Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2010
From ACM News
Leveraging Linux For Supercomputing
The Beowulf project pioneered the use of off-the-shelf, commodity computers running open source operating systems for high-performance computing. Beowulf clusters have a lower purchase price and better performance than SMP systems…
From ACM News
Nasa Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery
NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution,…
From ACM News
Nano-Diamond Qubits and Photonic Crystals
Researchers in Germany have successfully fabricated a rudimentary quantum computing hybrid system that may allow integration of multi-qubit systems on a single micrometer-sized chip for future quantum computers.
From ACM TechNews
Intelligent Detector Provides Real-Time Information on Available Parking Spaces
A Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya research team has developed a way to locate available parking spaces using optical and magnetic sensors. The researchers plan to make the information available on luminous panels in public…
From ACM TechNews
Google Wave May Become an Apache Project
Google Wave's developers have submitted the software to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), making it a candidate to become a Podling included in the Apache Incubator, ASF's preparation platform for open source projects.
From ACM News
With Better Sharing of Data Comes Danger
The release of a huge tranche of U.S. diplomatic cables has laid bare the primary risk associated with the U.S. government's attempt to encourage better information-sharing: Someone is bound to leak.
From ACM News
Computers Get Help from the Human Brain
Tapping into the processing power of the human brain could help computers with some tasks.
From ACM News
idai: Inside the World's Largest Data Management Project
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is an Indian government body mandated with the task of assigning every single one of India's 1.2 billion citizens a Unique Identity number. No system in the world has handled…
From ACM TechNews
European nion Funds Cloud Security Project
The European Union is funding Trustworthy Clouds, a research project aimed at developing a series of technical advances that will increase the security of cloud computing.
From ACM TechNews
c Breakthrough May Lead to Disposable E-Readers
University of Cincinnati researchers have developed a low-cost, paper-based, disposable e-reader. The researchers say the paper could be used as a flexible substrate for an electrowetting device.
From ACM News
Ahead in the Cloud
Amazon's cloud computing has revolutionized American small business, but can Amazon beat rising competitors?
From ACM TechNews
Eu, S and Nato to Work Together on Cyber Defense
The European Union, the United States, and NATO have approved a range of new plans to meet cyberdefense challenges. The European Commission has announced proposals to develop systems to make citizens and businesses more secure…
From ACM TechNews
Out of Many, One In-Box
Nokia is developing a universal in-box that collects messages and updates from different smartphone applications and organizes them in one location so users can see everything at once. The in-box hold emails, texts, call logs…
From ACM TechNews
Graduate Students Create Recyclable Laptop
Graduate students at Stanford University and Finland's Aalto University have created a prototype of a recyclable laptop that can be disassembled in about 30 seconds. The Bloom laptop is almost entirely made of components that…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Link Most Spam to Only 50 Isps
The majority of spam messages come from a limited number of Internet service providers and countries, according to a study by researchers at Delft University of Technology and Michigan State University.
From ACM News
Wikileaks Files Detail .s. Electronic Surveillance
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered clandestine surveillance of United Nations leadership, including obtaining "security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys, and types of VPN versions used" and biometric information…
From ACM News
War Machines: Recruiting Robots For Combat
War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots.
From ACM News
Professors se Twitter in Foreign Language Teaching
Two professors at the University of South Carolina are using Twitter as a tool in teaching foreign languages.
From ACM News
In Class, Texting Is the New Doodling
Top classroom distraction surpasses doodling, daydreaming and note-passing.
From ACM News
The Birth of a .k. Tech Giant
British chip designer ARM will soon be 20 years old. Bill Thompson was there at the start.
From ACM News
Computing the Scene of a Crime
The use of fingerprints, shoeprints, handwriting, and other forensic evidence may seem like good science—but often it's not, as it relies heavily on humans for the analysis.
From ACM News
Privacy Groups Fault Online Health Sites For Sharing ser Data With Marketers
QualityHealth is a popular health Web site with more than 20 million registered users that offers online medical information and email newsletters on a variety of topics, including diabetes, allergies, asthma and arthritis…
From ACM TechNews
Berners-Lee: Social Networks Are a 'threat to the Web'
Social networks pose a threat to the Web because they capture and reuse users' information rather than share it with other sites, says Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He says large social networking sites are silos of closed content that…
From ACM TechNews
Crossing the ncanny Valley
Developers of robots and computer-generated films face the difficult task of making their creations as human as possible without looking too human, a perceptual gap that experts call the uncanny valley.
From ACM TechNews
New IBM Architecture Doubles Analytics Processing Speed
IBM recently revealed details about a new storage architecture design that it says can double analytics processing speed. IBM says the architecture can convert terabytes of information into actionable insights twice as fast…
From ACM TechNews
Distributed Computing in a Wireless Environment
Virginia Tech researchers have launched a proof-of-concept study to develop highly connected computer systems that work in a wireless environment. The study is backed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
From ACM TechNews
Technology Puts Mind Over Body
Researchers working on Mahidol University's iThink2 project have developed a brain computer interface that controls electronic devices with brain signals and could help quadriplegic patients improve their quality of life.
From ACM TechNews
Joint Project to Create a Processor the Size of a Molecule
The European Union will launch a project to build a single molecule processor chip. The Atomic Scale and Single Molecule Logic Gate Technologies project will establish a new process for making a complete molecular chip.
From ACM TechNews
Top Scientist rges 'ambitious' .s. Exascale Supercomputer Plan
Peter Beckman, director of the DOE's Exascale Technology and Computing Institute, says the United States needs to make a sizable push to open up funding resources if the country is to have a chance of winning the race to build…
From ACM News
Security Needs Drive Cyberforensics Industry
Cyberforensics, the science of finding and securing digital evidence buried deep within company networks, is fast emerging as a global industry.