Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2012
From ACM News
Apple Power Adapters Could Remember Your Passwords
Apple has worked out a way in which the power cords for computers or smartphones can help people recover their forgotten login passwords—or the answers to secret questions (like "what was the name of your first pet?") that…
From ACM News
Teachers Resist High-Tech Push in Idaho Schools
Ann Rosenbaum, a former military police officer in the Marines, does not shrink from a fight, having even survived a close encounter with a car bomb in Iraq.
From ACM News
Risky Rescue for Crippled Air Force Satellite
It was an epic space rescue that, in audacity and risk, echoed NASA's campaign to save the astronauts aboard the doomed Apollo 13 moon mission.
From ACM TechNews
Your Connected Vehicle Is Arriving
The networking of vehicles to the Internet and each other over the next decade will spark new technological and societal trends, such as lower accident rates, reduced emissions, on-demand entertainment for passengers, and in-vehicle…
From ACM News
Nasa Rover Mission Marks 8 Years on Mars
While people on Earth have just finished celebrating the arrival of a new year, two NASA robots a world away are marking a big milestone of their own: eight years on the surface of Mars.
From ACM TechNews
Military Academies Look to Fill Nation's Cybersecurity Gaps
U.S. military academies have been developing potential cyberwarriors for years, but has difficulty finding them positions that use their cyberskills. Most graduates go into tactical signal work and only find positions at the…
From ACM TechNews
So, What's Your Algorithm?
The beginning of a transformation in day-to-day business decisions informed by real-time analytics mined from immense databases is in store for this year, as computers become sufficiently powerful and nuanced to help reduce human…
From ACM TechNews
10 Programming Languages That Could Shake Up It
Ten cutting-edge programming languages aim to address a specific problem or a unique shortcoming of the more popular languages.
From ACM TechNews
Japanese Govt Working on Defensive Cyberweapon
Researchers at Japan's Defense Ministry are developing a computer virus that can track, identify, and disable sources of cyberattacks. Since the launch of the virtual cyberweapon three-year project in 2008, the weapon has been…
From ACM TechNews
Explaining Why Computing Is Important
IBM fellow Grady Booch recently launched a transmedia project that he says will "teach the essential science of computing, present the stories of the people, events, and inventions of computing, examine the strong connections…
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Plan Space Satellites to Combat Censorship
An organization of computer hackers is planning to launch its own communication satellites and bypass satellites controlled by governmental bodies and used to censor certain aspects of the Internet.
From ACM News
Apple Patent Describes New Type of Face-Recognition Tech
Swipe to unlock could be a thing of the past for next-gen iOS devices. Like current Galaxy Nexus users, iOS users could soon be using facial recognition technology to lock or unlock their iDevices.
From ACM News
Eyeball-Movement-Based Navigation Shifting From Helping the Disabled to Mainstream se?
That Kindle Fire you got for Christmas may be pretty cool, but what if it could flip the book pages without requiring you to lift a finger?
From ACM TechNews
Five Open Source Technologies For 2012
Five open source projects could become the basis for new businesses and industries in 2012.
From ACM TechNews
Kinect Weighs Astronauts Just By Looking at Them
A body-tracking camera system built into Microsoft's Kinect gaming sensor could be used to monitor the weight of astronauts in space, says Eurecom computer scientist Carmelo Velardo.
From ACM TechNews
Social Robotics: Beyond the ncanny Valley
Social roboticists are developing ways to make robots seem more human like and overcome the uncanny valley, which is the reaction humans have to robotic appearance or behavior when it is perceived as almost human.
From ACM TechNews
The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech
The next big advances in technology include the replacement of desktop computers with smartphones, the emergence of nanotech batteries, and the rise of augmented reality.
From ACM News
Scientists Create Brain-Like, Massively Parallel Computer from Molecules
If you thought Japan was merely the master of miniaturization, tentacles, and creepy robots, think again: A group of Japanese scientists have built a massively-parallel, brain-like computer out of an organic molecule called…
From ACM News
Civilian Contractors Playing Key Roles in .s. Drone Operations
After a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed at least 15 Afghans in 2010, the Army officer investigating the accident was surprised to discover that an American civilian had played a central role: analyzing video feeds from a…
From ACM News
Stuxnet Weapon Has at Least 4 Cousins: Researchers
The Stuxnet virus that damaged Iran's nuclear program was likely one of at least five cyber weapons developed on a single platform whose roots trace back to 2007, according to new research from Russian computer security firm…
From ACM News
Computer Chips That Repair Themselves
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign researchers have created a self-healing method that fixes cracks or failures in the circuits of computer chips.
From ACM News
First Siri, Now Threat Detection: Inside Sri's Amazing R&d
Who invented Siri?
From ACM News
Powerful Pixels: Mapping the "apollo Zone"
Grayscale pixels—up close, they look like black, white or grey squares. But when you zoom out to see the bigger picture, they can create a digital photograph.
From Communications of the ACM
John McCarthy, 1927 - 2011
Winner of the 1971 A.M. Turing Award, John McCarthy was a founder of artificial intelligence and inventor of the Lisp programming language.
From Communications of the ACM
Analyzing Apple Products
Researchers untangle the complex web of Apple's global supply chain — and offer lessons for managers and policymakers trying to chart the future course of U.S. industry.
From Communications of the ACM
Better Medicine Through Machine Learning
Computers that tease out patterns from clinical data could improve patient diagnosis and care.
From Communications of the ACM
Law and Disorder
International law has always been a murky and Byzantine area. However, the Internet and digital technology have raised the stakes, the risks, and the challenges.
From Communications of the ACM
Celebration Time
The centennial celebrations of Alan Turing's birth might help turn a quiet British genius into an iconic global hero.
From Communications of the ACM
Revamping Storage Performance
Great strides are being made in finding fast alternatives to the slow disks that dominate storage systems, but fast media are not nearly enough.