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
Tim Berners-Lee: Machine-Readable Web Still a Ways Off
World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee says the machine-readable Web is still a ways off and faces numerous obstacles. He says recent initiatives such as the U.S. government's Data.gov, specifically its spreadsheets and…
From ICT Results
Online Collaboration With Built-In Clarity
Software packages that interoperate while providing online users with an overview of their colleagues' work may finally lessen the dominance of email as the world's premier collaboration tool.
From ACM News
Virtual Crashes and Clatters Get Real
The clatter of a dropped trash can and the crash of a cymbal – both easily recognisable sounds.
That's why computer games or CGI movies that feature such noises use samples recorded from life, not generated by software as the…From ACM TechNews
The Explainer: P vs. Np
The Clay Mathematics Institute has a standing offer of $1 million for anyone who is able to prove or disprove one of seven problems that have never been solved. One of those problems is P=NP. Essentially, P is a set of relatively…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Design Smartphone Games for Elderly Diabetics
Researchers at Saint Louis University (SLU) and Old Dominion University have developed the Chinese Aged Diabetic Assistant (CADA), new smartphone technology that uses interactive games and other techniques to help elderly people…
From ACM News
Nist Test Proves 'the Eyes Have It' For Id Verification
The intricate structure of the iris constitutes a powerful biometric. A new report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) demonstrates that iris recognition algorithms can maintain their accuracy and interoperability…
From ACM News
Nsf Awards $20 Million to Sdsc to Develop Shared-Memory Supercomputer
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego has been awarded a five-year, $20 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to build and operate a powerful supercomputer…
From ACM TechNews
AI Spacesuits Turn Astronauts Into Cyborg Biologists
Wired NewsA research team led by University of Chicago geoscientist Patrick McGuire has successfully tested a feature-identifying system that could one day be used by "cyborg astrobiologists." The algorithms were able to pick…
From ACM TechNews
New Keys for the Diffusion of Information in Social Networks
Information in social networks travels at an unexpectedly slow pace over the Internet with the exception of a few mass events, according to a study by researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) and IBM. The researchers…
From ACM TechNews
Endowment Fund to Support Ict Research
Australia will continue to serve as a hub for research into wireless technologies as a result of new funding from the Science and Industry Endowment Fund, announced by Senator the Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry…
From ACM TechNews
HTML 5 Progresses Despite Challenges
Development of HTML5 is progressing, but the highly anticipated upgrade to the Web language still faces some major hurdles, particularly its lack of a standard video codec. "The underlying issue is finding a video format that…
From ACM TechNews
Will Smart Grid Power IPv6?
The Obama administration's effort to transform the U.S.'s electric transmission system into a smart grid could help accelerate the adoption of the next-generation Internet standard IPv6. The Smart Grid would deploy new smart…
From ACM News
Amir Pnueli, Distinguished Computer Scientist and Researcher, Dies
Amir Pnueli, a professor of Computer Science at New York University and winner of the 1996 ACM A. M. Turing Award, died suddenly on November 2 of a brain hemorrhage. Pnueli was recognized internationally as a pioneer in the area…
From ICT Results
Social Networking Meets Ambient Intelligence
Sharing small snippets of information about your daily life is a key feature of the online social networking revolution. Soon status updates and other social information could be generated automatically. A team of researchers…
From ACM News
World's First Arabic-Speaking Robot to Serve as Staff in Shopping Malls
A laboratory in the United Arab Emirate has built what it says is the world's first Arabic-speaking robot which could soon go into mass production to serve as staff in shopping malls. According to a report in The Independent,…
From ACM News
Microsoft's Mundie: It Needed to Solve Global Woes
Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie gave a speech at Harvard University on Tuesday (Nov. 3) to discuss coming "disruptions" in computing and to argue that computer science is fundamental to solving daunting…
From ACM News
Long Tail Criticism Might Affect E-Business Strategies
The Long Tail theory embraced by online businesses has taken some recent criticism, raising questions about whether businesses should change their e-strategies.
From ACM News
Jumping on the Multi-Bandwagon
When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out an "APB" looking for volunteers to test a new radio that allows first responders to talk to one another across different frequency bands, the line of interested agencies was…
From ACM TechNews
Research Continues on Secure, Mobile, Quantum Communications
Air Force Research Laboratory researcher David H. Hughes is using an optical laser link to create secure quantum communication capabilities for military use. The system uses adaptive optics to transmit high data-rate video and…
From ACM TechNews
K-State Freshman Manages Largest Supercomputer in Kansas
Kansas State University's (KSU's) Beocat is a cluster of 122 servers that work together to form Kansas' largest academic research supercomputer. "It's easier to think of something as a single machine, so it's called a supercomputer…
From ACM News
Chicago Academy of Advanced Technology Opens
The Chicago Academy of Advanced Technology (CAAT) opened its doors on Sept. 8, 2009. The academy is the result of an effort to fill the need for skilled IT workers and tech-savvy executives at Chicago companies and within city…
From ACM TechNews
Intel Claims Memory Research Milestone
Intel and Numonyx recently announced a breakthrough in computer memory research that they say could eventually result in a less expensive and better-performing alternative to existing memory technologies. The two companies have…
From ACM TechNews
Living Wallpaper That Devices Can Relate To
The Living Wall project, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab researcher Leah Buechley, features an electronically enhanced wallpaper that can interact with other devices, including lamps, heaters, and music…
From ACM TechNews
Study: No Shortage of .s. Engineers
The United States, contrary to popular belief, is not lacking graduates in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, according to a study by researchers at Georgetown and Rutgers universities. The…
From ACM TechNews
Software That Fixes Itself
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers led by professor Martin Rinard have developed ClearView, software capable of finding and fixing certain types of software bugs within a few minutes. Rinard, who presented the…
From ACM TechNews
Meeting Notes Progress For Women in Academic Science, but More Work to Do
The current state of women in academia was addressed during the annual meeting of the grant recipients of the U.S. National Science Foundation's Advance program. Advance grants have helped fund initiatives for increasing the…
From ACM News
Social Networks Thrive By Linking
"Reaching out, not building walls" might be one way to characterize the process of social networking. It is also an apt description of the core competitive strategy of firms in the social networking services industry, as new…
From ACM News
How 40 Years of the Internet Changed the World
A conference at UCLA on Thursday marked the 40th birthday of the Internet, which was created on Oct. 29, 1969, when a team led by Engineering Professor Leonard Kleinrock successfully linked a UCLA computer at with a machine at…
From ACM TechNews
Xerox Claims Breakthrough in Printable Circuitry
Xerox says it has developed a new form of silver ink that aligns its molecules to conduct electricity more efficiently. The breakthrough enables electronics to be produced on a wider range of materials and at lower costs because…
From ACM TechNews
.s. Cyber War Policy Needs New Focus, Experts Say
Three cybersecurity experts recently told a meeting of the Congressional Cyber Caucus that current U.S. policies for protecting the United States against various forms of attack won't work for defending against cyberwarfare.