bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fingerprinting
Authors: Smolens Jared C. , Gold Brian T. , Kim Jangwoo , Falsafi Babak , Hoe James C. , Nowatzyk Andreas G.
Published: January 2005

Recent studies have suggested that the soft-error rate in microprocessor logic will become a reliability concern by 2010. This paper proposes an efficient error detection technique, called
fingerprinting
, that detects differences in execution across a dual modular redundant (DMR) processor pair. Fingerprinting summarizes a processor's execution history in a hash-based signature; differences between two mirrored processors are exposed by comparing their fingerprints. Fingerprinting tightly bounds detection latency and greatly reduces the interprocessor communication bandwidth required for checking. This paper presents a study that evaluates fingerprinting against a range of current approaches to error detection. The result of this study shows that fingerprinting is the only error detection mechanism that simultaneously allows high-error coverage, low error detection bandwidth, and high I/O performance.
On
C
2
triangle/quad subdivision
Authors: Schaefer Scott , Warren Joe
Published: January 2005

In this article, we present a subdivision scheme for mixed triangle/quad meshes that is C2 everywhere except for isolated, extraordinary points. The rules that we describe are the same as Stam and Loop's scheme [2003] except that we perform an unzipping pass prior to subdivision. This simple modification improves the smoothness along the ordinary triangle/quad boundary from C1 to C2, and creates a scheme capable of subdividing arbitrary meshes. Finally, we end with a proof based on Levin and Levin's [2003] joint spectral radius calculation to show our scheme is indeed C2 along the triangle/quad boundary.
A physically-based motion retargeting filter
Authors: Tak Seyoon , Ko Hyeong-Seok
Published: January 2005

This article presents a novel constraint-based motion editing technique. On the basis of animator-specified kinematic and dynamic constraints, the method converts a given captured or animated motion to a physically plausible motion. In contrast to previous methods using spacetime optimization, we cast the motion editing problem as a constrained state estimation problem, based on the per-frame Kalman filter framework. The method works as a filter that sequentially scans the input motion to produce a stream of output motion frames at a stable interactive rate. Animators can tune several filter parameters to adjust to different motions, turn the constraints on or off based on their contributions to the final result, or provide a rough sketch (kinematic hint) as an effective way of producing the desired motion. Experiments on various systems show that the technique processes the motions of a human with 54 degrees of freedom, at about 150 fps when only kinematic constraints are applied, and at about 10 fps when both kinematic and dynamic constraints are applied. Experiments on various types of motion show that the proposed method produces remarkably realistic animations.
Perceptual photometric seamlessness in projection-based tiled displays
Authors: Majumder Aditi , Stevens Rick
Published: January 2005

Arguably, the most vexing problem remaining for multi-projector displays is that of photometric (brightness) seamlessness within and across different projectors. Researchers have strived for strict photometric uniformity that achieves identical response at every pixel of the display. However, this goal typically results in displays with severely compressed dynamic range and poor image quality.

In this article, we show that strict photometric uniformity is not a requirement for achieving photometric seamlessness. We introduce a general goal for photometric seamlessness by defining it as an optimization problem, balancing perceptual uniformity with display quality. Based on this goal, we present a new method to achieve perceptually seamless high quality displays. We first derive a model that describes the photometric response of projection-based displays. Then we estimate the model parameters and modify them using perception-driven criteria. Finally, we use the graphics hardware to reproject the image computed using the modified model parameters by manipulating only the projector inputs at interactive rates.

Our method has been successfully demonstrated on three different practical display systems at Argonne National Laboratory, made of 2 × 2 array of four projectors, 2 × 3 array of six, projectors, and 3 × 5 array of fifteen projectors. Our approach is efficient, automatic and scalable---requiring only a digital camera and a photometer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach and system that addresses the photometric variation problem from a perceptual stand point and generates truly seamless displays with high dynamic range.
Summary-based routing for content-based event distribution networks
Authors: Wang Yi-Min , Qiu Lili , Verbowski Chad , Achlioptas Dimitris , Das Gautam , Larson Paul
Published: January 2005

Providing scalable distributed Web-based eventing services has been an important research topic. It is desirable to have an effective mechanism for the servers to summarize their filters for in-network preprocessing in order to optimize system performance. In this paper, we propose a summary-based routing mechanism and introduce the notion of imprecise summaries to provide a trade-off between routing overhead and event traffic. Our system uses similarity-based filter clustering to reduce overall event traffic and performs self-tuning summary precision selection to optimize throughput. We have implemented summary-based routing on top of an XML-based infrastructure that closely follows the proposed Web services standards. Measurements from the actual implementation validate our analytical and simulation results, and demonstrate the practical benefits of the proposed techniques.
Infrastructure for the quantum internet
Authors: Lloyd Seth , Shapiro Jeffrey H. , Wong Franco N. C. , Kumar Prem , Shahriar Selim M. , Yuen Horace P.
Published: January 2005

