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
Scholars Seek Better Ways to Track Impact Online
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have developed a system that aims to measure Web-driven scholarly interactions, such as how often research is tweeted, blogged about, or bookmarked. The goal is to track…
From ACM TechNews
H-1b Workers Are Better Paid, More Educated, Study Finds
The average annual earnings of H-1B workers are about 10 percent higher than the average annual earnings of U.S. workers, after adjustments for age, occupation, and education, according to a Public Policy Institute of California…
From ACM News
Why Viewers Could Soon Control Super Bowl Ads
During this Sunday's Super Bowl, a record five million viewers are expected to tweet or make other social media comments—not just about the game, but also about the many beer, snack, and car ads that are integral to the annual…
From ACM TechNews
Artificial Intelligence: Getting Better at the Age Guessing Game
A*STAR Institution for Infocomm Research scientists have developed and algorithm which they say can quickly scan through large databases of facial images. They say the algorithm should make it easier to build facial age-classification…
From ACM News
Who Does Google Think You Are?
A tool tells users what the company infers about your interests and age.
From ACM Careers
Here's the Number That Matters in Facebook's Ipo Filing
After waiting for so long to see the numbers inside Facebook's success, it's easy to be overwhelmed by all the new data we have about the social network and company. But there is one number that matters more than all the others…
From ACM News
The Great Disk Drive in the Sky: How Web Giants Store Big
Consider the tech it takes to back the search box on Google's home page: behind the algorithms, the cached search terms, and the other features that spring to life as you type in a query sits a data store that essentially contains…
From ACM TechNews
Demystifying Robotics
University of Bristol computer scientists are working with students from a local U.K. secondary school as part of a project to expose them to robotics. The goal of the project is to introduce robotic concepts to the students…
From ACM TechNews
Graphene Competitor sed to Make Circuits
The first logic circuits made using atom-thick sheets of molybdenite suggest the material could be an alternative to graphene as a possible solution to the problem of getting more power out of silicon-based computer components…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Find Evidence of Viruses Infecting Worms Creating New Form of Malware
A worm infected with a virus could be more dangerous than either alone and more difficult to detect with traditional software programs, say Softwin researchers, who have found 40,000 instances of such mutated malware out of a…
From ACM News
Self-Steering Bullet Researched By U.s. Weapons Experts
A self-guiding bullet that can steer itself towards its target is being developed for use by the U.S. military.
From ACM TechNews
Phase-Change Materials Can Fix Machine Memory Crunch
Phase-change materials (PCMs) could thwart the limits of digital memory and enable a massive increase in storage density. PCM's biggest advantage is that it can store more than a single bit per cell.
From ACM News
In China, Facebook Alternatives Thrive
Anticipation over Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering has fueled a recent surge in stock prices of social media companies in China, where Facebook is blocked.
From ACM News
Facebook Ipo: How Does Facebook Make Its Money?
Facebook's IPO filing shows that the company brought in about $3.7 billion in revenue and made $1 billion in profit in 2011.
From ACM News
Shrunken Servers Aim For a Greener Internet
As the cloud becomes more pervasive—driving everything from social networking to mobile apps—the computers that power it must guzzle more and more energy.
From ACM News
DARPA Takes Aim at "achilles Heel" of Advanced Computing: Power
The power required to increase computing performance, especially in embedded or sensor systems has become a serious constraint and is restricting the potential of future systems.
From ACM News
Wireless Sensors Monitor Brain-Waves on the Fly
A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A warning light flashes on the control panel.
From ACM TechNews
Tripping the Light Fantastic
Casio recently unveiled a prototype for a smartphone that can transmit data using light. The phone's screen flickers with varying intensity to transmit data. The flickering is imperceptible to the human eye, but can be sensed…
From ACM TechNews
DARPA-Funded Hacker's Tiny $50 Spy Computer Hides in Offices, Drops From Drones
A U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency researcher has developed the Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors (F-BOMB), a sensor-equipped surveillance-capable computer that can be assembled for less…
From ACM News
Telepathy Machine Reconstructs Speech from Brainwaves
When you read this sentence to yourself, it's likely that you hear the words in your head. Now, in what amounts to technological telepathy, others are on the verge of being able to hear your inner dialogue too.
From ACM TechNews
White House Office Studies Benefits of Video Games
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has assigned senior policy analyst Constance Steinkuehler to study video games for 18 months to determine if they have significant value as educational tools.
From ACM TechNews
Smarter Password Checker Lets You Compare With Others
Researchers have developed a system designed to rate passwords relative to those already stored in a Web site's database. The password checker can tell users if their password is among the weakest on a site and encourage them…
From ACM TechNews
Political Borders Don't Stop Cyberattacks, But They Prevent Defense, Study Finds
Real-world political borders are hindering the defense of cyberspace, according to McAfee's new Cyber Defense Report. A dearth of common standards of behavior, objectives, and language hamper discussion of the challenges of…
From ACM TechNews
Apple Fuels Silicon Valley Hiring Amid Bubble 2.0 Concern
Silicon Valley companies are in the midst of a hiring boom not seen since the late 1990s as nearly 50 U.S. technology companies with a market value of more than $100 million increased employment by more than 50 percent in the…
From ACM News
For $2 a Star, an Online Retailer Gets 5-Star Product Reviews
In the brutal world of online commerce, where a competing product is just a click away, retailers need all the juice they can get to close a sale.
From Communications of the ACM
The Social Life of Robots
Researchers are trying to build robots capable of working together with minimal human supervision. But will they ever learn to get along?
From Communications of the ACM
ACM Fellows Inducted
Forty-six men and women are recognized as 2011 ACM Fellows.
From Communications of the ACM
The War Against Botnets
Increasingly sophisticated botnets have emerged during the last several years. However, security researchers, businesses, and governments are attacking botnets from a number of different angles — and sometimes winning.
From Communications of the ACM
The Science of Better Science
Researchers are exploring networked computational analysis, formal classification, and topic modeling to better identify relevant scientists, ideas, and trends.