Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2010
From ACM News
Perfecting Animation, via Science
Eitan Grinspun, the director of Columbia University’s Computer Graphics Group, doesn't quite qualify as hairdresser to the stars.
From ACM Opinion
Android Programming's ps and Downs
As smartphones using Google's Android operating system become mainstream, James Steele and Nelson To are in a pretty good position.
From ACM News
Electric Currents Move Racetrack Memory Bits with Precision
The moving bits in the proposed data-storage scheme do not stop and start instantaneously, but their motion is easy to quantify.
From ACM News
Earth Project Aims to 'simulate Everything'
An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth—from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion…
From ACM News
Rise of the Machines
With factories swapping technology for workers during the recovery, jobs may not come back for decades.
From ACM News
Massive Collider Churning Out Data
This year the world's largest science experiment roared to life. Deep beneath the French-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, has spent the year accelerating subatomic particles to near the speed of light and smashing…
From ACM News
Cheaters Find an Adversary in Technology
Mississippi had a problem born of the age of soaring student testing and digital technology. High school students taking the state’s end-of-year exams were using cellphones to text one another the answers.
From ACM News
Ibm Expects Holographic Phone Calls, Air-Powered Batteries By 2015
By 2015, your mobile phone will project a 3D image of anyone who calls and your laptop will be powered by kinetic energy. At least that’s what International Business Machines Corp. sees in its crystal ball.
From ACM News
Intel: Why a 1,000-Core Chip Is Feasible
Chipmaker Intel has been investigating the issue of scaling the number of cores in chips through its Terascale Computing Research Program, which has so far yielded two experimental chips of 80 and 48 cores.
From ACM News
White House Says Supercomputing 'arms Race' Could Prove Costly
Looks for better ways to make sure supercomputers "address our current national priorities."
From ACM News
Can Washington Get America's Economy Moving Again with Cash Rewards?
In the flurry of activity at the end of the 111th Congress, the reauthorization of the "America COMPETES Act" went mostly unnoticed. But it is a little bill that Washington hopes will prove transformative.
From ACM News
Gadgets Bring New Opportunities For Hackers
Researchers at Mocana, a security technology company in San Francisco, recently discovered they could hack into a best-selling Internet-ready HDTV model with unsettling ease.
From ACM News
Report Strengthens Suspicions That Stuxnet Sabotaged Iran
A new report appears to add fuel to suspicions that the Stuxnet superworm was responsible for sabotaging centrifuges at a uranium-enrichment plant in Iran.
From ACM News
Google's Marissa Mayer
Who says you have to be a guy to be a geek? This Google senior executive is teaching a new generation that femininity and technology are a winning formula.
From ACM TechNews
Banknotes Go Electric to Outwit Counterfeiters
Researchers has created an electronic banknote that contains about 100 thin-film transistors. They have yet to determine how to program the electronic circuits to confirm the authenticity of banknotes, which would make it easier…
From ACM TechNews
Will Feds Mandate Internet Routing Security?
Resource Public Key Infrastructure developed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allows network operators to verify that they have the ability to route traffic for a group of IP addresses or routing prefixes, thereby preventing…
From ACM News
What's Around the Bend? Soon, a Camera May Show You
Anyone who has witnessed the megapixel one-upmanship in camera ads might think that computer chips run the show in digital photography.
From ACM News
Pentagon Wants to Give Troops Terminator Vision
No more will soldiers' vision be limited to the socket-embedded spheres that God intended. The Pentagon now wants troops to see dangers lurking behind them in real time, and be able to tell if an object a kilometer away is…
From ACM News
Microsoft Said to Be nveiling Windows For Arm Chips
Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, will announce a version of its Windows computer operating system that runs on ARM Holdings Plc technology for the first time, said two people familiar with Microsoft’s plans…
From ACM News
Professor Predicts Business Technological Trends For 2011
What are the next big things for business in 2011? Brian Mennecke, an Iowa State University management information systems professor, has some ideas.
From ACM TechNews
FCC Approves Net-Neutrality Rules
The U.S. FCC passed net neutrality regulations that require Internet service providers to treat all Web content equally. However, they do not extend to wireless carriers, a decision that drew criticism from consumer groups and…
From ACM TechNews
Smarter, Not Faster, Is the Future of Computing Research
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology's recently released report suggests that U.S. research funds would be better spent developing effective software and applications for supercomputing rather than the…
From ACM TechNews
Photo Project Aims to Preserve Time in 3D
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology researchers have developed a method to preserve the world's treasures in three-dimensional life-like models using open source software and super-high resolution photographs.
From ACM News
Email Gets an Instant Makeover
Signs you’re an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and shoot photos on film. And you enjoy using email.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Goal For Cybersecurity: Change the Game
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has developed programs that deal with cybersecurity threats by surprising the attackers. The agency created the programs to enhance the agency's cybersecurity research, says…
From ACM News
In Ages 25 to 29, Half in .s. Have a Cell Phone, but No Landline
In a first for any age group, more than half of Americans who are 25 to 29 years old live in households with cell phones but no traditional landline telephones.
From ACM News
Ipads to Help Autistic Children Communicate
Nova Southeastern University's Mailman Segal Institute launched a new initiative, "18 iPads in 18 Days," to help facilitate the learning process for children with autism at the Institute's Baudhuin Preschool.
From ACM TechNews
House Clears America Competes Reauthorization
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that reauthorizes the America COMPETES Act, which promotes basic research and programs geared toward enhancing STEM education and other measures designed to boost U.S. innovation…
From ACM TechNews
Finding the Needle in the Haystack, Instantly
Researchers from Northeastern University, the University of Virginia, and Advanced Micro Devices have developed supercomputing hardware and software technology for conducting superfast searches by making use of graphics processing…
From ACM TechNews
AI Makes Progress, but Robots Still Can't Match Humans
Despite advances in artificial intelligence research, a robot that can pass the Turing test has yet to be developed. The development of human-like intelligence has eluded AI researchers because it involves skills that machines…