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northwestern University (NU) is developing a system for long-distance, high- delity qubit tele-portation. Such a system will be required if future quantum computers are to be linked together into a quantum Internet. This paper presents recent progress that the MIT/NU team has made, beginning with a review of the teleportation architecture and its loss-limited performance analysis.
Reconsidering wireless systems with multiple radios
Authors: Bahl Paramvir , Adya Atul , Padhye Jitendra , Wolman Alec
Published: January 2005

The tremendous popularity of wireless systems in recent years has led to the commoditization of RF transceivers (radios) whose prices have fallen dramatically. The lower cost allows us to consider using two or more radios in the same device. Given this, we argue that wireless systems that use multiple radios in a collaborative manner dramatically improve system performance and functionality over the traditional single radio wireless systems that are popular today. In this context, we revisit some standard problems in wireless networking, including energy management, capacity enhancement, mobility management, channel failure recovery, and last-hop packet scheduling. We show that a systems approach can alleviate many of the performance and robustness issues prevalent in current wireless LAN systems. We explore the implications of the multi-radio approach on software and hardware design, as well as on algorithmic and protocol research issues. We identify three key design guidelines for constructing multi-radio systems and present results from two systems that we have built. Our experience supports our position that a multi-radio platform offers significant ben-efits for wireless systems.
Discussion summary
Authors: Krishnamurthi Shriram , Bultan Tevfik
Published: January 2005

This is a summary of the comments from a discussion session at the end of the Workshop on Testing, Analysis and Verification of Web Services (TAV-WEB) 2004. The comments were made by the workshop participants, and were compiled and edited by the workshop organizers.TAV-WEB 2004 was held in conjunction with ISSTA 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts on July 11, 2004. The abstracts of the papers presented in TAV-WEB 2004 appear in the September issue of SEN.
Complexity measurement of data and control flow
Authors: Bhansali P. V.
Published: January 2005

This paper describes a simple mathematical algorithm to determine the complexity of software that includes control flow and data flow. Two techniques are analyzed using examples to determine the overall complexity. One of them computes the determinant of a square matrix represented as an N2 chart. The other technique that is new and proposed in this paper computes the sum of products of control flow and data flow. It is shown that the determinant value fluctuates randomly whereas the new sum of product is a monotonic function that increases systematically with increasing complexity. This complexity number can be used to determine the amount of effort (cost and time) required for development and verification of software and whether or not the software can be deployed to perform safety-critical functions with high assurance.
ReQuEst
Authors: Janakiram D. , Rajasree M. S.
Published: January 2005

Estimating quality of software systems has always been a good practice in software engineering. Presently, quality evaluation techniques are applied only as an afterthought to software design process. However, quality of a software system should be stated based on the end-user's requirement for quality. Based on this observation, this paper proposes an estimation model called ReQuEst (Requirements-driven Quality Estimator). ReQuEst is an attempt to quantitatively estimate the quality of a system being designed from its analysis model. The quality is estimated in terms of adaptability and extendibility which are also important parameters in system design. During requirements analysis, evolving requirements are also analyzed to capture a few quality indicators from them. These indicators are used to compute the requirements for the above parameters from the analysis model. Thus, the analyst can quantitatively specify the quality demands of the system to be designed along with the functional requirements. These quality specifications enable the system designer to precisely design systems meeting the values specified. Further, the model can be used to estimate the maintainability of the system in terms of the above parameters.
Component evolution and versioning state of the art
Authors: Stuckenholz Alexander
Published: January 2005

Emerging component-based software development architectures promise better re-use of software components, greater flexibility, scalability and higher quality of services. But like any other piece of software too, software components are hardly perfect, when being created. Problems and bugs have to be fixed and new features need to be added.This paper analyzes the problem of component evolution and the incompatibilities which result during component upgrades. We present the state of the art in component versioning and compare the different methods in component models, frameworks and programming languages. Special attention is put on the automation of processes and tool support in this area. The concluding section sketches a possible solution of these problems we are cur rently working on.
Concurrent zero-knowledge
Authors: Dwork Cynthia , Naor Moni , Sahai Amit
Published: January 2005

