November 2006 - Vol. 49 No. 11

November 2006 issue cover image

Features

Opinion Editorial pointers Nov 1 2006

Editorial Pointers

Media surveys worldwide tell a similar story: The number of hours people spend in front of their TVs has been heading downward for several years now, sending network executives and advertisers into a spin. Movie studios, lamenting the steep decline in their ticket sales, have been compelled to trim budgets, drop projects, and rethink their […]

Diane Crawford

Architecture and Hardware

News News track Nov 1 2006

IBM will build a supercomputer capable of 1,000 trillion floating point operations per second (or one petaflop) using 16,000 of the Cell processor chips it designed for the PlayStation 3 video game machine. The New York Times reports the U.S. Department of Energy awarded IBM the contract to build the Roadrunner machine for a total […]

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

Opinion Forum Nov 1 2006

Despite touching on privacy concerns, Alexander Pons’s article "Biometric Marketing: Targeting the Online Consumer" (Aug. 2006) seemed to assume it is not only appropriate but desirable for e-tailers to know who is visiting their Web sites and what they are doing there. I can see why it might be desirable from the merchant’s point of […]

Computing Applications

Practice Practical programmer Nov 1 2006

Looking Into the Challenges of Complex It Projects

Investigating the implications of developing conclusions based on faulty fundamental premises.

Robert L. Glass

Computing Applications

Opinion The profession of IT Nov 1 2006

Decision Making in Very Large Networks

Centralized decision making does not work in large federated networks, of which the Internet itself is an example.

Peter J. Denning and Rick Hayes-Roth

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Hot links Nov 1 2006

Top 10 Downloads from ACM’s Digital Library

Communications of the ACM Volume 49, Number 11 (2006), Pages 25-26 Hot links: Top 10 downloads from ACM’s Digital Library Diane Crawford Table of Contents Tables Back to Top Tables Table. The Top 10 Most Popular Papers from ACM’s Refereed Journals and Conference Proceedings Downloaded in August 2006 Table. The 10 Most Popular Courses at […]

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Nov 1 2006

Biologically Uninspired Computer Science

Don't limit your inspiration to biology, today's favorite metaphor, when developing new architectures and systems.

Christof Teuscher

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Demanding new Internet applications have produced a radical and fundamental shift in the nature of entertainment.

Cormac J. Sreenan and Kobus van der Merwe

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

How Sensitive Are Online Gamers to Network Quality?

Game-playing time is strongly related to network QoS, helping determine user satisfaction and deliver better service quality to online gamers.

Kuan-Ta Chen, Polly Huang, and Chin-Laung Lei

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Latency and Player Actions in Online Games

Latency determines not only how players experience online gameplay but also how to design the games to mitigate its effects and meet player expectations.

Mark Claypool and Kajal Claypool

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Managing Latency and Fairness in Networked Games

Fighting propagation delays in real-time interactive applications improves gameplay and fairness in networked games by trading off inconstencies and tuning decision points topology.

Jeremy Brun, Farzad Safaei, and Paul Boustead

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Enabling Network-Centric Music Performance in Wide-Area Networks

NMP on the Internet is not only possible, its delay bounds can satisfy the tight requirements involved in human perception while generating high-end audio quality for musicians and listeners alike.

Zefir Kurtisi, Xiaoyuan Gu, and Lars Wolf

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Anyone Can Broadcast Video Over the Internet

A mesh-based P2P streaming mechanism provides TV-like distribution service to average computer users over the Internet with no special support from the network.

Reza Rejaie

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Entertainment networking Nov 1 2006

Collaborative Streaming in Heterogeneous and Dynamic Scenarios

This media streaming architecture solves the problems of collaborative session management, from session sharing to control of the common session state to session transfer among networked clients.

Verena Kahmann, Jens Brandt, and Lars Wolf

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Nov 1 2006

New Architecture For Intra-Domain Network Security Issues

Developing an effective platform for deterring network attacks.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Nov 1 2006

Critical Risks in Outsourced IT Projects: The Intractable and the Unforeseen

Pre-partnering lets clients and vendors develop a clear understanding of a project---including how well the other will handle its inevitable complexities.

Hazel Taylor

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Nov 1 2006

A -niform Code of Ethics: Business and IT Professional Ethics

Business and IT professionals have enough in common that they can share a universal code of ethics.

Dinah Payne and Brett J.L. Landry

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Nov 1 2006

Current Trends in Web Data Analysis

Considering potential reasons for the underutilization of clickstream data and suggesting ways to enhance its use.

Arun Sen, Peter A. Dacin, and Christos Pattichis

Computing Applications

Opinion Inside risks Nov 1 2006

COTS and Other Electronic Voting Backdoors

During the U.S. 2006 primary election season, there was a flurry of media attention about electronic voting, when it was revealed that Diebold Election Systems had erroneously reported to a testing authority (CIBER) that certain Windows CE operating system files were commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) but in fact also contained customized code. This is important because, remarkably, […]

Rebecca T. Mercuri, Vincent J. Lipsio, and Beth Feehan

Computing Applications

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