and find myself lacking reassurance in today’s column on ComputerWorldUK.

Securing iPads for Exams

Interesting blog post about locking down an iPad so students can take exams on them.

Emergence of Whorfian Economists?

I have always been intrigued by the Whorfian hypothesis.  The idea that different human languages strongly affect our thinking styles, communication capabilities and even world view.  Now we have the notion of a Whorfian economist…

Democratization of Data Science

Microsoft Announces New Policy-Focused Internship Program

Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group (TPG) has announced a new internship program that will offer “a limited number of internships to exceptional candidates interested in helping characterize the long-term policy implications…

Hello From Texas

You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging as much this week. I’ve been in Austin TX at the TCEA conference. I’ve been pretty busy from morning until night. Doing what? Well you may ask. I have been spending some time at the…

Citation Circles on FSP

Sorry I haven't blogged much.  Life's been busy. But here's an interesting post by FemaleScienceProfessor discussing the appearance of "citation circles", people forming groups to cite each other (when possible) in order to get…

Speaking Out

In the WSJ:   Why people fail to speak up in various contexts.  We examined this in focus group settings.   I see it in myself in very specific group contexts.  Another reason for better understanding of people unconscious reactions…

Wolfram Alpha Pro

The full announcement on Wolfram Alpha Pro.   Quite impressive detail.  A useful front end to business analytics?  Plan to take a much closer look and report back.

Smarter Energy Usage

IBM report on smarter energy usage:  " .. . From our prior surveys, we know consumers like the idea of having cleaner power options, and more control and efficiency at their fingertips. But have they assumed these benefits would…

NAE Elects its Class of 2012

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has just announced the election of 66 new members and 10 foreign associates, including a number of esteemed computing researchers. Among the highest professional distinctions accorded…

Research as Exploration

Check out this talk that asks the question 'What would it take to create a moonshot factory?' It's given by Michael Crow of Arizona State University as part of the new initiative We Solve for X, "a forum to encourage and amplify…

Security Implications of "Lower-Risk Aircraft"

Interesting paper: Paul J. Freitas (2012), "Passenger aviation security, risk management, and simple physics," Journal of Transportation Security.

Abstract: Since the September 11, 2001 suicide hijacking attacks on the United…

Wolfram Alpha Pro

Wolfram Alpha Pro is here, and only $4 a month.  In Technology Review.  Democratizing data analaysis in some new ways, both structured and unstructured.  It has been a long time since I have looked at Alpha. When I did I wasMore…

Finding out Where an Image Originated

Wired provides a good how-to that details some services that allow you to find out where an image on the web originated.     Useful to have at hand.

Brand Promise Health Check