"It was a classic example of two common human behaviors; a willingness to abdicate common sense when presented with a sure thing, and a failure to respond when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary." —Chris Craddock, in "The REAL Inside Story of Westpac's CS90," the Software Practitioner, March 1999.
Just as computers around the world are coping with the Y2K bug, the sun will enter the most violent and disruptive phase of its 11-year cycle, say astronomers, causing disruptions in satellite transmissions and triggering blackouts. According to reports at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers are forecasting the sun’s cycle to peak […]
Quality, consistency, and simplicity are critical attributes in high-tech products. But they are largely lacking in today’s software. Change is sorely needed. Software vendors, however, will not change voluntarily. They do not believe it is in their best interests to do so. But such change is usually brought about by pain, and vendors are not […]
When Communications Senior Editor Andy Rosenbloom first pitched the special section featured in this issue, I must admit I rolled my eyes skeptically. Images that appear more real than real? I mean, come on. Was this sci-fi talk, or perhaps a touch of sci-in-the-sky? But Andy’s enthusiasm soon turned contagious as he described the various […]
In the beginning, there are children and the learning experiences we want them to have. Now, let’s bring in technology as the means for enabling those learning experiences. If we’re serious about having children use technology in K12 classrooms, then we need to convince the gatekeepers of those classrooms as to the worth of the […]
Now input technology allows high-fidelity sampling of the physical world, dramatically changing the method and user interface for creating computer graphic imagery.
Viewing an organization's home page as its most important online advertisement has profound implications for how home pages are designed, tested, and evaluated.
Biological and evolutionary models give life to self-animating graphical characters with bodies, brains, behavior, perception, learning, and cognition.
The ability to look into an electronic display from any direction, walk around it, and see real 3D information being displayed is a dream-come-true technology for those who work with volumetric data sets.
Communications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.