Concurrent executions of a zero-knowledge protocol by a single prover (with one or more verifiers) may leak information and may not be zero-knowledge
in toto
. In this article, we study the problem of maintaining zero-knowledge.We introduce the notion of an (α, β)
timing constraint
: for any two processors
P
1
and
P
2
, if
P
1
measures α elapsed time on its local clock and
P
2
measures β elapsed time on its local clock, and
P
2
starts
after
P
1
does, then
P
2
will finish after
P
1
does. We show that if the adversary is constrained by an (α, β) assumption then there exist four-round almost concurrent zero-knowledge interactive proofs and perfect concurrent zero-knowledge arguments for every language in
NP
. We also address the more specific problem of
Deniable Authentication
, for which we propose several particularly efficient solutions. Deniable Authentication is of independent interest, even in the sequential case; our concurrent solutions yield sequential solutions
without recourse to timing
, that is, in the standard model.
Letters
Authors: Grossman Edward
Published: January 2005

I enjoyed the first column by Kode Vicious (October 2004), and especially liked the irreverent remarks to questioners prior to his substantive reply. Good column—keep up the good work!
News 2.0
Authors: Stanik John
Published: January 2005

These days it’s difficult to pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV, or even, say, open a copy of Queue, without encountering the “O” word: outsourcing. Gartner recently predicted nontrivial cutbacks in the domestic IT labor force over the next five years, mostly as a result of outsourcing IT services, claiming that 60 percent of IT departments will cut their workforces in half by 2008.
What’s on Your Hard Drive?
Authors: Grossman Edward
Published: January 2005

If you have visited the Queue Web site recently, you will have noticed an invitation to tell us about tools that you use—how they make your life wonderful or how they make your life a living hell. Every month the editors will carefully select four of these submissions from the millions received. If you’re one of the chosen, you’ll receive a complimentary (and oh so very flattering) Queue t-shirt, the Holy Grail of the software development industry.
A Conversation with Alan Kay
Authors: Feldman Stuart
Published: January 2005

When you want to gain a historical perspective on personal computing and programming languages, why not turn to one of the industry’s preeminent pioneers? That would be Alan Kay, winner of last year’s Turing Award for leading the team that invented Smalltalk, as well as for his fundamental contributions to personal computing. Kay was one of the founders of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he led one of several groups that together developed modern workstations (and the forerunners of the Macintosh), Smalltalk, the overlapping window interface, desktop publishing, the Ethernet, laser printing, and network client-servers.
Review: Eclipse by Steve Holzner
Authors: Joy M. S.
Published: January 2005

Review: Eclipse by Steve Holzner
Calendar
Authors: Grossman Edward
Published: January 2005

WORLDS (Workshop on Real, Large Distributed Systems)
Languages, Levels, Libraries, and Longevity
Authors: Mashey John R.
Published: January 2005

In 50 years, we’ve already seen numerous programming systems come and (mostly) go, although some have remained a long time and will probably do so for: decades? centuries? millennia? The questions about language designs, levels of abstraction, libraries, and resulting longevity are numerous. Why do new languages arise? Why is it sometimes easier to write new software than to adapt old software that works? How many different levels of languages make sense? Why do some languages last in the face of “better” ones?
How Not to Write Fortran in Any Language
Authors: Seeley Donn
Published: January 2005

There’s no obfuscated Perl contest because it’s pointless.
Usability engineering methods for software developers
Authors: Holzinger Andreas
Published: January 2005

The human-computer interaction community aims to increase the awareness and acceptance of established methods among software practitioners. Indeed, awareness of the basic usability methods will drive an Information Society for all.
Using asset specificity and asset scope to measure the value of IT
Authors: Tillquist John , Rodgers Waymond
Published: January 2005

A technique for quantifying the contribution of IT to a firm's value and performance makes it possible to compare the value of IT in different firms and industries.
Global linguistic diversity for the internet
Authors: Anderson Deborah
Published: January 2005

The Script Encoding Initiative wants to encode the world's unencoded scripts, making electronic text communication possible for millions of native speakers.
Creating a national K--12 computer science community
Authors: Stephenson Chris
Published: January 2005

ACM launches a new organization to help teachers, and ultimately students, to better appreciate the educational and professional opportunities inspired by the computing sciences.
Usefulness of temporal information automatically extracted from news articles for topic tracking
Authors: Kim Pyung , Myaeng Sung Hyon
Published: January 2005

