In the December issue of Computer

In the December issue of Computer
Over the past decade, Computer has published numerous articles on NASA’s pioneering efforts in robotics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. In honor of the celebration of its 50 years of achievement, in this issue we have assembled articles describing some of NASA’s contributions to the field of computer science. Other articles in this issue describe efforts to extend Amdahl’s law to account for power scalability’s implications in the coming many-core era and detail the development of a model that uses genetic algorithms to optimize the assignment of private transport within a city area.

Features

Features

December 2008

Cover Features

Autonomy for Mars Rovers; Past, Present, and Future

Max Bajrachaya, Mark W. Maimone, and Daniel Helmick The vehicles used to explore the Martian surface require a high degree of autonomy to navigate challenging and unknown terrain, investigate targets, and detect scientific events. Increased autonomy will be critical to the success of future missions.

December 2008

Guest Editor's Introduction

Computer Celebrates NASA’s 50th Anniversary

Mike Hinchey, Paul Curto, Carl K. Chang, and Scott Hamilton A collection of articles emphasizes NASA’s contributions to computer science during its 50-year history.

December 2008

President's Message

Enhancements to Society’s Products and Services: Report of Progress Made in 2008

Rangachar Kasturi The Computer Society’s 2008 president reports on progress made in revitalization efforts during the past year.

News

News
December 2008
Industry Trends
David Geer Many organizations are turning to data deduplication to reduce the huge volumes of redundant data as well as the equipment and operational costs storing this entails.
December 2008
News Briefs
Linda Dailey Paulson Topics covered include a new generation of RFID technology, antivirus protection in the Internet cloud, a breakthrough in holography that could enable 3D displays of moving images, and a forest-fire-detecting sensor system powered by the tiny amounts of electricity that trees generate.
December 2008
Technology News
George Lawton Vendors are developing wireless high-definition video technologies to eliminate cables and provide installation

The Known World

The Known World
December 2008
Evolutionary Fervor
David Alan Grier The business community has long embraced the notion that progress is an evolutionary process

How Things Work

How Things Work
December 2008
Automated Code Review Tools for Security
Gary McGraw Static analysis identifies many common coding problems automatically, before a program is released.

How Things Work

How Things Work
December 2008
Automated Code Review Tools for Security
Gary McGraw Static analysis identifies many common coding

The Profession

The Profession

December 2008

Madrid’s Brilliant Idea

Simone Santini

How did a dazzling innovation get lost in a bureaucratic maze?
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How widely used is Chrome? More than I expected21

How widely used is Chrome? More than I expected21 hours, 32 minutes agoIn two months, Google's Chrome rose from nothing to 3.6 percent of browsers used to view CNET News. It's less common in the mainstream though. • Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome • Video: Why Chrome is catching on • Analysts: IE entrenched in the enterprise(Posted in Webware by Stephen Shankland)

Retailers adopting renewable energy

Retailers adopting renewable energy

9 hours, 13 minutes agoWal-Mart is among a growing number of big-box brands pushing to power stores with solar and wind energy.(Posted in Green Tech by Elsa Wenzel)

Apple issues QuickTime update for new MacBooks

Apple issues QuickTime update for new MacBooks
Apple issues QuickTime update for new MacBooks 15 hours, 22 minutes agoNew copy-protection technology added to Apple's new MacBooks was incorrectly preventing standard-definition iTunes movies from playing on older projectors.(Posted in Apple by Tom Krazit)

Could newspapers have survived the Web?

Could newspapers have survived the Web?
Could newspapers have survived the Web?14 hours, 34 minutes agoMuch has been written lately about the failure of newspapers to adapt to the Web, but was there anything they could do?(Posted in Digital Media by Greg Sandoval)

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Google launches internet browser

Google launches internet browser Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.The browser is designed to be fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come."We realised... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said Google's Sundar Pichai in a blog post.The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software."What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," Mr Pichai, VP Product Management, wrote.The launch of a beta version of Chrome on Tuesday evening (UK time) will be Google's latest assault on Microsoft's dominance of the PC business. The firm's Internet Explorer program dominates the browser landscape, with 80% of the market.Those already in the browser space were quick to respond to the news. Writing in his blog, John Lilly, chief executive of Mozilla was sanguine about the new rival in the browsersphere."It should come as no real surprise that Google has done something here - their business is the web, and they’ve got clear opinions on how things should be, and smart people thinking about how to make things better."Chrome will be a browser optimized for the things that they see as important, and it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves," he wrote.He welcomed the competition and said collaboration between Mozilla and Google on certain projects would continue.Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, was more bullish."The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online," he said in a statement.For Nate Elliot, an analyst with Jupiter Research, entering the browser market is an obvious next move for Google."This is a much bigger undertaking than providing a Google toolbar but it feels like the natural next step," he said. But competing with the established browser names could be harder, he thinks."Mozilla's Firefox is very well respected and yet it commands less than 20% of the browser market which just shows how hard it is to overtake an incumbent although Google does have almost unparallelled ability to promote it to almost the entire online audience," he said.Chrome is now available for download.