Computer Highlights Society Magazines

 

The IEEE Computer Society's lineup of 12 peer-reviewed technical magazines cover cutting-edge topics in computing, including scientific applications, Internet computing, machine intelligence, pervasive computing, security and privacy, digital graphics, and computer history. Select articles from recent issues of Computer Society magazines are highlighted below.

 

Software

 

Grady Booch's On Computing column, "In Defense of Boring," in Software's May/June 2013 issue, discusses how the purpose of good software is to make the complex appear simple. On one hand, developers seek to build software-intensive systems that are innovative, elegant, and supremely useful. On the other, computing technology as a thing unto itself isn't the place of enduring value. Therefore, as computing fills the spaces of our world, it becomes boring. And that's a very good and desirable thing.

 

Internet Computing

 

"Collective Sensemaking and Military Coalitions" is one of seven articles in IC's January/February 2013 special theme issue on knowledge systems for coalition operations. Authors Paul S. Smart of the University of Southampton and Katia P. Sycara of Carnegie Mellon University present automated sensemaking as a key capability for enabling both individuals and teams to process conflicting, ambiguous, and uncertain information. Computational modeling provides one means of improving our understanding in this area.

 

IT Professional

 

In "Micropreneurs: The Rise of the MicroISV," from the March/April 2013 issue of ITPro, authors Russell Thackston and David Umphress of Auburn University survey the community of micro independent software vendors (microISVs). The term, coined in 2004 by SourceGear founder Eric Sink, describes a community of companies with 10 or fewer employees that focus on long-tail, niche markets. Such companies are on the rise, fueled in part by the proliferation of ecosystems such as Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market. The article includes lessons learned for both microISVs and the IT industry.

 

Micro

 

Micro's March/April 2013 issue is a reprise of its annual selection of articles based on research from the Hot Chips symposium. Guest editors Christos Kozyrakis of Stanford University and Rumi Zahir from Intel present five articles reflecting two trends from Hot Chips 24 last August: the widespread adoption of specialization and heterogeneity as a means of energy-efficient scaling, and the variability challenges that arise as shrinking devices operate at low voltages to reduce power consumption.

 

Computer Graphics

 

In CG&A's May/June 2013 issue, Kapil Dev presents a tutorial, "Mobile Expressive Renderings: The State of the Art," which discusses nonphotorealistic rendering (NPR) techniques for mobile devices. NPR involves inherent abstraction, and mobile platforms offer relatively less computing power. So, a convergence of these areas can help deal with producing complex renderings on resource-constrained mobile platforms.

 

Computing

 

A new era of astronomy is near, according to Luis Lehner of Perimeter Institute and Steven L. Liebling of Long Island University, authors of the Computer Simulations department in CiSE's March/April 2013 issue. In "Simulations to Usher in the Era of Gravitational Wave Astronomy," they discuss interferometers on Earth and pulsar timing observations as sources for an entirely new view of the universe using gravitational waves. These waves will complement the very different images from electromagnetic waves and will illuminate systems from which we detect no electromagnetic emission.

 

MultiMedia

 

Current technology is making it easy to capture and store experiential data. In "Micro Stories and Mega Stories," authors Ramesh Jain of the University of California, Irvine, and Malcolm Slaney from Microsoft Research speculate on the effects these technologies have on the art of storytelling. They conclude that the capability to collect so many events is making stories more data driven, but the "glue" to pull moments together in a compelling story will remain in the hands of the world's Mark Twains and Steven Spielbergs.

 

Pervasive Computing

 

One of pervasive computing's goals is the automatic personalization of computer interface and infrastructure. In "Personal Touch-Identification Tokens," featured in the April-June 2013 issue of PvC, Tam Vu and Marco Gruteser of Rutgers University present a novel and convenient mechanism to convey a unique identifier using no more than a signet ring pressed against the capacitive touchscreen of a computer. Bringing to mind a "secret decoder ring," the personal token identifies who is interacting with the device, prompting it to tailor services to users and control access to sensitive information and online services.

Security and Privacy

Economics and behavioral economics offer different but complementary approaches to understanding privacy and security. In "Complementary Perspectives on Privacy and Security: Economics," Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon University explains their methodological differences and similarities, and why they matter. The article is the inaugural contribution for a new department, In Our Orbit, and appears in S&P's March/April 2013 issue.

 

Annals

 

In "The Best of Both Worlds? A History of Time-Shared Microcomputers, 1977-1983," from the January-March 2013 issue of Annals, author Arne Martin Fevolden of the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research, and Education recounts the evolution of this microcomputer subset through articles and advertisements that appeared in the popular technology magazine Byte. Fevolden maintains that this relatively short-lived technology represents much more than a technological curiosity as he focuses on complexities in the computer industry that contributed to its failure in the marketplace.