February 2015 - Vol. 58 No. 2

Features

Opinion Feb 1 2015

Is Information Technology Destroying the Middle Class?

While optimists argue that though technology always destroy jobs, it also creates new jobs, pessimists argue that the speed in which information technology is currently destroying jobs is unparalleled.

Moshe Y. Vardi

Computing Applications

Opinion Feb 1 2015

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

Centuries before George Boole and Charles Babbage, the notion of binary encoding was well known and apparently even used! Julius Caesar was known to use a simple rotational cipher. Francis Bacon devised a binary encoding scheme and wrote about it in 1623.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the Editor Feb 1 2015

Software Engineering, Like Electrical Engineering

Though I agree with the opening lines of "A New Software Engineering" (Dec. 2014) outlining the "promise of rigorous, disciplined, professional practices," we must also look at "craft" in software engineering if we hope to raise the profession to the status of, say, electrical or chemical engineering.

CACM Staff

BLOG@CACM Feb 1 2015

What’s the Best Way to Teach Computer Science to Beginners?

Mark Guzdial questions the practice of teaching programming to new CS students by having them practice programming largely on their own.

Mark Guzdial

Computing Applications

News Feb 1 2015

Visualizing Sound

New techniques capture speech by looking for the vibrations it causes.

Neil Savage

Computing Applications

recovering sound from video, illustration

News Feb 1 2015

Online Privacy: Regional Differences

How do the U.S., Europe, and Japan differ in their approaches to data protection — and what are they doing about it?

Logan Kugler

Computing Applications

News Feb 1 2015

Using Technology to Help People

Companies are creating technological solutions for individuals, then generalizing them to broader populations that need similar assistance.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Computing Applications

Opinion Privacy and security Feb 1 2015

We Need a Building Code For Building Code

A proposal for a framework for code requirements addressing primary sources of vulnerabilities for building systems.

Carl Landwehr

Computing Applications

We Need a Building Code for Building Code, photo illustration

Opinion Economic and business dimensions Feb 1 2015

Three Paradoxes of Building Platforms

Insights into creating China's Taobao online marketplace ecosystem.

Ming Zeng

Computing Applications

Three Paradoxes of Building Platforms, illustration

Opinion Inside risks Feb 1 2015

Far-Sighted Thinking About Deleterious Computer-Related Events

Considerably more anticipation is needed for what might seriously go wrong.

Peter G. Neumann

Computing Applications

Far-Sighted Thinking about Deleterious Computer-Related Events, illustration

Opinion Education Feb 1 2015

Putting the Computer Science in Computing Education Research

Investing in computing education research to transform computer science education.

Diana Franklin

Computing Applications

Opinion Kode vicious Feb 1 2015

Too Big to Fail

Visibility leads to debuggability.

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Feb 1 2015

Do-It-Yourself Textbook Publishing

Comparing experiences publishing textbooks using traditional publishers and do-it-yourself methods.

Armando Fox and David Patterson

Computing Applications

Do-It-Yourself Textbook Publishing, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Feb 1 2015

In Defense of Soundiness: A Manifesto

Soundy is the new sound.

Computing Applications

Practice Feb 1 2015

Securing Network Time Protocol

Crackers discover how to use NTP as a weapon for abuse.

Harlan Stenn

Architecture and Hardware

Securing Network Time Protocol, illustrative photo

Practice Feb 1 2015

Model-Based Testing: Where Does It Stand?

MBT has positive effects on efficiency and effectiveness, even if it only partially fulfills high expectations.

Robert V. Binder, Bruno Legeard, and Anne Kramer

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Feb 1 2015

To Govern IT, or Not to Govern IT?

Business leaders may bemoan the burdens of governing IT, but the alternative could be much worse.

Carlos Juiz and Mark Toomey

Computing Applications

To Govern IT, or Not to Govern IT? illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Feb 1 2015

Automated Support For Diagnosis and Repair

Model checking and logic-based learning together deliver automated support, especially in adaptive and autonomous systems.

Dalal Alrajeh, Jeff Kramer, Alessandra Russo, and Sebastian Uchitel

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Review articles Feb 1 2015

Verifying Computations Without Reexecuting Them

From theoretical possibility to near practicality.

Michael Walfish and Andrew J. Blumberg

Computing Applications

Verifying Computations without Reexecuting Them, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Feb 1 2015

Technical Perspective: The Equivalence Problem For Finite Automata

As the equivalence problem is essential in many applications, we need algorithms that avoid the worst-case complexity as often as possible. In "Hacking Nondeterminism with Induction and Coinduction," Filippo Bonchi and Damien Pous show us there is a better way.

Thomas A. Henzinger and Jean-François Raskin

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Feb 1 2015

Hacking Nondeterminism with Induction and Coinduction

We introduce bisimulation up to congruence as a technique for proving language equivalence of nondeterministic finite automata.

Filippo Bonchi and Damien Pous

Computing Applications

Hacking Nondeterminism with Induction and Coinduction, illustration

Opinion Last byte Feb 1 2015

Upstart Puzzles: Take Your Seats

A popular logic game involves figuring out an arrangement of people sitting around a circular table based on hints about, say, their relationships. Here, we aim to determine the smallest number of hints sufficient to specify an arrangement unambiguously.

Dennis Shasha

Computing Applications

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