Temporal information plays an important role in natural language processing (NLP) applications such as information extraction, discourse analysis, automatic summarization, and question-answering. In the topic detection and tracking (TDT) area, the temporal information often used is the publication date of a message, which is readily available but limited in its usefulness. We developed a relatively simple NLP method for extracting temporal information from Korean news articles, with the goal of improving performance of TDT tasks. To extract temporal information, we make use of finite state automata and a lexicon containing timerevealing vocabulary. Extracted information is converted into a canonicalized representation of a time point or a time duration. We first evaluated and investigated the extraction and canonicalization methods for their accuracy and the extent to which temporal information extracted as such can help TDT tasks. The experimental results show that time information extracted from the text does indeed help to significantly improve both precision and recall.
An evaluation of statistical spam filtering techniques
Authors: Zhang Le , Zhu Jingbo , Yao Tianshun
Published: January 2005

This paper evaluates five supervised learning methods in the context of statistical spam filtering. We study the impact of different feature pruning methods and feature set sizes on each learner's performance using cost-sensitive measures. It is observed that the significance of feature selection varies greatly from classifier to classifier. In particular, we found support vector machine, AdaBoost, and maximum entropy model are top performers in this evaluation, sharing similar characteristics: not sensitive to feature selection strategy, easily scalable to very high feature dimension, and good performances across different datasets. In contrast, naive Bayes, a commonly used classifier in spam filtering, is found to be sensitive to feature selection methods on small feature set, and fails to function well in scenarios where false positives are penalized heavily. The experiments also suggest that aggressive feature pruning should be avoided when building filters to be used in applications where legitimate mails are assigned a cost much higher than spams (such as λ = 999), so as to maintain a better-than-baseline performance. An interesting finding is the effect of mail headers on spam filtering, which is often ignored in previous studies. Experiments show that classifiers using features from message header alone can achieve comparable or better performance than filters utilizing body features only. This implies that message headers can be reliable and powerfully discriminative feature sources for spam filtering.
Efficient scaling for complex division
Authors: Priest Douglas M.
Published: January 2005

We develop a simple method for scaling to avoid overflow and harmful underflow in complex division. The method guarantees that no overflow will occur unless at least one component of the quotient must overflow, otherwise the normwise error in the computed result is at most a few units in the last place. Moreover, the scaling requires only four floating point multiplications and a small amount of integer arithmetic to compute the scale factor. Thus, on many modern CPUs, our method is both safer and faster than Smith's widely used algorithm.
Automating the implementation of Kalman filter algorithms
Authors: Whittle Jon , Schumann Johann
Published: January 2005

autofilter is a tool that generates implementations that solve state estimation problems using Kalman filters. From a high-level, mathematics-based description of a state estimation problem, autofilter automatically generates code that computes a statistically optimal estimate using one or more of a number of well-known variants of the Kalman filter algorithm. The problem description may be given in terms of continuous or discrete, linear or nonlinear process and measurement dynamics. From this description, autofilter automates many common solution methods (e.g., linearization, discretization) and generates C or Matlab code fully automatically. autofilter surpasses toolkit-based programming approaches for Kalman filters because it requires no low-level programming skills (e.g., to "glue" together library function calls). autofilter raises the level of discourse to the mathematics of the problem at hand rather than the details of what algorithms, data structures, optimizations and so on are required to implement it. An overview of autofilter is given along with an example of its practical application to deep space attitude estimation.
Computation of complex Airy functions and their zeros using asymptotics and the differential equation
Authors: Fabijonas B. R. , Lozier D. W. , Olver F. W. J.
Published: January 2005

We describe a method by which one can compute the solutions of Airy's differential equation, and their derivatives, both on the real line and in the complex plane. The computational methods are numerical integration of the differential equation and summation of asymptotic expansions for large argument. We give details involved in obtaining all of the parameter values, and we control the truncation errors rigorously. Using the same computational methods, we describe an algorithm that computes the zeros and associated values of the Airy functions and their derivatives, and the modulus and phase functions on the negative real axis.
Algorithm 838
Authors: Fabijonas B. R.
Published: January 2005

We present a Fortran 90 module, which computes the solutions and their derivatives of Airy's differential equation, both on the real line and in the complex plane. The module also computes the zeros and associated values of the solutions and their derivatives, and the modulus and phase functions on the negative real axis. The computational methods are numerical integration of the differential equation and summation of asymptotic expansions for large argument. These methods were chosen because they are simple, adaptable to any precision, and amenable to rigorous error analysis. The module can be used to validate other codes or as a component in programs that require Airy functions.
Automatic implementation of communication protocols
Authors: Ideguchi Tetsuo , Mizuno Tadanori , Matsunaga Hiroshi
Published: January 2005

