COMMUNICATIONS CACM.ACM.ORG OF THEACM 06/2009 VOL.52 NO.06 One Laptop Per Child: Vision vs. Reality Hard-Disk Drives: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly How CS Serves The Developing World Network Front-End Processors The Claremont Report On Database Research Autonomous Helicopters Association for Computing Machinery Think Parallel..... It’s not just what we make. It’s what we make possible. Advancing Technology Curriculum Driving Software Evolution Fostering Tomorrow’s Innovators Learn more at: www.intel.com/thinkparallel ACM Ad.indd 1 4/17/2009 11:20:03 AM ABCD springer.com Noteworthy Computer Science Journals Autonomous Biological Personal and Robots Cybernetics Ubiquitous G. Sukhatme, University W. Senn, Universität Bern, Computing of Southern California, Physiologisches Institut; ACM Viterbi School of Engi- J. Rinzel, National neering, Dept. Computer Institutes of Health (NIH), P. Thomas, Univ. Coll. Science Dept. Health Education & London Interaction Centre Autonomous Robots Welfare; J. L. van Hemmen, reports on the theory and TU München, Abt. Physik Personal and Ubiquitous applications of robotic systems capable of Biological Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary Computing publishes peer-reviewed some degree of self-sufficiency. It features medium for experimental, theoretical and international research on handheld, wearable papers that include performance data on actual application-oriented aspects of information and mobile information devices and the robots in the real world. The focus is on the processing in organisms, including sensory, pervasive communications infrastructure that ability to move and be self-sufficient, not on motor, cognitive, and ecological phenomena. supports them to enable the seamless whether the system is an imitation of biology. Under the main aspects of performance and integration of technology and people in their Of course, biological models for robotic function of systems, emphasis is laid on everyday lives. The journal carries compel- systems are of major interest to the journal communication between life sciences and lingly-written, timely and accessible contribu- since living systems are prototypes for technical/theoretical disciplines. tions that illuminate the technological, social autonomous behavior. and design challenges of personal and ISSN 0340-1200 (print version) ubiquitous computing technologies. High Impact Factor in Robotics and AI 7 ISSN 1432-0770 (electronic version) ISSN 1617-4909 (print version) ISSN 0929-5593 (print version) Journal no. 422 ISSN 1617-4917 (electronic version) ISSN 1573-7527 (electronic version) Journal no. 779 Journal no. 10514 Scientometrics T. Braun, Lorand Eötvös University, Inst. Inor- Cybernetics and Data Mining ganic and Analytical Chemistry Systems Analysis and Knowledge Scientometrics is concerned with the Discovery quantitative features and characteristics of I. V. Sergienko, Acad. science. Emphasis is placed on investigations in Science Ukraine, G. I. Webb, Monash which the development and mechanism of Glushkov Institute University, School of science are studied by statistical mathematical Cybernetics Computer Science &, methods. The journal publishes original studies, Cybernetics and System Software Engineering short communications, preliminary reports, Analysis publishes The premier technical review papers, letters to the editor and book articles on: software and publication in the field, reviews on scientometrics. hardware; algorithm theory and languages; Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery is a 7 High Impact Factors in Computer Science., programming and programming theory; resource collecting relevant common methods Interdisciplinary Applications and Information optimization; operations research; digital and and techniques and a forum for unifying the Science & library Science analog methods; hybrid systems; machine- diverse constituent research communities. The machine and man-machine interfacing. journal publishes original technical papers in ISSN 0138-9130 (print version) both the research and practice of data mining ISSN 1060-0396 (print version) ISSN 1588-2861 (electronic version) and knowledge discovery, surveys and tutorials ISSN 1573-8337 (electronic version) Journal no. 11192 of important areas and techniques, and Journal no. 10559 detailed descriptions of significant applica- tions. 