Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2012
From ACM News
Nsa Boss Wants More Control Over the 'net
The U.S. Internet's infrastructure needs to be redesigned to allow the NSA to know instantly when overseas hackers might be attacking public or private infrastructure and computer networks, the agency's leader, General Keith…
From ACM News
Talk to Me, One Machine Said to the Other
Ocado, an online grocery store in England, prides itself on its delivery of refrigerated foods: When the company says the goods will arrive at a certain temperature, they mean it.
From ACM TechNews
Declarations of Cyberwar
Debate continues to be focused on how cyberattacks relate to war and foreign policy and what the international community's appropriate response to such incidents should be.
From ACM TechNews
Lack of Minority Representation in Science and Engineering Endangering .s. Economic Health
Many of the "precious few" minority students pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics degrees are either dropping out or changing majors, says Rice University professor Richard Tapia.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Study How to Avoid Charge Traps in Plastic Electronics
Charge traps in plastic electronics have a common underlying mechanism, and this finding has led to a theoretical framework for designing electronics without traps, according to a new study by researchers from Georgia Tech and…
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Seeks to Make Sense of What You Didn't Say
Scientists at Microsoft and the International Computer Science Institute, which is affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, are researching how to use people's individual verbal communication styles to improve…
From ACM News
Deborah Estrin Calls For CS Research on Sustainability
The old adage, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” applies to how both networking and sensor technology can help address problems of sustainability, says Deborah Estrin.
From ACM Opinion
Far from Silicon Valley, Tech Industry Finds an Oracle
Anand Shimpi is one of the most influential tech industry figures you've never heard of.
From ACM Opinion
The Frightening Things You Hear at a Black Hat Conference
Here is a look at some of the highlights and scarier happenings taking place at the annual Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas last week.
From ACM News
Samsung Case Is a Proxy For Google
When Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. face off in a high-stakes patent trial Monday, there will be another elephant in the room: Google Inc.
From ACM TechNews
An App That Could Stop Traffic
German researchers have developed Greenway, a Windows phone application designed to help people avoid traffic jams and get drivers from one point to another in the shortest amount of time.
From ACM TechNews
Crowd Sourcing Comes to Astronomy
Astronomers have reconstructed the orbit of the Holmes comet, which flew by Earth in 2007, using photos from the Internet.
From ACM TechNews
Computers Not Yet Able to nderstand Human Speech
Cornell University professor Lillian Lee discusses the progress in natural language processing and machine learning and the challenges that lie ahead.
From ACM TechNews
Identifying Trending Stories on Twitter and Optimal Temperature For Data Center Computers
UTSC professor Bianca Schroeder and students Nosayba El-Sayed, Ioan Stefanovici, George Amvrosiadis, and Andy A. Hwang received a best paper award at the recent ACM Sigmetrics conference in London for research on cooling computers…
From ACM Opinion
Tagging and Tracking Espionage Botnets
A security researcher who's spent 18 months cataloging and tracking malicious software that was developed and deployed specifically for spying on governments, activists, and industry executives says the complexity and scope of…
From ACM News
Curiosity Rover on Track For Early August Landing
Eight days before reaching Mars, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft performed a flight-path adjustment scheduled more than nine months ago.
From ACM News
Apple v. Samsung: 5 Surprising Reveals in Latest Court Documents
The lawyers behind the upcoming Apple v. Samsung trial have been hard at work filing docket after docket as their court battle looms closer, and many of those dockets have just been released to the public.
From ACM News
Meet 'rakshasa,' The Malware Infection Designed To Be ndetectable And Incurable
Malicious software, like all software, gets smarter all the time. In recent years it’s learned to destroy physical infrastructure, install itself through Microsoft updates, and use human beings as physical "data mules," for instance…
From ACM News
Software: The New Networking Paradigm
VMware's planned acquisition of Nicra for $1.25 billion represents the evolution of networking beyond the hardware-dominated point of view that has sustained the industry for decades.
From ACM News
At Getty Museum, Revelations of Art via Tech
Walking through gallery after gallery of classical European paintings, sculptures, and other antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum here, it's easy to get lost in the history and beauty of the often centuries-old art. Especially…
From ACM TechNews
Device Helps Eyes Do the Write Thing
French National Center for Scientific Research director Jean Lorenceau has developed a device that enables users to write with their eyes in cursive script on a computer monitor.
From ACM TechNews
So, Who Really Did Invent the Internet?
The Wall Street Journal's Gordon Crovitz recently reopened the debate about who invented the Internet, arguing that giving the U.S. government credit is an "urban legend."
From ACM TechNews
Chasing Science as a Service
TACC has developed the A Grid and Virtualized Environment advanced programming interface, which aims to extend the U.S.'s advanced computing resources to a much larger audience.
From ACM TechNews
Mapping the ncanny Valley
University of North Carolina researcher Kurt Gray and Harvard University researcher Daniel Wegner speculate that experience plays a crucial role in generating the uncanny valley effect.
From ACM TechNews
Angry Birds Meets Bioinformatics
UAB researchers have developed ImageJS, a free smartphone application system that enables pathologists to drag a digitized pathology slide into a Web app and analyze it for malignancy based on color.
From ACM News
Rise Is Seen in Cyberattacks Targeting .s. Infrastructure
The top American military official responsible for defending the United States against cyberattacks said Thursday that there had been a 17-fold increase in computer attacks on American infrastructure between 2009 and 2011, initiated…
From ACM News
Microsoft's Lost Decade
To the saccharine rhythm of a Muzak clip, Steve Ballmer crouched into a tackling stance and dashed across a ballroom stage at the Venetian Las Vegas.
From ACM News
Want To Find Jay-Z's Or Bill Gates' Private Jets? Openbarr Tracks 'untrackable' Flights
Good news for paparazzi, stalkers, and corporate spies: "Private" jets are about to become significantly less private.
From ACM News
Gps Weakness Could Enable Mass Smartphone Hacking
Weaknesses in the technology that allows smartphone users to pinpoint themselves on a map, or check into restaurants and bars using apps such as Foursquare, could allow those users to be tracked remotely.
From ACM News
Meet the 'bots' that Edit Wikipedia
Wikipedia is written and maintained by tens of thousands of volunteers across the world. Those, in turn, are assisted by hundreds of "bots"—autonomous computer programmes that keep the encyclopaedia running.