Precision is not required in everything or even most things. Failures are best handled by expecting them all the time, not treating them as exceptions. We should...Greg Linden From BLOG@CACM | April 28, 2011 at 12:43 PM
We're only five months into this year, but there have been a large number of sensational security breaches. Why have there been so many, and what can we do about...Jason Hong From BLOG@CACM | April 27, 2011 at 12:50 PM
There is one proven way to improve the state of software, following the the airline industry's spectacular improvements of safety. The IT industry ignores it. Why...Bertrand Meyer From BLOG@CACM | January 13, 2011 at 01:53 PM
This year, I again had the honor and privilege to chair the selection committee for the IEEE Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach awards, both of which were presented...Daniel Reed From BLOG@CACM | December 1, 2010 at 10:13 AM
SC10 has included several lists that rank supercomputers according to different criteria. The November 2010 Green500, focusing on energy efficiency, is out and...Steve Keckler From BLOG@CACM | November 19, 2010 at 12:25 PM
SC10—the premier conference for supercomputing—has begun. This post touches on a few highlights from the first day of the full technical program, including the...Steve Keckler From BLOG@CACM | November 17, 2010 at 02:10 PM
Watts Humphrey left us a few weeks ago. His contributions to professional software engineering have been essential.Bertrand Meyer From BLOG@CACM | November 15, 2010 at 03:27 PM
Betwixt and between ubiquitous consumer software and the ethereal realm of ultra-high-performance computing, lies the excluded middle, the world of day-to-day computational...Daniel Reed From BLOG@CACM | October 24, 2010 at 09:20 PM
Can the principles of evolution be applied to software code and used to improve it? Stephanie Forrest thinks so—and has some encouraging data to prove it. Jack Rosenberger From BLOG@CACM | October 20, 2010 at 10:14 AM
There is a simple way to make refereeing better, almost overnight. It takes a bit of courage, but it would restore honesty and quality to the process.Bertrand Meyer From BLOG@CACM | October 20, 2010 at 09:21 PM
The success or failure of technology transfer depends on many factors. No single mechanism is guaranteed to succeed, though there are many mechanisms that are likely...Daniel Reed From BLOG@CACM | October 4, 2010 at 09:47 PM
In her Grace Hopper keynote talk, Barbar Liskov reflected on her research journey and the work for which she was given the Turing Award.Valerie Barr From BLOG@CACM | October 2, 2010 at 09:49 PM
I told three stories at PCAST — The Google Story, Model Checking, and Machine Learning — as a way to illustrate the importance of sustained federal funding of basic...Jeannette M. Wing From BLOG@CACM | September 15, 2010 at 04:25 PM
You want to be the first person to design a successful, transistorized computer system, not the last person to design vacuum tube computer. Any designer's challenge...Daniel Reed From BLOG@CACM | September 6, 2010 at 09:51 AM
Earlier this summer the first ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing was held in Indianapolis, Indiana. With three stellar keynotes and an exceptional program, the inaugural...Jeff Hammerbacher From BLOG@CACM | August 23, 2010 at 09:07 AM
Why is good design so hard to accomplish for organizations? People are coming to the realization that design really matters, but it's not that they don't want to...Jason Hong From BLOG@CACM | July 21, 2010 at 09:50 AM
These “grand challenges” of systems biology encompass almost every aspect of modern computing, from numerical and symbolic methods through data management and analytics...Daniel Reed From BLOG@CACM | July 17, 2010 at 09:40 AM
Big web applications are hungry for RAM. They want lots of low power RAM. And they want little else.Greg Linden From BLOG@CACM | July 9, 2010 at 03:42 PM
To paraphrase Mr. Meyerson: A truly talented engineer is someone who, when his hand gets slammed in a doorway and is badly hurt, inserts his other hand in the doorway...Jack Rosenberger From BLOG@CACM | June 16, 2010 at 11:41 PM