Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2009
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Fashions Mountain Climbing Robot
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has unveiled Axel, a prototype rover that is capable of traversing extremely rough terrain, including rappelling off cliffs, traveling over steep and rocky terrain…
From ACM TechNews
RFID's Security Problem
New U.S. passport cards and driver's licenses issued by Washington and New York state are designed to enable U.S. citizens to cross international borders more efficiently through the use of radio frequency identification (RFID)…
From ACM TechNews
Google and Amazon to Put More Books on Cellphones
Google has made 1.5 million books accessible on mobile devices such as the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. The titles are the public domain books Google previously made available for free on PCs. Meanwhile, Amazon says a similar…
From ACM TechNews
Fingerprints and Faces Can Be Faked, But Not Brain Patterns
The European Union-funded HUMABIO project is combining new types of biometric recognition systems with the latest sensor technologies to develop better security applications. HUMABIO researchers have developed sensorial and…
From ACM TechNews
Hospitals With Better It Have Fewer Deaths, Study Shows
Patients have better outcomes in hospitals that make greater use of technology, concludes a collaborative study involving multiple universities and healthcare systems. The study, which involved more than 167,000 patients in…
From ACM TechNews
Wi-Fi Networks Offer Rich Environment For Spread of Worms
Malicious software code could infect an entire city in a period of several weeks by traveling over Wi-Fi networks that overlap each other, concludes a study by Indiana University computer scientists and researchers at the Complex…
From ACM TechNews
Surprise! Tech Is a Safe Career Choice Today
The technology profession is proving to be one of the safest careers available during the current economic crisis, providing good pay and solid job security. "The reality is there's still a very healthy job sector in information…
From ACM TechNews
Leading Futurists, Thinkers to Launch Silicon Valley niversity
Leading thinkers and futurists will launch Singularity University, an institution based in Silicon Valley that will offer a wide range of programs focusing on multiple technologies and fields, including biotechnology and bioinformatics…
From ACM TechNews
Ibm's Power Play: New Supercomputer Called Fastest Ever
IBM has won a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to build what it says will be the world's fastest computer. The next-generation supercomputer, dubbed the Sequoia, is…
From ACM TechNews
Google Earth Dives Deep, Filling in Its Maps' Watery Gaps
When Google Earth first launched, the two-thirds of the planet that is covered by water was simply left blue. "We had this arbitrary distinction that if it was below sea level it didn't count," says Google's John Hanke. Google…
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Searches For Group Advantage
Microsoft researchers are investigating if using data from several members of a social group, a technique Microsoft calls "groupization," can lead to better search results. Initial findings based on experiments involving about…
From ACM TechNews
Closing the Gap Between High-Speed Data Transmission and Processing
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) engineers have set world-record speeds for real-time signal processing while working to develop the first terabit-scale technology for optical processing. The researchers say the technology…
From ACM TechNews
Data Mining Promises to Dig p New Drugs
European researchers have developed a robot called Eve that uses artificial intelligence, data mining, and knowledge discovery technology to analyze the results of the pharmacological experiments that it conducts. The robot…
From ACM TechNews
Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking and Analysis?
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor Patricia Greenfield says that critical thinking and analysis skills decline the more people use technology, while visual skills improve. Greenfield, the director of UCLA's…
From ACM TechNews
Web 3.0 Emerging
Web 3.0 is generally defined as Semantic Web technologies that run or are embedded within large-scale Web applications, writes Jim Hendler, assistant dean for information technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He points…
From ACM CareerNews
Certain It Skills in Demand Despite Economy
According to a recent study by IT staffing company Veritude, the overall weakness in the U.S. economy is forcing employers to become more tactical in their hiring approach. While cost-cutting remains a priority, certain IT skills…
From Communications of the ACM
USACM's Policy Role
ACM members have a professional duty to ensure that the public comprehends and benefits from advances in computing.
From Communications of the ACM
Photography's Bright Future
Researchers working in computational photography are using computer vision, computer graphics, and applied optics to bring a vast array of new capabilities to digital cameras.
From Communications of the ACM
Making Sense of Sensors
Researchers are recognizing the potential of position sensors to help them overcome the limitations of traditional user interfaces.
From Communications of the ACM
The First Internet President
Barack Obama's presidential campaign utilized the Internet and information technology unlike any previous political campaign. How politicians and the public interact will never be the same.
From Communications of the ACM
SIGGRAPH Debuts in Asia
ACM's premier computer graphics conference hosts its first-ever graphics event in Asia, with a more global focus.