Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2012
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Joins in Commemorating Computer Science Education Week 2012
The U.S. National Science Foundation is joining the effort to promote Computer Science Education Week, which highlights the need to support computer science at all education levels.
From ACM TechNews
Buggy Software: Achilles Heel of Big-Data-Powered Science?
Software defects are a growing concern in the scientific computing community. A recent workshop focusing on maintainable software practices discussed how software code errors caused retractions in major research papers.
From ACM News
They Know What You're Shopping For
Georgia resident Andy Morar is in the market for a BMW.
From ACM Opinion
'biology Is a Manufacturing Capability'
Soon we'll be able to engineer living things with mechanical precision, says Tom Knight, father of synthetic biology.
From ACM News
Patent Lawsuits Now Dominated by 'Trolls': Study
For the first time, individuals and companies that do not themselves make anything—commonly known as "patent trolls"—are bringing the majority of U.S. patent lawsuits, according to a study by a California law professor.
From ACM TechNews
Japanese Team Targets 24-Tbps Optical Fiber By 2014
The Japanese government is sponsoring a project to boost data transmission speeds over optical fiber, with a target of 400-Gbit/second per channel by 2014.
From ACM TechNews
Research Team to Develop Smart Skin Applications, Sensor Garments for Robots
University of Texas at Arlington researchers recently received a $1.35 million U.S. NSF grant to develop human-like robots with skin and clothes embedded with sensors that can accurately perceived the environment and better assist…
From ACM TechNews
New Software Speeds Analysis of Animal Behavior
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have developed Janelia Automatic Animal Behavior Annotator, software that can recognize characteristic animal behaviors like an experienced biologist.
From ACM News
A Rising Tide of Noise Is Now Easy to See
When a hurricane forced the Nautilus to dive in Jules Verne’s "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," Captain Nemo took the submarine down to a depth of 25 fathoms, or 150 feet.
From ACM News
Heart Gadgets Test Privacy-Law Limits
The small box inside Amanda Hubbard's chest beams all kinds of data about her faulty heart to the company that makes her defibrillator implant.
From ACM Careers
In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung
So sprawling is Samsung’s modern-day empire that some South Koreans say it has become possible to live a Samsung-only life: You can use a Samsung credit card to buy a Samsung TV for the living room of your Samsung-made apartment…
From ACM News
Federal Agency Wants Black Boxes in Every New Car By September 2014
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed a new unified standard for event data recorders for cars, commonly known as "black boxes."
From ACM News
Iran: All Data of Captured U.S. RQ-170 Drone Decoded
A senior Iranian commander announced that the country has extracted all the data and information existing in the intelligence gathering systems of the United States' highly advanced RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft which was…
From ACM TechNews
Your Next Boss Could Be a Computer
University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have developed AutoMan, an automated artificial intelligence-based system that can delegate tasks to human workers via crowdsourcing platforms.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Chip Aims to se Light to Speed up Internet Services
IBM researchers have developed a chip that makes it easier to move data via pulses of light instead of using electrical signals. The chip could offer a way to move large amounts of information at higher speeds than in existing…
From ACM TechNews
Data Services With In-Built Self-Defense
SINTEF researchers want data systems to adapt to virus and hacker attacks, and automatically replace compromised software components without inconveniencing the user. "Our objective is to devise more robust and operationally…
From ACM TechNews
Point of Light
Caltech researchers have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers across, a breakthrough they say could lead to next-generation applications in computing, communications, and imaging.
From ACM TechNews
Is the Light Spectrum the Next Frontier for Wireless?
Computer devices could eventually use light to communicate, and Li-Fi, formally called visible light communications, could replace Wi-Fi, says the University of Edinburgh's Harald Hass.
From ACM TechNews
Flexible Robots Make Their Own Decisions
University West researchers have developed an automation system in which machines and robots make their own decisions and adapt to external circumstances.
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook's Freshman Year: The Apple Ceo Speaks
Prior to his death on Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs made sure that the elevation of Tim Cook—his longtime head of operations and trusted deputy—to Apple chief executive officer would be drama-free.
From ACM News
In Eye Control, a Promise to Let Your Tablet Go Hands-Free
Forget touch screens and voice recognition; what if you could control your computer just by looking at it?
From ACM News
A Machine That Makes Cameras: The Aesthetics of the Lytro
Let's think about photography as people live it.
From ACM Opinion
Online Social Science: Can the Web Graduate from Digital Petri Dish to Virtual Laboratory?
In many ways the Internet is the ultimate virtual laboratory.
From ACM TechNews
Vint Cerf Urges Computer Science to Be Included in EBacc
Google vice president and ACM president Vint Cerf is backing the British Computer Society's recent call for computer science to be included in the English Baccalaureate, or EBacc.
From ACM TechNews
New '4-D' Transistor Is Preview of Future Computers
Researchers at Purdue and Harvard universities have developed a transistor that consists of three nanowires made out of indium-gallium-arsenide. The three nanowires are progressively smaller, resulting in a tapered cross section…
From ACM Opinion
Planning His Legacy, Cisco Chief Maps an Expansion
John T. Chambers has readied his last great act as the leader of Cisco Systems, fearing major changes in the technology business that could doom his company.
From ACM Opinion
ARM R&D Chief: Intel Can’t Beat s Without A New Business Model
Although Intel is still the undisputed king of silicon, it's a surprising fact that the ARM processor design is in more 32-bit chips than Intel’s x86 design, thanks to ARM's dominance of mobile devices and tablets.
From ACM Opinion
Intel Tech Chief Rattner Peers Into the Future
What does the future of computing look like? Justin Rattner has a better inkling than most.
From ACM TechNews
Syria Outage Sheds Light on U.s. 'kill Switch' Concerns
Syria and as many as 60 other countries are at a severe risk of being disconnected from the Internet because of lack of redundancy in their telecommunications connections to the outside world, according to a recent Renesys report…
From ACM TechNews
The Rise of Voice Biometrics For Mobile Phones
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs researchers have developed Vaulted Voice Verification, an approach to voice identification that can be used for voice biometrics in mobile phone-type security systems.