Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2014
From ACM TechNews
Python Bumps Off Java as Top Learning Language
Python has surpassed Java as the top language used to introduce U.S. students to programming and computer science, according to a survey published by ACM.
From ACM TechNews
The New Atomic Age: Building Smaller, Greener Electronics
University of Alberta researchers say they are developing atomically precise technologies that have practical, real-world applications.
From ACM TechNews
Can Software Make Health Data More Private?
New software could give people more control over how their personal health information is shared between doctors and medical institutions.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Engineers Envision an Electronic Switch Just Three Atoms Thick
Stanford University researchers have developed a flexible crystal material that can form a paper-like sheet just three atoms thick and behave like a switch.
From ACM TechNews
The Next Big Programming Language You've Never Heard Of
The success of D, a programming language some see as the successor to C++, has surprised even its creators.
From ACM News
Row Hits Flagship Brain Plan
The European Union's high-profile, €1-billion Human Brain Project, launched last October, has come under fire from neuroscientists, who claim that poor management has run part of the effort's scientific plans off course.
From ACM News
Robots' Best Teachers Are Other Robots (in Cloud Networks)
Earlier this year, a vaguely humanoid robot served juice to a researcher lying on a hospital bed.
From ACM News
The ltra-Simple App That Lets Anyone Encrypt Anything
Encryption is hard.
From ACM News
Sun Sends More 'tsunami Waves' to Voyager 1
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a new "tsunami wave" from the sun as it sails through interstellar space.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Demos Lightweight, 94ghz Silicon System on a Chip
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says it has demonstrated an all-silicon, microchip-sized system on a chip that runs at 94 GHz.
From ACM TechNews
Hp Labs: Breaking Pcs to Build Better Systems
Hewlett-Packard recently opened the doors of its Science Labs facilities in Houston to more than 36 journalists and analysts for a day-long tour.
From ACM TechNews
Sdsc Assists Researchers in Novel Wildlife Tracking Project
Researchers are using a supercomputer to provide data on the range and movements of California condors, giant pandas, and dugongs.
From ACM News
Atoms Show The Way
A "quantum compass" will offer precise positioning data in places GPS cannot go.
From ACM News
Principles Are No Match For Europe's Love of U.s. Web Titans
On weekends, Guillaume Rosquin browses the shelves of local bookstores in Lyon, France.
From ACM News
From Google to Amazon: Eu Goes to War Against Power of S Digital Giants
Within the salons of the Elysée Palace, along the corridors of the European parliament and under the glass dome of the Reichstag, Old Europe is preparing for a new war.
From ACM News
Chainsaws, Gunshots, and Coughs: Our Smartphones Are Listening
From chainsaws whirring in rainforests to snoring that sounds like chainsaws, entrepreneurs are finding all sorts of creative ways to detect sounds using smartphones.
From ACM Opinion
Arm Tries to Spread Its Chips to Forests, Felds, and Factories
Forest fire on the way? Building stress getting too high? Farmland too moist?
From ACM TechNews
IBM Wants to Make its Watson Supercomputer as Small as a Pizza Box
IBM researchers are developing handheld computers with the power of today's supercomputers.
From ACM Careers
Keeping Time By Rubidium at the Naval Observatory
You know when you dial a number, and a man reads you the exact time at the tone? That precise timekeeping starts at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
From ACM TechNews
Linking Television and the Internet
Researchers are working on the LinkedTV project, a new television concept designed to connect TV offerings with the Internet.
From ACM TechNews
Female Cyber Sleuths Hack Into Silicon Valley's Boys Club
One area of the tech world in which women are making great gains is information security, where they outnumber men in certain positions.
From ACM TechNews
Blind Lead the Way in Brave New World of Tactile Technology
People are better and faster at navigating tactile technology when using both hands and several fingers, according to new research.
From ACM TechNews
Interview With the Most Influential Woman in UK IT 2014: Wendy Hall
ComputerWeekly.com has named University of Southampton computer science professor Wendy Hall its Most Influential Woman in UK IT 2014.
From ACM TechNews
China Still Has the Fastest Supercomputer, but the .s. Still Rules
Although China has the world's most powerful supercomputer, the United States produces more supercomputers than any other country.
From ACM Careers
Will Workplace Robots Cost More Jobs Than They Create?
The UK unveiled its robotics strategy last Tuesday, revealing a plan drawn up by the Technology Strategy Board that aims to spur the country on towards capturing a significant slice of what is predicted to become a multi-trillion…
From ACM News
Ibm: Commercial Nanotube Transistors Are Coming Soon
For more than a decade, engineers have been fretting that they are running out of tricks for continuing to shrink silicon transistors.
From ACM TechNews
Caught Up in the Nsa Net
The Washington Post has published an analysis of about 22,000 surveillance reports collected by the U.S. National Security Agency between 2009 and 2012.
From ACM News
Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick
Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores.
From ACM News
How a Little Open Source Project Came to Dominate Big Data
It began as a nagging technical problem that needed solving. Now, it's driving a market that's expected to be worth $50.2 billion by 2020.
From ACM News
Machines Finally Match Monkeys in Key Image-Recognition Test
There are so many ways that humans are still superior to machines.