October 2010 - Vol. 53 No. 10

How to Celebrate Codd’s RDBMS Vision

Opinion Letters to the editor Oct 1 2010

While we were pleased Communications celebrated E.F. Codd's seminal article "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" (June 1970) in "Happy Birthday, RDBMS!" by Gary Anthes (May 2010), we were also dismayed by its inaccuracies.

CACM Staff

Computing Profession

BLOG@CACM Oct 1 2010

In Search of Database Consistency

Michael Stonebraker discusses the implications of the CAP theorem on database management system applications that span multiple processing sites.

Michael Stonebraker

Opinion CACM online Oct 1 2010

The Mobile Road Ahead

ACM is planning to launch a mobile version of the Communications website and a series of mobile applications in the coming months. We have been directly and indirectly collecting data from members for months to help guide our decision making.

David Roman

News Oct 1 2010

Linear Logic

A novel approach to computational logic is reaching maturity, opening up opening up new vistas in programming languages, proof nets, and security applications.

Alex Wright

News Oct 1 2010

Personal Fabrication

Open source 3D printers could herald the start of a new industrial revolution.

Graeme Stemp-Morlock

News Oct 1 2010

Should Code Be Released?

Software code can provide important insights into the results of research, but it's up to individual scientists whether their code is released---and many opt not to.

Dennis McCafferty

Victorian Data Processing

Opinion Historical reflections Oct 1 2010

The Victorian world was awash with data and with organizations that processed it; and they usually used nothing more technologically advanced than pen and paper.

Martin Campbell-Kelly

Platforms and Services: Understanding the Resurgence of Apple

Opinion Technology strategy and management Oct 1 2010

Combining new consumer devices and Internet platforms with online services and content is proving to be a successful strategy.

Michael A. Cusumano

Risks of Undisciplined Development

Opinion Inside Risks Oct 1 2010

An illustration of the problems caused by a lack of discipline in software development and our failure to apply what is known in the field.

David L. Parnas

Opinion Kode Vicious Oct 1 2010

Version Aversion

The way you number your releases communicates more than you might think.

George V. Neville-Neil

Score: Agile Research Group Management

Opinion Viewpoint Oct 1 2010

Adapting agile software development methodology toward more efficient management of academic research groups.

Michael Hicks and Jeffrey S. Foster

Photoshop Scalability: Keeping It Simple

Practice Oct 1 2010

Clem Cole and Russell Williams discuss Photoshop's long history with parallelism, and what is now seen as the chief challenge.

ACM Case Study

Thinking Clearly About Performance, Part 2

Practice Oct 1 2010

More important principles to keep in mind when designing high-performance software.

Cary Millsap

Tackling Architectural Complexity with Modeling

Practice Oct 1 2010

Component models can help diagnose architectural problems in both new and existing systems.

Kevin Montagne

A Neuromorphic Approach to Computer Vision

Research and Advances Contributed articles Oct 1 2010

Neuroscience is beginning to inspire a new generation of seeing machines.

Thomas Serre and Tomaso Poggio

How Offshoring Affects IT Workers

Research and Advances Contributed articles Oct 1 2010

IT jobs requiring interpersonal interaction or physical presence in fixed locations are less likely to be sent out of the country.

Prasanna B. Tambe and Lorin M. Hitt

Research and Advances Review articles Oct 1 2010

Peer-to-Peer Systems

Originally invented for music/data sharing and volunteer computing, P2P systems have become an efficient means for delivering content and innovative services.

Rodrigo Rodrigues and Peter Druschel

Technical Perspective: A VM ‘Engine’ That Makes a Difference

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2010

The past decade has witnessed a renaissance in server virtualization. Diwaker Gupta et al. present a novel approach for significantly improving the efficiency of virtualized servers.

Carl Waldspurger

Difference Engine: Harnessing Memory Redundancy in Virtual Machines

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2010

Virtual machine monitors are a popular platform for Internet hosting centers and cloud-based compute services. But main memory is not amenable to multiplexed hardware resources and is often a bottleneck in achieving higher degrees of consolidation.

Technical Perspective: Belief Propagation

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2010

Nearly every modern tracking system is based on the seminal work of Rudolf Kalman who developed the optimal fusion algorithm for linear dynamics under Gaussian noise.

Yair Weiss and Judea Pearl

Nonparametric Belief Propagation

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2010

Probabilistic graphical models and algorithms for approximate inference have proven to be powerful tools in a wide range of applications in statistics and AI. However, applying these methods to models with continuous variables remains a challenging task.

Opinion Last byte Oct 1 2010

Q&A: Gray’s Paradigm

Tony Hey talks about Jim Gray and his vision of a new era of collaborative, data-intensive science.

Leah Hoffmann