Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2009
From ACM TechNews
Top 10 Technology Skills
Although many sectors of the economy are struggling to survive, the information technology (IT) industry is still relatively strong. Employment experts say that many companies are so dependent on IT that they cannot lay off…
From ACM News
ACM Recognizes Computing and Information Technology Leaders
ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) has announced the winners of three awards honoring significant contributions to the computing and information technology field. These awards recognize dedicated professionals whose…
From ACM News
Canadian Researchers Reveal How They Cracked Chinese Spy Scam
A 34-year-old student and part-time tech geek at Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies tried everything to track down a piece of malicious software that had infected computers around the world, including those in the…
From ACM Careers
Class of 2009: Computer Science Majors Still in Demand
The nation's leading computer science programs say graduating seniors are still sought after by technology vendors and corporate shops, despite the global economic slowdown and high-profile layoffs across the tech industry. Professor…
From ACM TechNews
Eurosys 2009 Explores Future Computer System Designs
The EuroSys 2009 conference, sponsored by the European chapter of ACM's Special Interest Group on Operating Systems, will focus on computer system research that drives the design and development of new technologies during the…
From ACM TechNews
Inside Hp Labs: 8 Cool Projects
Hewlett-Packard Labs is hosting a number of research projects, including one on sustainable data centers that aims to determine how future data centers can be self-sustaining. It focuses on the five sustainability areas of energy…
From ACM TechNews
Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn From Their Own Experiences?
Inexpensive personal robots could be available soon, but they first have to be able to learn to perform tasks that human know how to do instinctively, says Iowa State University in Ames professor Alexander Stoytchev. A truly…
From ACM TechNews
A Better, Cheaper Multitouch Interface
New York University (NYU) researchers are developing Inexpensive Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD), multitouch technology that can be controlled by both fingers and objects such as a stylus. "One of the problems…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Science Classes Gets Their Groove Back
A new report from the Computing Research Association (CRA) found that student enrollment in computer science (CS) has risen for the first time in six years. The CRA report found that the average number of new students majoring…
From ACM News
Researchers ncover Chinese Cyber Plot Against Foreign Missions
Canadian researchers have reportedly uncovered a Chinese cyber plot that hacked the Web sites of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and systems in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Germany and…
From ACM News
Parties Follow Obama Strategy to Lure Younger Voters
Taking a cue from the success of Barack Obama's Internet campaign in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, politicians in India are using technology to reach out to voters in upcoming parliamentary elections. With more than 70…
From ACM TechNews
Ietf to Explore New Routing Technique
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is forming a new working group to address scalability issues in the Internet's routing system, which are caused by companies that divide their network traffic across multiple carriers…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Open a Window on Tomorrow's Grid
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL's) Electrical Infrastructure Operations Center features a prototype control room that provides a glimpse into the envisioned smart grid, which would connect everything from coffee…
From ACM TechNews
A New Step Towards Quantum Computers
Researchers from Dortmound, St. Petersburg, Washington, and the Rurh-Universitaet-Bochum (RUB) in Germany have succeeded in aligning electron spin. The researchers also were able to rotate the spin, using a laser pulse, in any…
From ACM TechNews
Bangor Scientists Make Star Trek's Holodeck Virtually a Reality
Bangor University computer scientists Nigel John and Jonathan Roberts are developing a "virtual cocoon" that will enable users to experience virtual sites using all of their senses. The scientists say their research could be…
From ACM News
Interactive Programs Teach Students to Play Musical Instruments
Students of popular musical instruments may soon be learning to play with the help of a new generation of intelligent, interactive computer programs thanks to European researchers. While it is unlikely that computers can ever…
From ACM TechNews
Operator Can 'feel' What Robot Grips
Researchers at Australia's Deakin University have developed a robot that enables its operator to "feel" the environment that it is working in. The researchers plan to refine the unit for harsh or dangerous conditions. Professor…
From ACM TechNews
Tech Standards Loom as Last Big Hurdle to Internet of Things
Technology companies say that a consensus on technical standards is the key to the successful commercialization of the Internet of Things (IoT), a next-generation Web in which billions of digital-enabled objects are networked…
From ACM TechNews
Tech Can Help World's Problems, Ex-President Clinton Says
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton says that technology companies can play a significant role in solving the world's most difficult challenges if they apply their innovative thinking to problems such as climate change and healthcare…
From ACM News
Metasearch Engine Leaves Google, Yahoo Crawling
One day in the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to type a query into an online search engine and have it deliver not Web pages that may contain an answer, but just the answer itself, says Weiyi Meng (pictured), a professor…
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Applies Gis to Its Inner Spaces
The geographic information systems (GIS) team at NASA's Langley Research Center has developed the Space Allocation Optimization tool, a program that uses geospatial tools to find more efficient ways of allocating space at the…
From ACM TechNews
Europe May Lead Next Web
Europe is leading the way in developing standards for next-generation Web technology. The European Commission (EC) last fall released a study outlining the steps necessary to make Europe a leader in the future Internet. The…
From ACM News
India Calls For International Crisis Management Plan For Cyber Crimes
Concerned over the growing number of cyber crime cases in its country, the Indian Government on Thursday (March 26) said that an international crisis management plan needs to be put in action. Speaking at a conference on Police…
From ACM News
Nist's Fiscal Year Budget to Increase 8.3 Percent to $819m
For fiscal year 2009, which ends on Sept. 30, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has received $819 million in appropriations, an increase of 8.3 percent over the previous fiscal year.
From ACM News
Thousands of Home Computers to Search Arecibo Data For New Radio Pulsars
Einstein@Home, based at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (UWM) and the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Germany, is one of the world's largest public volunteer distributed computing projects. More than 200,000 people…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Pioneer New Software Systems Development Concept
Software researchers Cornelius Ncube from Bournemouth University and Patricia Oberndorf from the Software Engineering Institute are touting a new method for developing software systems. The approach is similar to the way participants…
From ACM TechNews
New Material Could Lead to Faster Chips
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built an experimental graphene-based microchip that could lead to cell phones and other communications systems that transmit data significantly faster. The…
From ACM TechNews
Ieee Highlights Technologies That Will Change the World
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) recently assembled a panel of technology experts to discuss various emerging research technologies, including multimode biometrics, intelligent computing, and wireless…
From ACM TechNews
Google Rolls Out Semantic Search Capabilities
Google has added semantic technology to its Web search engine, which will enable it to identify associations and concepts related to a query, improving the list of related search terms Google displays next to the results. "For…
From ACM TechNews
Mozilla, Graphics Group Seek to Build 3D Web
Khronos wants to develop a public version of a royalty-free specification for accelerated three-dimensional (3D) graphics on the Web within 12 months. The consortium that oversees the OpenGL graphics interface technology has…