May 2010 - Vol. 53 No. 5

Features

Opinion May 1 2010

Globalization and Offshoring of Software Revisited

ACM Council commissioned in 2004 a Task Force to "look at the facts behind the rapid globalization of IT and the migration of jobs resulting from outsourcing and offshoring." Do the insights produced by the resulting report still ring true four years and a major economic crisis later?

Moshe Y. Vardi

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the editor May 1 2010

Roots of Publication Delay

Moshe Y. Vardi wrote in his Editor's Letter "Revisiting the Publication Culture in Computing Research" (Mar. 2010) about computer science being a field in which conferences are the primary venue for reporting research.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

News May 1 2010

In the Virtual Extension

Communications' Virtual Extension brings more quality articles to ACM members. These articles are now available in the ACM Digital Library.

CACM Staff

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

BLOG@CACM May 1 2010

NSF Funding Advice; 21st Century Innovation

Jeannette M. Wing shares useful suggestions for department heads. Daniel Reed discusses the importance of synergy among computing specialists and generalists.

Jeannette M. Wing and Daniel Reed

Computing Applications

Opinion CACM online May 1 2010

Looking For Control

Computer scientists are wrestling to tame the glut of online data, which is overwhelming both individuals and companies. For some users the answer starts with restrictions, but restrictions won't solve the problems of an overconnected world.

David Roman

Computing Applications

News May 1 2010

Modeling the Astronomical

Advances in computer technology have changed the way astronomers see and study the universe.

Jeff Kanipe

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News May 1 2010

Happy Birthday, RDBMS!

The relational model of data management, which dates to 1970, still dominates today and influences new paradigms as the field evolves.

Gary Anthes

Computing Applications

News May 1 2010

Cloud Computing and Developing Nations

For a growing number of organizations worldwide, cloud computing offers a quick and affordable way to tap into IT infrastructure as an Internet service. But obstacles and challenges remain.

Samuel Greengard

Architecture and Hardware

Kenyan developer Wilfred Mworia with Steve Mutinda

News May 1 2010

Thacker Wins Turing Award

Microsoft's Charles P. Thacker named 56th recipient of ACM's A.M. Turing Award.

Jack Rosenberger

Computing Applications

2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award winner Charles P. Thacker

News ACM election ballot May 1 2010

ACM’s 2010 General Election

Meet the candidates who introduce their plans—and stands—for the Association.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

Opinion Economic and business dimensions May 1 2010

Cloud Computing and Electricity: Beyond the Utility Model

Assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and general applicability of the computing-as-utility business model.

Erik Brynjolfsson, Paul Hofmann, and John Jordan

Computing Applications

Opinion Education May 1 2010

How to Make Progress in Computing Education

Improving the research base for computing education requires securing competitive funding commitments.

Cameron Wilson and Mark Guzdial

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2010

Can IT Lean Against the Wind?

Lessons from the global financial crisis.

Roman Beck

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2010

Is Mobile Email Addiction Overlooked?

Studying the prevalence of mobile email addiction and the associated possible implications for organizations.

Ofir Turel and Alexander Serenko

Computing Applications

News Computer museum series May 1 2010

Great Computing Museums of the World, Part Two

The second of a two-part series highlighting several of the world's museums dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and elucidating computing history.

William Aspray

Computing Applications

Practice May 1 2010

Enhanced Debugging With Traces

An essential technique used in emulator development is a useful addition to any programmer's toolbox.

Peter Phillips

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Practice May 1 2010

Principles of Robust Timing Over the Internet

The key to synchronizing clocks over networks is taming delay variability.

Julien Ridoux and Darryl Veitch

Architecture and Hardware

Practice May 1 2010

Why Cloud Computing Will Never Be Free

The competition among cloud providers may drive prices downward, but at what cost?

Dave Durkee

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2010

Beyond Total Capture: A Constructive Critique of Lifelogging

Rather than try to capture everything, system design should focus on the psychological basis of human memory.

Abigail J. Sellen and Steve Whittaker

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2010

Student and Faculty Attitudes and Beliefs About Computer Science

The curriculum should inspire students to view CS as both accomplishment and intellectual discipline.

Clayton Lewis, Michele H. Jackson, and William M. Waite

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Review articles May 1 2010

Energy-Efficient Algorithms

Algorithmic solutions can help reduce energy consumption in computing environs.

Susanne Albers

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2010

Technical Perspective: Learning to Act in Uncertain Environments

The problem of decision making in an uncertain environment arises in many diverse contexts. The key issue in effectively solving problems like this is known as the exploration/exploitation trade-off.

Peter L. Bartlett

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2010

Censored Exploration and the Dark Pool Problem

The success and proliferation of dark pool stock exchanges have created challenging and interesting problems in algorithmic trading—in particular, the problem of optimizing the allocation of a large trade over multiple competing dark pools.

Kuzman Ganchev, Yuriy Nevmyvaka, Michael Kearns, and Jennifer Wortman Vaughan

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2010

Technical Perspective: Automated Patching Techniques: The Fix Is In

Finding bugs is technically demanding and yet economically vital. How much more difficult yet valuable would it be to automatically fix bugs?

Mark Harman

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2010

Automatic Program Repair With Evolutionary Computation

There are many methods for detecting and mitigating software errors but few generic methods for automatically repairing errors once they are discovered. Recent work combining program analysis methods with evolutionary computation automatically repaired bugs in off-the-shelf legacy C programs.

Westley Weimer, Stephanie Forrest, Claire Le Goues, and ThanhVu Nguyen

Computing Applications

Opinion Last byte May 1 2010

Puzzled: Variations on the Ham Sandwich Theorum

Welcome to three new puzzles. Solutions to the first two will be published next month; the third is (as yet) unsolved. In each, the issue is how your intuition matches up with the mathematics.

Peter Winkler

Computing Applications