January 2015 - Vol. 58 No. 1

Features

Opinion Jan 1 2015

The Rise and Fall of Industrial Research Labs

The news flashed last September that Microsoft Research closed down its Silicon Valley Lab. While the specifics may have been surprising, these actions are entirely consistent with the historical pattern of the rise and fall of industrial research labs.

Moshe Y. Vardi

Computing Applications

Opinion Jan 1 2015

A Long Way to Have Come and Still to Go

Oral interaction with computers is increasingly common. Pretty much anywhere you use a keyboard, Google's applications now allow you to speak. This leads me to wonder whether it is possible to write significant programs by way of high-level oral (or written) interaction with a programming system.

Vinton G. Cerf

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Letters to the Editor Jan 1 2015

Toward a Map Interface Not Inherently Related to Geography

"Reading News with Maps by Exploiting Spatial Synonyms" (Oct. 2014) was an impressive and informative description of how a map-query interface should work. I am not sure if the authors intend to broaden their scope to include even perhaps non-geographically related information but hope they do.

CACM Staff

News Jan 1 2015

ACM’s FY14 Annual Report

This is an extraordinary time to be part of the world's largest educational and scientific society in computing. Membership is at a record high, ACM continues to expand its global reach, and ACM's position at the forefront of computer science education has never been more prominent.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

BLOG@CACM Jan 1 2015

A Valuable Lesson, and Whither Hadoop?

Valerie Barr considers outcomes from the Grace Hopper Celebration, while Michael Stonebraker ponders the past, present, and possible future of the "Hadoop stack."

Valerie Barr and Michael Stonebraker

Computing Applications

News Jan 1 2015

In Search of Bayesian Inference

Long relegated to the statistical backburner, Bayesian Inference is undergoing a renaissance.

Erica Klarreich

Architecture and Hardware

News Jan 1 2015

Smart Transportation Networks Drive Gains

Transportation engineers and city planners are looking to information technology to redefine traffic management in urban areas. With the opportunity, however, comes risks.

Samuel Greengard

Architecture and Hardware

transportation network, illustrative photo

News Jan 1 2015

Data Brokers Are Watching You

You would be surprised by how much they know about you, and what they are doing with your information.

Gary Anthes

Computing Applications

News Jan 1 2015

Google Boosts ACM’s Turing Award Prize to $1 Million

The increase reflects the escalating impact of computing on daily life, through the innovations and technologies it enables.

Lawrence M. Fisher

Computing Applications

Opinion Technology strategy and management Jan 1 2015

How Traditional Firms Must Compete in the Sharing Economy

Considering the evolving relationship between established companies and their sharing-economy counterparts.

Michael A. Cusumano

Computing Applications

How Traditional Firms Must Compete in the Sharing Economy, illustration

Opinion Law and technology Jan 1 2015

A Right to Be Forgotten?

Searching for an answer to the question of how much responsibility search engine operators should bear for privacy-related issues connected to search engine results.

Lee A. Bygrave

Computing Applications

A Right to Be Forgotten? illustrative photo

Opinion The business of software Jan 1 2015

A Little Queue Theory

When more work means less done.

Phillip G. Armour

Computing Applications

A Little Queue Theory, illustrative photo

Opinion Historical reflections Jan 1 2015

The Tears of Donald Knuth

Has the history of computing taken a tragic turn?

Thomas Haigh

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Jan 1 2015

Wearables: Has the Age of Smartwatches Finally Arrived?

Time will tell if smartwatches will find their niche.

Reza Rawassizadeh, Blaine A. Price, and Marian Petre

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Jan 1 2015

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?

Yes, but this may not be as bad as it sounds…

Hermann Maurer

Computing Applications

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid? illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Jan 1 2015

What It Means to Receive the Turing Award

The Turing Award gives us a unique opportunity to become ambassadors of our wonderful field. It increases our outside visibility and enables us to build bridges to other disciplines.

Silvio Micali

Computing Applications

Practice Jan 1 2015

Disambiguating Databases

Use the database built for your access model.

Rick Richardson

Computing Applications

Practice Jan 1 2015

Internal Access Controls

Trust, but verify.

Geetanjali Sampemane

Computing Applications

Practice Jan 1 2015

Scalability Techniques For Practical Synchronization Primitives

Designing locking primitives with performance in mind.

Davidlohr Bueso

Architecture and Hardware

Scalability Techniques for Practical Synchronization Primitives, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Jan 1 2015

Analyzing Worldwide Research in Hardware Architecture, 1997-2011

Results showed more published papers, collaboration with U.S. colleagues, preference for English, and uneven research impact.

Architecture and Hardware

Analyzing Worldwide Research in Hardware Architecture, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Jan 1 2015

Interactive Intent Modeling: Information Discovery Beyond Search

The system should let users incrementally direct their search toward relevant, though not initially obvious, information.

Tuukka Ruotsalo, Giulio Jacucci, Petri Myllymäki, and Samuel Kaski

Computing Applications

Interactive Intent Modeling, illustration

Research and Advances Review articles Jan 1 2015

Distributed Information Processing in Biological and Computational Systems

Exploring the similarities and differences between distributed computations in biological and computational systems.

Saket Navlakha and Ziv Bar-Joseph

Architecture and Hardware

Distributed Information Processing in Biological and Compuational Systems, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Jan 1 2015

Technical Perspective: Big Data Needs Approximate Computing

"Neural Acceleration for General-Purpose Approximate Programs" demonstrates the significant advantages in cost, power, and latency through approximate computing.

Ravi Nair

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Research highlights Jan 1 2015

Neural Acceleration For General-Purpose Approximate Programs

This paper describes a new approach that uses machine learning-based transformations to accelerate approximation-tolerant programs.

Hadi Esmaeilzadeh, Adrian Sampson, Luis Ceze, and Doug Burger

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Last byte Jan 1 2015

Wow!

Human life is filled with illusions, so virtual worlds are not especially unreal.

William Sims Bainbridge

Computing Applications

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