The Association for Computing Machinery has named Leslie G. Valiant of Harvard University as winner of its 2010 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to the development of computational learning theory and to the broader theory of computer science.

Eternal vigilance and remorseless focus on testing are required for any software development, and unfortunately the Mozilla team let a significant Java applet problem slip into Firefox Browser 3.6.14, but have already released a fix in version 3.6.15.

Dr. Vint Cerf – often called the “Father of the Internet” (along with Dr. Bob Kahn, and others), now chief Internet evangelist at Google – gave a fascinating recent lecture at Stanford University about the Internet’s development, its successes, surprises along the way,  areas where it hasn’t succeeded, and ways that it should be improved.

IBM has announced that the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will use IBM's next-generation Blue Gene supercomputer to enable significant advances in areas such as designing ultra-efficient electric car batteries, understanding global climate change and exploring the evolution of the universe.

IBM has announced that the Australian Synchrotron and Monash University, in collaboration with CSIRO and the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), have selected IBM’s iDataPlex dx360 M3 integrated server solutions to support the creation of a Multi-modal Australian Sciences Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE) facility.

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to grow nanolasers directly onto a silicon surface, which could lead to a new class of faster, more efficient microprocessors, as well as to powerful biochemical sensors that use optoelectronic chips.

Some things are more relative than others, they say, and some are more incomprehensible too. Every now and then It pays to review our position in the scale of things, helping us to renew our wonderment about the cosmos and understand better the relative import of daily dramas and events.

If you’re disappointed or angry about treatment by a guru, then take a look at the new report from Unguru.me and you’ll see that you’re far from alone. And what the report says about gurus largely applies for many others, such as IT consultants, stockbrokers, real estate agents, and mobile phone salespeople.

A new IBM U.S. survey of consumer attitudes and a recent study of auto industry executives show that the latter will first have to address stringent consumer requirements about EV performance, recharging, and convenience before achieving high adoption this decade.

An extremely versatile notebook PC with all sorts of extra functionality seems to have escaped the notice of IT industry watchers. I hope that it soon sees the light of day, ‘cos I want one!