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 News
Biology's Master Programmers
George Church is an imposing figure—over six feet tall, with a large, rectangular face bordered by a brown and silver nest of beard and topped by a thick mop of hair. Since the mid-1980s Church has played a pioneering role in…
From ACM TechNews
Silicon Valley's Top Threat Is China, Survey Finds
Many high-level technology executives are convinced that some other country, probably China, will supplant Silicon Valley as the global center for innovation within the next four years, according to a KPMG survey of 668 executives…
From ACM TechNews
Google's Futuristic Glasses Move Closer to Reality
Google recently announced that it is selling a prototype of its Internet-connected glasses, known as Google Glasses, to U.S. computer programmers for $1,500, hoping they can suggest improvements and build applications that will…
From ACM TechNews
Computing Advances Vital to Sustainability Efforts
Advances in computing, such as those that help to understand complex systems and their connections, are crucial to solving sustainability problems, according to a recent National Research Council report.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Develop Method For Authenticating Digital Images By Analyzing 'noise'
University at Albany computer scientist Siwei Lyu and colleagues have identified a method of using "noise" to authenticate digital photography.
From ACM TechNews
Universal Speech Translator App Ready for Olympics
The 2012 Olympic Games in London will serve as the test bed for a new smartphone application that will enable people to converse with others in their own language.
From ACM News
'leap Second' Bug Wreaks Havoc Across Web
Reddit, Mozilla, Gawker, and possibly many other web outfits experienced brief technical problems on Saturday evening, when software underpinning their online operations choked on the "leap second" that was added to the world's…
From Communications of the ACM
HTML5 Leads a Web Revolution
Propelled by a proliferation of mobile devices and social networks, an enhanced family of Web specifications is bringing new power to developers and new capabilities to users.
From Communications of the ACM
Patently Inadequate
The biggest change to U.S. patent law in nearly 60 years brings many changes, but fails to solve the software industry's most vexing problems.
From Communications of the ACM
Lost and Found
Researchers discover computer pioneer Konrad Zuse's long-forgotten Z9, the world's first program-controlled binary relay calculator using floating-point arithmetic.
From Communications of the ACM
Degrees of Separation
Researchers now have the capability to look at the small-world problem from both the traditional algorithmic approach and the new topological approach.