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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Worldwide Battle Rages For Control of the Internet
From ACM TechNews

Worldwide Battle Rages For Control of the Internet

Governments in the Middle East and north Africa routinely block and censor Web sites to control political discussions, according to a new report on the region by...

Pay-Per-Email Plan to Beat Spam and Help Charity
From ACM TechNews

Pay-Per-Email Plan to Beat Spam and Help Charity

Yahoo! researchers are testing a scheme in which users pay one cent for each email message they send, with the money going to charity, in an effort to cut back...

Internet 'Immune System' Could Block Viruses
From ACM TechNews

Internet 'Immune System' Could Block Viruses

A system that fights highly infectious computer viruses by embedding defense mechanisms in key parts of the Internet has been developed by University of North Carolina...

'spiderbots' Talk Amongst Themselves Inside Active Volcano
From ACM TechNews

'spiderbots' Talk Amongst Themselves Inside Active Volcano

A group of "spiderbots" released inside Mount St. Helens in Washington is the first network of volcano sensors capable of automatically communicating with each...

From ACM TechNews

Robots to Get Their Own Operating System

Robots are limited by the fact that they are often designed and built in isolation for specific functions, and roboticists have started to consider what aspects...

From ACM TechNews

After Boom, Is Wikipedia Heading For Bust?

The explosive growth of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia is petering out, while a less welcoming attitude toward new contributors could negatively affect the archive's...

Is the Future of Healthcare Online?
From ACM TechNews

Is the Future of Healthcare Online?

An international coalition of medical and technology companies called the Continua Health Alliance is encouraging the migration of healthcare to the Web, as remote...

Talking Paperclip Inspires Less Irksome Virtual Assistant
From ACM TechNews

Talking Paperclip Inspires Less Irksome Virtual Assistant

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has spent an estimated $150 million developing an artificially intelligent (AI) virtual assistant. DARPA's...

Smart Machines: What's The Worst That Could Happen?
From ACM TechNews

Smart Machines: What's The Worst That Could Happen?

A panel of 25 artificial intelligence (AI) scientists, roboticists, and ethical and legal scholars have spent the past year discussing the risks of developing machines...

Space Probe to Sport 'transforming' Hardware
From ACM TechNews

Space Probe to Sport 'transforming' Hardware

A new satellite, planned for launch in 2012, will contain a flight computer built with field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can be completely reconfigured...

Dark Flash Camera Takes Photos Without the Glare
From ACM TechNews

Dark Flash Camera Takes Photos Without the Glare

New York University researchers have developed a camera that uses ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light to take photos in the dark without the use of a traditional...

From ACM TechNews

Robo-Wheels Go Where Caterpillar Tracks Fear to Tread

Rescue robots could be more useful in snowy conditions thanks to an adjustable wheel that has been developed by researchers in Japan. A team led by Taro Iwamoto...

How New Technologies Will Ease Our Traffic Woes
From ACM TechNews

How New Technologies Will Ease Our Traffic Woes

A new generation of monitoring and data-gathering technologies could drastically alter how people travel by car by providing them with more accurate information...

Cyborg Crickets Could Chirp at the Smell of Survivors
From ACM TechNews

Cyborg Crickets Could Chirp at the Smell of Survivors

Research supported by the U.S. Pentagon is attempting to turn insects into search-and-rescue systems capable of locating trapped victims in earthquake rubble and...

From ACM TechNews

Computer Learns Sign Language By Watching Tv

Software developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds has autonomously determined the basics of sign language by watching TV...

Memristor Minds: The Future of Artificial Intelligence
From ACM TechNews

Memristor Minds: The Future of Artificial Intelligence

The lack of a rigorous mathematical foundation for electronics impelled engineer Leon Chua to develop one, which led to the formulation of the memristor — a theoretical...

'Smart' House Texts You If There's a Problem
From ACM News

'Smart' House Texts You If There's a Problem

It may look low-tech, but a smart doll's house could one day change the way we live, its inventors claim. Part of a project called InterHome, it is designed to...

Emotional Robots: Will We Love Them or Hate Them?
From ACM TechNews

Emotional Robots: Will We Love Them or Hate Them?

Scientists have theorized that many technologies would function better if they were aware of their users' emotional states, and progress in this field includes...

Laser Light Switch Could Leave Transistors in the Shade
From ACM TechNews

Laser Light Switch Could Leave Transistors in the Shade

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed an optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another, potentially forming...

From ACM TechNews

Building a Crash-Proof Internet

The Internet's susceptibility to earthquakes, accidents, and other disruptions appears to be greater than people originally assumed, and a great deal of the Net's...
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