Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2010
From ACM News
To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery
The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida.
From ACM News
Russian Mathematician Wins $1 Million Brize But Appears to Be Happy with $0
Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem? Perhaps the smartest man in the world.
From ACM TechNews
Intel to Focus on How Computers Will Be sed in the Future
Intel has created Interaction and Experience Research, a new research lab led by Intel fellow Genevieve Bell that will enable scientists to explore how people will use computers in the future.
From ACM News
The Achilles' Heel of Your Computer
Device drivers account for most crashes and even introduce security problems; a new testing tool could provide an early warning.
From ACM News
Biometric Atm Gives Cash Via 'finger Vein' Scan
Poland's cooperative BPS bank says it's the first in Europe to install a biometric ATM--allowing customers to withdraw cash simply with the touch of a fingertip.
From ACM News
'paperless Ticketing' Aims to Thwart Scalping at Concerts, Sports Events
Anyone who's ever chased a hot ticket for a concert or sports event knows the agony of the drill. Wait--online or in line--until the box office opens and then compete against the masses, including crafty ticket brokers, for the…
From ACM News
The Tech Refresher Russia's Spies Needed
From James Bond to Johnny English, the movies give us the impression that spies are top of the tree when it comes to money-no-object espionage technology. But that doesn't seem to have been the case with the 10 people charged…
From ACM News
Insect-Like Robot Crawls Into Microrobot Contenders' Ring
University of Washington engineers have built an insect-like robot with hundreds of tiny legs. The UW model can carry more than seven times its own weight and move in any direction.
From ACM News
Study Explains the Aerodynamics of Soccer
With the attention of sports fans worldwide focused on South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, U.S. scientist John Eric Goff has made the aerodynamics of the soccer ball a focus of his research.
From ACM News
Patented Electronic Braking System Prevents Slips on Walkers
Rolling walkers—which help senior citizens maintain mobility and an active lifestyle—have just become safer and easier to use.
From ACM News
IBM Research Grant Awarded For Database Enhancement Application Development
The University of Haifa's Ami and Teddy Sagy Center for the Study of the Internet has been awarded IBM's $40,000 Open Collaborative Research grant for their proposal to develop "crowd computing" applications.
From ACM News
Haptics Brings a Personal Touch to Technology
Of all the senses, touch as been somewhat neglected as a human means of interacting with machines. Labs around the world are now racing to close the gap while the first commercial applications are hitting the market.
From ACM News
Taiwanese Companies Join on Cloud Computing For Asia
Taiwan's biggest telecommunications company, Chunghwa Telecom, has signed an agreement with Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract laptop maker, to jointly develop cloud computing software, services and hardware products…
From ICT Results
Turning Remote Control Into Intimate Support
All the remote controls lying around our houses or fixed to our walls can be combined via new standardised middleware. Combined control enables new levels of home support to the elderly and disabled.
From ACM TechNews
The Challenge of Molecular Communication
Research led by Ph.D. student Sachin Kadloor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are investigating how much information can be exchanged via molecular communication.
From ACM TechNews
Share Information to Boost Cellphone Performance
Dartmouth College researchers led by Emiliano Miluzzo say that sharing data gathered by cell phone sensors could improve the accuracy of the data and the applications that rely on the data.
From ACM TechNews
Roll-p Computers and Their Kin
Digital reading technology has evolved from the original Amazon Kindle, which cost $400 and displayed four shades of gray, to devices that are much less expensive and offer significantly better displays.
From ICT Results
Virtual Reality You Can Reach Out and Touch
A team of European researchers has "virtually" teleported real objects through cyberspace, touched things in virtual reality and even felt the movements of a virtual dance partner.
From ACM News
IBM Names Firefox Its Default Browser
Firefox has become the default browser for nearly 400,000 IBM employees, a big coup for the open-source project during a time of increasing browser competition.
From ACM News
Arrests of Alleged Spies Draws Attention to Steganography
A year ago in April, the government says, the accused operative known as Richard Murphy and his supposed wife, "Cynthia Murphy," booted up a computer in their comfy suburban Montclair, N.J., home. They visited a publicly available…
From ACM News
Computer Automatically Deciphers Ancient Language
A new system that took a couple hours to decipher much of the ancient language Ugaritic could help improve online translation software.
From ACM News
With World Watching, Wikileaks Falls Into Disrepair
Would-be whistle-blowers hoping to leak documents to Wikileaks face a potentially frustrating surprise. Wikileaks’ submission process, which had been degraded for months, completely collapsed more than two weeks ago and remains…
From ACM News
Making Optical Switching More Practical For Telecom
Using all-optical controls could speed the transmission of telecommunications data, but optical switches that can work at high bandwidths need a lot of energy to turn on and off.
From Communications of the ACM
Visions of the Future
ACM joined forces with the British Computer Society to deliver its first academic research conference in Europe.
From Communications of the ACM
Committed to Success
Charles P. Thacker talks about the importance of simplicity, reusable tools, thinking broadly, and his practice of Tom Sawyering.
From Communications of the ACM
Censored!
Countries use Internet censorship to dominate the political dialogue, but also to create favorable conditions for government-controlled businesses.
From Communications of the ACM
Sharing Computational Perspectives
Computer scientists are now making intellectual contributions to a wide range of other disciplines, including evolutionary theory, physics, and economics.
From Communications of the ACM
Mainstreaming Augmented Reality
Advancements in computer vision, object recognition, and related technologies are leading to new levels of sophistication in augmented-reality applications and presenting new ways for humans to relate to the natural world.
From Communications of the ACM
Eric Brewer: Change Agent
Eric Brewer's latest project involves designing and deploying low-cost wireless infrastructure in developing regions.