Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2014
From ACM TechNews
Insect-Inspired Sensors Improve Tiny Robot’s Flight
RoboBee is a tiny flying robot with a self-stabilizing feature inspired by the light-sensing organs of insects.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Sundar Pichai Is the Most Powerful Man in Mobile
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, Samsung introduced new software for its tablets, called the Magazine UX.
From ACM News
Brain Power
A "kick" during the World Cup opening ceremonies shows the progress of helping the paralyzed to move again.
From ACM News
Massachusetts High Court Orders Suspect to Decrypt His Computers
Massachusetts' top court ruled, in a 5-2 decision on Wednesday, that a criminal suspect can be ordered to decrypt his seized computer.
From ACM News
Major Ruling Shields Privacy of Cellphones
In a sweeping victory for privacy rights in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Wednesdayunanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cellphones of people they arrest.
From ACM News
Computer Spots Rare Diseases in Family Photos
Doctors faced with the tricky task of spotting rare genetic diseases in children may soon be asking parents to email their family photos.
From ACM News
Big Broadcasters Vanquish Upstart Aereo at U.s. Supreme Court
Broadcast and cable TV are not dead yet.
From ACM Opinion
The Case That Might Cripple Facebook
An Irish judge has rendered a preliminary judgment that may have sweeping consequences for U.S. e-commerce firms.
From ACM TechNews
.s. Intelligence Agency Wants Brain-Like Algorithms For Complex Information Processing
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence wants to develop technology that will enable computers to think like humans.
From ACM TechNews
Statistical Tricks Extract Sensitive Data From Encrypted Communications
Private information can be obtained from encrypted communications using a technique known as traffic analysis to find patterns in the data stream.
From ACM TechNews
Who's Your Daddy? Ucf Students Program Computer to Find Out
Researchers are developing a facial recognition program designed to rapidly match pictures of children with their biological parents.
From ACM TechNews
The Secret Formula to Successful Online Dating
Researchers have studied the behavior of 200,000 people on Chinese dating site Baihe.com to gain insight into how successful online matches are made.
From ACM TechNews
Google Glass Snoopers Can Steal Your Passcode With a Glance
Newly developed software uses video from wearable devices such as Google Glass and smartwatches to read PIN codes typed onto an iPad from almost 10 feet away.
From ACM TechNews
The Quest For Ethical Algorithms
Imperial College Intelligent Systems and Networks Group deputy head Jeremy Pitt is working to endow algorithms with a sense of ethics.
From ACM News
Researchers nveil Experimental 36-Core Chip
The more cores—or processing units—a computer chip has, the bigger the problem of communication between cores becomes.
From ACM News
Microsoft Makes Bet Quantum Computing Is Next Breakthrough
Modern computers are not unlike the looms of the industrial revolution: They follow programmed instructions to weave intricate patterns.
From ACM News
Introducing the Vacuum Transistor: A Device Made of Nothing
In September 1976, in the midst of the Cold War, Victor Ivanovich Belenko, a disgruntled Soviet pilot, veered off course from a training flight over Siberia in his MiG-25 Foxbat, flew low and fast across the Sea of Japan, and…
From ACM News
Researchers Find and Decode the Spy Tools Governments se to Hijack Phones
Newly uncovered components of a digital surveillance tool used by more than 60 governments worldwide provide a rare glimpse at the extensive ways law enforcement and intelligence agencies use the tool to surreptitiously record…
From ACM News
Wearables For Animals
Wearable technologies help pet and livestock owners know their animals better than ever before.
From ACM News
These Psychedelic Images Find Order Amid Chaos
What do you see when you look at these images?
From ACM TechNews
Physicists Find Way to Boot Up Quantum Computers 72 Times Faster Than Previously Possible
Saarland University researchers have developed a new method of booting up quantum computers to set up a chip with just five quantum bits.
From ACM TechNews
A High-Performance First Year for Stampede
Approximately 3,400 researchers from 350 institutions used the Stampede supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center in its first year.
From ACM News
Nasa's Mars Curiosity Rover Marks First Martian Year
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover will complete a Martian year—687 Earth days—on June 24, having accomplished the mission's main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
From ACM TechNews
High-Performance Computer System Installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory has a new high-performance computer system called Wolf that will be used for unclassified research.
From ACM News
Beyond Tianhe-2
The TOP500 semi-annual ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers, announced yesterday, revealed that China's Tianhe-2 has kept its first-place position.
From ACM Opinion
Former Nsa Chief Mike Mcconnell Says Culture, Not Tech, Is Key to Cyber Defense
John M. (Mike) McConnell says that technology alone isn't enough to secure corporate networks from pervasive and increasingly damaging cyberattacks.
From ACM News
Indoor Gps Is the Final Frontier of Personalized Navigation
Labs in the U.S. and U.K. are working on next-generation GPS that's so cool, it won't even use satellites.
From ACM Careers
nblinking Eyes Track Employees
A digital Big Brother is coming to work, for better or worse.
From ACM TechNews
Columbia Engineering Team Finds Thousands of Secret Keys in Android Apps
Columbia University researchers have discovered a security problem in Google Play.
From ACM TechNews
Shortage of Cybersecurity Professionals Poses Risk to National Security
The nationwide shortage of cybersecurity professionals is posing risks for national and homeland security, according to a RAND Corporation study.