On the implementation and verification of communication protocols in the computer networks, it is required to describe protocols formally and establish the automatic implementation method of protocols. In this paper, we describe the formal description of protocols, which is based on a finite state machine with six inputs and six outputs, and the Protocol Compiler for Network architecture (PC/N) system which automatically generates communication programs from informations of the formal description of protocols and formats. We also show applications of the PC/N system. As a result, it is shown that about 38% of a communication program is automatically generated by the PC/N system and it is executable.
Performance comparison of quasi-static routing algorithms for packet-switched computer networks
Authors: Ayad N. M. A. , Mohammed F. A. , Madkour M. A. , Metwally M. S.
Published: January 2005

The routing problem is one of the most important problems facing the development, improvement, and performance of packet switched computer networks (PSN). In this paper two, quasistatic techniques, which proved to be robust with respect to overall performance, are compared. The first one, uses "The Learning Automata" principle, which is a promising technique regarding its simplisity and ease of implementation. This technique is thoroughly investigated. The second, uses "The Deterministic Routing" principle, that is selected for comparison since it uses the deterministic sequence generation like the first one. The goal is to highlight the efficiency of each technique with respect to the other. This have been realized using a simulated 10-nodes sample network to clarify the advantages and defficiencies of each technique. The relative performance of the two algorithms is judged on the basis of delay and blocking probability. The results are in favour of the learning automata specially in cases of networks of big number of nodes.
War of the benchmark means
Authors: Mashey John R.
Published: January 2005

For decades, computer benchmarkers have fought a War of Means. Although many have raised concerns with the geometric mean (GM), it continues to be used by SPEC and others. This war is an unnecessarymisunderstanding due to inadequately articulated implicit assumptions, plus confusio namong populations, their parameters, sampling methods, and sample statistics. In fact, all the Means have their uses, sometimes in combination. Metrics may be
algebraically
correct, but
statistically
irrelevant or misleading if applied to population distributions for which they are inappropriate. Normal (Gaussian) distributions are so useful that they are often assumed without question,but many important distributions are not normal.They require different analyses, most commonly by finding a mathematical transformations that yields a normal distribution,computing the metrics, and then back-transforming to the original scale. Consider the distribution of relative performance ratios of programs on two computers. The normal distribution is a good fit
only
when variance and skew are small, but otherwise generates logical impossibilities and misleading statistical measures. A much better choice is the lognormal (or log-normal) distribution, not just on theoretical grounds, but through the (necessary) validation with real data. Normal and lognormal distributions are similar for low variance and skew, but the lognormal handles skewed distributions reasonably, unlike the normal. Lognormal distributions occur frequently elsewhere are well-understood, and have standard methods of analysis.Everyone agrees that "Performance is not a single number," ... and then argues about which number is better. It is more important to understanding populations, appropriate methods, and proper ways to convey uncertainty. When population parameters are estimated via samples,
statistically
correct methods must be used to produce the appropriate means, measures of dispersion, Skew, confidence levels, and perhaps goodness-of-fit estimators. If the wrong Mean is chosen, it is difficult to achieve much. The GM predicts the mean relative performance of
programs
, not of workloads. The usual GM formula is rather unintuitive, and is often claimed to have no physical meaning. However,
it is the back-transformed average of a lognormal distribution
, as can be seen by the mathematical identity below. Its use is not onlystatistically appropriate in some cases, but enables straightforward computation of other useful statistics."If a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end with certainties."  — Francis Bacon, in Savage.
Modeling delay in selective retransmission protocol by a FIFO Queue
Authors: Kumar Vinod
Published: January 2005

Consider a message transmission protocol where the sender waits for acknowledgement of each message before sending the next. Obviously this scheme can be modeled by a single server FIFO queue where the clients are the messages, the queue line is the sender's buffer queue and the service time is the delay in getting the message to receiver. Now consider another protocol where the sender does not wait for ack before sending the next message. Messages could be acked selectively and will lead to selective retransmission. The receiver gets the messages in any order and buffers them up for sequential delivery to the user. Messages have to be buffered both at the sender and receiver. The buffer is not a FIFO queue as sequencing and selective retransmission spoil the order at both ends. Can we still model the protocol for total delay using a FIFO queue?
The protection of computer facilities and equipment
Authors: Diroff T. E.
Published: January 2005

Members of a Senate investigating committee recently journeyed to the Social Security office in Washington. While there, they gathered a few blank social security cards and data tapes, then proceeded to leave the premises unchallenged and unmolested.
The journal communication system for MIS research
Authors: Hamilton Scott , Ives Blake
Published: January 2005

