Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2012
From ACM TechNews
Ancient Sites Spotted From Space, Say Archaeologists
Computer science techniques have enabled archaeologists to discover about 9,000 possible early human settlements across 23,000 square miles in northeastern Syria.
From ACM TechNews
Survey: Android Programmers Shifting Toward Web Apps
Android is gradually slipping down mobile programmers' priority list, with Web apps stepping in as an answer to development difficulties, according to a recent Appcelerator survey.
From ACM News
Just the Facts. Yes, All of Them.
AT 7 years old, Gilad Elbaz wrote, "I want to be a rich mathematician and very smart." That, he figured, would help him "discover things like time machines, robots and machines that can answer any question."
From ACM News
Fbi Still Struggling With Supreme Court's Gps Ruling
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court said police had overstepped their legal authority by planting a GPS tracker on the car of a suspected drug dealer without getting a search warrant.
From ACM News
Controversy Surrounds Russia's Claim that Cosmic Rays Caused Mars Mission Failure
A heartbreaking, out-of-the-gate failure of Russia's sample return mission early this year created a wide circle of disappointment.
From ACM News
The Spanish Link in Cracking the Enigma Code
A pair of rare Enigma machines used in the Spanish Civil War have been given to the head of GCHQ, Britain's communications intelligence agency.
From ACM News
Protesters See Tweets Used Against Them
When Jeff Rae was arrested last October with hundreds of other Occupy Wall Street protesters during a march on the Brooklyn Bridge, he decided to fight the charges, believing he had been entrapped.
From ACM News
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents' garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October…
From ACM TechNews
Duqu Mystery Language Solved With the Help of Crowdsourcing
Kaspersky Lab researchers have determined the programming language used to generate the code for the DuQu virus' communications functions.
From ACM TechNews
Scale-Out Processors: Bridging the Efficiency Gap Between Servers and Emerging Cloud Workloads
EPFL professor Babak Falsafi recently presented "Clearing the Clouds: A Study of Emerging Workloads on Modern Hardware," which received the best paper award at ASPLOS 2012.
From ACM TechNews
Education Woes Linked to National Security
A report furnished by a U.S. task force warned that unless the American educational system improves, national security and economic prosperity will be threatened.
From ACM News
After Rutgers Spycam Case, niversities Grapple With Privacy Online
The conviction of Dharun Ravi in the Rutgers webcam spying trial last week raises difficult questions for universities when it comes to protecting students online and ensuring their policies keep up with the realities of campus…
From ACM News
Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past
Mining personal data to discover what people care about has become big business for companies such as Facebook and Google. Now a project from Microsoft Research is trying to bring that kind of data mining back home to help people…
From ACM News
The Soul of the New Hacktivist
In 1988, a Cornell graduate student, Robert Tappan Morris, let loose a computer worm on the fledgling version of the Internet. He said it was meant to be an experiment, but the code he wrote spun out of his control, affecting…
From ACM News
Hacktivists Out-Stole Cybercriminals in 2011
Just two years ago, cybercriminal gangs were behind record-breaking data breaches that resulted in the theft of millions of customer records. But the year 2011 will be remembered as the year hacktivists out-stole cybercriminals…
From ACM TechNews
Robotics Trends For 2012
IEEE's Erico Guizzo and Hizook.com founder Travis Deyle make several predictions regarding what will be big news in robotics this year.
From ACM TechNews
Researcher Aims to Use Social Multimedia For Enhanced Mapping
University of California, Merced professor Shawn Newsam is researching the viability of using multimedia collections as volunteered geographic information for mapping purposes.
From ACM TechNews
Carnegie Mellon Mobile App Secures Communications
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed SafeSlinger, a mobile application that helps users establish trusted relationships with others for spur-of-the-moment digital transactions.
From ACM News
The Snails of War
The electric snail is here. There's an electric cockroach too.
From ACM News
iPad Teardown Reveals $375.10 Total Cost; Samsung Wins Big
The new iPad costs about $364.35 for its bill of materials, according to a teardown analysis by IHS iSuppli.
From ACM TechNews
Free Apps Eat Up Your Phone Battery Just Sending Ads
Free versions of Android apps use up to 75 percent of their energy serving ads or tracking and uploading user data, says Purdue University's Abhinav Pathak. Free apps can drain a smartphone's battery in approximately 90 minutes…
From ACM TechNews
.s. Accelerating Cyberweapon Research
Former and current U.S. officials say the Pentagon is ramping up projects to develop next-generation cyberweapons that can disrupt enemy military networks even when they have no Internet connection.
From ACM TechNews
A Camera That Peers Around Corners
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a system that can produce recognizable three-dimensional images of objects located around corners and outside of the camera's line of sight.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Challenge Doesn't Go Viral on Twitter
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recent ended its Cash for Locating and Identifying Quick Response Codes challenge without anyone successfully completing the contest's full task.
From ACM TechNews
Study: Including Ads in Mobile Apps Poses Privacy, Security Risks
North Carolina State University researchers recently conducted a study on the privacy and security risks associated with mobile application advertisements, and found that some apps included aggressive ad libraries which pose…
From ACM News
The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
The spring air in the small, sand-dusted town has a soft haze to it, and clumps of green-gray sagebrush rustle in the breeze.
From ACM News
The Robots Are Coming! Better Get Used to It
For those of you reluctant to welcome our new robot overloads, it might be time to reconsider your stance.
From ACM News
Free Apps Eat Up Your Phone Battery Just Sending Ads
Struggling to make your smartphone battery last the whole day? Paying for your apps might help.
From ACM TechNews
Hp Scientists Envision 10-Teraflop Manycore Chip
Hewlett-Packard's research division is developing Corona, a manycore chipset designed to outperform existing average-sized high-performance computing clusters.
From ACM TechNews
Ethics Fight Over Domain Name Intensifies
The U.S. Commerce Department's announcement that it will temporarily extend ICANN's current Internet Assigned Numbers Authority contract for six months instead of renewing it prompted soon-to-depart ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom to…