April 2011 - Vol. 54 No. 4

Features

Opinion Apr 1 2011

In a sensible world—at least as defined by computer scientists who, as we all know, are eminently sensible people—there would be no need for the ACM Education Policy Committee.

Robert B. Schnabel

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2011

In the Virtual Extension

Here are synopses of four Virtual Extension articles that are now available in their entirety to ACM members via the Digital Library.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the editor Apr 1 2011

I Want a Personal Information Pod

I found much to agree with in Stephen Davies's article "Still Building the Memex" (Feb. 2011) but also feel one of his suggestions went off in the wrong direction.

CACM Staff

BLOG@CACM Apr 1 2011

Matters of Design, Part II

Jason Hong discusses how Apple creates well-designed products and what the human-computer interaction community can learn from its methods.

Jason Hong

Computing Applications

Opinion CACM online Apr 1 2011

ACM on the Move

Over the coming weeks, ACM will be diving headfirst into the world of mobility. Our strategy is essentially two-pronged. The first is the development of a mobile version of the existing CACM Web site. The second component is apps.

Scott E. Delman

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2011

The Quest For Randomness

It's not easy to generate a string of numbers that lack any pattern or rule, or even to define exactly what randomness means.

Gary Anthes

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2011

Engineering Sensation in Artificial Limbs

Advancements in mobile electronics have led to several prosthetics innovations in recent years, but providing reliable touch sensations to users remains an elusive goal.

Kirk L. Kroeker

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2011

Social Games, Virtual Goods

The popularity of virtual goods and currencies in online gaming is changing how people think and act about money.

Samuel Greengard

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2011

British Computer Scientists Reboot

After a year of turmoil, computer scientists at King's College London have retained their jobs, but substantial challenges lie ahead.

Sarah Underwood

Computing Applications

Opinion Emerging markets Apr 1 2011

Managing Global IT Teams: Considering Cultural Dynamics

Successful global IT team managers combine general distributed team management skills enhanced with cultural sensitivity.

Fred Niederman and Felix B. Tan

Computing Applications

Opinion Historical reflections Apr 1 2011

Building Castles in the Air

Reflections on recruiting and training programmers during the early period of computing.

Nathan Ensmenger

Computing Applications

Opinion Technology strategy and management Apr 1 2011

Platform Wars Come to Social Media

The world can absorb more social media sites, but how many?

Michael A. Cusumano

Computing Applications

Opinion Kode Vicious Apr 1 2011

Coder’s Block

Programming is a creative endeavor, and therefore there is such a thing as coder's block. What does it take to clear the blockage?

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Apr 1 2011

Asymmetries and Shortages of the Network Neutrality Principle

Since the beginning of the debate on network neutrality, and perhaps as an inheritance of that beginning, the controversy has been restricted to fixed broadband networks.

José Luis Gómez-Barroso and Claudio Feijóo

Computing Applications

Practice Apr 1 2011

Returning Control to the Programmer: SIMD Intrinsics For Virtual Machines

Exposing SIMD units within interpreted languages could simplify programs and unleash floods of untapped processor power.

Jonathan Parri, Daniel Shapiro, Miodrag Bolic, and Voicu Groza

Architecture and Hardware

Returning Control to the Programmer, illustration

Practice Apr 1 2011

Successful Strategies For IPv6 Rollouts. Really.

Knowing where to begin is half the battle.

Thomas A. Limoncelli and Vinton G. Cerf

Architecture and Hardware

Practice Apr 1 2011

A Co-Relational Model of Data For Large Shared Data Banks

Contrary to popular belief, SQL and noSQL are really just two sides of the same coin.

Erik Meijer and Gavin Bierman

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Apr 1 2011

Design Principles For Visual Communication

How to identify, instantiate, and evaluate domain-specific design principles for creating more effective visualizations.

Maneesh Agrawala, Wilmot Li, and Floraine Berthouzoz

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Contributed articles Apr 1 2011

Why STM Can Be More Than A Research Toy

Despite earlier claims, Software Transactional Memory outperforms sequential code.

Aleksandar Dragojević, Pascal Felber, Vincent Gramoli, and Rachid Guerraoui

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Apr 1 2011

Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge

Finding 10 balloons across the U.S. illustrates how the Internet has changed the way we solve highly distributed problems.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Review articles Apr 1 2011

Crowdsourcing Systems on the World-Wide Web

The practice of crowdsourcing is transforming the Web and giving rise to a new field.

Anhai Doan, Raghu Ramakrishnan, and Alon Y. Halevy

Computing Applications

detail of Aaron Koblin's The Sheep Market

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2011

Technical Perspective: Liability Issues in Software Engineering

The paper by LeMétayer et al. addresses one technical issue in a large and serious problem in the production of mass-market software (MMSW), that of the lack of liability by the producers of this MMSW.

Daniel M. Berry

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2011

Liability Issues in Software Engineering: The Use of Formal Methods to Reduce Legal Uncertainties

This paper reports on the results of a multidisciplinary project involving lawyers and computer scientists with the aim to put forward a set of methods and tools to (1) define software liability in a precise and unambiguous way and (2) establish such liability in case of incident. The overall approach taken in the project is presented through an electronic signature case study. The case study illustrates a situation where, in order to reduce legal uncertainties, the parties wish to include in the contract specific clauses to define as precisely as possible the share of liabilities between them for the main types of failures of the system.

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2011

Technical Perspective: Patterns Hidden from Simple Algorithms

Is the number 9021960864034418159813 random? To my limited mind, the string appears random. Is there a way to use some formal mathematics to justify my naïveté?

Madhu Sudan

Systems and Networking

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2011

Poly-Logarithmic Independence Fools Bounded-Depth Boolean Circuits

The question of determining which (weak) forms of randomness "fool" (or seem totally random to) a given algorithm is a basic and fundamental question in the modern theory of computer science. In this work we report progress on this question.

Mark Braverman

Systems and Networking

Opinion Last byte Apr 1 2011

Q&A: The Chief Computer

Kelly Gotlieb recalls the early days of computer science in Canada.

Leah Hoffmann

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoints: Virtual extension Apr 1 2011

Reaching Future Computer Scientists

The decline in undergraduate enrollment at the university level is well documented and it begins in high school. We advocate university faculty reaching out to high school faculty. We have, and so should others.

Patricia Morreale and David Joiner

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Contributed articles: Virtual extension Apr 1 2011

Emergency! Web 2.0 to the Rescue!

Emergent serendipity fosters volunteerism driven by creative problem solving, not simply following directions.

Ann Majchrzak and Philip H. B. More

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles: Virtual extension Apr 1 2011

A Research Doctorate For Computing Professionals

Looking back on the first decade of the Doctor of Professional Studies in Computing---an ambitious doctoral track for people who want to do research in an industrial setting.

Fred Grossman, Charles Tappert, Joe Bergin, and Susan M. Merritt

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Review articles: Virtual extension Apr 1 2011

Achievements and Challenges in Software Reverse Engineering

Deeply understanding the intricacies of software must always come before any considerations for modifying it.

Gerardo Canfora, Massimiliano Di Penta, and Luigi Cerulo

Computing Applications

Achievements and Challenges, illustration

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