Journals constituting the formal communication system for Management Information System (MIS) research are described and analyzed. Six measures of journal importance in communicating MIS research are developed based upon MIS expert opinions, published MIS articles, and citation analysis. Four strata of journals are proposed utilizing a composite indicator of journal importance. The research has implications for MIS researchers seeking suitable publication outlets, for academic administrators evaluating research efforts, for editors wishing to establish MIS coverage policy, and for librarians making MIS journal acquisition decisions.
A multilevel design architecture for decision support systems
Authors: Orman Levent
Published: January 2005

Decision support systems are characterized as special purpose information systems. The deficiencies of existing systems are identified and an ideal system is described. A design architecture based on six levels of abstraction is proposed. Each level is identified with a different user group with different needs and requirements. Level independence, user view and meta-information concepts are introduced in an attempt to cross-fertilize decision science with database theory.
The evolution of information systems development approach
Authors: Alavi Maryam
Published: January 2005

The approach to information systems development is changing. A new approach, prototyping, is gaining popularity among practitioners in the field. Twelve information systems development projects using the prototyping approach were studied. For each project, the project manager and at least one systems analyst were interviewed. The underlying premises for prototyping and the interview findings concerning the advantages, practicability, and organizational requirements of prototyping are discussed in this article. With growing experience in the use of the approach and the broader availability of powerful software tools, it is timely to consider using prototyping for information systems development.
Application software maintenance
Authors: Helms Glenn L. , Weiss Ira R.
Published: January 2005

Numerous studies have found that subsequent application software maintenance requires a significant amount of a data processing department's resources. Some of the major research in this area [1, 2, 3, 4] revealed the following:• in 1972, 30.1 percent of total programmer effort was devoted to maintenance• in 1978 twenty percent of the systems studied had allocated eighty-five percent of their annual analyst and programming hours to maintenance.• in 1979 as high as seventy-five percent of systems and data processing recourses were spent on application maintenance• a study determined that half of a data processing department's staff time was devoted to maintenance
A software systems management MBA option
Authors: Harrison Warren , Springer Donald
Published: January 2005

In the past, software systems have often been viewed (at least by Business Schools) as simply tools for management. Thus, the majority of the attention paid to software systems has generally revolved around building systems that can be used more effectively by the user[1]. Other projects funded by the 1984 SIGBDP research program support this statement ("Human Computer Interaction for Management Tasks", "Information System Support for Group Decision Making", and "Critical Success Factors of Decision Support Systems"). This is a perfectly legitimate view of data processing. Much of the software system's worth is dependent on how effectively it can be used.
Selecting the appropriate application development methodology
Authors: Burns R. N. , Dennis A. R.
Published: January 2005

This paper synthesizes many of the recent articles about prototyping and contrasts prototyping with the more traditional systems life cycle approach to application development. As some projects are more suited to one methodology than the other, this paper presents a contingency approach, based on project size and project uncertainty, to selecting the most appropriate application development methodology for a given project.
Integration of corporate and MIS planning
Authors: Bush Robert L. , Knutsen K. Eric
Published: January 2005

This paper deals with the impact on management information systems' productivity of an effective MIS planning process. Productivity is defined to mean "increasing the output of an operation, at the same or improved quality, while utilizing the same or reduced resources."
An approach for designing decision support systems
Authors: Carlson Eric D.
Published: January 2005

Studies of specific decisions and general studies of decision making have indicated the potential benefits of computer support for decision making. These potential benefits can be divided into two categories: displaced cost and added value.
Storytelling evolves on the web
Authors: Miller Jim
Published: January 2005

The ubiquity and immersive capabilities of the Web have only recently allowed substantive advances in the age-old art of storytelling. Exocog was a set of Web sites that provided a five-week experiment in this new realm. It illuminates the balance that occurs between new modes of storytelling on the Web and the more traditional narrative elements that remain, offering a unique view of this still-evolving process.
The innovation pipeline: design collaborations between research and development
Authors: Henderson Austin
Published: January 2005

When HCI works alone, it has little effect on products. But if brought to bear as a full collaborating force, it can profoundly shape and direct products throughout the development and deployment processes.
Annoying bagatelles in Ada
Authors: Farkas E.
Published: January 2005

More than a year ago I began to work on the codegenerator of an Ada Compiler. The work is problematic because of1/ the inexact definition of the language,2/ some constructs in the language that are very hard to implement,3/ some irritating bagatelles in the language.To the second point belong the "generic", the "representation specification" and the "exception" in a multitasking environment. The implementation of these features is not easy, but it is a big gain for the programmer.
Distributed environments
Authors: Berecz Vic , Kramer Jack , LeDoux Carol
Published: January 2005

