Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2009
From ACM TechNews
Software Knowledge nnecessarily Lost
Dutch researchers investigating how software architectural knowledge can be better disseminated discovered that many architects simply do not talk with each other enough, often because they want to receive knowledge but are less…
From ACM TechNews
Feds Mull Rules, Fees to Spur Net Access
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is debating whether it should force Internet service providers (ISPs) to share their networks with rivals and increase the fees charged to consumers' phone bills to pay for broader…
From ICT Results
P2p Comes to the Aid of Audiovisual Search
Current methods of searching audiovisual content can be a hit-and-miss affair. Manually tagging online media content is time consuming, and costly. But new 'query by example' methods, built on peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures…
From ACM News
Georgia Tech Launches Experimental Green It Initiative
The biggest challenge in computing today, some experts say, is not processing power, but power consumption. To help understand and reduce power consumption, the Georgia Institute of Technology has launched Green IT. The effort…
From ACM TechNews
Improving Security With Face Recognition Technology
University of Miami professor Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb has developed a new way to improve the efficiency and accuracy of facial recognition technology. Abdel-Mottaleb and colleagues have developed a system that can use three-dimensional…
From ACM News
Moscow Wants Trained It Specialists
Amid Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's calls for modernization, one of the IT sector's top employers has said Russian high-tech companies are being let down by the education system. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder and chairwoman…
From ACM News
Petascale Tools Could Provide Deeper Insight Into Genomic Evolution
Research recently funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 aims to develop computational tools that will utilize next-generation petascale computers to understand genomic evolution.
From ACM Careers
Georgia Tech Creates Online Master's Degree in Information Security
Georgia Tech's College of Computing has created a new Master of Science in Information Security degree available online in a distance learning format, a flexible option for working information security professionals who want…
From ACM TechNews
Intuitive Semantic Internet Would Know What Is Said
The push to develop the Semantic Web recently received fresh support through a National Science Foundation grant, which has been awarded to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The $1.1 million grant will support…
From ACM TechNews
Supercomputers With 100 Million Cores Coming By 2018
A key topic at this week's SC09 supercomputing conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20 in Portland, Ore., is how to reach the exascale plateau in supercomputing performance.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford-Led Research Helps Overcome Barrier For Organic Electronics
Stanford University researchers have determined why some transistors made of organic crystals do not allow electricity to flow through them as easily as other electronics, a discovery that will help make organic electronics better…
From ACM TechNews
Tough Choices For Supercomputing's Legacy Apps
The future of supercomputing holds several significant software challenges, writes Numerical Algorithms Group's Andrew Jones. The first challenge is the rapidly increasing degree of concurrency required.
From ACM TechNews
What Computer Science Can Teach Economics
Professor Constantinos Daskalakis in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is applying the theory of computational complexity to game theory. He argues that some…
From ACM TechNews
Intel Says Shape-Shifting Robots Closer to Reality
Researchers at Intel and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) say distributed computing and robotics could be used to make shape-shifting electronics a reality in the not-too-distant future.
From ACM TechNews
Working Together to Design Robust Silicon Chips
Cooperation between researchers, chipmakers, and tool suppliers working on the EUREKA MEDEA+ microelectronics Cluster ROBIN project has led to improved design methods for silicon chips. The researchers say the project has created…
From ICT Results
There's No Business Like Grid Business
Scientists have embraced the computing and communications grid, but businesses have held back, concerned about complexity and security. Now a European research team has built a platform opening the grid's vast resources to business…
From ACM News
Two Rival Supercomputers Duke It Out For Top Spot
A Cray supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has regained the title of the world's most powerful supercomputer, overtaking the installation that was ranked at the top in June 2009. The upgraded Jaguar supercomputer at…
From ACM TechNews
Creating 3D Models With a Simple Webcam
University of Cambridge researchers have developed a simple and affordable method for constructing virtual three-dimensional (3D) models, which should make 3D modeling more accessible. The new program requires only a basic Web…
From ACM TechNews
India Prof Tips Fastest Prime Number Detection Algorithm
Manindra Agrawal, an Indian professor who developed a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for detecting prime numbers, will receive the 2009 G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research. Agrawal, a professor at IIT Kanpur, has…
From ACM TechNews
Google Launches New Programming Language: Go
Google has unveiled Go, a new programming language the company says offers the speed of working in a dynamic language such as Python and the performance and safety of a compiled language such as C or C++.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Computer Gets Closer: Quantum Particles Pinned Down
Scientists at the Delft University of Technology were able to gain control over the environment of a quantum particle, which is a key step in the potential development of a quantum computer.
From ACM TechNews
Minority Students Earned Greater Number of Degrees in Fiscal 2006
Students in underserved populations earned a greater number of academic diplomas in almost all categories in fiscal year 2006 compared to fiscal year 2004, according to a new report from the National Science Foundation. Asians…
From ACM TechNews
Tinkering Makes Comeback Amid Crisis
The economic crisis and the reduced costs of high-tech tools and materials are fueling a resurgence in tinkering and experimentation. U.S. engineering schools are reporting a comeback in student interest in hands-on work, while…
From ACM News
Face-Recognition Technology May Be sed at Hong Kong Border Checks
Face-recognition technology might be used to screen the residents at Hong Kong border checkpoints, Hong Kong's Security Secretary Ambrose Lee said Thursday (Nov. 12). The wealthy city of seven million already uses fingerprint…
From ACM News
Secret Math of Fly Eyes Could Overhaul Robot Vision
By turning the brain cell activity underlying fly eyesight into mathematical equations, researchers have found an ultra-efficient method for pulling motion patterns from raw visual data.
Though they built the system, the researchers…From ACM News
Spdy: An Experimental Protocol For a Faster Web
As part of the "Let's make the web faster" initiative, we are experimenting with alternative protocols to help reduce the latency of web pages. One of these experiments is SPDY (pronounced "SPeeDY"), an application-layer protocol…
From ACM News
3-D Software Gives Doctors, Students a View Inside the Body
James Oliver picked up an Xbox game controller, looked up to a video screen and used the device's buttons and joystick to fly through a patient's chest cavity for an up-close look at the bottom of the heart. Software developed…
From ACM News
Digital Cloud Plan For City Skies
A giant "digital cloud" that would "float" above London's skyline has been outlined by an international team of architects, artists and engineers.
The construction would include 120m- (400ft-) tall mesh towers and a series …From ACM News
Wi-Fi Certification Might Be Tweaked For Smart Grids
The Wi-Fi Alliance has formed a task group to determine what standards need to be modified to ensure Wi-Fi is the tool of choice for smart-grid applications.
The nonprofit industry association that approves devices for the"Wi…From ACM News
Netbook Apps Demand Dedicated Development Techniques
Netbooks have grown in popularity and with them a demand for software. But developers who assume there's no need to create applications differently when they enter the netbook space are dead wrong, experts say.