Communications - July 2010

communications of the acm
Departments

5;Editor’s;Letter Hypercriticality By Moshe Y. Vardi

6;Letters;To;The;Editor

Don’t Ignore Security Offshore, or in the Cloud

9;In;the;Virtual;Extension

10 BLOG@CACM

Software Development and Crunch Time; and More Ruben Ortega discusses developers and crunch time; Mark Guzdial on the impact of open source practices on computing education; and Daniel Reed on the shift from computational paucity to computational plethora.

12;CACM;Online

In Case You Missed It By David Roman

39 Calendar

107;Careers

Last;Byte

112;Q&A

From Single Core to Multicore Charles P. Thacker discusses the legendary Alto personal computer, the invention of the Ethernet, and his current research on multicore architectures.

By Leah Hoffmann

about the cover: Charles P. Thacker, ACM’s 2009 A. M. Turing Award winner, as photographed by Richard Morgenstein in the data center of Microsoft’s offices in Mountain View, CA. For more on Morgenstein’s work, see http://www. morgenstein.com.

News

13 Sharing Computational Perspectives Computer scientists are now making intellectual contributions to a wide range of other disciplines, including evolutionary theory, physics, and economics.

By David Lindley

16 Censored!

Countries use Internet censorship to dominate the political dialogue, but also to create favorable conditions for government-controlled businesses. By Samuel Greengard

19 Mainstreaming Augmented Reality Advancements in computer vision, object recognition, and related technologies are leading to new levels of sophistication in augmented-reality applications, and presenting new ways for humans to relate to the natural world.

By Kirk L. Kroeker

22 Committed to Success

Charles P. Thacker discusses the importance of simplicity, reusable tools, thinking broadly, and his practice of Tom Sawyering.

By Gary Anthes

24 Eric Brewer: Change Agent Eric Brewer’s latest project involves designing and deploying low-cost wireless infrastructure in developing regions.

By Gregory Goth

25 Visions of the Future

ACM joined forces with the British Computer Society to deliver its first academic research conference in Europe.

By Sarah Underwood

Viewpoints

27;Technology;Strategy;and;Management Outsourcing Versus Shared Services Choosing between outsourcing and shared services has significant implications for long-term corporate strategy.

By Mari Sako

30;Computing;Ethics

Work Life in the Robotic Age Technological change results in changes in expectations, in this case affecting the workplace.

By Jason Borenstein

32;Legally;Speaking

Should the Google Book Settlement Be Approved? Considering the precedent that could be established by approval of the controversial Google book settlement. By Pamela Samuelson

35;Broadening;Participation Cultivating Cultural Diversity in Information Technology Introducing CMD-IT, a new center focused on synergistic activities related to ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.