The Working Group on Distributed Environments explored issues of concern when distributing a Software Engineering Environment (SEE) over a set of cooperating processors. The emphasis was on identifying the implementation issues relating to methodology, procedures, tools, and computer facilities and, appropriate research directions relating to distributed SEEs.
Issues in software reusability
Authors: Jones Bill , Litvintchouk Steve , Mungle Jerry , Krasner Herb , Mellby John , Willman Herb
Published: January 2005

At the ACM SIGAda Future Ada Environments Workshop, the working group on software reusability decided that the most productive use of the little time available to the group was to clearly determine the issues in software reusability and make recommendations wherever possible.
Methodologies and environments for embedded systems lifecycle support
Authors: Wagreich Roberta G. , Alford Mack , Buhr Ray , Campbell Stuart , Fredriksson Kurt , Humphrey Dianna , Johovich Joseph , Lamonica Frank , Martin R. J. , Meirink Mike , Miller Daniel H. , Miller Jo , Pulford Kevin , Reynolds Joseph
Published: January 2005

Embedded systems development poses particular problems for the requirements analysis, design, test and maintenance phases. Consequently, environments supporting the complete lifecycle for embedded systems must address and solve these problems.The group characterized the particular traits of embedded systems which would lend themselves to support by a Systems/Software Engineering Environment. This led us to specify special requirements for such an environment and to recommend directions for research, environment development, and strategies for industrial technology insertion. This paper addresses these topics in this order.
A penetration analysis of a Burroughs Large System
Authors: Wilkinson A. L. , Anderson D. H. , Chang D. P. , Hin Lee Hock , Mayo A. J. , Viney I. T. , Williams R. , Wright W.
Published: January 2005

A penetration analysis of a Burroughs Large System is described and a fundamental flaw allowing total penetration is discussed. Specific aspects examined include File Security, Resource Limits, Accounting Methods, and Disruptions.
On binding layers of software
Authors: Lindsay D. C.
Published: January 2005

At its highest level, program structuring consists of arranging for other programs to work together. A series of operating systems features are suggested which support highly dynamic structuring of this kind. Each feature attaches increased function to file directories, allowing existing directory functions to have wider application.
Transactions
Authors: Spector Alfred Z. , Schwarz Peter M.
Published: January 2005

Transactions have proven to be a useful tool for constructing reliable database systems and are likely to be useful in many types of distributed systems. To exploit transactions in a general purpose distributed system, each node can execute a transaction kernel that provides services necessary to support transactions at higher system levels. The transaction model that the kernel supports must permit arbitrary operations on the wide collection of data types used by programmers. New techniques must be developed for specifying the synchronization and recovery properties of abstract types that are used in transactions. Existing mechanisms for synchronization, recovery, deadlock management and communication are often inadequate to implement these types efficiently, and they must be adapted or replaced.
Synchronization and recovery of actions
Authors: Allchin J. E. , McKendry M. S.
Published: January 2005

We introduce an approach to robust computation in distributed systems. This approach is the foundation for reliability in the
Clouds
decentralized operating system. It is based on atomic actions operating on instances of abstract data types (objects). We present an event-based model of computation in which scheduling of responses to operation invocations is controlled by objects. We discuss an integrated strategy for synchronization
and
recovery which uses relationships between the abstract states of objects to track dependencies between actions. Serializability is defined in terms of the semantics of operations. This permits high concurrency to be obtained in non-serializable implementations without deviation from serializable abstract behavior. We define a class of schedulers that allows objects to make autonomous scheduling decisions. We present the use of non-serializable operation semantics. Finally, we discuss implementation of the model, including action synchronization, object operation ordering using action-based counting semaphores, and action recovery.
Performance monitoring in computer systems
Authors: Svobodova Liba
Published: January 2005

This paper argues that performance monitoring, similar to monitoring needed to ensure reliability, ought to be viewed as an ongoing process that is inseparable from the system operation. Performance monitors should be designed as part of the system, following the principles of structured system design and using the methods and tools developed for this purpose.
An overview of the Amoeba distributed operating system
Authors: Tanenbaum Andrew S. , Mullender Sape J.
Published: January 2005

As hardware prices continue to drop rapidly, building large computer systems by interconnecting substantial numbers of microcomputers becomes increasingly attractive. Many techniques for interconnecting the hardware, such as Ethernet [Metcalfe and Boggs, 1976], ring nets [Farber and Larson, 1972], packet switching, and shared memory are well understood, but the corresponding software techniques are poorly understood. The design of general purpose distributed operating systems is one of the key research issues for the 1980s.
Survey calculations
Authors: Williams Michael R.
Published: January 2005

