Peter Naur has been named the recipient of ACM's 2005 A.M. Turing Award for his groundbreaking work defining the Algol 60 programming language, which would become the model for numerous subsequent languages, including many that are indispensable to software engineering. Named for the British mathematician Alan M. Turing and often recognized as the Nobel Prize for computing, the award features a $100,000 prize. Naur edited the "Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60," defining program syntax with what would come to be known as Backus-Naur Form. The award also recognizes Naur's work in compiler design, as well as the art and practice of programming. "Dr. Naur's Algol 60 embodied the notion of elegant simplicity for algorithmic expression," said Intel CTO Justin Rattner. "This award should encourage future language designers who are addressing today's biggest programming challenges, such as general-purpose, multi-threaded computation, to achieve that same level of elegance and simplicity that was the hallmark of Algol 60." The late Edsger Dijkstra, recipient of ACM's 1972 Turing Award, credited Naur's work with elevating automatic computing to a legitimate academic pursuit. Until Naur's report, languages had been informally defined by their support manuals and the compiler code. The manual gave precise and economical definitions to both syntax and semantics. After the publication of Algol 60, Naur co-authored the GIER Algol Compiler. Microsoft's James Gray, who chaired the 2005 Turing Committee and is the recipient of the 1998 Turing Award, hailed Naur's contribution as a "watershed" that introduced many of the programming conventions that are taken for granted today. Naur is also credited as a pioneer in establishing software design as a discipline. Naur will receive the award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on May 20, 2006, in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://campus.acm.org/public/pressroom/press_releases/2_2006/awards05.cfm
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Computing Error
New York Times (03/01/06) P. A24

The frequently sounded alarm that the U.S. computing industry is in decline due to rampant offshore outsourcing is overstated, according to a New York Times editorial that cited ACM's recently issued report. More than anything, the future of the U.S. technology economy is imperiled by the declining interest in computer science and engineering that results from these gloomy predictions, as students are likely to pursue other fields of study when they are told that all the computer jobs are migrating overseas. The ACM study found that while between 2 percent and 3 percent of U.S. technology jobs are moved overseas each year, the worldwide computing boom leads to the creation of far more jobs than are lost. With technology creeping into every aspect of business, the demand for workers with technical skills defies industry classification. The U.S. technology sector will be in trouble, however, if the declining interest among students persists, depleting the domestic workforce. The ACM report warns that jobs in research and other high-end technology positions are already migrating overseas, and that initiatives to "attract, educate, and retain the best IT talent are critical" to sustaining the industry. The Times notes that the post 9/11 immigration policies and the condition of math and science education are less than encouraging signs. The complete report, "Globalization and Offshoring of Software--A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force," is available at http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport
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Outsourcing: Silicon Valley East
Newsweek (03/06/06) Vol. 147, No. 10, P. 42; Naughton, Keith

U.S. consulting firms have overestimated the number of high-tech jobs that would be outsourced to India, and there is no longer as much of a stigma attached to shipping jobs to the country. Tech firms continue to maintain call center and basic support operations in India and are looking to set up R&D centers in the country, while tech employment in the United States is on the rise. Over the next decade, the tech industry in the United States will grow by 1 million jobs, or 30 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And a study by the Association of Computing Machinery reveals that the number of tech workers in the United States is up 17 percent from 1999, when the industry was facing a bubble. "Everyone was worried about the offshoring bogeyman," says Moshe Vardi, an author of the ACM study. "But the big whoosh of jobs to India never happened." Infrastructure issues, such as bad roads and a patchy power grid, prevented many tech companies from rushing head-first into outsourcing to take advantage of the cheaper labor pool. Outsourcing estimates have now been cut by at least half, but India still stands to gain a large number of jobs from U.S. tech companies in the immediate future. The complete report, "Globalization and Offshoring of Software--A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force," is available at http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport
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Bush Names 14 New PCAST Members
Federal Computer Week (03/01/06) Sternstein, Aliya

