communications of the acm
Departments
5 Editor’s Letter
Technology Has
Social Consequences
By Moshe Y. Vardi
6 Letters To The Editor
Preserve Privacy in
Statistical Correlations
9 In the Virtual Extension
10 BLOG@CACM
Stonebraker on Data Warehouses
Data warehouses are not only
increasing in size and complexity,
but also in their importance to
business. Michael Stonebraker
shares 10 key ideas on the topic.
12 CACM Online
Let ACM Help You Find
Your Next Job ‘Online’
By Scott E. Delman
41 Calendar
118 Careers
Last Byte
120 Puzzled
Games, Roles, Turns
By Peter Winkler
about the Cover:
Technologies that allow
users to communicate
or control devices by
‘thought’ were once
the stuff of science
fiction. Today, however,
extraordinary strides in
the field of brain-computer
interfaces (BCI) are
very real and having a
huge impact on people
with neuromuscular
disorders and injuries.
This month’s cover
story by Dennis McFarland and Jonathan Wolpaw
(p. 60) explores the science that translates electric
signals produced by the brain into action or words.
Photograph by Justin Stephens.
News
13 Sorting Through Photos
Teaching computers to understand
pictures could lead to search engines
capable of identifying and organizing
large datasets of visual information.
By Neil Savage
16 I, Domestic Robot
With recent advances in laser
rangefinders, faster algorithms,
and open source robotic operating
systems, researchers are increasing
domestic robots’ semantic and
situational awareness.
By Gregory Goth
18 Data Optimization in
Developing Nations
Artificial intelligence and machine
learning could expand access
to health care, improve the quality
of education, and respond
effectively to natural disasters
in the developing world.
By Leah Hoffmann
22 Deus Ex Machina
Computational metaphysics
is helping philosophers answer
age-old questions, such as
whether God exists.
By Marina Krakovsky
23 Web Science Meets Network Science
A pair of divergent scientific
communities discusses their
similarities and differences, and
search for common ground.
By Alex Wright
Viewpoints
25 Economic and Business Dimensions
Online Advertising, Behavioral
Targeting, and Privacy
Studying how privacy regulation
might impact economic activity on
the advertising-supported Internet.
By Avi Goldfarb and
Catherine E. Tucker
28 Education
Reaching Learners Beyond
our Hallowed Halls
Rethinking the design of computer
science courses and broadening
the definition of computing
education both on and off campus.
By Brian Dorn
31 Law and Technology
Bell Labs and Centralized Innovation
Replaying the long-term costs
of monopolized innovation.
By Tim Wu
34 Interview
An Interview with Steve Furber
Steve Furber, designer of the seminal
BBC Microcomputer System and the
widely used ARM microprocessor,
reflects on his career.
By Jason Fitzpatrick
40 Viewpoint
The Importance of
Reviewing the Code
Highlighting the significance of the
often overlooked underlying software
used to produce research results.