7 High Impact Factor in Information Systems and AI ISSN 1384-5810 (print version) ISSN 1573-756X (electronic version) Journal no. 10618 Easy Ways to Order for the Americas 7 Write: Springer Order Department, PO Box 2485, Secaucus, NJ 07096-2485, USA 7 Call: (toll free) 1-800-SPRINGER 7 Fax: 1-201-348-4505 7 Email: [email protected] or for outside the Americas 7 Write: Springer Customer Service Center GmbH, Haberstrasse 7, 69126 Heidelberg, Germany Call: +49 (0) 6221-345-4303 Fax: +49 (0) 6221-345-4229 Email: [email protected] 7 7 7 014088x COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Departments News Viewpoints 5 ACM-W Letter 22 Privacy and Security ACM-W Celebrates Answering the Wrong Questions Women in Computing Is No Answer By Elaine Weyuker Asking the wrong questions when building and deploying systems 9 Letters To The Editor results in systems that cannot Share the Threats be sufficiently protected against the threats they face. 10 blog@CACM By Eugene H. Spafford Speech-Activated User Interfaces and Climbing Mt. Exascale 25 Inside Risks Tessa Lau discusses why she Reducing Risks of Implantable doesn’t use the touch screen on Medical Devices her in-car GPS unit anymore and A prescription to improve security Daniel Reed considers the future and privacy of pervasive health care. of exascale computing. 13 Micromedicine to the Rescue By Kevin Fu Medical researchers have long 12 CACM Online dreamed of “magic bullets” that go 28 The Profession of IT Making That Connection directly where they are needed. Beyond Computational Thinking By David Roman With micromedicine, this dream If we are not careful, our fascination could become a life-saving reality. with “computational thinking” 27 Calendar By Don Monroe may lead us back into the trap we are trying to escape. 101 Careers 16 Content Control By Peter J. Denning Entertainment businesses say digital rights management prevents the 31 Viewpoint Last Byte theft of their products, but access Why “Open Source” Misses control technologies have been the Point of Free Software 103 Puzzled a uniform failure when it comes Decoding the important differences Solutions and Sources to preventing piracy. Fortunately, in terminology, underlying By Peter Winkler change is on the way. philosophy, and value systems By Leah Hoffmann between two similar categories 104 Future Tense of software. Webmind Says Hello 18 Autonomous Helicopters By Richard Stallman By Robert J. Sawyer Researchers are improving unmanned helicopters’ capabilities 34 Kode Vicious to address regulatory requirements Obvious Truths and commercial uses. How to determine when to put By Gregory Goth the brakes on late-running projects and untested software patches. SSOCIATION A 21 Looking Backward and Forward By George V. Neville-Neil CRA’s Computing Community ESEARCH R Consortium hosted a day-long UTING symposium to discuss the important P OM computing advances of the last C several decades and how to sustain that track record of innovation. By Bob Violino H COURTESY OF THE P Association for Computing Machinery Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession PHOTOGRA 2 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM | JUNE 2009 | VOL. 52 | NO. 6 06/2009 VOL. 52 NO. 06 Practice Contributed Articles Virtual Extension 56 The Claremont Report As with all magazines, page limitations often on Database Research prevent the publication of articles that might By Rakesh Agrawal, Anastasia Ailamaki, otherwise be included in the print edition. To ensure timely publication, ACM created Philip A. Bernstein, Eric A. Brewer, Communications’ Virtual Extension (VE). Michael J. Carey, Surajit Chaudhuri, VE articles undergo the same rigorous review AnHai Doan, Daniela Florescu, process as those in the print edition and are Michael J. Franklin, Hector Garcia-Molina, accepted for publication on their merit. These Johannes Gehrke, Le Gruenwald, articles are now available to ACM members in Laura M. Haas, Alon Y. Halevy, the Digital Library. Joseph M. Hellerstein, Yannis E. Ioannidis, Hank F. Korth, Deriving Mutual Benefits Donald Kossmann, Samuel Madden, from Offshore Outsourcing Roger Magoulas, Beng Chin Ooi, Amar Gupta Tim O’Reilly, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Sunita Sarawagi, Michael Stonebraker, Advancing Information 38 Hard-Disk Drives: The Good, Alexander S. Szalay, and Gerhard Weikum Technology in Health Care the Bad, and the Ugly Steven M. Thompson and New drive technologies and 66 One Laptop Per Child: Vision vs. Reality Matthew D. Dean increased capacities create new By Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick, categories of failure modes that and Prakul Sharma The Challenge of Epistemic will influence system designs. Divergence in IS Development By Jon Elerath Mark Lycett and Chris Partridge Review Articles 46 Network Front-end Processors, Hyperlinking the Work Yet Again 74 How Computer Science for Self-Management The history of NFE processors sheds Serves the Developing World of Flexible Workflows light on the trade-offs involved in By M. Bernardine Dias and Eric Brewer Jonghun Park and Kwanho Kim designing network stack software. By Mike O’Dell Re-Tuning the Music Industry—Can Research Highlights They Re-Attain Business Resonance? 51 Whither Sockets? Sudip Bhattacharjee, Ram D. Gopal, High bandwidth, low latency, 82