Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2013
From ACM News
Is Coding the New Second Language?
It's first period at Harlem's Cristo Rey high school, a private Catholic school for motivated low-income kids.
From ACM Careers
Sri International Is an Innovation Powerhouse Trying to Rise Above the Noise of Apple, Google, and Facebook
When Intel worried years ago that its marvelous innovation wasn't being noticed by consumers-at-large, it launched the ubiquitous "Intel Inside" campaign.
From ACM News
Nasa's Grail Mission Solves Mystery of Moon's Surface Gravity
NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has uncovered the origin of massive invisible regions that make the moon's gravity uneven, a phenomenon that affects the operations of lunar-orbiting spacecraft.
From ACM TechNews
Html5 Webpage Locks 'would Stifle Innovation'
The Electronic Freedom Foundation objects to the World Wide Web Consortium's plans to include ways to digitally lock media in HTML5.
From ACM TechNews
Ibm's Vision For Cognitive Computing Era
IBM is developing computer systems modeled on the human brain that will leverage big data to significantly impact everyday life.
From ACM TechNews
'blue Waters' Supercomputer Helps Crack Hiv Code
Researchers used the Blue Waters supercomputer to discover the structure of the HIV capsid.
From ACM TechNews
Apple Co-Founder Outlines 'human' Computer Vision
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak envisions a future human-like computer "like a person and we can have normal conversations with it."
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Oppose Oracle's Bid to Copyright Java Apis
Nearly three dozen computer scientists say Oracle's plan to copyright its Java application programming interface would hinder the computer industry and limit access to affordable technology.
From ACM News
ssr's Old Domain Name Attracts Cybercriminals
The Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than two decades ago. But online an 'e-vil empire' is thriving.
From ACM News
Wanted For the Internet of Things: Ant-Size Computers
If the Internet is to reach everywhere—from the pills you swallow to the shoes on your feet—then computers will need to get a whole lot smaller.
From ACM News
The Reporting Gap on the Patent Gender Gap
It's hard to tell whether women are obtaining more science and engineering patents than they used to, when several reports on the subject can't seem to agree.
From ACM News
The Robot Revolution Is For the Birds
Human flight has become boring.
From ACM TechNews
sf Gets Millions to Train New STEM Teachers
The Helios Education Foundation donated $3.16 million to the University of South Florida for the training of STEM teachers for middle schools.
From ACM TechNews
Gaspi Targets Exascale Programming Limits
Critical programming elements must be addressed to ensure system reliability as developers construct programs that can scale to hundreds of thousands of cores.
From ACM TechNews
Israeli Computer Science Company Devises Technology to Speed p Video Display
A new video synopsis software compresses hours of video into just minutes, enabling police to quickly review action captured on surveillance cameras.
From ACM TechNews
Sony and Lego Collaborating on Toy Research
Sony recently unveiled a collaboration with Lego on a new generation of products that could bridge the gap between toys and video games.
From ACM Careers
In China, Big Data Is Becoming Big Business
With 1.3 billion people, a quickly expanding urban economy, and rising rates of Internet and smartphone penetration, China generates an immense amount of data annually.
From ACM News
This Pentagon Project Makes Cyberwar as Easy as Angry Birds
The target computer is picked. The order to strike has been given. All it takes is a finger swipe and a few taps of the touchscreen, and the cyberattack is prepped to begin.
From ACM News
Galaxies Fed By Funnels of Fuel
Computer simulations of galaxies growing over billions of years have revealed a likely scenario for how they feed: a cosmic version of swirly straws.
From ACM TechNews
Perfect Skin: More Touchy-Feely Robots
An EU-funded project has developed sensor technologies and management systems that give robots an artificial sense of touch.
From ACM TechNews
Cradle Turns Smartphone Into Handheld Biosensor
A new cradle and app uses a smartphone’s built-in camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses, and other molecules.
From ACM TechNews
Light-Beam 'twins' Take Data Farther
Researchers have developed a method involving paired light beams that can increase the data-carrying properties of fiber-optic cables.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Network Piecing Together a Jigsaw of Jewish Lore
Scientists are using an artificial intelligence program to help reconstruct document fragments collected over a millennium.
From ACM TechNews
How Computers Can Learn Better
Researchers say they have developed a reinforcement-learning algorithm that lets computer systems find solutions more efficiently than previous algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
lster Scientists Develop Smartphone 'assistance Agent' For Older People
Researchers are developing Help-on-Demand, a smartphone application designed to help older people fully engage in an increasingly self-serve society.
From ACM News
Graphics Gurus Master Wispy Hair, Snowballs, Torn Paper
The computer graphics industry has an insatiable appetite for realism, and researchers next month will show how they plan to feed it with innovations in computerized hair, snow, cloth, paper, and more.
From ACM News
Xbox? More Like Xbody: Future Game Consoles Will Get nder Your Skin
Imagine playing through a level of the popular zombie shooter "Left 4 Dead" on a system that tracks your heart rate, eye movements, even how clammy your skin is getting, all to measure just how scared you are.
From ACM News
Regulators Ask: What Is Bitcoin?
The online currency challenges existing categories.
From ACM Opinion
Flame One Year Later
It's been a year since the first reports of the Flame malware surfaced, and looking back at the 12 months since then, it seems more and more each day that the discovery of Flame should be seen as a seminal event in the evolution…
From ACM TechNews
Rutgers Computer Scientists Receive Google Grant to Develop Personalized Data Search System
A Google grant will help two scientists develop a system for searching all one's personal data sources at the same time.