Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2009
From ACM News
Open Source as a Model For Business Is Elusive
SAN FRANCISCO — In many ways, MySQL embodies the ideals of the populist software movement known as open source, in which a program’s creator releases it to the world free of charge, and legions of volunteers contribute improvements…
From ACM TechNews
Cell Phones to Provide Picture of Human Interaction
Pennsylvania State University (PSU) researchers are studying how emotions, physical health, and personal interactions affect individuals and those they interact with over the course of the day using real-time reports of interpersonal…
From ACM TechNews
Magic Box For Mission Impossible
Inspired by the struggles rescue workers faced following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, researchers in Norway, Spain, and Finland launched the CELTIC project DeHiGate to develop technology that ensures the use of phones…
From ACM TechNews
Human Brains Emulated in the Computer World
Lulea University of Technology researchers have developed a computer-based architecture that mimics human brain functions and could lead to systems capable of detecting and compensating for their own shortcomings or reducing…
From ACM TechNews
Building Real Security With Virtual Worlds
University of Maryland (UM) researchers are combining computerized modeling and group behavior predictions with video-game graphics to create virtual worlds that defense analysts can use to predict the results of military and…
From ACM TechNews
Proper se of English Could Get a Virus Past Security
Johns Hopkins University security researcher Josh Mason says hackers could potentially evade most existing antivirus programs by hiding malicious code within ordinary text. Mason and colleagues have discovered how to hide malware…
From ACM TechNews
niversity nites Industry, Gov to Tighten Energy Sector Cybersecurity
A Rice University program created to engage the energy industry and government about protecting power plants from cyberattacks hosted Dale Meyerrose, former CIO for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. University…
From ACM TechNews
Breakthrough in 'spintronics' Can Lead to Energy Efficient Chips
Scientists from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at University of Twente, and from the FOM Foundation, have successfully transferred magnetic information directly into a semiconductor at room temperature. The researchers…
From ACM News
Message Gone Viral? Blame Altruistic, Image-Conscious 'e-Mavens'
Why do some online ad campaigns go viral while other online marketing messages gather "cyber-dust" on the information superhighway? The key may lie in the motivation of Internet users to email that content to their social network…
From ACM News
Stony Brook niversity Students Win Sc09 Cluster Competition
A team of six computer-savvy Stony Brook University undergraduates won first place honors in the SC09 Student Cluster Competition during the annual, internationally-acclaimed Supercomputing Conference held at Portland, Ore.,…
From ICT Results
Project Formalizes Semantic Search Ontologies
European researchers have created new tools for semantic technology development which are helping to set the next generation of official standards. The tools also unblock some key bottlenecks in semantic technology.
From ACM TechNews
Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages
Despite being the fifth-most popular Web site in the world, Wikipedia, which receives about 325 million visitors each month, is losing unprecedented numbers of its volunteers, who write, edit, and police its content. In the…
From ACM TechNews
New Computer Cluster Gets Its Grunt From Games
A new graphics processing units (GPUs) computer cluster will process CSIRO research data thousands of times faster and more efficiently than a desktop PC as a complementary system to the supercomputing resources available to…
From ACM TechNews
'snowflock' Project Tackles Vm Management
University of Toronto computer science researchers at the school's recent Research In Action event demonstrated a cross-section of the exploratory technology projects being conducted by about 50 faculty and 300 graduate students…
From ACM TechNews
New Standard Lets Browsers Get a Grip on Files
The World Wide Web Consortium has published File API, an interface draft that Web browsers can use to better manipulate files and is part of a larger effort to provide a better foundation for interactive applications.
From ACM TechNews
Game On at Kingston niversity
A new state-of-the-art gaming facility should help Kingston University produce industry leaders in game development. Every desk in the laboratory has an Xbox and a handheld Sony PSP game console, and development hardware links…
From ACM TechNews
Smart Homes
Case Western Reserve University researchers are preparing to launch an 18-month project that will transform 104 homes in impoverished Cleveland neighborhoods into "smart homes," which will be powered by a super-high-speed network…
From ACM News
Lean, Green Machines
Designers of the German supercomputers that won the latest Green500 prize, which rewards not just computing power but energy efficiency, did not set out to win the award, but they did think carefully about energy consumption.…
From ACM News
nflattening Touch-Screen Buttons
Ever wish the flat touch screen buttons on your phone felt more like physical buttons?
Chris Harrison and Prof. Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon have developed a simple technology that turns touch-screen buttons into physical…From ACM TechNews
Research Team Wins Sc09 'storage Challenge' Award
A research team from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory won the Storage Challenge competition at the recent…
From ACM TechNews
A Translator Tool With a Human Touch
Nearly 100 IBM researchers are working on n.Fluent, a project to create an automatic translation tool that is fast and accurate enough to be used in instant-messaging between speakers using two different languages.
From ICT Results
Taking the Drudgery Out of Software Development
Software developers will no longer have to reinvent the wheel when writing new programs and applications thanks to a clever new set of tools and a central repository of "building blocks."
From ACM News
Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons
A man lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel, probes around inside the man's abdomen then withdraws one of its…
From ACM TechNews
New Step For the Future Web
The Semantic Evaluation At Large Scale (SEALS) project will develop a new research infrastructure dedicated to the evaluation of semantic technologies. The infrastructure, developed jointly by the Universidad Politecnica de…
From ACM TechNews
Ten Emerging Technologies to Watch in 2010
The editors at EE Times have compiled a list of 10 emerging technologies to watch in 2010.
From ACM TechNews
White House Pushes Science and Math Education
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday (November 23) announced Educate to Innovate, a campaign to enlist companies and nonprofit groups to donate time and money to encourage students, particularly middle and high school students…
From ACM TechNews
Tim Berners-Lee Launches 'www Foundation' at Igf 2009
Sir Tim Berners-Lee used the recent Internet Governance Forum to announce the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation, which he says will be an incubator for transformative programs that will advance the Web as a medium and empower…
From ACM TechNews
Shared Supercomputing and Everyday Research
Recent advancements in supercomputer design coupled with falling prices are breaking down the barriers that have traditionally surrounded computing-intensive research, which could give ordinary users with a novel idea the opportunity…
From ACM TechNews
Equal Opportunities Through Technology Education
Academy of FinlandThe international Understanding and Providing a Developmental Approach to Technology Education (UPDATE) project is studying more effective methods of technology education to increase the number of women in the…
From ACM TechNews
German Research Computer Qpace Is the Most Energy Efficient in the World
At the recent SC09 supercomputing conference, the QCD Parallel Computing on the Cell (QPACE) was recognized as the world's most energy-efficient supercomputer. QPACE was developed by an academic consortium of universities, research…