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 News
Software Translates Your Voice Into Another Language
Researchers at Microsoft have made software that can learn the sound of your voice, and then use it to speak a language that you don't.
From ACM TechNews
Saving Power, Saving Money
Case Western Reserve University researchers have developed a technique they say saves power and money in computer processors by using less energy and producing less heat.
From ACM TechNews
Ub Team's Software Is Set to Eyeball Liars
University of Buffalo researchers have developed video-analysis software that can analyze eye movements and determine when people are lying with significant accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Can't Identify Programming Language sed in Duqu, Ask For Help
A large portion of the Duqu Trojan was written in an unusual programming language, according to malware experts at Kaspersky Lab.
From ACM News
DARPA Director Bolts Pentagon For Google
Darpa director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon's premiere research shop to take a job with Google.
From ACM News
A Bit of Progress: Diamonds Shatter Quantum Information Storage Record
The quantum world and the everyday world of human experience are supposed to be two different realms. Quantum effects, as demonstrated in the lab, are usually confined to the tiniest scales.
From ACM News
Sometimes the Quickest Path Is Not a Sraight Line
Sometimes the fastest pathway from point A to point B is not a straight line: for example, if you're underwater and contending with strong and shifting currents.
From ACM TechNews
W3c Ceo Calls Html5 as Transformative as Early Web
World Wide Web Consortium CEO Jeff Jaffe says HTML5 will be among the most disruptive elements to hit organizations since the early days of the Internet.
From ACM TechNews
New Darpa Challenge Wants nique Algorithms For Space Applications
DARPA will launch the Zero Robotics Autonomous Space Capture Challenge on March 28, a contest that asks participants to develop unique algorithms to control small satellites on-board the International Space Station.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Censorship Revealed Through the Haze of Malware Pollution
To explain how the Egyptian and Libyan governments shut down the Internet in their countries in early 2011, researchers at the University of California, San Diego researchers conducted an analysis based on the drop in a specific…
From ACM News
Indiana Jones Goes Geek: Laser-Mapping LiDAR Revolutionizes Archaeology
"This is it—the paradigm shift," archaeologist Chris Fisher told Ars. "Just like the advent of radiocarbon dating, LiDAR will have the same impact."
From ACM News
Automatic Recharging, From a Distance
Think how convenient it would be if you could recharge electronic devices without ever having to plug them in—or even take them out of your briefcase.
From ACM News
Behind The Mask, Accused Lulzsec Members Left Trail Of Clues Online
When the long arm of the law reached in to arrest members of Anonymous's senior leadership on Tuesday, speculation immediately turned to the identities of the six men behind the Guy Fawkes mask.
From ACM News
How Hackers Are Caught Out By Law Enforcers
The Internet has gained a reputation as somewhere you can say and do anything with impunity, primarily because it is easy to disguise your identity.
From ACM Opinion
Cyberwar Is Already pon S
In the nearly 20 years since David Ronfeldt and I introduced our concept of cyberwar, this new mode of conflict has become a reality.
From ACM News
Three Things that Scare Google
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told a crowd of journalists Wednesday night that there are some things about technology and the Internet that scare him, too.
From ACM News
Cebit's Pole-Dancing Droids and Other New Technologies
Robots everywhere, driverless cars, new eco-solutions, screens that "read" feelings, and smart museums and stadiums—just some of the "City of the Future" technologies at this year's Cebit trade fair in Hanover, Germany.
From ACM News
One Thing Is Certain: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Is Not Dead
What Einstein's E=mc2 is to relativity theory, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is to quantum mechanics—not just a profound insight, but also an iconic formula that even non-physicists recognize.
From ACM TechNews
Tiny Linux Computer Punches Above Its Weight
The $25 Raspberry Pi computer could have an impact far beyond the educational sector, with early production runs showing significant demand for the technology.
From ACM TechNews
5 Thieves, 5 Cities, 12 Hours: Can Twitter Catch Them?
The U.S. State Department's Tag Challenge will offer a $5,000 prize to anyone who can use Twitter and other social media and online tools to track down five fictional jewel thieves at large in Washington, D.C., New York, London…
From ACM News
Fbi's 'sabu' Hacker Was a Model Informant
As soon as he was caught, an influential computer hacker agreed to become a government informant and "literally worked around the clock" to help federal agents nab an elusive collective of alleged cyber criminals who have launched…
From ACM TechNews
Testing Unbuilt Chips
MIT researchers have developed Hornet, a software simulator they say models the performance of multicore chips much more accurately than its predecessors.
From ACM News
Where 4,000,000 Phones a Year Go to Be Resurrected
The first thing I noticed when I stepped into Recellular's Ann Arbor warehouse was the flags. From the rafters, the flags of the world oversee the processing of more than four million cell phones each year.
From ACM News
Hail to the Geeks
Basketball dominates the American sports landscape in March. So perhaps it’s fitting that the sixth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, held last week in Boston, heavily showcased the great strides basketball analytics…
From ACM News
Your Kinect Is Watching You
There is a wave of concern—completely justified, to my mind—over the privacy implications of our increasing reliance on Facebook and Google. What most people don’t realize, however, is that these issues are dwarfed by the potential…
From ACM News
How a Web Link Can Take Control of Your Phone
A chilling demonstration to a small, packed room at the recent RSA security conference showed how clicking a single bad Web link while using a phone running Google's Android operating system could give an attacker full remote…
From ACM TechNews
Eavesdropping Antennas Can Steal Your Smart Phone's Secrets
Cryptography Research scientists have developed a method for a standard TV antenna, an amplifier, and specialized software to find the secret key being used by an application running on a smartphone to encrypt data.
From ACM TechNews
Pitt Research Team Says Communication Technologies Including Smartphones and Laptops Could Now Be 1,000 Times Faster
University of Pittsburgh researchers have demonstrated a physical basis for terahertz bandwidth, which is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave light.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Robot Sprints to Speed Record
A video on DARPA's Web site shows a four-legged robot reaching a galloping speed of up to 18 miles per hour, which is a new land-speed record for legged robots, according to DARPA.
From ACM TechNews
Mobile Mayhem
University of Utah researchers are using the University of Tennessee's Cray XT5 Kraken supercomputer to simulate burning and detonation processes in transportable explosives.