In the latest sign of the Bush administration's about-face on the strategic importance of IT, 14 new appointees to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) were announced yesterday, almost nine months after Bush dissolved the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). When the reconstituted PCAST met for the first time last month, its membership was unchanged, fueling concerns among researchers that IT remained at the bottom of the administration's list of priorities. Those fears have somewhat been allayed by the Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative, which he unveiled at the State of the Union address. "It's a new day since the president's State of the Union message," said Ed Lazowska, PITAC co-chairman from 2003 until its dissolution in June 2005. "The American Competitiveness Initiative gives reason for hope that research and advanced education will receive appropriate prioritization. That creates an opportunity for PCAST to be effective." The new appointees are: F. Duane Ackerman, president and CEO of BellSouth; Paul Anderson, chairman and CEO of Duke Energy; Robert Brown, Boston University president; Nance Dicciani, president and CEO of Honeywell Specialty Materials; Richard Herman, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Martin Jischke, president of Purdue University; Fred Kavli, chairman of the Kavli Foundation; Daniel Reed, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute; AMD Chairman, President, and CEO Hector de Jesus Ruiz; VeriSign Chairman and CEO Stratton Sclavos; John Slaughter, president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering; EMC President and CEO Joseph Tucci; University of Alabama President Robert Witt; and GlaxoSmithKline's Tadataka Yamada.
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Activists Warn of Rerun of Euro Software Patent Fight
IDG News Service (02/27/06) Taylor, Simon

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) has warned that a proposed general patent for the European Union could open the door to software patents. "If you take the case law of the EPO (European Patent Office) and apply it across the board, that means allowing software patents," said FFII President Pieter Hintjens, who described the use of patents in a technology-driven field as "obscene." In the wake of the stalemate over the EU-wide community patent, the European Commission has begun again to solicit input from interest groups and private industry on how to make Europe's system workable. The Business Software Alliance's (BSA) Francisco Mingorance disagrees with Hintjens, however, noting that the consultations are not intended to lead directly to software patents, but rather to address the question more globally, and that the commission's questionnaire suggests more solutions than just the community patent. The questionnaire also offers the options of leaving the system unchanged or modifying the commission through other methods, such as agreeing to cut the number of languages in which patent applications must be filed to three: German, French, and English. Mingorance says the BSA seeks a more transparent and cost-effective patent system, noting that the community patent is unlikely to see ratification after six years of debate. Hintjens is steadfast in his opposition to a system that makes it easy to obtain junk patents or allows software to be patented.
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Market Is Hot for High-Skilled in Silicon Valley
Wall Street Journal (02/28/06) P. B1; Tam, Pui-Wing

The Silicon Valley labor market has rebounded from the dot-com collapse, though tech companies have shifted their hiring focus to more highly skilled workers. Unlike previous tech-economy recoveries, this time Silicon Valley firms of all sizes are almost exclusively hiring engineers, designers, and other skilled workers, having moved the lower-skilled positions to less expensive parts of the country, or outsourced them altogether. Joint Venture Silicon Valley found that, for the first time in four years, the region saw a net increase in jobs last year, with most of the growth coming in the creative and innovative services category, comprising research and development, consulting, and industrial design. Conversely, the number of jobs in semiconductor-equipment and electronic-component manufacturing both sustained double-digit percentage losses. The core design, engineering, and science sector accounts for 14 percent of all the jobs in Silicon Valley's economy, indicating a regional shift from manufacturing and production to design and innovation. Average income in Silicon Valley rose 2.7 percent from 2004 to $69,455 last year, though it is still well off the $80,000-plus average of 2000. As low-skilled labor steadily moves out of the region, Silicon Valley's base of industries is consolidating, potentially leaving it vulnerable to another downturn. Silicon Valley has re-centered itself around higher-skilled jobs in the past in response to a lean economy or increased competition from other regions in the country, however. Many companies report that the increased wages improve their competitive position, as revenue per employee has risen dramatically at firms such as Palm and SanDisk as they have moved their hiring patterns up the skill curve.
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Geekcorps: A Peace Corps for Techies
CNet (02/28/06) Kanellos, Michael

