Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2010
From ACM News
Solid-State Leds Promise Brighter, Not Necessarily Greener, Future
Solid-state lighting pioneers long have held that replacing the inefficient light bulbs with more efficient solid-state LEDs would lower electrical usage worldwide. But a new paper by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories…
From ACM News
Tiny Logo Demonstrates Advanced Display Technology
In a step toward more efficient, smaller and higher-definition display screens, a University of Michigan professor has developed a new type of color filter made of nano-thin sheets of metal with precisely spaced gratings.
From ACM News
Google Scholarship Program Kicks Off in China
Google hosted more than 130 Google Scholarship recipients at its Beijing office earlier this month. The undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and software engineering were the recipients of the company's first…
From ACM News
China's Secure Communications Quantum Leap
A team of 15 Chinese researchers in May published a research paper announcing a successful demonstration of "quantum teleportation" over 16 kilometers of free space. The technology has the potential to revolutionize secure…
From ACM TechNews
W3c Launches Web Performance Working Group
A new W3C working group will focus on improving the measurement of Web application performance times.The Web Performance Working Group will initially create a common API for measuring Web page loading and Web app performance.
From ACM TechNews
Size Matters: Canadian Research Could Shrink Gadget Size
McGill University researchers have found that quantum dots are capable of creating large voltages that can keep compact electronic devices running. "We need to understand their properties if we want to control nano devices,"…
From ACM News
Yahoo! Labs Competition Yields Better Ranking Model
The Learning to Rank Challenge showed Yahoo! that its approach to search is on target, but there’s still room for improvement.
From ACM TechNews
Synaptic Behavior Captured By New Memristor Circuit Design
University of Tehran researchers Farnood Merrikh-Bayat and Saeed Bagheri have found that two memristors used in a series work more like a human brain using Hebbian learning.
From ACM TechNews
Nasa's Robot Rovers Keep on Rolling
Researchers from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are working with robotics engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to prevent the space agency's Rovers from getting stuck on the moon or Mars.
From ACM News
Hacker
On the Internet, he was known as BadB, a disembodied criminal flitting from one server to another selling stolen credit card numbers despite being pursued by the United States Secret Service.
From ACM News
Online Games Are a Gold Mine for Design Ideas
Gone are the days when video gaming was a private pursuit. Gaming services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live not only connect players in living rooms the world over, they can also record every move each gamer makes. Academic researchers…
From ACM News
Mining Mood Swings on the Real-Time Web
Many companies are turning to social-media sites to gauge the success of a new product and service. The latest activity on Facebook, Twitter, and countless other sites can reveal the public's current mood toward a new film…
From ACM News
alr Model to Help Organize, Keep Private 'vast Ocean' of Social Network Data
Researchers from the College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have developed a new model to manage the "vast ocean" of user-generated content being generated by the ever…
From ACM News
Michael L. Norman Named Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center
Michael L. Norman has been named to the position of director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego.
From ICT Results
Robots Learning From Experience
Software that enables robots to move objects about a room, building up ever-more knowledge about their environment, is an important step forward in artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Ready for 2020? Advice for Every Career Stage
Information technology has always been a fast-changing field. But nothing compares to the expected sea changes in the next decade that will impact the career plans of every generation of IT worker.
From ACM News
Alien Hunters 'should Look For Artificial Intelligence'
A senior astronomer has said that the hunt for alien life should take into account alien "sentient machines."
From ACM News
Scientists Help Explain Graphene Mystery
Nanoscale simulations and theoretical research performed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing scientists closer to realizing graphene's potential in electronic applications.
From ACM TechNews
Android Phones Can Substitute For Supercomputers
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Texas Advanced Computing Center have developed an Android application that can take simulations from supercomputers and solve them further on a mobile phone.
From ACM TechNews
Location-Based Applications Driving Innovation in Wireless Communications Industry
Fifty experts recently attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute's second International Workshop on Opportunistic Radio Frequency Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices.
From ACM TechNews
The Future of the Web Is a Matter of Semantics
Researchers at Athens Information Technology and the National Technical University of Athens say there are three main issues to overcome before the semantic Web becomes a reality.
From ACM TechNews
Ho-Hum to High Performance: Boring Material Could Lead to Electronics Revolution
Cornell University researchers have found that when the oxide compound europium titanate is sliced nanometers thin and stretched on a specially designed template, it takes on properties that could revolutionize the electronics…
From ACM TechNews
Researcher Cracks Recaptcha
Independent researcher Chad Houck recently released algorithms that can crack Google's reCAPTCHA program, even after the company's recent improvements to the security tool.
From ACM TechNews
Cool! Researchers Find Way to se Hvac Ducts For Wireless Monitoring Technology
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a system based on RFID tags that uses a building's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning ducts for wireless-monitoring applications. The work could lead to significant…
From ACM News
How Wikileaks Keeps Its Funding Secret
The controversial website WikiLeaks, which argues the cause of openness in leaking classified or confidential documents, has set up an elaborate global financial network to protect a big secret of its own—its funding.
From ACM News
When You Google, Think Ben Gomes
Like few other people on the planet, Google's Ben Gomes knows what interests the world.
From ACM News
Virtual Router Smashes Speed Records
Software-driven networking will enable new Internet protocols.
From ACM News
Scientists Hack Into Cars' Computers
It sounds like a Hollywood movie: cybercriminals in a van use a laptop to hack wirelessly into the computer-controlled systems of the car on the road ahead. In seconds the target car's engine, brakes, and door locks are under…
From ACM News
Oracle's Android Lawsuit: A Pandora's Box of Serious Evils
A deeper look at Oracle's legal claims show how an Oracle win or a Google give-in could destroy Android and even open source.
From ACM News
For Pianist, Software Is Replacing Sonatas
The pianist Robert Taub was puttering around the house one afternoon in 2004 while his teen-age daughter was practicing for a violin lesson—a Schubert sonatina in A minor. His assessment of her playing was diplomatic: "She…