Communications of the ACM articles from April 1994

Communications of the ACM archives from April 1994

Editorial Pointers. (Editorial)
April 1, 1994... Massively parallel computing has injected the field of simulation with capabilities heretofore unreachable, particularly in the area of 3D performance. In fact, advances in high performance computing hardware and software have made uncharted...

Newstrack.
April 1, 1994... GRAND STANDARD...In a pivotal decision to move ahead of the high-definition television front, the HDTV grand alliance chose Zenith's vestigal sideband (VSB) technology over General Instrument's QAM technology in the last big technical decision...

Forum. (Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 1994... SOFTWARE AND PRODUCTIVITY The ephemeral nature of productivity highlighted by Erik Brynjolfsson in "The Productivity paradox of Information Technology" (Dec. 1993, pp. 67-77), isn't limited to the software field. In fact, productivity...

The role of consensus. (standardization processes of computer industry organizations)
April 1, 1994... What is the life cycle of a standard, from the first recognition of the need for one, through its development stage, and on to its final acceptance? Overall, one might note that the standard-making process involves many different groups whose...

Prototyping for tiny fingers. ('low-fidelity' interface design as an alternative to hard-coded methods)
April 1, 1994... Consider this familiar situation: a development team spends weeks designing an interface. They draw sketches on the board, discuss each point in detail, and finally specify a design. The design is either coded into the application language or...

High-performance computing: grand challenges in simulation. (brief overview article) (Cover Story)
April 1, 1994... Simulation is one of the foremost technologies in the computing domain. We can see the imprint of this technology in many vital areas of scientific concern, such as forecasting global climate changes, monitoring nuclear reactors, or enhancing...

Massively parallel methods for engineering and science problems. (High Performance Computing)
April 1, 1994... Scientific research and engineering development are relying increasingly on computational simulation to augument theoretical analysis, experimentation, and testing. Many of today's problems are far too complex to yield to mathematical analyses....

LinkWinds: interactive scientific data analysis and visualization. (Linked Windows Interactive Data System) (High Performance Computing)
April 1, 1994... Great advances in sensor and computer technologies, coupled with the ability to transport sensors to remote locations such as deep in the ocean or far into space have resulted in an ever-increasing flood of data, which, to be useful, must be...

Advances in parallel computing for reactor analysis and safety. (research underway at Argonne National Laboratory and other facilities for nuclear power plant simulation, improvements under parallel architecture) (High Performance Computing)
April 1, 1994... Computer stimulation is recognized as a critical technology, playing a major role in many areas of national interest, such as increasing the efficiency and safety of nuclear reactors, improving the efficiency of car engines or predicting...

Measuring usability: preference vs. performance. (human factors in computer testing) (High Performance Computing)
April 1, 1994... Simplistically stated, usability engineering aims at improving interactive systems and their user interfaces. Defined slightly more precisely [8], usability is a general concept that cannot be measured but is related to several usabilitY...

Graphs and tables: a four-factor experiment. (user study)
April 1, 1994... Each designer of interactive systems evolves, of necessity, a set of percepts for the creation of user-friendly systems. Examples are: use menus, no more than seven choices, maintain a consistent format, develop error responses that do not...

Academic careers for experimental computer scientists and engineers. (includes related article on development of mouse pointing device)
April 1, 1994... A new report from the computer Science and Telecommunications Board focuses on the career tracks and knotty issues faced by "experimental" faculty members Experimental computer science and engineering (ECSE) is the fundamental underpinning...

Clarification concerning modularization and McCabe's cyclomatic complexity. (Technical Correspondence) (Technical)
April 1, 1994... The December 1992 issue of Communications contains a technical correspondence by Brian Henderson-Sellers (pp. 17-19) that misinterprets McCabe's cyclomatic complexity. While raising some interesting issues, the article contradicts McCabe's...

Calendar of events.
April 1, 1994... ACM's calendar policy is to list open computer science meetings that are sponsored by ACM, sister societies, or other scientific, technical or educational tax-exempt organizations. Educational seminars, institutes, and courses are not included...

Professional activities.
April 1, 1994... The following courses, tutorials, seminars and recruitment events are sponsored or offered in cooperation with ACM. Please contact the companies, SIG Conferences or ACM Chapters for details. Technology Exchanged Company (TEC) Courses (in...

Calls for papers.
April 1, 1994... April 15 2nd International Colloquium on Grammatical Inference (ICGI-94) Alicante, Spain. Sept. 21-23, 1994. Submit 3 copies of an extended abstract (8 pp. max.) to Jose Oncina, Dept. Tecnologia Informatica y Computation, Univ. de...

Risks of passwords. (Inside Risks) (Column)
April 1, 1994... Conventional passwords (fixed, reusable) [1] may seem convenient, but they are also dangerous. Modes of attacks include the following: * Exhaustive attacks. Atempting password attacks by random trial and error was one time occasionally...