Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2013
From ACM News
Apple's iMessage Encryption Trips Up Feds' Surveillance
Encryption used in Apple's iMessage chat service has stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on suspects' conversations, an internal government document reveals.
From ACM TechNews
Digital Shrinks Find Depressed Faces and Body Language
Automated systems that analyze gestures and facial expressions could make the challenging task of diagnosing depression somewhat easier.
From ACM TechNews
New Hybrid Memory Cube Spec to Boost Dram Bandwidth By 15x
The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium has announced the final specifications for 3D dynamic random-access memory.
From ACM TechNews
Obama to nveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain
President Barack Obama is launching a research initiative to record and map the brain's circuitry.
From ACM TechNews
Swarming Robots Could Be the Servants of the Future
Researchers are working to program a group of 40 robots as part of a robot swarms project that could benefit the medical field, industry, and the military.
From ACM Careers
Visa Demand Jumps
For the first time since the financial crisis, U.S. employers are expected within days to reach a limit on the yearly allotment of applications for coveted skilled-worker visas, a sign of the strengthening economy that means…
From ACM TechNews
End of the Line For Roadrunner Supercomputer
The Roadrunner supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be decommissioned this week.
From ACM TechNews
It’s in the Algorithm: Tight Races in Major League Baseball Chase This Year
Researchers have used a mathematical analysis to compute the number of regular season games each Major League Baseball team should win in 2013.
From ACM News
Top Brain Scientist Is 'philosopher at Heart'
d Boyden tilts his head downward, remaining still except for his eyes, which dart back and forth between blinks for a full 10 seconds. Then, as if coming up for air from the sea of knowledge, he takes a breath, lifts his head…
From ACM News
No More Robocalls: New Tech Automatically Hangs p On Robots
Every month, the Federal Trade Commission receives 200,000 complaints about illegal robocalls, making it the most common problem reported to the FTC.
From ACM News
Obama to nveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain
President Obama on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers nveil Large Robotic Jellyfish That One Day Could Patrol Oceans
A 170-lb. autonomous robotic jellyfish is part of a multi-university project funded by the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Program Claims First Victory Over Shogi Professional
A computer program has defeated an active shogi professional for the first time.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf-Supported Stampede Opens the Gates of Advanced Computation to Thousands of Research Teams
The U.S. National Science Foundation's Stampede supercomputer is the most powerful within the NSF Extreme Digital environment.
From ACM Opinion
You'll Never Believe the Data 'wiped' Smartphones Store
Few things are more precious, intimate, and personal than the data on your smartphone.
From ACM Careers
Vcs Bet Big Bucks on Hadoop
Venture capitalists are pouring millions of dollars into startups that are betting their futures on the powerful data tool called Hadoop. The tool holds promise for companies and government agencies that are trying to solve their…
From ACM Opinion
The Child, the Tablet, and the Developing Mind
I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.
From ACM TechNews
Could Google Tilt a Close Election?
A psychologist sees potential for a dominant search engine to sway close elections without most voters noticing.
From ACM TechNews
Holograms Add New Dimension to Fighting Fire
A researcher in Italy is combining holograms with thermal imaging to make fighting fires safer.
From ACM TechNews
Google Australia Funds Universities to Spur Computer Science
Google Australia is providing funding to 12 universities to develop workshops to help high school teachers promote computer science in their curricula.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Official on New Supers, Data-Intensive Future
Two supercomputers recently moved closer to their goals of advancing major human-centered scientific projects.
From ACM TechNews
Making Robots Mimic the Human Hand
A new initiative aims to build low-cost artificial hands using widely available products such as cellphone cameras and sensors.
From ACM TechNews
Biological Transistor Enables Computing Within Living Cells, Study Says
Bioengineers have created a biological transistor they call a transcriptor, which is made from genetic material instead of gears or electrons.
From ACM TechNews
Crowd-Funding Is Working For Open Source Projects
The company behind the LiveCode development tool has used crowd-funding to raise the money it needs (and more) to create an open source edition of its software.
From ACM News
Moocs Strategize To Generate Revenue
MOOCs are being pressed to come up with revenue-producing business models. Are they being held to a higher standard than other Internet startups?
From Communications of the ACM
Looking Back at Big Data
As computational tools open up new ways of understanding history, historians and computer scientists are working together to explore the possibilities.
From Communications of the ACM
Artificial Connections
Scientists at the Blue Brain Project are using supercomputers to simulate neural connections in a 3-D model of a slice of mammalian brain.
From Communications of the ACM
Inexact Design: Beyond Fault-Tolerance
In a new approach to making computers more efficient, called "inexact," "probabilistic," or "approximate" computing, errors are not avoided; they are welcomed. Some call it "living dangerously."