Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2012
From ACM TechNews
Security Experts Warn of Risky Attacks on Tech-Loaded Cars
Computer security experts are now focusing on cars as automakers increasingly include computers and electronic communication systems in their latest models.
From ACM TechNews
Future Memory: Ferroelectric Materials Could Bring Down Cost of Cloud Computing
Northwestern University researchers have developed a class of organic crystalline materials that have a ferroelectric property, which means they could be used in computer and cell phone memory applications such as cloud computing…
From ACM TechNews
One-Molecule-Thick Material Has Big Advantages
MIT researchers have developed a method for using molybdenum disulfide to make a variety of electronic components.
From ACM News
Watson Turns Medic: Supercomputer to Diagnose Disease
It is more than a year since Watson, IBM's famous supercomputer, opened a new frontier for artificial intelligence by beating human champions of the quiz show Jeopardy!. Now Watson is learning to use its language skills to help…
From ACM News
Coming Soon, Google Street View of a Canadian Village You'll Never Drive To
There are no cars in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Aside from a few trucks, snowmobiles are the preferred form of transportation for much of the year in the hamlet high in the Canadian Arctic.
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Begins Driving at Bradbury Landing
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.
From ACM News
Stealthy, Tiny, Deadly, Global: The Drone Revolution's Next Phase
Today's unmanned robotic planes only seem advanced.
From ACM News
Why Passwords Have Never Been Weaker—and Crackers Have Never Been Stronger
In late 2010, Sean Brooks received three e-mails over a span of 30 hours warning that his accounts on LinkedIn, Battle.net, and other popular Websites were at risk.
From ACM TechNews
Computer-Simulated Knitting Goes Right Down to the Yarn
Cornell University researchers demonstrated a method for building simulated knitted fabric out of an array of individual stitches at the SIGGRAPH 2012 conference.
From ACM TechNews
The Big Apple's Big Data Advantage
Microsoft's new research lab in Manhattan will focus on big data analysis, examining massive amounts of information created by the world's digital users, says lab director Jennifer Chayes.
From ACM TechNews
Data and Democracy: Building Tools For Citizen Engagement
Developing tools to promote citizen engagement, specifically direct participation by citizens in the political process, is the goal of CITRIS' Data and Democracy Initiative.
From ACM TechNews
As Smart Electric Grid Evolves, Engineers Show How to Include Solar Technologies
An optimization algorithm could help ensure that solar technologies are integrated with existing technologies such as energy storage and control systems.
From ACM TechNews
The Wild World of Wearable Computers
The technology associated with wearable computers is growing quickly and could become a priority in the near future.
From ACM News
Study To Test 'talking' Cars That Would Warn Drivers Of Unseen Dangers
Experts predict that our cars will one day routinely "talk" to one another with wireless communication devices, possibly preventing huge numbers of traffic accidents.
From ACM News
Wind Sensor Damaged on NASA's Curiosity Rover
NASA has reported its first setback in the Curiosity rover mission to Mars.
From ACM News
3D Printers Tell You When Your Design Will Fail
Make a mistake with your average office printer and the worst that happens is a paper jam and some wasted ink. Do the same with a 3D printer, though, and your newly realised creation—anything from a toy to a key piece of machinery—could…
From ACM News
The Technology Race For Intelligent E-Textbooks
The next-generation college textbook will undoubtedly be an "intelligent e-textbook."
From ACM TechNews
ICANN Expects gTLD Applications Processing to Start December
ICANN expects to implement a new batching process for generic top-level domains by December.
From ACM TechNews
Uc Research Promises Quiet Cars--Even When Hitting Unexpected Bumps in the Road
University of Cincinnati researchers have developed an adaptive, active algorithm that enables the deployment of a rapid-response sound wave that could counter and significantly reduce the perceived road noise heard within a…
From ACM TechNews
Google Raises Ante for Next Chrome Hacking Contest to $2M
Google announced that it will pay up to $2 million for the discovery of major vulnerabilities in the Chrome browser at the Pwnium hacking contest.
From ACM TechNews
Nature: Electronic Read-Out of Quantum Bits
Magnetic molecule complexes may solve a dilemma for quantum computing, which would use quantum effects and also would be susceptible to external influences.
From ACM News
Secrets Learned in Apple-Samsung Trial
When companies go to trial, as Apple and Samsung have learned, the public gets to hear corporate secrets. Among those revealed:
From ACM News
Your Car, Tracked: The Rapid Rise of License Plate Readers
Tiburon, a small but wealthy town just northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge, has an unusual distinction: It was one of the first towns in the country to mount automated license plate readers (LPRs) at its city borders—the only…
From ACM News
Experts Hope to Shield Cars from Computer Viruses
A team of top hackers working for Intel Corp's security division toil away in a West Coast garage searching for electronic bugs that could make automobiles vulnerable to lethal computer viruses.
From ACM News
New Nasa Mission to Take First Look Deep Inside Mars
NASA has selected a new mission, set to launch in 2016, that will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars to see why the Red Planet evolved so differently from Earth as one of our solar system's rocky planets.
From ACM Opinion
Will the Next Election Be Hacked?
Two years ago, hackers gained access to an online voting system created by the District of Columbia and altered every ballot on behalf of their own preferred candidates.
From ACM TechNews
Recreating a Slice of the niverse
Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have developed Arepo, software that can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over…
From ACM TechNews
Digital Doppelgangers: Building an Army of You
U.S. National Science Foundation researchers have developed a smart, animated, digital double that can interact with other people via a screen when the user is not present.
From ACM TechNews
Wedding Digital With Traditional
MetaLAB at Harvard University's primary goal is to find new ways to access, annotate, remix, display, and share information from the humanities.
From ACM TechNews
New Free Software to Radically Change City Planning Worldwide.
Researchers at Ciencia Viva's National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture have developed software that can classify any region in the world according to its pattern of development into one of five types, each with…