April 2015 - Vol. 58 No. 4

Features

Opinion Apr 1 2015

Charting the Future: Scholarly Publishing in CS

We would like to update you on three key policy issues ACM's Publications Board is currently discussing, give you a glimpse of what some of the leaders of the field have told us, and invite your input into the discussion.

Joseph A. Konstan and Jack W. Davidson

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Opinion Apr 1 2015

The Human Touch

As configuration complexity and scale grow, the need for smarter configuration systems, better online assistance, and the ability to share context with customer service agents will become increasingly important.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the Editor Apr 1 2015

Human or Machine?

We wish to clarify an account of the 2014 Turing Test experiment we conducted at the Royal Society London, U.K., as outlined by Moshe Y. Vardi in his Editor's Letter "Would Turing Have Passed the Turing Test?" (Sept. 2014).

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

BLOG@CACM Apr 1 2015

The Arbitrariness of Reviews, and Advice For School Administrators

John Langford examines the results of the NIPS experiment, while Mark Guzdial considers the role of class size in teaching computer science.

John Langford and Mark Guzdial

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News Apr 1 2015

Molecular Moonshots

Synthetic biologists may be closing in on potentially world-changing breakthroughs, but they are often hamstrung by a shortage of software tools.

Alex Wright

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2015

Secure-System Designers Strive to STEM Data Leaks

Attackers using side-channel analysis require little knowledge of how an implementation operates.

Chris Edwards

Computing Applications

News Apr 1 2015

What’s the Price Now?

Dynamic pricing finds its way into a growing number of industries.

Mark Broderick

Computing Applications

What's the Price Now? photo illustration

Opinion Privacy and security Apr 1 2015

Toward More Secure Software

Two proposals intended to reduce flaws in software use two very different approaches for software security.

Dorothy E. Denning

Architecture and Hardware

Toward More Secure Software, illustration

Opinion Technology strategy and management Apr 1 2015

Competing in Emerging Markets

Considering the many different paths and unprecedented opportunities for companies exploring emerging markets.

Mari Sako

Computing Applications

Competing in Emerging Markets, illustration

Opinion Kode Vicious Apr 1 2015

Raw Networking

Relevance and repeatability.

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

News Interview Apr 1 2015

An Interview with Juris Hartmanis

A pioneer in the field of computational complexity theory reflects on his career.

Len Shustek

Systems and Networking

Opinion Viewpoint Apr 1 2015

Who Builds a House Without Drawing Blueprints?

Finding a better solution by thinking about the problem and its solution, rather than just thinking about the code.

Leslie Lamport

Computing Applications

Who Builds a House without Drawing Blueprints? illustration

Practice Apr 1 2015

Go Static or Go Home

In the end, dynamic systems are simply less secure.

Paul Vixie

Architecture and Hardware

Practice Apr 1 2015

Hadoop Superlinear Scalability

The perpetual motion of parallel performance.

Neil J. Gunther, Paul Puglia, and Kristofer Tomasette

Architecture and Hardware

Hadoop Superlinear Scalability, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Apr 1 2015

Sketch-Thru-Plan: A Multimodal Interface For Command and Control

Speaking military jargon, users can create labels and draw symbols to position objects on digitized maps.

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Contributed articles Apr 1 2015

How Amazon Web Services Uses Formal Methods

Engineers use TLA+ to prevent serious but subtle bugs from reaching production.

Architecture and Hardware

How Amazon Web Services Uses Formal Methods, illustration

Research and Advances Review articles Apr 1 2015

Security Challenges For Medical Devices

Implantable devices, often dependent on software, save countless lives. But how secure are they?

Johannes Sametinger, Jerzy Rozenblit, Roman Lysecky, and Peter Ott

Architecture and Hardware

Security Challenges for Medical Devices, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2015

Technical Perspective: The Specialization Trend in Computer Hardware

Specialization improves energy-efficiency in computing but only makes economic sense if there is significant demand. A balance can often be found by designing application-domain-specific components that have a degree of programmability. The work presented in "Convolution Engine" does just that.

Trevor Mudge

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Research highlights Apr 1 2015

Convolution Engine: Balancing Efficiency and Flexibility in Specialized Computing

We present the Convolution Engine (CE) — a programmable processor specialized for the convolution-like data-flow prevalent in computational photography, computer vision, and video processing.

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Last byte Apr 1 2015

Future Tense: The Wealth of Planets

Launch swarms of self-replicating robots to exploit the most lucrative of resources.

David Allen Batchelor

Computing Applications

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