The U.S.-based not-for-profit Geekcorps is looking for volunteers to develop the telecommunications infrastructure in Africa and bridge the technological divide by equipping local radio DJs with PCs, digital broadcasting equipment, and salvaged antennas that will enable them to function as ersatz Internet service providers. In Mali, with a 70 percent illiteracy rate and a virtually non-existent infrastructure, Geekcorps is providing the equipment for citizens to relay messages to friends in other parts of the country by giving a message to a radio DJ, who sends it to a station located closer to the recipient, where a second DJ then broadcasts the recipient's name and tells him to come to the station to receive his message. Radio stations collect fees and earn advertising revenue from the service. "The underlying goal with every implementation is: how can you make sure this is a money maker for the community?" said Wayan Vota, director of Geekcorps. Geekcorps has had operations in West Africa and other areas for more than five years, and has provided some of the technology that powers Via's durable, energy-efficient PCs that it designed for emerging markets. Geekcorps typically sends its volunteers for one-month deployments, and it is currently seeking experts in C++, Linux, knowledge management, and object-oriented programming. Geekcorps' long-term mission is to help develop a middle class and further social mobility through technology, though immediate results can be seen in providing the locals with access to information about vaccines and coordinating transportation. Geekcorps has introduced publishing software and digital printing to Ghana, and helped create a West African agricultural database. The antennas in Mali were created through reverse engineering Western-built devices that the group brought over, and ended up costing around $1 each.
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IT Proves to Be a Turnoff for Women
New Zealand Herald (02/28/06) Hembry, Owen

The perception of information technology being an industry not only for males, but for geeks as well, is keeping many young women from pursuing IT careers, according to women connected to the recent Computing Women Congress in New Zealand. Sydney consultant Maggie Alexander says there were more women filling information, communication, and technology roles in Australia when she began her career in IT 25 years ago than there are today. Young girls have few role models in IT, and many young women now believe science and technology courses are too difficult for them, says Alexander. "They often don't get the right information from their schools about the kind of careers and variety of careers there are in IT," adds Alexander. Annika Hinze, organizer of the congress and a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Waikato, also takes issue with the way IT is marketed to young women. "It's the environment that is presented in the sense of, 'Oh, the guys are really good at this,' so women get the feeling that they are not wanted there [and] this is not for them," says Hinze. At Waikato, the site of the gathering, women represent about 25 percent of computer science students. Statistics New Zealand figures show that women account for 42 percent of the IT workforce, but the number includes 82 percent and 72 percent of workers in data entry and desktop publishing positions, respectively. For information of ACM's Committee on Women in Computing, visit http://www.acm.org/women
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How to Digitize a Million Books
Technology Review (02/28/06) Greene, Kate

While Google has been cagey about the technical details of its plans to digitize the book collections of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and the New York City Public Library, computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have faced similar challenges in that school's Million Book Project, begun seven years ago. The scope of Google's project covers an estimated 18 million books in roughly 430 languages of various fonts, all of which must be put into a standardized format to make their text searchable and to simulate the experience of browsing in a conventional library. Carnegie Mellon's nonprofit project has established 40 scanning locations in China and India, where low-paid workers turn each page manually, scanning roughly 100,000 pages each day. Raj Reddy, director of the Million Book Project, notes that optical-character recognition (OCR) is a rapidly developing field, and that Carnegie Mellon's Chinese and Egyptian partners are helping develop tools to read languages written in different scripts and unusual fonts. Reddy and his team are using software that creates structural metadata to overcome the inconsistencies of pagination and other physical flaws of monographs. Reddy says that creating the linkages between words in the table of contents and a book's chapters is still a manual process. Google's Daniel Clancy said that Book Search aims to provide the same experience as a physical library by linking resources through a variety of criteria, using new organizational algorithms that Clancy describes as a major challenge that will take years to overcome. Reddy says his team has been using a statistical approach, and that Google might also consider a model similar to Amazon's collaborative filtering that would draw from the results of previous searchers.
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Want to Read E-Mail With Your Feet? Microsoft Is Working on It
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (03/01/06) Bishop, Todd