One of my passions in life is to try and understand how we have developed the wonderful calculating ability we currently possess. Anyone with this hobby will undoubtedly start by looking back to see how the first PCs were developed, then progress back to older "mainframe" computers, and perhaps even to pre-computer mechanical devices. If, like me, you are really bitten with the bug, you will also try and investigate the much earlier forms of calculation, perhaps even going back to study Babylonian and Egyptian methods of arithmetic. I even sat through a full graduate course in reading Egyptian hieroglyphics just so I could better appreciate some of the ancient texts---which says something about how badly I have been bitten.
A clandestine religious meeting
Authors: Lister Raymond
Published: January 2005

A few years ago, I attended a conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Getting there was a thirteen-hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, a connecting flight to Chicago, and then a third flight to Madison. At the conference, I met three fellow Australians who work at a university about one hour's drive away from mine. I had not met those Australians before. It seemed silly to have traveled half-way round the world to meet people with a common interest, when they live a short drive away.
IT security and data assurance
Authors: Campbell Robert D.
Published: January 2005

In my last column, I identified several regional and national ATE Centers that have been established to support IT-related curricula. I'd like to continue exploring these resources, by focusing on one of the newest ATE Centers, targeting one of the most significant curriculum areas now confronting IT faculty in two-year colleges. The ACM Two-Year College Education Committee has been pleased to work in conjunction with this Center to expand awareness and identify resources related to this critical area.
Banner year for UPE
Authors: Popyack Jeffrey
Published: January 2005

Greetings! This has been a fabulous year for Upsilon Pi Epsilon. This year saw an unprecedented number of new chapters, including our first ever chapter in Mexico. In addition, UPE reached an all-time high for student awards distributed in 2003-04, crossing the $30,000 mark for the first time.
Niftiness
Authors: Parlante Nick
Published: January 2005

Back around March 21 2004, there was a long and interesting discussion on the SIGCSE list, reflecting the powerful promise and frustrations of using Java and OOP in CSI (see http://listserv.acm.org/archives/sigcse-members.html and also Bruce Kim's article this issue). For this column, I would like to use the history of the Nifty Assignments as a way to look at this complex situation.
Controversy on how to teach CS 1
Authors: Bruce Kim B.
Published: January 2005

A discussion took place on the SIGCSE mailing list in late March of 2004 that raised important issues on how to teach introductory courses using Java. This article attempts to summarize several of the important points raised during this discussion, among them whether or how objects should be taught early or late in a CS 1 course, or indeed, whether object-oriented languages should be postponed until a second course.
Teaching networking congestion control
Authors: Bogoyavlenskaya O. Yu.
Published: January 2005

This paper presents main stages of networking congestion control development including initial early motivations, modern state-of-the-art, and open problems. These stages form basis for teaching strategies. The paper provides several illustrative examples, which help to understand present state of congestion control using common experience of a person. The nature of the network congestion and the role of the network protocols in its control are discussed. Special attention is point at feedback between congestion control and performance. Performance issues are also carefully examined. Performance of the networking congestion control is studied by two modern alternative approaches. One of them belongs to author.
Developing a professional doctorate in computing
Authors: Merritt Susan M. , Stix Allen , Sullivan Judith E. , Grossman Fred , Tappert Charles C. , Sachs David A.
Published: January 2005

Pace University's Doctor of Professional Studies in Computing program, a fusion of academic and professional cultures, started as a venture into largely uncharted educational territory. One part of the mission was, and remains, a one hundred percent student retention rate, with each student successfully defending a dissertation with original research in three years. Yet, throughout, the students retain full-time employment as high-level computing and IT professionals. Another part of the mission is to provide breadth and currency across the computing disciplines (specifically, computer science, information systems, and telecommunications) as well as depth in annually selected areas of emerging technology. This is in a context in which entering students have master's degrees and generally at least five years of professional experience in diverse computing-related areas and therefore lack a common foundational background. As a new program at the University and in the country, penetrating assessments have been conducted each semester. This report describes the assessments, the anticipated and unanticipated challenges, and the steps that have made the evolutionary development of this program successful.
Reading types in C using the right left walk method
Authors: Canning Jim , Moloney William , Rafieymehr Ali , Rey Demetrio
Published: January 2005

We describe a technique for beginning students to read and verbalize a declarator in the C programming language. Once learned, students will be able to easily state the type of an object without hesitation. It is suggested that this technique be taught to students during the first week of an introductory C programming course. Getting students to correctly read and verbalize types hastens their learning of the language and supports necessary discussion of a program's translation and execution environments.
Cryptanalysis of some encryption/cipher schemes using related key attack
Authors: Hayat Khawaja Amer , Anis Umar Waqar , Tauseef-ur-Rehman S.
Published: January 2005

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