Emergency! Web 2.0 to the Rescue!
Emergent serendipity fosters volunteerism driven by creative problem solving, not simply following directions.
Software Engineering and Programming Languages
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Managing Global IT Teams: Considering Cultural Dynamics
Successful global IT team managers combine general distributed team management skills enhanced with cultural sensitivity.
Returning Control to the Programmer: SIMD Intrinsics For Virtual Machines
Exposing SIMD units within interpreted languages could simplify programs and unleash floods of untapped processor power.
A Co-Relational Model of Data For Large Shared Data Banks
Contrary to popular belief, SQL and noSQL are really just two sides of the same coin.
Why STM Can Be More Than A Research Toy
Despite earlier claims, Software Transactional Memory outperforms sequential code.
Design Principles For Visual Communication
How to identify, instantiate, and evaluate domain-specific design principles for creating more effective visualizations.
Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge
Finding 10 balloons across the U.S. illustrates how the Internet has changed the way we solve highly distributed problems.
Here are synopses of four Virtual Extension articles that are now available in their entirety to ACM members via the Digital Library.
From ‘Must’ and ‘Unsuitable’ to Design Guidelines in Computing Education
Rhetoric in education tends to be politicized and polarized, and computing education is no different. Research in computing education might learn from design-based research efforts from general education research, that emphasizes developing design guidelines.
Algorithm Visualizations and Community Building
If you’re interested in using or developing algorithm visualizations (AVs), you should visit AlgoViz.org, a portal dedicated to creating a repository of AVs and building an active online community around them.
Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer tells the gripping story of how Xerox invented the personal-computing technology in the 1970s, and then "miscalculated and mishandled" the opportunity to fully exploit it.
Data Structures in the Multicore Age
The advent of multicore processors as the standard computing platform will force major changes in software design.
Communications created the Virtual Extension (VE) to expand the page limitations of the print edition by bringing readers the same high-quality articles in an online-only format. VE articles are available in their entirety to ACM members via the Digital Library.
Testable System Administration
As we progress into an information age, humans will need to work less like the machines they use and embrace knowledge-based approaches. That means exploiting simple automation that leaves us unencumbered to discover patterns and make decisions.
B.Y.O.C (1,342 Times and Counting)
Why can't we all use standard libraries for commonly needed algorithms?
Understanding Scam Victims: Seven Principles For Systems Security
Effective countermeasures depend on first understanding how users naturally fall victim to fraudsters.
Compose "dream tools" from continuously evolving bundles of software to make sense of complex scientific data sets.
Grounding principles to get the most out of enterprise 2.0 investments.
Technical Perspective: Concerto For Violin and Markov Model
In the opening of Sibelius' Violin Concerto, a soloist plays delicately. The orchestra responds in kind. As the piece progresses, soloist and orchestra alternatively perform the main motifs in increasing measures of power and virtuosity, leading to a stirring resolution.
A system for musical accompaniment is presented in which a computer-driven orchestra follows and learns from a soloist in a concerto-like setting. The system's connections with machine learning are highlighted, showing current weaknesses and new possible directions.
Future Tense: Catch Me If You Can
I envisioned and wrote the first computer virus in 1969 but failed to see that viruses would become widespread. Technologies don't always evolve as we'd like. I learned this then but failed to catch the train I knew, even then, would soon leave the station.
In "Regulating the Information Gatekeepers" (Nov. 2010), Patrick Vogl and Michael Barrett said a counterargument against the regulation of search-engine bias is that "Search results are free speech and therefore cannot be regulated." I'm astounded that anyone could seriously make such a counterargument.
Scientists, Engineers, and Computer Science; Industry and Research Groups
Mark Guzdial discusses what scientists and engineers should know about computer science, such as Alan Kay's "Triple Whammy." Greg Linden writes about industry's different approaches to research and how to organize researchers in a company.
The list of add-on features for Communications' Web site began to take form shortly after the site was launched two years ago, and was a starting point for revisions now under way. A streamlined and improved site will be available later this year.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications 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.
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