Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2010
From ACM News
Redesigning the Web For Touch Screens
Last week, in an essay criticizing Adobe's Flash platform, Apple CEO Steve Jobs drew attention to, among other things, its lack of support for touch--something essential to the experience of an iPhone or iPad. "Flash was designed…
From ACM TechNews
Intel Labs Finds a Way to Create Routers sing Clustered Servers
Intel Labs says it can reuse or reconfigure commodity type servers and convert them into data center routers. The reused servers are programmable and scalable.
From ACM TechNews
FCC Chairman Genachowski Expected to Leave Broadband Services Deregulated
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski wants to keep broadband services deregulated, despite a federal court decision indicating that the agency has difficulty monitoring broadband providers. …
From ACM News
Army of Smartphone Chips Could Emulate the Human Brain
If you have a smartphone, you probably have a slice of Steve Furber's brain in your pocket. By the time you read this, his 1-billion-neuron silicon brain will be in production at a microchip plant in Taiwan.
From ACM News
Audiences, and Hollywood, Flock to Smartphones
It might be hard to imagine watching "The Office" on a screen no bigger than a business card. But tens of thousands of people--by the most conservative estimate--are already doing just that.
From ACM News
Why Are Computer sers Still Choking on Spam?
Who is actually responsible for sending spam. It might surprise many to learn that the number one source of spam is the United States, according to a new report.
From ACM News
Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer: There's an App For That
IPhone, iPad and Motorola Droid users can now, with the touch of a button, instantly access the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer office with a new, free app allows anyone to easily connect to the office.
From ACM News
'smart Dust' Aims to Monitor Everything
In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.
From ACM News
The Data-Driven Life
Humans make errors. We make errors of fact and errors of judgment. We have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stream of attention. Sometimes we can’t even answer the simplest questions. Where was I last week at…
From ACM News
Police Wiretapping Jumps 26 Percent
The number of wiretaps authorized by state and federal judges in criminal investigations jumped 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
From ACM News
Privacy Concerns Limit Online Ads, Study Says
Privacy advocates have had an impact on Madison Avenue after all, according to a new study.
From ACM News
Why Twitter Is the Future of News
It's basically impossible for a journalist who relies on Twitter to find stories, stalk editors, rack up "whuffie" and beef with rap stars to be objective about the service. Fortunately, I don't have to be, because four researchers…
From ACM News
Shoppers Who Can
It’s called behavioral tracking: Cameras that can follow you from the minute you enter a store to the moment you hit the checkout counter, recording every T-shirt you touch, every mannequin you ogle, every time you blow your…
From ICT Results
Complex Software Systems
Researchers from Israel and six EU countries have carried out pioneering work on self-healing software capable of automatically and autonomously detecting, identifying and fixing errors in the copious lines of code that make…
From ACM TechNews
Nanodots Breakthrough May Lead to 'A Library on One Chip'
North Carolina State University's Jay Narayan led a research effort to create a computer chip that has enough memory to store all the information in a library.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithms Provide a Model of Railway Efficiency
The European Union-funded ARRIVAL project, a collaboration of researchers from seven European countries, has developed algorithms that can optimize planning and scheduling in complex rail networks.
From ACM TechNews
Innovations in STEM Education: A Conversation With Pcast's Jim Gates
An upcoming President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report will address the issue of improving pre-college math and science education in the United States.
From ACM TechNews
Nist: Federal R&d Boosts Industry
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) annual report details innovations developed by federal labs and private-sector organizations.
From ACM TechNews
Eu Security Agency Backs Cloud Computing Research
A report from European Union security agency Enisa says that cloud computing, wireless networks, and supply chain integrity should be the focus of information technology security research during the next three to five years.
From Communications of the ACM
Thacker Wins Turing Award
Microsoft's Charles P. Thacker named 56th recipient of ACM's A.M. Turing Award.
From Communications of the ACM
Happy Birthday, RDBMS!
The relational model of data management, which dates to 1970, still dominates today and influences new paradigms as the field evolves.
From Communications of the ACM
Cloud Computing and Developing Nations
For a growing number of organizations worldwide, cloud computing offers a quick and affordable way to tap into IT infrastructure as an Internet service. But obstacles and challenges remain.
From Communications of the ACM
Modeling the Astronomical
Advances in computer technology have changed the way astronomers see and study the universe.