We would like to update you on three key policy issues ACM's Publications Board is currently discussing, give you a glimpse of what some of the leaders of the field have told us, and invite your input into the discussion.Joseph A. Konstan, Jack W. Davidson Page 5
As configuration complexity and scale grow, the need for smarter configuration systems, better online assistance, and the ability to share context with customer service agents will become increasingly important.Vinton G. Cerf Page 7DEPARTMENT: Letters to the Editor
We wish to clarify an account of the 2014 Turing Test experiment we conducted at the Royal Society London, U.K., as outlined by Moshe Y. Vardi in his Editor's Letter "Would Turing Have Passed the Turing Test?" (Sept. 2014) …
CACM Staff Pages 8-9DEPARTMENT: BLOG@CACM
John Langford examines the results of the NIPS experiment, while Mark Guzdial considers the role of class size in teaching computer science.John Langford, Mark Guzdial Pages 12-13COLUMN: News
Synthetic biologists may be closing in on potentially world-changing breakthroughs, but they are often hamstrung by a shortage of software tools.Alex Wright Pages 15-17
Two proposals intended to reduce flaws in software use two very different approaches for software security.Dorothy E. Denning Pages 24-26COLUMN: Technology strategy and management
Considering the many different paths and unprecedented opportunities for companies exploring emerging markets.Mari Sako Pages 27-29COLUMN: Kode Vicious
Finding a better solution by thinking about the problem and its solution, rather than just thinking about the code.Leslie Lamport Pages 38-41SECTION: Practice
Speaking military jargon, users can create labels and draw symbols to position objects on digitized maps.Philip R. Cohen, Edward C. Kaiser, M. Cecelia Buchanan, Scott Lind, Michael J. Corrigan, R. Matthews Wesson Pages 56-65
Engineers use TLA+ to prevent serious but subtle bugs from reaching production.Chris Newcombe, Tim Rath, Fan Zhang, Bogdan Munteanu, Marc Brooker, Michael Deardeuff Pages 66-73SECTION: Review articles
Implantable devices, often dependent on software, save countless lives. But how secure are they?Johannes Sametinger, Jerzy Rozenblit, Roman Lysecky, Peter Ott Pages 74-82SECTION: Research highlights
Specialization improves energy-efficiency in computing but only makes economic sense if there is significant demand. A balance can often be found by designing application-domain-specific components that have a degree of programmability …
Trevor Mudge Page 84
We present the Convolution Engine (CE) — a programmable processor specialized for the convolution-like data-flow prevalent in computational photography, computer vision, and video processing.Wajahat Qadeer, Rehan Hameed, Ofer Shacham, Preethi Venkatesan, Christos Kozyrakis, Mark Horowitz Pages 85-93COLUMN: Last byte