Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2013
From ACM News
Meet the Machines that Steal Your Phone's Data
The National Security Agency's spying tactics are being intensely scrutinized following the recent leaks of secret documents. However, the NSA isn't the only U.S. government agency using controversial surveillance methods.
From ACM News
Better Thinking Tools
A new book calls for human-computer interfaces that better support thinking and learning.
From ACM News
Man Controls New Prosthetic Leg sing Thought Alone
A man missing his lower leg has gained precise control over a prosthetic limb, just by thinking about moving it—all because his unused nerves were preserved during the amputation and rerouted to his thigh where they can be used…
From ACM TechNews
Ella Gale: Building a Neuromorphic (brainlike) Computer
Ella Gale, one of the young researchers attending the 1st Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany, says her interest is unconventional computing.
From ACM News
How Engineers Revamped Spitzer to Probe Exoplanets
Now approaching its 10th anniversary, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has evolved into a premier observatory for an endeavor not envisioned in its original design: the study of worlds around other stars, called exoplanets.
From ACM News
Interstellar 8-Track: How Voyager's Vintage Tech Keeps Running
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has gone interstellar.
From ACM News
What Is a Jpeg? The Invisible Object You See Every Day
In 2012, the photograph of Barack and Michelle Obama embracing after his re-election was "liked" over 4 million times.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Archaeologists Reconstruct Lost Web Pages
Researchers recently embarked on an effort to reconstruct deleted social media posts and resources, in part from the clues they leave behind on the web.
From ACM TechNews
New Computer Program Redefines Interview Preparation
My Automated Conversation Coach is a new interactive program designed to strengthen users' social skills, especially as they pertain to conversations.
From ACM TechNews
3D Mapping Is a 'pisa' Cake For Aussie Scientists
Zebedee is a new handheld three-dimensional mapping system that includes a laser scanner to capture millions of detailed measurements of a site.
From ACM TechNews
Military Lags in Push For Robotic Ground Vehicles
While private companies are moving forward with self-driving vehicles, the U.S. military has been slow to deploy the technology.
From ACM TechNews
Bold Idea For 'big Data'
Researchers are working to develop a customized, energy-efficient optical network that can feed massive amounts of data into Rice University supercomputers.
From ACM TechNews
Wi-Fi Sniffing Lets Researchers Take Social Snapshots of Crowds
Researchers have used Wi-Fi probe requests from smartphones to take a social snapshot of large gatherings of people.
From ACM Careers
In Search of the Next Boom, Developers Cram Their Apps Into Smart Watches
The age of wearable computing is upon us.
From ACM News
Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself," wrote Walt Whitman, America's great bard of self-promotion.
From ACM News
Empty F-16 Jet Tested By Boeing and .s. Air Force
Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones.
From ACM News
Ready, Aim . . . Puff?
New 3D haptic technologies let users touch and feel virtual objects.
From ACM News
How BlackBerry Finally Found Its Buyer
The BlackBerry melodrama may finally be coming to a close.
From ACM TechNews
European niversities Catch the Online Wave
Europe is beginning to embrace massive open online courses, which have steadily gained popularity in the United States over the past several years.
From ACM TechNews
Special Feature: Five Questions for Berkeley Lab's CRD Director
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Computational Research Division director David Brown says applied mathematics helps supercomputers solve scientific problems.
From ACM TechNews
Encrypted Heartbeats Keep Hackers from Medical Implants
Rice University researchers have found a solution to the potential for hacking an implanted defibrillator.
From ACM News
Teardown Shows Iphone 5s Costs at Least $199 to Build, $173 For the 5c
New iPhones always gladden the hearts of the analysts at the research firm IHS, because it means it's time to tear the phones apart.
From ACM Opinion
How Ios 7 Will Spark a Boom in App Design
You probably feel strongly about iOS 7.
From ACM News
Apple's A7 Chip Makes a Run at Intel
Is Apple simply engaging in PR puffery when it talks about its "desktop" A7 chip? Not so fast.
From ACM News
Utilities Try to Learn From Smart Meters
Utilities have installed more than 60 million smart meters in North America in the past decade.
From ACM News
Nsa Efforts to Evade Encryption Technology Damaged .s. Cryptography Standard
In the three months since Edward Snowden began his whistle-blowing campaign against the National Security Agency (NSA) the former government contractor has exposed the agency’smassive online eavesdropping efforts and attempts…
From ACM TechNews
Suspect Nist Crypto Standard Long Thought to Have a Back Door
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology advises against using the Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generation standard.
From ACM TechNews
Sweet! Tiny, Far-Flying Robot Based on Honeybee
Researchers are developing a flying robot based on the honeybee.
From ACM TechNews
Linux Kernel Luminaries Talk Enterprise, Embedded and Why They're Coming Together
Although developing the Linux kernel is a difficult and complicated process, it also is one that is moving ahead with some speed.
From ACM TechNews
Gold in the Data, but a Shortage of Miners
As the government and private industry increasingly strive to mine huge quantities of data for valuable information, a shortage of big data experts is likely to persist.