Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2012
From ACM Opinion
Timing Is Everything For the Games' Chief Timer
Timing is everything for Peter Hürzeler, a man for whom "good enough" simply isn't.
From ACM TechNews
The Latest Threat: A Virus Made Just For You
Georgia Tech's Paul Royal has shown that a newly refined technique could make automated analysis of malware nearly impossible, and he plans to reveal his work at the upcoming Black Hat conference.
From ACM Opinion
What a Win or Loss on Mars Will Mean
Anyone who's looked at the "Seven Minutes of Terror" trailer for next month's Mars landing might have wondered whether the planners behind NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission really knew what they were doing—and…
From ACM TechNews
Scalable Device for Quantum Information Processing
National Physical Laboratory researchers have developed a monolithic 3D ion microtrap array that could be scaled up for use in quantum computing to run quantum algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
Madi Malware: Advanced Persistent Threat or Just a Threat?
When Kaspersky Labs announced its discovery and monitoring of the Madi malware, it was quickly labeled by many as an advanced persistent threat, which initiated a semantic argument about the use of the term.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Find New Principle For Spin Transistor
Electron spin could be used to control electron current in a transistor-like structure and improve the performance of electronics.
From ACM News
DARPA-Funded Researcher Can Take Over Android And Nokia Phones By Merely Waving Another Device Near Them
Smartphones' growing adoption of so-called "near field communications" promises to let the device in your pocket wirelessly make payments, beam info to other phones, and seamlessly sync with nearby computers. It might also let…
From ACM Opinion
Xerox: h, We Didn't Invent the Internet
Who invented the Internet?
From ACM News
Micro-Drones: The New Face of Cutting-Edge Warfare
Micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) with uncanny navigation and real-time mapping capabilities could soon be zipping through indoor and outdoor spaces, running reconnaissance missions that others cannot.
From ACM Opinion
Obama Was Right: The Government Invented the Internet
Earlier this month, President Obama argued that wealthy business people owe some of their success to the government's investment in education and basic infrastructure. He cited roads, bridges, and schools. Then he singled out…
From ACM TechNews
Software Detects Motion That the Human Eye Can't See
MIT researchers have developed the Eulerian video magnification process, a set of software algorithms that can amplify certain aspects of a video and reveal what is normally undetectable to the human eye.
From ACM TechNews
New Lab Working on Security Shoe Sole to ID People
Carnegie Mellon University researchers are developing shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas. Sensors in the "bio-soles" check the pressure of the wearer's feet, monitor their gait, and use a computer…
From ACM Opinion
Russia's Top Cyber Sleuth Foils S Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals
It's early February in Cancun, Mexico. A group of 60 or so financial analysts, reporters, diplomats, and cybersecurity specialists shake off the previous night's tequila and file into a ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. At…
From ACM TechNews
.k. Government Calls on Academia to Train Tomorrow's Cyber Security Experts
The U.K. government's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has invited universities to apply for grants to run two new dedicated Centers for Doctoral Training, which will train postgraduates to maintain the U.K.'s…
From ACM TechNews
First GraphLab Workshop on Large-scale Machine Learning
The recent First GraphLab Workshop on Large-scale Machine Learning brought together industry and academic professionals to explore the state-of-the-art on the development of machine-learning techniques for working with huge data…
From ACM TechNews
Study: Twitter Analysis Can Be Used to Detect Psychopathy
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University, the Online Privacy Foundation, and Kaggle recently invited computer scientists to develop models that can identify psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism through people's Twitter…
From ACM News
Apple Warms Up to Hackers, Plans Presentation at Black Hat
In the 15 years that computer hackers have gathered in Las Vegas for the Black Hat conference, an event where unknowns can become stars and tech heavyweights are skewered for security failures, one company has been noticeably…
From ACM News
Silicon Valley Says Step Away From the Device
Stuart Crabb, a director in the executive offices of Facebook, naturally likes to extol the extraordinary benefits of computers and smartphones.
From ACM Opinion
Can Data Mining Stop the Killing?
Would Total Information Awareness have stopped James Eagan Holmes?
From ACM TechNews
One Course, 150,000 Students
MIT professor Anant Agarwal recently completed teaching Circuits and Electronics, the first course in MITx, a massive open online learning platform from MIT, which ran from March 5 to June 8 and enrolled more than 150,000 students…
From ACM TechNews
Million-Year Storage Solution Is Set in Stone
Patrick Charton of the French nuclear waste management agency ANDRA presented a sapphire storage data solution at a recent forum. Information engraved on a sapphire hard disk that has the potential to last 1 million years.
From ACM News
Nothing But Net? Basketball Science Has More Answers
In a multibillion-dollar sport like basketball, one might expect that trainers had figured out every nuance of aerodynamics, mechanics and all things Newtonian to increase the rate at which the ball goes through the hoop.
From ACM News
Apple v. Samsung: The Patent Trial of the Century
Samsung Electronics Co. recently leapfrogged Apple Inc. as the world's largest seller of smartphones.
From ACM News
Mystery Tug on Spacecraft Is Einstein's 'i Told You So'
It's been a bad year to bet against Albert Einstein.
From ACM TechNews
College Degrees, Designed By the Numbers
Colleges are starting to tap opportunities inherent in big data, using insights mined from information about students' performance to tailor courses and degrees. For example, Arizona State University has a system that tracks…
From ACM News
Intel Fights to Keep Hp, Dell, and Other Customers from Defecting
Some of chip colossus Intel's biggest customers and partners are exploring a competing microprocessor design, signaling the start of a much-anticipated tech donnybrook that analysts say could trigger a dramatic shift in the computer…
From ACM News
Robot Swarms Aim to Bring Buildings to Life
Meet the man who wants to create architecture that understands everything about us — down to our emotional states — and learns from its mistakes.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Squeeze Gpu Performance From 11 Big Science Apps
The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility published a report in which researchers documented that GPU-equipped supercomputers increased application speeds by a factor of between 1.4 and 6.1 across a range of science applications…
From ACM TechNews
Nacl to Give Way to Rocksalt
Harvard University researchers have developed RockSalt, software that can boost the security and enhance the performance of commonly used Web and mobile applications.
From ACM TechNews
A Texas Hold 'em Tournament For Ais
This year's Annual Computer Poker Competition includes three poker games, including heads-up limit, heads-up no limit, and three-player limit Texas Hold 'Em.