How to keep up to date on latest computer science?
I was re-reading some of my Steve McConnell books and this quote got me thinking 'scientists build in order to learn, engineers learn in order to build'. On the vein of 'learning in order to build' I was wondering:
How are the software engineers keeping up to date on the latest technologies and research?
It would seem that publications through the ACM or IEEE are the main avenue of publication for researchers, but given the closed nature of this information does anyone actually use it outside of the research community? This form of research is also very new, and very risky, so an additional question is where do you draw the line in risk? Is it worth looking at bleeding edge research or better to wait until it makes it to paperback.
EDIT: I'm not a total noob. I've just noticed that (some) older developers are completely unaware of new technologies and can even be antagonistic to new tech. A healthy bit of skepticism is always useful, but willful ignorance is dangerous. In an effort to prevent this from happening to myself, I'm interested in how developers are staying up to date on new trends.
Answer
If you don't have the time to read research papers, I recommend the much more accessible Communications of the ACM. They also publish the much more popularized ACM Queue, and it's free to read online!
You can follow various programming forums, for instance programming at Reddit, blogs, magazines such as Doctor Dobb's Journal or even Slashdot.
Finally, why not order some new books to read? The 3rd edition of the CLRS book was recently published. Order some new books. Try a place for online reading, e.g. Safari books online -- you can read a lot of books there for ten bucks a month.
I also personally read Hacker News (HN), although a lot of posts there are about enterpreneurship and the like.