Sizzling Supercomputers
Faster XML Ahead?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Advisory Committee and director are set to decide on a committee recommendation for a binary XML standard, and if the proposal is approved, a vote on a binary XML standard could occur this summer; if formed soon after, a working group could take up to three years ...
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Supersmart Security
University of California-Berkeley computer science professor and ACM President David Patterson describes computer security problems as "glaring" because security measures follow an outdated prevention-oriented rather than repair-oriented model. The ...
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Tool Turns English Into Code
MIT researcher Hugo Liu believes the Metafor program for translating natural-language descriptions of software into scaffolding code--a program
skeleton"--could be practically applied to software brainstorming in less than two years; later applications could include a programming teaching ...
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A Tool Box for Building Real-Time Embedded Systems
IST's OMEGA project has made a stride toward the development of real-time embedded systems with its integration of cutting-edge validation techniques and tools into Unified Modeling Language (UML), which subsequently spurred the creation of a tool box for simulating and analyzing UML models and for ...
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Computers Gain Power, But It's Not What You Think
Computers are no match for a four-year-old human when it comes to intelligence, but they can appear to operate intelligently thanks to increasing computing power that enables pattern recognition. Northwestern University professor Kristian Hammond has rejected the common view of ...
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How the Problem of Sight Could Help Servers
A paper presented by IBM researchers at the International Conference on Adaptive and Natural Computing Algorithms on March 22 details their attempt to learn "the fundamental principles of brain functions...and operate technology to solve problems in much the same way systems solve them" by ...
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IBM Embraces Bold Method to Trap Spam
Efforts to block spam are getting more aggressive, as the fight moves from passive spam filters to counterattacking measures such as "teergrubing," where spammers are trapped by tying up their servers. Although open-source counterattacking software has been available for a while, new products from ...
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CERN Readies World's Biggest Science Grid
CERN engineers recently announced that more than 100 sites in 31 countries have joined a computing grid for storing and processing the massive volumes of data that will be generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), effectively creating the largest international science grid in the world. ...
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Justices to Weigh Key Copyright Case
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to revisit the Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios decision of 1984 in which technology vendors were deemed not liable for possible copyright infringement if their products had significant legitimate uses. The new MGM Studios v. Grokster case has ...
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Careers for Women in IT Is at Risk
MC Press Online editor in chief Thomas Stockwell notes that women rose in the workplace in general and IT in particular up to 1996, when 41 percent of IT workers were female and pay scales between male and female IT professionals were nearing equivalency. However, the National Science ...
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Decrypting the Future of Security
Lawyer, writer, and IT security expert Mary Kirwan notes that there was "universal agreement" among speakers and panelists at the recent RSA Security Conference that innovation is a fundamental component of IT, that security is important, and that something must be done to improve security; ...
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What Users Want
Usability and user interface design is an integral component to software success and can be achieved through relatively simple means. User interface design consultants can usually work out the basic architecture of an application in three or four days, providing a framework for programmers ...
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Let's Focus on the Theft, Not the Identity
Highly publicized cases of identity theft at database companies and universities is worrisome, but even more disturbing is research by Carnegie Mellon University associate computer science professor Latanya Sweeney, writes Hiawatha Bray. She created a set of programs that collects Social ...
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Behind the Digital Divide
Establishing rural information and communications technology (ICT) centers in developing nations, ostensibly to help bridge the digital divide and improve the standard of living for impoverished people, has largely been sidelined in favor of initiatives with more obvious benefits, such as ...
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How to Save the Internet
CIO Magazine has tapped key figures in the information security community to suggest "Big Ideas" for dramatically improving the security of the Internet, excluding technological band-aids and "generic truths" such as user education. The results are diverse and intriguing: National Security ...
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Artificial Intelligence Marches Forward
Robot technology development is being increasingly influenced by physiology and neuroscience, and the time may come when robots will complement research in those disciplines. Current artificial intelligence efforts focus on imbuing robots with anthropomorphism, which is more likely to make ...
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Computing the Right Pitch
Analyst Curt Monash describes predictive analytics as "a replacement phrase for 'data mining' [that] roughly equates to 'applications of machine learning and/or statistical analysis to business decisions.'" Business decisions, as defined in most current and short-term applications, are ...
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Extending the Service-Oriented Architecture
The Extended Service-Oriented Architecture (xSOA) accounts for SOA deficiencies in such areas as management, security, service choreography and orchestration, and service transaction management and coordination, writes Michael P. Papazoglou, computer science chair at the University of ...
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Sizzling Supercomputers
Researchers are attempting to overcome supercomputing speed limits using alternative materials to silicon, which is expected to reach its speed threshold within a decade. The three leading candidates to replace silicon-based supercomputers are DNA computers whose problem-solving ...
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