Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2013
From ACM News
Terrorists Turn to Online Chat Rooms to Evade U.s.
Al-Qaida fighters have been using secretive chat rooms and encrypted Internet message boards for planning and coordinating attacks, including the threatened if vague plot that U.S. officials say closed 19 diplomatic posts across…
From ACM News
The New York Times Was Losing $5 Per Second Thanks to Its Web Site Outage
The New York Times is still reeling from a massive Web outage that took down its homepage, its corporate Web site, and everything in between.
From ACM TechNews
Some Like It Cold: Intelligence Agencies Push For Low-Power Exascale
The U.S. intelligence community is investing in superconductive computing research so it can help institute more efficient, low-power exascale computing.
From ACM TechNews
CLA Researcher Invents New Tools to Manage 'information Overload' Threatening Neuroscience
A research map tool allows neuroscientists to quickly scan existing neuroscience research and plan their next study, avoiding information overload.
From ACM TechNews
The Making of Facebook’s Graph Search
Graph Search could help Facebook grow from a tool for entertainment and communication into a search tool that could challenge Google's search dominance.
From ACM TechNews
Wireless Devices Go Battery-Free With New Communication Technique
A new wireless communication method enables devices to interact without batteries or wires, a development that could advance the Internet of things.
From ACM TechNews
Nice Threads! Computer Scientists Develop New Model to Simulate Cloth on a Computer With Unprecedented Accuracy
A new model simulates the way cloth and light interact, making cloth look more realistic in animated movies and video games.
From ACM TechNews
It Helps Researchers See Their Data Like Never Before
A new system allows scientists to view data in three dimensions over various time spans.
From ACM News
Congress Starts Looking Into Bitcoin
A Senate committee is pressing federal regulators and law enforcement officials to explain how they plan to oversee Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as the issue gains increasing attention from government officials concerned…
From ACM News
How to Share Scientific Data
Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth catalog and a Silicon Valley muse, once said that information wanted to be free and expensive, simultaneously. That paradox is increasingly haunting the world of modern science.
From ACM News
'spoofers' Use Fake Gps Signals to Knock a Yacht Off Course
University of Texas researchers recently tricked the navigation system of an $80 million yacht and sent the ship off course in an experiment that showed how any device with civilian GPS technology is vulnerable to a practice…
From ACM News
Jpl, Masten Testing New Precision Landing Software
A year after NASA's Mars rover Curiosity's landed on Mars, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are testing a sophisticated flight-control algorithm that could allow for even more precise, pinpoint…
From ACM News
World's Most Influential Thinkers Revealed
Who are the most influential thinkers on the planet? That's a question that you might imagine ought to be straightforward to determine, given the recent advances in the study of social networks and how information flows around…
From ACM News
The Worm Crawls Out – International Team Creates a Digital C. Elegans
Researchers are developing a digital model of a worm, in the hope it will shed light on how various biological systems work.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Develops Programming Language Inspired By the Human Brain
IBM has created a programming architecture for a cognitive computer chip inspired by the human brain.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Create Tiny Bendy Power Supply for Even Smaller Portable Electronics
A new micro-supercapacitor could lead to mobile phones and cameras that are smaller, lighter, and thinner than existing devices.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Communication Controlled By Resonance in 'artificial Atoms'
Researchers have described a method to control a quantum bit for electronic quantum communication in a series of quantum dots.
From ACM News
More Connected Homes, More Problems
As a growing number of Internet-connected home appliances hit the market, David Bryan and Daniel Crowley worry that digital ne'er-do-wells will get new ways to take control of these devices, unlocking your house, running up your…
From ACM News
As New Targets For Hackers, Your Car and Your House
Imagine driving on the freeway at 60 miles per hour and your car suddenly screeches to a halt, causing a pileup that injures dozens of people.
From ACM News
Views You Can se? How Online Ratings Affect Your Judgment
Are you influenced by the opinions of other people—say, in the comments sections of websites?
From ACM TechNews
Electric Therapy For Medical-Device Malware
A new system designed to catch malware on medical devices by noting subtle changes in their power consumption is designated WattsUpDoc.
From ACM Careers
Linkedin Connects Big Data, Human Resources
Every second, more than two more people join LinkedIn's network of 238 million members.
From ACM Opinion
How Wearable Technology Could Transform Business
Once upon a time seeing your life flash before your eyes was something people did their best to avoid. The arrival of Google Glass seems to have changed that.
From ACM TechNews
5.5-Million-Euro Virtual Train Tests Project Nears Completion
The DynoTRAIN project allows manufacturers of rail vehicles to test trains virtually, to ensure they meet safety standards while saving on development costs.
From ACM TechNews
NASA Calls on Researchers to Build Smarter Space Robot
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced a new challenge focused on building a smart robot.
From ACM TechNews
Hardware Trick Could Keep Cloud Data Safe
The new Ascend chip could protect data in the cloud by concealing the way in which central processing units request information in cloud servers.
From ACM TechNews
Twitter Tracker Shows Where Food Poisoning Is a Risk
A new machine-learning system can track tweets and show which restaurants are giving people food poisoning.
From ACM TechNews
Google's Project Loon Begins Tests in California
Google will test its Project Loon in California's Central Valley.
From ACM TechNews
Dhs Adds Foraging to Tech Arsenal
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security can turn to technology foraging when it does not have a specific technology needed to solve a problem.
From ACM News
Coding For Brain Chips Gives Cognitive Computing Boost
It's a cognitive leap forward. IBM can now program an experimental chip they unveiled two years ago.