Microsoft Research's annual TechFest gets underway Wednesday at the company's campus in Redmond, Wash., when scientists in the research unit will present prototypes to product teams during the internal event. Microsoft Research, which has approximately 700 people in the unit, has researchers working on very technical computer initiatives involving machine learning and artificial intelligence, but many are also focusing on more mundane projects such as using common surfaces as computer screens. During a news conference on Tuesday, researchers showed a prototype software program that allows people to view emails and digital photos by moving and stomping their feet on a floor pad. Microsoft researcher Brian Meyers deleted spam, scrolled through mail, opened messages and viewed them on a large screen, and used a double-footed move to flag a message that would require a response when he returned to the office. "It's just amazing to stomp your email out," says A.J. Brush, another researcher considering the use of feet as a way to interact with a PC. In addition to the StepMail program, the Step User Interface prototypes included StepPhoto. The researchers involved in the Step User Interface Project Group view the programs as supplemental tools that could potentially provide some relief from repetitive stress conditions, and not necessarily as replacements for the keyboard or mouse.
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Scientist Brings Life to Cell Phones
Korea Times (02/27/06) Tae-gyu, Kim

Researchers affiliated with Samsung Electronics are preparing to give three-dimensional avatars the ability to mate and have offspring. The project represents the second phase of an initiative to bring cell phones to life through the use of avatars that will have the ability to think, feel, evolve, and interact with users. "It is possible because they have chromosomes, or a set of computerized DNA codes with genetic data," explains Lee Kang-hee, a researcher involved on the project. "We will come up with various ways how they can pass on their traits to the next generation." Prof. Kim Jong-hwan of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology says Samsung has almost finished the first phase of the project, which involves installing the software. Lee describes the three-dimensional avatar as a sophisticated creature, or a software-incorporated robot, that will can change as it interacts with the owner of the cell phone. Although the owner can initially set the personality, it can become better or worse based on the way the owner treats the avatar, such as how users respond to a signal [popping up on the screen] that the creature is lonely. The work involving the "artificial chromosomes" could be finished in a year, and the new phones could be in stores in 2007.
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Research Due for Course Correction
EE Times (02/27/06)No. 1412, P. 1; Merritt, Rick

University of California, Berkeley, researchers held a group session last week outlining their latest projects, where ACM President David Patterson warned that software and hardware designers are moving in opposite directions as they work toward a definition of the next generation's multicore systems and software, with hardware development focusing on parallelism at the thread level, while the software camp is concentrating on data-level parallelism. "We desperately need a new microprocessor architecture focused on parallel computing" to coalesce the two, said Patterson, who is heading up the new Research Accelerator for Multiple Processors (RAMP) project. Patterson expects RAMP to produce an FPGA-based system by the end of next year that will be able to integrate different parallelism styles and instruction sets. RAMP, which could settle the debate between thread-level and data-level parallelism, has attracted interest from IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun, as well as MIT, Stanford, and four other universities. The projected system will cost around $100,000, providing 1,000 64-bit CPUs connected by a cache-coherent interconnect capable of handling a variety of instruction sets. Semiconductor development is expected to continue its dependence on CMOS technologies, as alternative techniques, such as replacing silicon dioxide with germanium and carbon nanotubes, will likely rejuvenate the technology rather than replace it. FinFETs and other new structures are also likely to extend the life of the transistor beyond most experts' expectations. As cell phone sales approach 1 billion annually and the proliferation of devices such as cameras, MP3 players, and game machines showing no signs of abating, home networking is the next major challenge in the development of wireless infrastructure, according to the Berkeley researchers, who also emphasized the need for more secure and reliable software.
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The Emergence of GeoSensor Networks
Location Intelligence (02/27/06) Stefanidis, Anthony

