Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2011
From ACM TechNews
Kaspar the Friendly Robot Helps Autistic Kids
University of Hertfordshire scientists are working with a preschool for autistic children to study the impact of robots on the development of students' social skills. The students get to play with Kaspar, a human-looking, child…
From ACM News
Less Code Is Better Code, Says DARPA
With Cyber Fast Track, DARPA plans to hire individuals and small teams via short, fixed-price contracts to create lean code cybersecurity programs.
From ACM News
In early 2009, statisticians inside the Googleplex here embarked on a plan code-named Project Oxygen. Their mission was to devise something far more important to the future of Google Inc. than its next search algorithm or…
From ACM News
AI Lie Detection Could Help Crack Terror Cells
In A bar in Maastricht University in the Netherlands, 12 students are each given an envelope marked "Top Secret." Inside are plans for a terror attack somewhere in the country. They must tell no one.
From ACM News
U.S. Funding Tech Firms that Help Mideast Dissidents Evade Government Censors
The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments.
From ACM Opinion
Al Franken: 'they're Coming After the Internet'
Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality.
From ACM TechNews
A Search Engine for the Human Body
Microsoft researcher Antonio Criminisi has led the development of a search tool that indexes medical images of the human body and automatically finds organs and other structures on computed tomography scans.
From ACM TechNews
New Protocols Show p to 76 Percent Speed Jolt For Iphones, Ipads
The novel use of accelerometers, GPS locators, and gyroscopes that are standard features of smartphones and tablets can speed up wireless networks by up to 76 percent, according to MIT researchers.
From ACM TechNews
A Small Quantum Leap
Northwestern University researchers say they have developed a switching device that could help lead to the creation of a quantum network.
From ACM TechNews
Japan's Internet Largely Intact After Earthquake, Tsunami
Japan's Internet infrastructure demonstrated surprising resilience in the face of the recent earthquake and tsunami, as most Web sites remain in operation and the Web is still accessible to support crucial communication functions…
From ACM News
Search Undergoing Biggest Disruption Since the Dawn of Google
Facing criticism over the quality of search results, Google recently tweaked its famously secretive algorithm to weed out spam sites and so-called "content farms." For all the attention this issue got, however, it's only one…
From ACM News
Planet Mercury Visible Before Nasa Craft Orbits It
Earth is about to get better acquainted with its oddball planetary cousin, Mercury, a rocky wonderland of extremes.
From ACM News
Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling
Bryan Taylor, 36, could not shake the feeling that something funny was going on. Three of his most frequent opponents on an online poker site were acting oddly, playing in ways that were so similar it was suspicious.
From ACM News
Taking Control of Cars From Afar
Researchers who have spent the last two years studying the security of car computer systems have revealed that they can take control of vehicles wirelessly.
From ACM News
Data Mining: How Companies Now Know Everything About You
Three hours after I gave my name and e-mail address to Michael Fertik, the CEO of Reputation.com, he called me back and read my Social Security number to me. "We had it a couple of hours ago," he said. "I was just too busy…
From ACM News
Ex-Googlers Penetrating Silicon Valley Startup Hierarchy
It may be too soon to equate the "Xooglers," as members of the ever-expanding network of ex-Google employees call themselves, with the "PayPal Mafia"—the founders and early employees of the online payment company who went…
From ACM News
Spotting Virtual Intruders
Handing sensitive data over to a cloud computing provider makes many companies skittish. But new software, called HomeAlone, could help them come to terms with using such services.
From ACM News
Invisible Wi-Fi Signals Caught on Camera
Computer icons can give you an idea of your Wi-Fi signal strength. But now Timo Arnall and a team of designers from the Oslo School of Architecture & Design have created a device that can produce a large scale visualisation of…
From ACM News
Can You Judge a Person by an Email Address?
Gmail users are thinner, younger; AOL users older, overweight, study says.
From ACM News
Researchers Show How a Car's Electronics Can Be Taken Over Remotely
With a modest amount of expertise, computer hackers could gain remote access to someone's car—just as they do to people's personal computers—and take over the vehicle's basic functions, including control of its engine, according…
From ACM News
Physicists Build Single-Atom Memory For Quantum Information
A single atom of rubidium sits at the heart of an exotic new quantum memory device.
From ACM News
Mark Zuckerberg's 650 Million Friends (and Counting)
Back in June 2009, the globe's potpourri of social-networking sites was dazzlingly diverse: Google's Orkut dominated India and Brazil; Central and South America preferred Hi5; Maktoob was king in the Arab world. The Vietnamese…
From ACM TechNews
Cyberattack-Alert System Could Be Model For U.s.
Washington is in the process of deploying a statewide system that will provide early warnings about cybersecurity threats to participating organizations and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
From ACM TechNews
Extremely Fast Mram Data Storage Within Reach
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt researchers have developed a type of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) equipped with a special chip connection that results in reduced response times and increased data rates.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers 'kinect' Data to Make Faster Diagnoses
University of Minnesota researchers are using an Xbox Kinect as a part of a medical tool that produces diagnoses of mental disorders in small children, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder.
From ACM TechNews
Taiwan Researchers Turn to Silk for Flexible E-Devices
Silk membranes can be used for flexible e-book readers, LED displays, and RFID tools, according to researchers at the National Tsing Hua University. A team has turned liquid silk into membranes that work as insulators for a…
From ACM News
GPS Chaos: How a $30 Box Can Jam Your Life
Signals from GPS satellites now help you to call your mother, power your home, and even land your plane – but a cheap plastic box can jam it all.
From ACM News
New Net Rules Set to Make Cookies Crumble
The way Websites track visitors and tailor ads to their behavior is about to undergo a big shake-up. From 25 May, European laws dictate that "explicit consent" must be gathered from Web users who are being tracked via text…
From ACM News
Tv's Next Wave: Tuning In to You
The television is channeling you. Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people's TV-viewing behavior with other personal data—in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers—and…
From ACM News
Software Progress Beats Moore
One of the old jokes in computing is that what the hardware giveth, the software taketh away.