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 Careers
Inside the Secret Building That's Bringing Cell Service To Nyc's Subway
As Hurricane Sandy revealed almost two years ago, New York's 100-year-old subway is not a modern and robust system.
From ACM News
The Bbc Doesn't Want to Be Forgotten By Google
Since agreeing to comply with the European Court of Justice’s decision that people have the right to be forgotten, Google has received about 50,000 requests for Web pages to be removed from European search results.
From ACM TechNews
Google Agitates For a Revolution in Web Development
Google company engineers say Web Components, a World Wide Web Consortium standard designed to help organize complex Web pages, will "change everything."
From ACM TechNews
California Public Schools to Incorporate More STEM Education
A task force on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in California schools has given its recommendations to the state.
From ACM TechNews
Fake Followers for Hire, and How to Spot Them
Researchers have developed machine-learning software that can identify crowdturfing, a term for falsifying one's popularity on social media sites.
From ACM TechNews
Thinking Out of the Flat Box: Software Renders Earth's Atmosphere in 3d Splendor
A Princeton University scientist has developed free software for use with a program that calculates the true spatial dimensions and curvature of Earth's atmosphere.
From ACM Careers
Here's What the Leaders of Tech Told Graduates in 2014
Graduates around the world gather at the end of spring for one final lesson: the commencement speech.
From ACM News
Tibetan Altitude Gene Came from Extinct Human Species
Tibetans are comfortable at high altitudes where the air is thin.
From ACM News
Panel Endorses Some Nsa Internet Surveillance
A bipartisan privacy board on Wednesday unanimously adopted its report that endorses some of the National Security Agency's Internet surveillance programs.
From ACM News
Could Color Wheels Make For Easier, More Secure Passwords?
The password as we know it is in critical condition.
From ACM News
Can Google Design a Car Touchscreen That Isn't a Dangerous Distraction?
Automakers are increasingly integrating touchscreens into vehicles—to the dismay of safe-driving advocates, who justifiably fear people are already too distracted by phone calls and texts while driving.
From ACM News
Carnegie Mellon Machine Learning Method Automatically Cuts Boring Parts From Long Consumer and Security Videos
Smartphones, GoPro cameras, and Google Glass are making it easy for anyone to shoot video anywhere.
From ACM TechNews
Norway Internet Voting Experiment Fails
Norway has ended a pilot online voting program.
From ACM TechNews
Forecasting Future May One Day Become as Practical as Predicting Weather, Thanks to Big Data Advances
The Early Model Based Even Recognition using Surrogates (EMBERS) project was created to develop ways to use big data to forecast significant societal events.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Flashlight Reveals Secrets of Ancient Artefacts
The Revealing Flashlight projects computer-generated models onto real objects, filling in missing details wherever the spotlight lands.
From ACM TechNews
Ask the Crowd: Robots Learn Faster, Better With Online Helpers
University of Washington computer scientists have discovered crowdsourcing is an effective way to teach robots.
From ACM TechNews
Number of Women Entering IT Continues to Decline, Says BCS Report
A new report finds girls in the U.K. who study computing and information and communications technology at A-level perform at a higher level than boys.
From ACM News
Quantum State May Be a Real Thing
At the very heart of quantum mechanics lies a monster waiting to consume unwary minds.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Robotics Challenge Gets Tougher
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is extending preparation time for the final round of its DARPA Robotics Challenge by six months.
From ACM News
How a Little Open Source Project Came to Dominate Big Data
It began as a nagging technical problem that needed solving.
From ACM News
The AP's Newest Business Reporter Is an Algorithm
Journalistic earnings stories can feel robotic, even when written by a news organization as prestigious as the Associated Press.
From ACM News
The NSA Revelations All in One Chart
This is a plot of the NSA programs revealed in the past year.
From ACM News
Microrobots Are the "bee's Knees" For Harvard Professor
At some point in the future, RoboBees may be able to perform the task of pollination.
From ACM TechNews
Automotive Grade Linux Hits the Road
Car vendors have an open source platform for building embedded applications and features in Automotive Grade Linux.
From ACM News
The $8.5m Race to Protect Planes From Cosmic Rays
It's an invisible, but looming threat from outer space: distant cosmic events that can cause a computer, or even an aircraft, to crash here on Earth.
From ACM TechNews
UA-Developed Technology Helps Find Happy Middle Between Low Temps and High Bills
A monitor developed by researchers at the University of Arizona allows consumers to set the temperature in their homes based on how much they want to spend on electricity.
From ACM TechNews
U.c. San Diego Researchers Build Tool to Help Secure Iot
A new tool allows hardware designers and system builders to test the security of embedded devices.
From Communications of the ACM
Robots Compete in Disaster Scenarios
The DARPA Robotics Challenge pitted teams from around the world against each other in a series of disaster-themed tasks.
From Communications of the ACM
Big Data Meets Big Science
Next-generation scientific instruments are forcing researchers to question the limits of massively parallel computing.
From Communications of the ACM
Holographic Projection Systems Provide Eternal Life
Optical tricks help deceased entertainers keep on performing.