While collecting geospatial information has rapidly advanced due to new technologies such as laser scanners, GPS sensors, and sophisticated cameras, the emergence of geosensor networks promises to elevate the field to new heights. The development of geosensor networks is due to advances in nanotechnology, where it is now relatively easy and cost-effective to develop energy-efficient semi-autonomous sensors that serve as basic computing platforms. Because sensor networks depend on the raw data collection of each node distributed throughout local environments, it is common for networks to contain sensors with different degrees of capturing, processing, and communication capacities. High-end networks can contain hundreds of sensors with the ability to relay data at speeds in excess of 500 Kbps, and an array of gateway sensors to aggregate local data. The software is typically powered by Linux or the energy-efficient open-source system TinyOS. New sensor networks have been deployed in a variety of applications, such as monitoring the quality of drinking water and improving human/computer interaction. The spatial component of geosensor networks appears either in the content level, where it is the prime characteristic of the data being collected, or the analysis level, where spatial considerations are applied to the data once they have been gathered. Geosensors can be used for a variety of data collection applications across vast areas, such monitoring traffic patterns or tracking a single car around a major city. While sensors have been gathering spatial data for years, the old calibrated model that had to be used in controlled areas has given way to wireless networks of varying sensors that can produce homogeneous datasets. Geosensors also time-stamp their data, enabling a quantifiable assessment of change over time.
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Cyberthieves Silently Copy as You Type
New York Times (02/27/06) P. A1; Zeller Jr., Tom

Many computer users are already aware of the dangers of phishing attacks but they may not be aware of the use of keylogging programs that silently copy the keystrokes of computer users and send that information to the criminals. Recently in Brazil, federal police went to Campina Grande and several surrounding states and arrested 55 people for seeding the computers of Brazilians with keyloggers that recorded their typing whenever they visited their banks online. The criminal ring stole about $4.7 million from 200 different accounts at six different banks since it began operations last May, according to the Brazilian authorities. Keylogging programs work by exploiting security flaws and monitor the path that carries data from the keyboard to the other parts of the computer. They are often more intrusive than phishing attacks. The monitoring programs can be hidden inside ordinary software downloads, email attachments, and files. "These Trojans are very selective," says Cristine Hoepers, general manager of Brazil's Computer Emergency Response Team. "They monitor the Web access the victims make, and start recording information only when the user enters the sites of interest to the fraudster." The bad news is that these kinds of crimes are beginning to soar. The amount of Web sites known to be hiding this kind of malicious code nearly doubled between November and December to more than 1,900, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Last year iDefense says there were over 6,000 different keylogger variants, a 65 percent increase from 2004. The SANS Institute estimates that last fall, as many as 9.9 million machines in the United States were infected with some kind of keylogger, putting as much as $24 billion in bank account assets in the hands of crooks. To reduce the growing threats, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation strengthened its guidelines for Internet banking this past fall, to require banks to do more than just ask for a user name and password.
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Implementing a Quantum Computation by Free Falling
Science (02/24/06) Vol. 311, No. 5764, P. 1106; Oppenheim, Jonathan

Quantum computers hold numerous advantages over traditional machines, though few are more pronounced than the disparity in the theory of computation. While only a few quantum algorithms exist, interest in the field is growing rapidly, and some have speculated that quantum computing could eventually solve all the problems that can be verified with a conventional computer, which would have a tremendous impact on our understanding of physics. In gauging the efficiency of a computation, one seeks to determine whether the computation ran at polynomial time (efficient) or exponential time (inefficient). The physical mapping between the first quantum states and the final states is known as a unitary evolution, most of which cannot be implemented efficiently. A computation is efficient if the steps used by the computer, each of which begin with a set of basic interactions known as a gate, can be described as polynomial. The efficiency of a computation can be measured once its unitary evolution is broken down into the smallest number of rudimentary gates. To determine whether computations are running at optimal efficiency, a group of researchers has essentially plotted the coordinates that a computation should travel and calibrated the speed of a clock based on whether it takes the most efficient (polynomial) route, or whether it follows a path that invites unnecessary complications, such as the interaction of more than two qubits. The goal is to send the computation along a geodesic, or the route that an object will follow if free falling. Still, in the quantum environment, there can be multiple geodesics, compelling scientists to apply Riemannian geometry in the complex search for the shortest.
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Power Surge
InformationWeek (02/27/06)No. 1078, P. 38; Dunn, Darrell; Claburn, Thomas

