Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2010
From ACM TechNews
Improving Network Firewalls
Researchers believe that analyzing the constantly changing log files of corporate firewalls can provide more helpful data on computer network traffic and a better assessment of a network's firewall protection.
From ACM News
Study Shows Students Are Addicted to Social Media
A new study from the University of Maryland concludes that most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable, to be without their media links to the world.
From ACM News
Germany Launches Project to Boost It R&d in India
The German-Indian Partnership for IT Systems (GRIP-IT) cooperative project will promote collaboration and forge new ties in promising areas of IT
R&D
such as embedded systems, the Internet of Things, and Green IT.
From ACM News
High-Tech $100 Bill Designed to Combat Counterfeiting
The U.S. has unveiled a new design for the $100 note with advanced technology features to combat counterfeiting.
From ACM TechNews
An Artificial Eye on Your Driving
Researchers at Tel Aviv University and General Motors are developing algorithms that will enable car-mounted cameras to detect road hazards and alert drivers to make split-second decisions.
From ACM TechNews
A New European Project to Boost Multilingual Internet se
The European Monnet project is building multilingual ontologies to retrieve and present information across languages, as well as to meet industry and governmental needs to better use the information on the Internet.
From ACM TechNews
Self-Training Video Analytic Software Developed to Monitor Crowds
Curtin University of Technology researchers have developed software that can detect unusual behavior in crowds, providing a new tool in the fight against crime and terrorism.
From ACM TechNews
Robots With Skin Enter Our Touchy-Feely World
A team at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in May will circulate to various labs the first components of a touch-sensitive skin for their iCub humanoid robot.
From ACM TechNews
A Flexible Color Display
Hewlett-Packard Labs researchers are testing a flexible, full-color display that saves power by reflecting ambient light instead of using a backlight.
From ACM TechNews
Ultrathin Silk-Based Electronics Make Better Brain Implants
University of Pennsylvania engineers have designed silk-based electronics that can stick to the surface of the brain, allowing for better brain-computer interfaces.
From ACM TechNews
Prace Award 2010 Winners Announced
ISC has named Klaus Iglberger and Ulrich Rude, professors at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, the winners of the 2010 Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe Award.
From ACM TechNews
Secure P2p Scheme Leverages Social Networks
Microsoft and Catholic University of Leuven researchers are proposing Drac, a method to secure anonymous instant messaging and voice-over-IP communication using peer-to-peer technology.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Sponsors New Web Font Standard
Microsoft has become a sponsor of a World Wide Web Consortium effort to standardize Web-based fonts with technology called the Web Open Font Format (WOFF).
From ACM News
Google Releases Data on Governments' Demands For User Data, Site Censorship
Advertisers aren't the only ones hungry for data on online users. So are U.S. and foreign governments, according to Internet giant Google.
From ACM News
Apple Removes Teaching App From App Store, and Educators Complain
Apple generally makes news by publishing new apps, not by unpublishing them. But last week, it made some educators upset when it removed an app, Scratch Viewer, from the iTunes App Store.
From ACM News
PC Makers Vie To Be Green-est
Leading PC makers have introduced "green" models and set goals for "toxin free" product lines, but other manufacturers say the supply chain is unable to deliver them toxin-free components.
From ACM News
Oak Ridge Lab, Industry to Collaborate in Advanced Battery Research
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and American industry will tackle some of the most critical challenges facing lithium ion battery production.
From ACM News
Startups Find Room to Run on Crowded Social Web
A little more than a year ago, the young co-founders of social network games maker Playdom were sitting pretty. Hit games including Mobsters had helped make their software among the most popular on MySpace. "It was very happy…
From ACM News
Real-Time Search
How do you parse a tweet? Five years ago, that question would have been gibberish. Today, it's perfectly sensible, and it's at the front of Amit Singhal's mind. Singhal is leading Google's quest to incorporate new data into search…
From ACM News
Robotic Therapy Helps Stroke Patients Regain Function
Stroke patients who received robot-assisted therapy were able to regain some ability to use their arms, even if the stroke had occurred years earlier, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
From ACM TechNews
Loose Clicks Sink Ships
University of California, Berkeley researchers have developed a system that analyzes audio recordings of keyboard clicks to reconstruct an accurate transcript of what has been typed on a computer.
From ACM TechNews
Barcodes Help Objects Tell Their Stories
Five U.K. academic institutions have collaborated to create the Tales of Things, a Web site based on the concept of the Internet of things that enables users to create online entries for physical objects.
From ICT Results
Web-Ifying the Real World
New technologies and tools developed by European researchers will apply the power of online knowledge discovery to offline, real-world situations. These researchers are web-ifying real life.
From ACM News
Grant Will Develop Cell Phone Sampling Strategy to Survey Young Adults
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health has received a grant to develop and implement an innovative sampling approach that accesses cell phones to reach young adults.
From ACM News
Cyberattack on Google Said to Hit Password System
New details have been disclosed about information stolen in the attacks on Google's computers announced in January. The losses included a password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of…
From ACM News
Virus Publishes Web History of Victims on the Net
A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public Web site before demanding a fee for its removal.
From ACM News
Why Computer Science Students Cheat
Enrollment in undergraduate computer science courses is at an all-time high at colleges nationwide. But this trend that's been hailed by the U.S. tech industry has a dark side: a disproportionate number of students taking these…
From ACM News
Why Intel Wants to Get Into Energy
Intel showed off an experimental device last week in China that could someday substantially cut the costs of wiring homes and offices for energy efficiency, one more step in the company’s foray into energy.
From ACM News
Robots Look to the Cloud for Enlightenment
With the phrase "web 2.0" falling out of vogue, the most exciting new uses of the internet are now all about the cloud, a term for servers invisibly doing smart, fast things for net users who may be on the other side of the world…
From ACM TechNews
Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley
Although technology hubs such as Silicon Valley boast that they are open to good ideas irrespective of the age, educational level, or station in life of the inventor, women are finding that gender bias still exists.