Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2009
From ACM TechNews
It Built Into Your Jewelery
Henry Tirri, Nokia's head of research, says the economic downturn will lead to more investments in collaboration tools, broadband, video, and mobile technology to eliminate the need for travel. Over the next few years, people…
From ACM TechNews
Humans No Match For Go Bot Overlords
Computer programs that play the game of Go have advanced to the point where they can beat professional human players, as demonstrated by recent victories at the Taiwan Open and a Chicago exhibition. These programs employ variations…
From ACM TechNews
Scratch Lowers Resistance to Programming
Scratch, created by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is a programming environment for creating interactive animations, annotated stories, slideshows, prototypes, and games…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Looks to Secure Internet Banking With Usb Stick
A USB memory stick that can guarantee secure banking transactions even if a PC is tainted by malware has been developed by IBM's Zurich research laboratory.
From ACM TechNews
The A-Z of Programming Languages: Bourne Shell, or Sh
Steve Bourne, creator of the Bourne shell or sh programming language, says in an interview that the language aimed to remedy the problem of designing the shell to be a fully programmable scripting language that also could function…
From ACM TechNews
Information Architect Alex Wright Talks About the Lessons of It History
New York Times information architect Alex Wright says in an interview that there is a tendency to concentrate on information technology's future at the expense of its past. He points out, for example, that many promising concepts…
From ACM TechNews
Bathrooms Become Smarter With Touch Screens
Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems have developed a touch screen mirror that can remind people when to take their medicine, wash their hands, or brush their teeth. Developers…
From ACM TechNews
Digital Software Revolutionizes Our Relationship With Music
Sonic Visualiser, developed at the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London, is a free program that produces a visual representation of music audio files. The software, which enables users to visually examine…
From ACM TechNews
Supercomputing Seeks Energy Savings
New energy-saving technology from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has established a standard for resource-responsible high-performance computing (HPC) research. ORNL runs the Jaguar, a Cray XT supercomputer with a maximum…
From ACM TechNews
The Grill: Jeannette M. Wing on the Hot Seat
Carnegie Mellon University professor Jeannette M. Wing is an expert on computational thinking, the discipline of applying computer science's problem-solving methods to other fields. "Scientists and engineers [who are not computer…
From ACM News
ACM Turing Award Goes to Creator of Influential Innovations in Computer Software Design
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named Barbara Liskov of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the winner of the 2008 ACM A.M. Turing Award. The award cites Liskov for her foundational innovations to…
From ACM News
Ireland Announces Major Investment in R&d Centers
The Irish government has decided funding of 45.7 million euros for three 'Center for Science, Engineering and technology.' These research centers are hosted by universities and aim to develop collaborations between public research…
From ACM News
They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home
The United States has always been the country to which the world's best and brightest have flocked in pursuit of education and to seek their fortunes. But burgeoning new economies abroad and flagging prospects in the United States…
From ICT Results
Web Cubed The Network of Everything
The future Internet promises to link electronics, clothing, cars and pretty much everything in between. The upshot will be a network that can accompany and support users in any situation, dynamically adapting not only to the…
From ACM TechNews
Fight Over Internet Filtering Has a Test Run in Europe
Europe's influence over technology regulation has led U.S. companies to send lobbyists to try and influence European lawmakers as they debate Internet access policy. "The U.S. companies see the outcome of the fight in Europe…
From ACM TechNews
Digital Revolutionaries Discuss Past, Future of Technology
Microsoft technical fellow Butler Lampson, Google chief Internet evangelist Vinton Cerf, and Qualcomm chairman Irwin Jacobs discussed the past, present, and potential shape of digital technologies at a symposium sponsored byView…
From ACM TechNews
Powernap Plan Could Save 75 Percent of Data Center Energy
The University of Michigan plans to save up to 75 percent of the energy that computer data centers consume by putting servers into sleep mode when they are not being used. Michigan professor Thomas Wenisch and his students analyzed…
From ACM TechNews
Swedish Research Can Make Super Mario More Realistic
Thomas Larsson, a researcher at Sweden's Malardalen University, has developed a new approach for calculating collisions involving animated objects in computer games. Special measures have to be taken to keep animated figures…
From ACM TechNews
Geeks May Be Chic, But Negative Nerd Stereotype Still Exists, Professor Says
Despite technology's growing impact on society, academic geeks, or nerds, still suffer from negative stereotypes in popular culture, which may explain why women and minorities are avoiding careers in information technology, says…
From ICT Results
Serious Games for Serious Health Problems
Gamers caught a very early glimpse of the future of serious games aimed at the health sector during the PlayMancer project’s demos at the latest Vienna Science Fair.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Reality Device Simulates All Five Senses
Engineering & Physical Sciences Research CouncilScientists at the University of Warwick and York University are developing virtual reality devices that are capable of stimulating all five senses with a high degree of realism.…
From ACM TechNews
Half of Americans See Another Country Emerging as World's Technological Leader
Half of all U.S. residents expect that another country will become the world leader in addressing technological challenges this century, reveals a new Duke University survey. Only 34 percent of those surveyed gave themselvesView…
From ACM TechNews
Theseus Tool Enables Semantic Technologies For Next-Generation Internet
Fraunhofer-GesellschaftThe Fraunhofer Institute's THESEUS Project aims to improve the use and exploitation of digital knowledge through the use of semantic technologies that will be able to recognize the meaning of information…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Mine Millions of Metaphors Through Computer-Based Techniques
San Jose Mercury News (CA)A digital humanities project that started at Stanford University is teaching computers how to analyze text and extract metaphors to build a searchable database, which will enable users to browse historic…
From ACM TechNews
New 'Smart' Homes For Dementia Sufferers
University of BathA sensing system that assists people who suffer from dementia will be among the smart home technologies on display at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Pioneers 09 showcase event in London…
From ACM TechNews
Google Launches Google Code Labs
eWeekGoogle has created a new Web site that will give outside developers an opportunity to contribute to the development of the company's products. Google Code Labs already offers more than 60 application programming interfaces…
From ACM TechNews
More Science, Less Drama: IT Pros Defend Engineering Careers
Network WorldMany information technology (IT) professionals believe that parents could be doing their children a disservice by not encouraging them to pursue advanced studies in math and science. A survey by the American Society…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Strive to Improve Online Education
ASU NewsArizona State University's (ASU's) New American University project aims to enroll 100,000 students in online courses by 2012, which will require finding more effective ways of providing instruction online. "LearningView…
From ACM TechNews
Software-Intensive Systems Set to Dominate the Computer Market
Universidad Politecnica de MadridSoftware-intensive systems have become the cornerstone of Europe's most competitive industries and will soon dominate the computer market, concludes a report from the Spanish Software and Services…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Discover a Potential On-Off Switch For Nanoelectronics
Berkeley Lab News CenterResearchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Columbia University have demonstrated that electrical resistance via a molecular junction can be turned "on" orView…