Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2012
From ACM TechNews
New Progamming Language Makes Social Coding Easier
The open source Dog programming language from MIT researchers could make it easier and more intuitive to code social apps, as well as enable novices to learn coding with less difficulty through its use of natural language.
From ACM TechNews
Moore's Law: The Rule That Really Matters in Tech
Moore's Law has sustained its momentum despite worries of it hitting its physical limits, thanks to materials scientists' progress in getting more computing power out of silicon transistor technology even as they explore alternative…
From ACM TechNews
Uc Mentors Next Generation of Women in STEM Fields
Connecting students striving for STEM degrees with leading women in industry and academia is the purpose of Women in Technology Sharing Online, a national online mentoring program involving the participation of students and faculty…
From ACM TechNews
Bourne Pursuit: Improving Computer Tracking of Human Activity
University of Michigan researchers have developed a method for improving a computer's human-tracking accuracy by more than 30 percent by examining where the targets are going and what they are doing.
From ACM TechNews
New Interactive System Detects Touch and Gestures on Any Surface
Purdue University researchers have developed an extended multitouch system that enables more than one person to simultaneously use a computing surface.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Little Nemo Tribute: Maybe The Best Google Doodle Ever
Winsor McCay (1869–1934) was one of the first important creators of both comic strips and animation, and a pretty fair political cartoonist to boot.
From ACM News
Why Modern Maps Put Everyone at the Centre of the World
Got truly and outstandingly lost recently? Enjoy the feeling while you can, for it's becoming an increasingly difficult task.
From ACM News
New Technology Maps Greenhouse Gas Emissions at the Street and Neighborhood Level
One of the biggest problems with climate change is that, at least in the short term, it's largely invisible.
From ACM News
Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project
A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit against universities that participated in a massive book-digitization project in conjunction with Google without permission from rights holders.
From ACM TechNews
The Seeds That Federal Money Can Plant
Government support is key to facilitating new ideas that are harvested by the private sector, creating companies and jobs, according to a recent U.S. National Research Council report.
From ACM TechNews
Free Program Makes Computer Graphics More Realistic
Cornell University researchers have developed a new version of Mitsuba, a free, open source rendering program used by computer graphics researchers worldwide.
From ACM TechNews
Digital Tabletop System With Views on Demand
Scientists presented a tabletop system that supports mixed-focus collaborative tasks during the 25th ACM UIST 2012 symposium.
From ACM TechNews
Mit's Csail Launches New Center to Tackle the Future of Wireless and Mobile Technologies
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory recently launched Wireless@MIT, an interdisciplinary center focused on developing next-generation wireless networks and mobile devices.
From ACM TechNews
First Evidence For Iran's Parallel Halal Internet
Iranian officials have long discussed developing a religiously acceptable internal network, known as the "halal" Internet, which is isolated from the World Wide Web, and security researcher Collin Anderson recently found evidence…
From ACM News
NASA's Ironman-Like Exoskeleton Could Give Astronauts, Paraplegics Improved Mobility and Strength
Marvel Comics' fictional superhero, Ironman, uses a powered armor suit that allows him superhuman strength.
From ACM Opinion
Where's the Discussion of Trojan Horses?
The Mykonos Vase, discovered in 1961 in the Cyclades, is one of the earliest accounts of the Trojan Horse, used as a subterfuge by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War.
From ACM News
What Comes After the Touch Screen?
In a few short years, the technologies found in today's mobile devices—touch screens, gyroscopes, and voice-control software, to name a few—have radically transformed how we access computers.
From ACM News
Bounce, Skid, Wobble: How Huygens Landed on Titan
The European Space Agency's Huygens probe, ferried to Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Titan in January 2005, a new analysis reveals…
From ACM TechNews
New York U. Turns to Free Site to Help Teach Computer Programming
New York University's department of media, culture, and communication will use Codeacademy to provide a 10-week programming course during this semester.
From ACM TechNews
W3c Launches Web Standards Documentation Site
The World Wide Web Consortium recently launched Web Platform Docs, a Web site with tutorials and other documentation that provides information on current Web standards.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Team Builds Most Complex Synthetic Biology Circuit Yet
MIT researchers have developed circuit components that do not interfere with one another, enabling them to produce complex synthetic circuits.
From ACM TechNews
Kurzweil: Brains Will Extend to the Cloud
Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil says human brains will one day extend into the cloud, and it will be possible to selectively erase pieces of memory while keeping other parts.
From ACM TechNews
Power in the Palm of Your Hands
Researchers at Newcastle University and Microsoft Research Cambridge have developed Digits, a wristwatch-sized sensor that tracks users' hands to enable them to remotely control devices.
From ACM Careers
What Are Grand Technology and Scientific Challenges for the 21st Century?
What are the next Big Things in science and technology? Teleportation? Unlimited clean Energy? The scientists and researchers at DARPA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy put out a public call this week…
From ACM News
The Measurement that Would Reveal the Universe as a Computer Simulation
One of modern physics' most cherished ideas is quantum chromodynamics, the theory that describes the strong nuclear force, how it binds quarks and gluons into protons and neutrons, how these form nuclei that themselves interact…
From ACM News
To This Agency, There's Only One Way to Operate: Precisely
David Wineland is the American half of the scientific duo celebrating the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics yesterday.
From ACM News
The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing
Inside a blocky building in a Vancouver suburb, across the street from a dowdy McDonald's, is a place chilled colder than anywhere in the known universe.
From ACM News
A Nobel For Teasing Out the Secret Life of Atoms
Two physicists who developed techniques to peer in on the most intimate relations between light and matter won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday.
From ACM TechNews
The Mouse Faces Extinction as Computer Interaction Evolves
Students today are part of the first generation growing up with a computer interface that does not rely on a keyboard and mouse.
From ACM TechNews
App Protects Facebook sers From Hackers
University of California, Riverside researchers have developed MyPageKeeper, an application for detecting spam and malware posts on Facebook users' walls, which they say is highly accurate, fast, and efficient.