Denser server clusters mean greater electricity consumption and higher heat output, which often entails additional energy consumption for heat management. Data centers currently consume around $3.3 billion a year in electricity, and IDC expects the number of U.S. servers to increase by half over the next four years; the research firm also estimates that electricity bills for businesses rose by 20 percent between 2004 and 2005. Meanwhile, a recent poll of 200 AFCOM members found that data centers suffer more than one serious blackout each year on average, while one-fifth of all data centers run at 80 percent or more of their power capacity. Technology vendors are emphasizing new heat-management systems to address the problem, while Web giants such as Yahoo! and Google are focusing on the development of computer models that are both cost- and energy-efficient. "It used to be that you wanted the fastest processor and to process as much as possible in a small footprint," explains Yahoo! CIO Lars Rabbe. "But everyone has realized that power pricing, and having low-power CPUs and low-power systems in general, are becoming more important." A measure of relief can be derived from the replacement of inefficient servers with power-efficient technologies such as multicore processors and virtualization. Sun, AMD, and the EPA hosted a summit in January designed to make the industry more aware of cooling and energy issues, and Andrew Fenary with the EPA's Energy Star program says his agency can help coordinate conferences among server makers, cooling-equipment makers, microprocessor vendors, and data center managers to develop plans for pinpointing and addressing problems through the creation of a metric that enables buyers to more readily assess computer products' efficiency.
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Knowledge Management and the Semantic Web: From Scenario to Technology
IEEE Intelligent Systems (02/06) Vol. 21, No. 1, P. 53; Warren, Paul

The Semantic Web was originally envisioned as a tool for providing services, but the concept has been reimagined as a complementary knowledge management environment with unique requirements. The ability to semiautomatically learn ontologies and extract metadata is one such requirement. This ability would aid users as they create new knowledge and help accommodate a massive volume of online legacy data. The original vision of the Semantic Web assumes that service providers are highly driven to manually generate metadata so the computer can interpret the service, and that the quantities of information to be dealt with are relatively limited; the knowledge management vision cannot support these assumptions, so methods for reducing the knowledge creator's burden are needed. BT Research's Paul Warren sees a need for automatic annotation of documents with metadata via software capable of statistical and linguistic analysis, and a user interface that facilitates easy and natural metadata insertion. Automatic or semiautomatic ontology generation, again through statistical and linguistic methods, is called for in scenarios requiring ontologies for specialized domains or ontologies that must evolve in keeping with domain changes. Ontology mediation can combine knowledge from different ontologies, while visualization techniques can show users relationships in an ontology and the affiliated metadata. The challenge to realizing the knowledge management vision of the Semantic Web is twofold, involving the deployment of knowledge management systems in one instance and achieving organizational functionality in another; the first challenge might be addressed by supplementing the results of semiautomatic ontology-learning and metadata-generation methods with information derived from the context in which the user is working, while business process software designed to encourage the user to save to, or retrieve from, the knowledge repository at major decision points might tackle the second challenge.
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Modern Performance Monitoring
Queue (02/06) Vol. 4, No. 1, P. 52; Purdy, Mark

A new performance monitoring and analysis paradigm is needed as the computer world grows increasingly heterogeneous and decentralized, writes PurSoft's Mark Purdy. Purdy has developed the PurSoft Analyst, a performance analysis toolkit created to address performance monitoring problems he has encountered, which could benefit diverse Unix environments. The toolkit was designed to facilitate a consistent representation of data on the graphical user interface regardless of whether the data comes from a real-time thread or from a disk log file. Included within PurSoft Analyst is a command-line interface-style logging binary that can be remotely run on any server. This function can log a system crash, be scheduled for a specific time, or capture the machine activity when certain user-settable criteria are fulfilled; the logs can be compiled and catalogued for support center analysis or for select vendor system engineer evaluation. Since both the Unix engineer on the floor and primary commercial Unix vendors receive the same look and feel from the logging tool, all participating parties involved in a server incident get an identical incident metrics perspective. PurSoft Analyst also features a profiling analysis tool that helps the Unix engineer locate any item in the sampled Unix data that diverges from any user-defined baseline. A RulesEngine that monitors the computer and flags any variance can be defined by this profiler, according to Purdy. The author predicts that artificially intelligent-style profiling will accelerate progress toward real-time problem determination by enabling profilers to spot a hardware or software variance with a user-settable threshold, analyze the process data, and ascertain the processes behind the incident.
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