Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2011
From ACM News
Data Mining ncovers New Connections Between Health Problems
Researchers in Denmark are using data mining techniques to uncover new connections between health problems as seemingly unrelated as migraines and hair loss.
From ACM News
Drone Makers Seek Out New Targets
Almost a century after the first pilot-less plane was test launched from the back of a truck in the English village of Upavon, unmanned aircraft vehicles, or drones, are smarter, more lethal... and seeking new growth drivers…
From ACM News
Dhs Thinks Some Scada Problems Are Too Big To Call "bug"
The Stuxnet worm may be the most famous piece of malicious software ever written. When it was first detected, a little over a year ago, the worm sounded a warning to nations around the world that critical infrastructure systems…
From ACM News
Security Expert: .s. 'leading Force' Behind Stuxnet
German cybersecurity expert Ralph Langner warns that U.S. utility companies are not yet prepared to deal with the threat presented by the Stuxnet computer worm, which he says the U.S. developed.
From ACM TechNews
New Mathematical Model to Enable Web Searches For Meaning
University of Hertfordshire computer scientist Daoud Clarke has developed a mathematical model based on a theory of meaning that could revolutionize artificial intelligence technologies and enable Web searches to interpret the…
From ACM TechNews
'stampede's' Comprehensive Capabilities to Bolster .s. Open Science Computational Resources
The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Advanced Computing Center announced that it will deploy and support Stampede, a new supercomputer that will offer data-intensive computing and visualization capabilities for the open…
From ACM News
Net Neutrality Rules Published, Lawsuits Soon to Follow
The FCC has finally officially published long-delayed rules prohibiting cable, DSL, and wireless internet companies from blocking Web sites and requiring them to disclose how they slow down or throttle their networks.
From ACM TechNews
Software Upgrades Could Produce Self-Tuning Wireless Access Points, Researchers Say
University of Wisconsin, Madison researchers have developed Airshark, software that enables wireless access points to automatically detect radio-frequency interference and make adjustments to preserve the quality of Wi-Fi connections…
From ACM News
Setting Boundaries For Internet Privacy
Watchful European privacy regulators are wielding increasing influence beyond the Continent’s borders.
From ACM TechNews
New Targets For the Control of Hiv Are Predicted sing a Novel Computational Analysis
Virginia Tech researchers have developed a computational approach that can predict several human proteins that the human immunodeficiency virus requires to replicate itself.
From ACM TechNews
Sdsc Announces Scalable, High-Performance Data Storage Cloud
The University of California, San Diego's San Diego Supercomputer Center recently launched an academic-based cloud storage system designed specifically for researchers, students, academics, and industry users who need to store…
From ACM News
Inside Facebook's Bid to Reinvent Music, News, and Everything
Earlier this year, Daniel Ek, the CEO of the music service Spotify, was in a car with Mark Zuckerberg. Ek was visiting the Facebook founder in California while the two companies were working together on what eventually would…
From ACM News
Policing the Digital Storage Landscape
Cyberlockers are the next frontier for storing music, movies, and other personal files on the Internet, but the entertainment industry wants lawmakers to ensure this digital storage landscape is made safe for copyright enforcement…
From ACM News
Smarter Robot Arms
A combination of two algorithms developed at MIT allows autonomous robots to execute tasks much more efficiently—and move more predictably.
From ACM News
'stingray' Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash
For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply "the Hacker." Only after using a little known cellphone-tracking device—a stingray—were they able to zero in on a California home and make the arrest…
From ACM TechNews
Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
Traction for the free-network movement is growing as activists, scholars, and entrepreneurs pursue efforts to repurpose existing online networks or create parallel networks to fight corporate or governmental repression.
From ACM News
Scientists se Brain Imaging to Reveal the Movies in Our Mind
Imagine tapping into the mind of a coma patient, or watching one’s own dream on YouTube. With a cutting-edge blend of brain imaging and computer simulation, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are bringing…
From ACM News
Will We All Be Tweaking Our Own Genetic Code?
You have to wonder what's going on in the DNA of Harvard genetics professor George Church. What extra bit of code does he have that the rest of us don't? If genes tell the story of a person's life, then some altered sequence…
From ACM News
Mining Data For Better Medicine
The antidepressant Paxil was approved for sale in 1992, the cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol in 1996. Company studies proved that each drug, on its own, works and is safe. But what about when they are taken together?
From ACM TechNews
Fraunhofer SCAI Successfully Completes Pilot Project on Information Extraction from Chinese Scientific Literature
The Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing recently completed a pilot Chinese text mining project.
From ACM TechNews
App Lets niversity Students Send Video Instantly to Police
The University of Maryland at College Park has launched a phased rollout of a smartphone app that can provide students, faculty, and staff with a direct and instantaneous line of communication to campus police and dispatch.
From ACM TechNews
Technically, Science Will Be Less Lonely For Women When Girls Are Spurred Early
Girls are being sent a message at a young age that careers in math and science are marked by social isolation and will make them seem less attractive. However, peer pressure and cultural expectations of femininity can be overcome…
From ACM News
Will We Ever Learn to Live with Artificial Humans?
How Japan's AKB48 has created a new level of artificial human—and what it tells us about the infamous Uncanny Valley.
From ACM News
The War on Red-Light Cameras
Late last month, after a drawn-out battle dating back to November, Houston finally turned off its 70 red-light cameras. City residents voted them down in a referendum during the midterm elections, then a federal judge deemed…
From ACM Opinion
Google Searching For New Ideas
If anyone can preview the future of computing, it should be Alfred Spector, Google's director of research. Spector's team focuses on the most challenging areas of computer science research with the intention of shaping Google's…
From ACM TechNews
Call It Your Online Driver's License
The White House's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace encourages the private-sector creation and public adoption of online user authentication systems.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers to Detail Hole in Web Encryption
Security researchers Juliano Rizzo and Thai Duong will demonstrate an attack that compromises Transport Layer Security 1.0 at the Ekoparty conference in Argentina.
From ACM TechNews
Intel Runs PC on CPU Powered by Solar Cell
Intel recently demonstrated Claremont, an experimental low-power processor the size of a postage stamp that could run PCs using solar power by dropping energy consumption to under 10 milliwatts.
From ACM TechNews
Information Technologies Can Foster Freedom or Reinforce Repression
New communication tools such as text messaging and social networks my not be as uniformly beneficial or as robust as suggested by the media, which portrays them as powerful ways to enhance freedom, according to Penn State University…
From ACM TechNews
Mining Data For Better Medicine
Researchers are utilizing digital medical records to conduct wide-ranging studies on the effects of certain drugs and how they relate to different populations.