Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2013
From ACM News
Storing Data in Individual Molecules
Moore's law—the well-known doubling of computer chips' computational power every 18 months or so—has been paced by a similarly steady increase in the storage capacity of disk drives.
From ACM News
Facebook's Other Big Disruption
Facebook made a potentially game-changing announcement.
From ACM News
Dod Looking to 'jump the Gap' Into Adversaries' Closed Networks
Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz may have had one of the most secure computer systems in the world.
From ACM Careers
The Trouble With Tinkering Time
It's the latest R&D trend: penciling in tinkering time on the company clock.
From ACM Opinion
Samsung's Secret Weapon in the Mobile Wars: Tizen
You've probably never heard of Tizen, but the companies behind it are some of the most recognizable brands in the tech industry.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Salaries Jump 5.3%, Bonuses Flat
Technology professionals' average salaries rose 5.3 percent to $85,619 last year, according to Dice. Tech professionals with at least 15 years of experience saw a four percent year-over-year increase in average salary to $103…
From ACM TechNews
A New Dimension in Mobile Telecommunications
European researchers are designing a transceiver that would enable data transmissions at a speed of 10 gigabits per second via a new infrastructure network in European Union member countries.
From ACM TechNews
Doe to Field Pre-Exascale Supercomputers Within Four Years
By early 2017, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory aim to deploy their first 100-plus petaflop systems, which will serve as precursors to an exascale machine…
From ACM TechNews
Ar Goggles Restore Depth Perception to People Blind in One Eye
Augmented reality (AR) glasses that offer a feeling of binocular depth perception to people who are blind in one eye are under development at the University of Yamanashi.
From ACM TechNews
'steam' Education Gains Momentum in Schools
The Rhode Island School of Design wants to change science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to STEAM education, with the "A" representing the arts.
From ACM TechNews
Research Update: Multiple Steps Toward the 'quantum Singularity'
Four groups of researchers recently reported the completion of an experiment that involves generating individual photons and synchronizing their passage through a maze of optical components so they reach a battery of photon detectors…
From ACM News
Jim Horning, Reknown Computer Scientist, Dies
James Jay (Jim) Horning, a leading figure in the evolution of computer science and an active participant in many ACM programs, died January 18 in Palo Alto, Calif.
From ACM News
Kinect Sensor Poised to Leap Into Everyday Life
When Microsoft's Kinect gaming sensor first exploded onto the gaming scene in 2010, it wasn't long before people started getting excited about what it might make possible.
From ACM Opinion
The Fbi Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors
Just imagine if all the applications and services you saw or heard about at CES earlier this month had to be designed to be "wiretap ready" before they could be offered on the market.
From ACM TechNews
STEM Grants Offer Affordable Route to Teaching
North Carolina New Schools recently launched a program funded by a $2.3 million U.S. Department of Education grant to train recent graduates and mid-career professionals to be teachers in science, technology, engineering, and…
From ACM TechNews
A Real-Life 'holodeck' in 10 Years? Less Far-Fetched Than You Think
Tim Huckaby predicts that in the near future doctors will be manipulating molecules in 3-D space, music players will be tuning into our thoughts, and retailers will be providing coupons in real time based on how consumers gaze…
From ACM TechNews
The Algorithms That Automatically Date Medieval Manuscripts
University of Toronto researchers have developed statistical computer techniques for dating historical documents.
From ACM News
The Underdog Operating Systems Set to Shake Up the Smartphone Scene
The next time you go shopping for a smartphone, you might see some unfamiliar software on the screens lining store shelves.
From ACM Careers
Atari's Bankruptcy: Gen X Bids Pong Farewell
Reading the news that Atari’s U.S. subsidiary is filing for bankruptcy was a little like hearing that Bob Hope died—in that you were surprised to discover he had been alive all that time.
From ACM News
Conquering Babel
In "Star Trek", a television series of the 1960s, no matter how far across the universe the Starship Enterprise traveled, any aliens it encountered would converse in fluent Californian English.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Shatters the Computer Server Into Tiny Pieces
Facebook hardware guru Frank Frankovsky is developing a blueprint for a new type of computer server that enables a user to add or remove the processor.
From ACM Careers
Next Made-in-China Boom: College Graduates
Zhang Xiaoping’s mother dropped out of school after sixth grade. Her father, one of 10 children, never attended.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Develop Device For Image Compression
Duke University researchers are using a new class of artificial materials, called metamaterials, to design a sensor that compresses images much more efficiently than existing technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Intel Preps Thin Fiber Optics to Shuffle Data Between Computers
Intel is developing thin fiber optics that will use lasers and light as a faster way to move data inside computers. The technology will be implemented at the motherboard and rack levels and use light to move data between storage…
From ACM TechNews
Ibm, niversities Team p to Build Data Scientists
IBM is increasing its efforts to support big data academic programs. "We're working with universities to provide help with curricula, technology, and real-world projects to help them teach this technology, and to help students…
From ACM Opinion
Chipmaker Races to Save Stephen Hawking's Speech as His Condition Deteriorates
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has long relied on technology to help him connect with the outside world despite the degenerative motor neuron disease he has battled for the past 50 years.
From ACM News
Why Are the Batteries in Boeing's 787 Burning?
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has not had a charmed birth. While some of its problems—a windshield crack, minor fuel leaks—can easily be dealt with, the issues that have arisen with the plane's batteries are much more serious.
From ACM News
Iran Strengthened Cyber Capabilities After Stuxnet: U.s. General
Iran responded to a 2010 cyber attack on its nuclear facilities by beefing up its own cyber capabilities, and will be a "force to be reckoned with" in the future, a senior U.S. Air Force official told reporters on Thursday.
From ACM News
Can You Predict the Future By Reading Twitter? The Pentagon Thinks Maybe
The Defense Department wants new computer tools to analyze mounds of unstructured text, blogs, and tweets as part of a coordinated push to help military analysts predict the future and make decisions faster.
From ACM News
.s. Cities Relying on Precog Software to Predict Murder
Who needs the freaky precogs of Minority Report to predict if someone’s likely to commit murder when you have an algorithm that can do it for you?