Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2008
From ACM TechNews
The 9 Hottest Skills For '09
Even with a struggling economy and record unemployment, certain IT skills will be in high demand in the coming year. Programming and application development will be the most in-demand skills in 2009, concludes Computerworld's…
From ACM TechNews
Internet Providers Move to Shape Broadband Push
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and Congressional lawmakers want to improve the quality and availability of high-speed Web access in the United States. Some of the issues under consideration include what speed Congress should…
From ACM TechNews
Wanted: More Science and Math Teachers in the s
During the next decade U.S. schools are expected to need at least 200,000 new science and math teachers, and many districts already face shortages. In at least 10 states, fewer than six out of 10 middle school science teachers…
From ACM TechNews
Stimulus Could Boost It Job Prospects
The overall outlook for IT employment in 2009 is mixed, but some analysts say the U.S. federal economic stimulus package could add IT positions. Compared to jobs in general, IT jobs are relatively safe from the economic crisis…
From ACM TechNews
Multicore Doesn't Mean Equal Core
Virginia Tech researchers recently found that the speed at which code is executed on multicore processors can vary by as much as 10 percent depending on how the code is distributed on identical cores. "The solution to this is…
From ACM TechNews
Google Brings Cross-Language Translation to Search Appliance
Google wants to create greater international interest in a new experimental feature that enables Google Search Appliance (GSA) to translate documents between 34 languages. The feature instantly translates search queries for…
From ACM CareerNews
ACM Wants Computer Science in on Obama's K-12 Education Plan
The Association for Computing Machinery has called on the incoming Obama Administration to re-think the way that computer science is taught in the K-12 public education system. With the goal of improving and expanding national…
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Not Ready For Cyber Attack
The results of a two-day cyberwar simulation involving 230 representatives from U.S. government defense and security agencies, private companies, and civil groups found that the United States is not prepared to defend itself …
From ACM TechNews
Sun, Consortium to Drive Tech Accessibility Project
Sun Microsystems is working with the European Commission-funded open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards (AEGIS) Project to improve disabled users' access to mobile devices, computers, and rich Internet…
From ACM TechNews
Making Sense of the 'semantic Web'
The semantic Web could enable more interactive and accurate searches and is considered a crucial component of emerging Web 3.0 technology. Researchers are exploring ways of implementing the technology to improve contextual searching…
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Spending on Research to Fall
U.S. research and development (R&D) funding will drop next year as corporations and the federal government cut spending, predicts a Battelle Memorial Institute report. After accounting for inflation, total U.S. spending in R&D…
From ACM TechNews
The Fastest Computers Are Going Hybrid
A clearly recognizable trend at the recent SC08 conference in Austin, Texas, was a general shift in supercomputer design toward using multiple types of processors in a single system. Over the past decade, an increasing number…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Labs Promises Five Innovations
IBM researchers' list of promising new technologies includes the ability to "talk" to the Web; information collection and retrieval systems that cover us when we forget something; solar technology built into asphalt, windows,…
From ACM TechNews
Mobile Phones to Be Primary Internet Device By 2020, Experts Predict
Mobile phones will become the primary Internet device for most people by 2020, largely due to their increasing computing power, predicts the "Future of the Internet," a new Pew Internet & American Life Project report. "Telephony…
From ACM TechNews
Robots Rush In: In Search-and-Rescue Operations Teamwork Is Everything
Researchers at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) are developing intelligent search-and-rescue robots that work cooperatively. University of California, Merced professor and robotics…
From ACM TechNews
The Next Big Sensation?
Computer scientists are developing machines that enable users to feel digital content. "The world is going digital, but people are analog," says Immersion Corp.'s Gayle Schaeffer. "In the digital world, touch is so much more…
From ACM TechNews
W3c pgrades Web Accessibility Standards
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released version 2.0 of its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which are designed to help developers make Web sites and online content easier to access for users with disabilities…
From ACM TechNews
HP, ASU Unveil Paper-Like, Flexible Display
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Arizona State University's Flexible Design Center have developed a prototype, paper-like, unbreakable, flexible computer display made almost entirely of plastic using self-aligned imprint lithography …
From ACM TechNews
Carnegie Mellon Cylab Survey Unveils Major Gap in the Way U.S. Boards and CEOs Manage Cyber Risks
Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab has surveyed 703 corporate board directors and found that only 36 percent of the respondents said their board was directly involved in overseeing the management of information security. The …
From ACM TechNews
Virginia Tech Is Building an Artificial America in a Supercomputer
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University researchers have created a virtual America, modeling the lives of approximately 100 million Americans, using publicly available demographic data. The researchers hope the simulation…
From ACM TechNews
E-Learning Can Have Positive Effect on Classroom Learning, Scholar Says
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign professor Caroline Haythornthwaite says traditional classroom education techniques could be improved by examining e-learning more closely. Haythornthwaite says e-learning has been underrated…
From ACM CareerNews
How Many It Jobs Will Obama Help Create?
With President-elect Barack Obama widely expected to sign a significant federal stimulus bill shortly after taking office in January, the IT industry is hopeful that the new measures could create as many as 300,000 new IT jobs…
From ACM TechNews
Obama Stimulus Plan Aims to Boost Digital Economy
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to "renew our information superhighway," and his outline for the economic stimulus package, will likely lead to significant increases in information technology spending, particularly…
From ACM TechNews
Dhs Creates Privacy Principles For Scientific Research
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has developed privacy principles for science and technology-related research and development projects that involve data mining.
The DHS privacy office worked with the agency's directorate…From ACM TechNews
Improving Internet Access on the Move
Train operators will be able to offer passengers more reliable entertainment and Internet services as a result of new technology that has been developed by researchers at York University. York research fellow John Thornton has…
From ACM News
Professional Development Key to Improving Math Achievement
Teachers have a greater impact than new textbooks or computers when it comes to raising math scores, according to a comprehensive research review by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform…
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Is Losing Global Cyberwar, Commission Says
The United States is woefully unprepared for the challenges of 21st century cybersecurity, concludes a new report from the U.S. Commission on Cybersecurity, which calls for the establishment of a Center for Cybersecurity Operations…
From ACM TechNews
First Superconducting Transistor Promises Pc Revolution
Andrea Caviglia and colleagues at the University of Geneva in Switzerland have applied a voltage to a single crystal containing strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate, which created a superconducting version of a field effect…
From ACM TechNews
Project to Develop Conservation Software
A collaborative effort between Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund has been awarded a two-year, $1.97 million grant to develop software for mapping and…
From ACM News
Collaboration of Soloists Makes the Best Science
For the success of a major research university, which is better: large, well-funded laboratory empires with many investigators working toward the same end, or the individual scientist toiling alone in his own laboratory or at…