Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2012
From ACM TechNews
The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom
Dozens of countries are pushing aggressively for the establishment of international control over the Internet via the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which U.S. Federal Communications Commission commissioner…
From ACM TechNews
Mathematician Sees Artistic Side to Father of Computer
In a book to be published later this year, University of Chicago mathematician Robert Soare proposes that Alan Turing's design for the modern computer was an artistic as well as a scientific achievement.
From ACM News
A Law Apple Would Like to Break
These days, it’s hard to find a superlative that adequately describes Apple. But maybe simplest is best: biggest.
From ACM News
In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive
The Stockton Tunnel, excavated in 1914, lets San Francisco drivers get between downtown and Fisherman’s Wharf without having to ascend the scarily steep grades of Nob Hill.
From ACM News
Over-the-Air Tv Catches Second Wind, Aided By Web
It's cool to have rabbit ears again.
From ACM News
More Design Hobbyists, Entrepreneurs Use 3D Printing
Matt Sullivan, a retired soldier, still has trouble explaining his right leg to strangers.
From ACM News
The DIY Copyright Revolution
It is something of a fluke that copyright law has become so intertwined with our online lives. For most people, the first things that were easy to create and distribute online—articles, pictures, music, movies—also happened to…
From ACM News
Smithsonian Turns to 3d to Bring Collection to the World
With just 2% of the Smithsonian's archive of 137 million items available to the public at any one time, an effort is under way at the world's largest museum and research institution to adopt 3D tools to expand its reach around…
From ACM News
"unethical" Html Video Copy Protection Proposal Draws Criticism from W3c Reps
A new Web standard proposal authored by Google, Microsoft, and Netflix seeks to bring copy protection mechanisms to the Web.
From ACM News
High-Tech New Citizens Bemoan Long Path to Ceremony
Twenty-one years after he set foot in the United States, Facebook engineer Wei Zhu was overjoyed to take his oath of citizenship Wednesday at a special Silicon Valley immigration summit.
From ACM TechNews
Intel Ponders Solar-Powered CP Tech in Graphics, Memory
Intel is working to extend its experimental solar-powered processor technology to hardware such as graphics processors, memory, and floating point units.
From ACM TechNews
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in se Today
Large sections of the transportation and military infrastructure, some modern businesses, and computer programmers still use technology that has not been updated for decades.
From ACM News
'do Not Track' Button
Alongside the news that the White House will announce voluntary privacy guidelines for Web companies comes the announcement from major online advertisers that they will implement "do not track" technology into Web browsers.
From ACM News
Behind the Google Goggles, Virtual Reality
It wasn't so long ago that legions of people began walking the streets, talking to themselves. On closer inspection, many of them turned out to be wearing tiny earpieces that connected wirelessly to their smartphones.
From ACM News
How Twitter Traffic Follows Air Traffic
Twitter has a reputation for linking people through interests rather than geography. But while the little blue bird lets us connect with people all around the world, the networks we form on Twitter look a lot like the airplane…
From ACM News
Stanford niversity Researchers Break Nucaptcha Video Security
When it launched in 2010, NuCaptcha touted its proprietary technology as being able to "provide the highest level of security available" by using video streams to display those distorted letters you type in to prove you're really…
From ACM News
Seven Equations That Rule Your World
The alarm rings. You glance at the clock. The time is 6.30 am. You haven't even got out of bed, and already at least six mathematical equations have influenced your life.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithm Uses Photo Networks to Reveal Your Hometown
There is growing evidence that information gleaned from online social networks can be processed and used in ways to gain an accurate profile of an individual.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Says Future Computers Will Be Constant Learners
Tomorrow's computers will constantly improve their understanding of the data they work with, which will help them provide users with more appropriate information, predicts IBM fellow David Ferrucci.
From ACM TechNews
The Industrial Robot Revolution
A dramatic shift in how robots are made and perceived is leading to their widespread adoption and use.
From ACM News
Nash's Beautiful Mind Pre-Empted Million-Dollar Puzzle
John Nash's mind is even more exquisite than we thought. The Nobel laureate, famous for both his work in game theory and his schizophrenia—as portrayed in the book and film A Beautiful Mind—had ideas about cryptography and complexity…
From ACM News
Beware Malware Networks in Search Engines: Report
A new security report warns of malware networks ("malnets") lurking within Google and other search engines, driving unsuspecting Web surfers to sites where they might share their personal or financial information to unintended…
From ACM News
Avi Rubin on Hacking All Sorts of Devices
Avi Rubin is the technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and in this talk from the TEDxMidAtlantic conference in November he discusses the history of hacks on various devices, including…
From ACM TechNews
Cybersecurity Research Gets Boost in 2013 Budget Request
President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request prioritizes basic research and development in cybersecurity at the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Sleuthing Helps nravel Rna's Role in Cellular Function
University of Central Florida computer engineers used a computer program to analyze the subunits that make up ribonucleic acid.
From ACM TechNews
Chicago Computer Scientists Develop Tools to Help Ecologists in Kenya
Computational ecology students at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently traveled to Kenya to conduct experiments using computer technology to collect wildlife data, and made 3D images and video footage to create Mpala…
From ACM News
NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in a New Light
A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth's forests.
From ACM News
Intel Chefs Bake Wifi Into Mobile Chips
Researchers at Intel have come up with a way to make WiFi faster and more energy efficient.
From ACM News
Google's Mind the Gap! Program Interests Women in CS
Two-hour sessions with female Google software engineers are convincing many female high-school students in Israel to change their majors to computer science and to consider it as a career.
From ACM News
Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom
Australian and American physicists have built a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.