Communications of the ACM
News track
News Track
The U.S. government is developing a massive computer system that could someday collect huge amounts of data and, by linking information from blogs and email messages to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. The Christian Science Monitor reports this little-known systemcalled Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE)is an R&D program within the Department of Homeland Security. The scope of the project, mentioned in only a few public documents, is what sets it apart. The system would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information and cross-reference it against U.S. law-enforcement records. It would then store findings as "entities," that is, linked data about people, places, and events, among other categories. The system would be big enough to retain information on approximately one quadrillion entities. If each entity were a penny, they would collectively form a cube approximately double the height of the Empire State Building. Said one project spokesperson, the key is not merely to identify terrorists or sift through key words but to identify critical patterns in data that illuminate motives and intentions.
BMW Blasted
Google has reportedly blacklisted BMW for breaching its guidelines, claiming the German car manufacturer's Web site influenced search results to ensure top ranking when users searched for "used cars." BBC News Online reports Google countered by reducing BMW's page rank to zero, thus guaranteeing the company no longer finds a top spot. BMW has admitted using "doorway pages" to boost search rankings but denied it was trying to mislead users. The BMW Web site, which is heavily reliant on JavaScript code unsearchable by Google, used text-heavy pages sprinkled with key words to attract Google's indexing system. However, once users clicked on a link in Google's results window, they were redirected to a regular BMW Germany page containing fewer key words. BMW contends it did not provide different content in the search results to the final Web site. Google points out its guidelines involve a series of requirements, first being to design Web sites for users, not for search engines; any attempt to manipulate searches will not be tolerated.
ACM Issues Offshoring Report
At press time, ACM released the results of a comprehensive international study entitled "Globalization and Offshoring of SoftwareA Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force." To view the complete report, please visit www.acm.org/globalizationreport.
High-Performance Help
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science awarded 18.2 million hours of computing time on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers to help researchers in government labs, universities, and industry working on projects as diverse as ecological processes affecting climate change to better understanding Parkinson's disease. The allocation of computer time is made under DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, providing resources to computationally intensive research projects in the national interest. For the first time in INCITE's three-year history, proposals from private-sector researchers were encouraged. In return, much of the resulting knowledge will be made public. Among the companies receiving awards are Boeing, DreamWorks Animation, General Atomics Co., Tech-X Corp., and Pratt & Whitney. Academic and research institutions to receive computing time include Caltech, Harvard, Howard Hughes Medical Center, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of California, Berkeley.
The Boss Is Watching
An increasing number of British businesses are using mobile-phone tracking technology to monitor their employees, company cars, and equipment. Reuters reports that business is booming for firms offering tracking services in the U.K., where corporate surveillance in the name of "operational efficiency" is escalating. The benefits are many, say firms employing such services, ranging from discovering workers have been delayed at the pubnot by a traffic jamto being able to quickly locate staff members or reroute them if necessary. Richard Wildings, a professor of supply chain management, says a company that knows where its employees, products, and equipment are could derive significant cost benefits if it uses the information effectively. U.K. government regulations stipulate that employees must be informed they are being monitored; companies cannot engage in such action covertly. Civil rights groups, however, worry that some workers will be coerced into being monitored.
Government's Role in Asia's Software
The vast majority of IT professionals in Asia contend government must help foster the area's software industry. ZDNetAsia reports that 90% of the 800 IT (private-sector) professionals surveyed in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines agreed government is a key aspect of the success of the region's software industry. Although an overwhelming majority wanted government to play an active role in developing the industry, 48% felt that regulations should be left to industry. Indeed, only 25% of the respondents felt government should be in charge of making policy.
Fast(er) Food to Go
The fast food industry is moving with all deliberate speed to devise ways to deliver even faster service to customers. Since drive-thru service represents a huge portion of corporate sales for many chains, the focus is primarily on the use of technology to assemble orders, collect payment, and deliver food to drivers. The Associated Press reports that tech firms have been tapped to create digital menus that increase sales by suggesting side dishes or desserts to customers' orders. Some McDonald's facilities are using central call centers rather than restaurant cashiers to take drive-thru orders. Smaller chains have started testing confirmation screens, which display orders back to customers so they can make corrections before pulling up to the window. Hyperactive Bob, a computer system from Pittsburgh-based Hyperactive Technologies, tells managers how much food to prepare by counting waiting vehicles and factoring in demand for current promotions and popular staple items. And Burger King is working to break the speed barrier with technology that helps cooks ensure that precooked food stays fresh by keeping track of how long it's been since it was prepared.
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