Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2011
From ACM News
Making Cars More Hacker-Proof
Computer security companies and researchers have dedicated a lot of time and money to testing the virtual padlocks on your online accounts. Some are now focusing on a new threat vector: your car.
From ACM News
Transcending Borders but Not Laws
As cloud computing spreads data around the globe, a haze of legal and privacy questions follows.
From ACM News
Preventing a Pearl Harbor of Cyberspace
At a time when the Internet has been inextricably linked to our national infrastructure, there are understandably serious concerns about the ability of the U.S. power grid to withstand a coordinated attack from hackers in…
From ACM News
The Quest For the Holy Grail of Storage
The cloud has a big problem on its hands: Cloud storage is failure-prone, slow, and infinitely quirky.
From ACM News
Microsoft Embraces Elephant of Open Source
It took more than three years, but Microsoft has finally learned to stop worrying and love Hadoop.
From ACM TechNews
Supercomputing's Exascale Arms Race
The United States wants to achieve exaflop speeds for supercomputing, but China, the European Union, India, Japan, and Russia also have set their sights on exascale computing.
From ACM TechNews
Table Salt Found to Boost Data Storage Density
Table salt could be used to increase the capacity of hard drives from as much as 4 Tbytes today to more than 21 Tbytes, according to researchers at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering.
From ACM TechNews
Survey: Java Losing Popularity Among Developers
The downward trend in the use of Java continues, according to Tiobe Software's latest monthly assessment of programming languages, and the company's Paul Jansen believes Java is facing a long-term slide.
From ACM News
.s. Debated Cyberwarfare in Attack Plan on Libya
Just before the American-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Qaddafi government’s…
From ACM News
Seeing Through Walls
Researchers at MIT's Lincoln Lab have developed new radar technology that provides real-time video of what’s going on behind solid walls.
From ACM News
Instant Health Checks For Buildings and Bridges
During 2011's deadly onslaught of earthquakes, floods and tornadoes, countless buildings had to be evacuated while workers checked to make sure they were stable. The events served as a reminder that most structures are still…
From ACM News
Clamping Down on High-Speed Stock Trades
Regulators in the United States and overseas are cracking down on computerized high-speed trading that crowds today’s stock exchanges, worried that as it spreads around the globe it is making market swings worse.
From ACM News
Steve Jobs's Patents
The 317 Apple patents that list Steven P. Jobs among the group of inventors offer a glimpse at his legendary say over the minute details of the company's products—from the company's iconic computer cases to the glass staircases…
From ACM News
Zot! Uc Irvine Team Proves Stellar at Mapping Dark Matter
When David Kirkby and Daniel Margala entered a contest to find out who could most accurately map dark matter in the universe, the first algorithm they submitted failed to crack the top 10 among a field of more than 100 engineers…
From ACM News
Light Is Not Fast Enough For High-Speed Stock Trading
Every microsecond counts in stock trading. The New York Stock Exchange handles a third of the world's stock trading—around 22 billion messages a day. But NYSE Euronext, which operates the exchange, wants it to get even faster…
From ACM TechNews
Knowledge Mining Resource Accelerates Science, Technology Education, Research
Virginia Tech researchers have created the Virginia Tech Knowledge Networks, a repository of more than 5,000 publications by the College of Engineering faculty, which enables researchers to test ideas and discover different kinds…
From ACM TechNews
Experimental Mathematics: Computing Power Leads to Insights
In a forthcoming article, "Exploratory Experimentation and Computation," American Mathematical Society researchers will describe how modern computer technology has expanded society's ability to discover new mathematical results…
From ACM TechNews
Robot Biologist Solves Complex Problem From Scratch
Researchers at Vanderbilt and Cornell universities have demonstrated that a computer can analyze raw experimental data from a biological system and derive the basic mathematical equations that describe the way the system operates…
From ACM TechNews
Software to Prevent Abuse at the Click of a Mouse
The State Office of Criminal Investigations in Berlin is using desCRY, a new system for detecting child-pornographic images in field tests.
From ACM TechNews
Mass. Schools Team Up For Supercomputer Center
The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computer Center aims to capitalize on the huge boost in the amount of computer power available for academic research.
From ACM TechNews
Georgia Tech Releases Cyber Threats Forecast For 2012
A new report warns that 2012 will feature new and increasingly sophisticated means to capture and exploit user data, as well as escalating battles over the control of online information that threatens to compromise content and…
From ACM TechNews
Robot Car to Cut Jams & Crashes
Oxford University researchers have installed robotic technology in a Wildcat vehicle built by BAE Systems that transforms the vehicle into an autonomous car. The researchers' goals include making roads safer, less congested,…
From ACM News
Scott Forstall, the Sorcerer's Apprentice at Apple
The deteriorating health of Steve Jobs loomed over Apple’s Oct. 4 press event at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Apple wanted the day to be all about its new iPhone 4S, but the absence of the company’s charismatic…
From ACM News
Researchers Merge Art and Science
Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics are turning their attention to something even the most advanced telescopes can’t detect: the art in their science.
From ACM TechNews
Founding Father Wants Secure 'internet 2'
A new version of the Internet might be the best way to defend against cyberattacks, says Internet co-founder Vint Cerf.
From ACM TechNews
Computational Model of Peace Predicts Social Violence, Harmony
New England Complex Systems Institute researchers have developed a computational model that analyzes census data to identify potential areas of civil violence, based on the premise that community-level violence is a function…
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Summer Course Yields Touchscreen Braille Writer
Stanford University's Army High-Performance Computing Research Center has developed a Braille writer that is simpler and less expensive than previous models.
From ACM TechNews
Google Launches Dart as a Javascript Killer
Google announced the launch of a preview version of Dart, an object-oriented Web programming language that has capabilities that resemble those of JavaScript but also addresses some of its scalability and organizational shortcomings…
From ACM TechNews
"ghostwriting" the Torah?
Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a computer algorithm that could help identify the different sources that contributed to the individual books of the Bible.
From ACM News
Cops on the Trail of Crimes that Haven't Happened
The patrol car comes to a stop in a sleepy neighbourhood of small, earth-coloured homes. A woman saunters past pushing a stroller. It is daytime in the artsy beach town of Santa Cruz but I am still a little spooked.