Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2010
From ACM News
MIT to Strengthen Ties to China
The MIT-Greater China Strategy Working Group has released a report setting forth guidelines and recommendations for the future of MIT's relationship with mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
From ACM News
For Baseball Archivists, a Tag Ends Every Play
Most baseball fans saw it as a dribbler in front of the plate, a throw to first and the completion of a no-hitter for Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay. To those whose job is to put the moment into Major League Baseball’s…
From ACM News
Tech Solutions Start With Pattern Recognition
University at Buffalo computer scientist Venu Govindaraju believes that CAPTCHAs, the annoying computer-based attempts to confirm that you are human, have a decidedly old-fashioned solution: handwritten CAPTCHAs.
From ACM News
Cellphones Reveal Emerging Disease Outbreaks
Your cellphone could be a key tool in the fight against disease by relaying a telltale signature of illness to doctors and agencies monitoring new outbreaks.
From ACM News
Foot-Operated Computer Mouse Invented
Several students from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology have invented a computer mouse that people can control with their feet. Called the "Talang" mouse, the device looks like a large slipper with a blue waves…
From ACM News
'scrapers' Dig Deep For Data on Web
At 1 a.m. on May 7, the website PatientsLikeMe.com noticed suspicious activity on its "Mood" discussion board. There, people exchange highly personal stories about their emotional disorders, ranging from bipolar disease to…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Scientists Give Storage Some 'panache'
IBM's Almaden Research Center is developing several advanced technologies for storage and data analysis, including Panache, a clustered file system that provides applications with high-speed access to a large pool of data even…
From ACM News
Babies Treat 'social Robots' as Sentient Beings
University of Washington researchers report that babies who watched a robot interact socially with people were more willing to learn from the robot than babies who did not see the interactions.
From ACM News
Construction nderway on Binghamton niversity's Center of Excellence Facility
SUNY Binghamton has launched construction of its New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging building. The facility will be part of the University's Innovative Technologies Complex.
From ACM News
Call to Define Rules of Cyber War
Nations need to define the rules of engagement for acts of cyber terror.
From ACM News
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Funds Computer sability Laboratory
Hamilton College computer science professor Stuart Hirshfield has received a $458,900 grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to establish the Hamilton College Next-Generation Usability Laboratory.
From ACM News
China's Fastest Supercomputer nveiled
It will not be long before China's "Tianhe-1" supercomputer is to be equipped with Chinese-made central processing unit chips, replacing the only part of the computer that is imported. This signifies that China could rival…
From ACM News
Improving Phones Through Surveillance
Apps that track how people use their phones could help make the devices more efficient.
From ACM News
Robot Arm Punches Human to Obey Asimov's Rules
Isaac Asimov would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over and over again in a bid to induce anything from mild to unbearable…
From ACM News
Eerie Female Robot Learns to 'sing' By Copying Human Singer
The life-sized humanoid robot known as HRP-4 has been taught to sing using synthesized voice technology. The robot is also able to mimic the expressions of a human singer.
From ACM TechNews
How Energy-Efficient Is Cloud Computing?
University of Melbourne researchers have found that cloud computing is not always the most energy-efficient option.T he team found that transporting data between data centers and home computers can consume larger amounts of energy…
From ACM TechNews
China's Leap in Supercomputer Rankings
When a list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers is released on Nov. 15, some industry experts believe that China will be ranked first. "There's a great belief that the Chinese will be No. 1," says University of Tennessee…
From ACM TechNews
Research Project Aims to Simplify Large-Scale Network Control
Researchers at Google, Nicira Networks, and NEC presented a research project designed to simplify the control and management of large-scale network implementations at the recent USENIX Symposium.
From ACM TechNews
W3C: Hold Off on Deploying HTML5 in Websites
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says that HTML5 is still not ready for deployment to websites. "It's a little too early to deploy it because we're running into interoperability issues," says W3C's Philippe Le Hegaret.
From ACM TechNews
New Advances in ICT Research for Autonomy and Social Inclusion
The Barcelona Digital Technology Center has developed a human computer interface made with brain-computer interface sensors designed to help improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
From ACM TechNews
$12.5 Million Grant to Increase Computer Science Instruction in rban Schools
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded a $12.5 million grant to the University of California, Los Angeles to fund MOBILIZE, a new project designed to advance new and innovative computer science instruction in urban…
From ACM News
Hey Robots, Census Wants to Know All About You
The Carnegie Mellon Robot Census 2010 has so far tallied 547 robots on the CMU campus.
From ACM News
Google to Map Inflation Using Web Data
Google is using its vast database of web shopping data to construct the "Google Price Index"—a daily measure of inflation that could one day provide an alternative to official statistics.
From ACM News
Robotic Aircraft & Ground Vehicle to Collaborate at Robotics Rodeo
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute are poised to show the U.S. Army an advanced approach to enabling autonomous collaboration among dissimilar robotic vehicles.
From ACM News
Cars and Wind: What's Next For Google as It Pushes Beyond the Web?
Google, a vanguard of the Internet, has placed its bets on the high-tech transformation of non-tech industries—cars and wind energy.
From ACM News
Study Shows Why It's Hard to Crash the Electric Grid
A recent study accounting for the two most important laws of physics governing the flow of electricity shows why terrorists would have a hard time bringing down the U.S. electric grid.
From ACM News
Intel Tries Anonymity, For a Change
An average laptop contains about 1,800 components, but only one garners much brand awareness from typical consumers: the chip made by Intel.
From ACM News
The Green City That Has a Brain
The planned city of PlanIT Valley in northern Portugal is aiming to be an environmentally sustainable city. And, like an organism, it will have a brain: a central computer that regulates everything from its water use to energy…
From ACM News
Microsoft Fixes Record 49 Holes, Including Stuxnet Flaw
In a record Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released updates today for Windows, Internet Explorer, and the .NET framework that feature fixes for 49 holes, including one being exploited by the Stuxnet worm.
From ACM News
Robots Guarding U.S. Nuclear Stockpile
The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration recently announced that it has started using autonomous robot vehicles to patrol the vast desert surrounding its Nevada National Security Site.