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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.


Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of a Pioneering Computer Language, Dies at 89
From ACM News

Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of a Pioneering Computer Language, Dies at 89

Jean E. Sammet, an early software engineer and a designer of COBOL, a programming language that brought computing into the business mainstream, died on May 20 in...

Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away
From ACM News

Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away

The void is rocking and rolling with invisible cataclysms.

Is China Outsmarting America in A.i.?
From ACM Careers

Is China Outsmarting America in A.i.?

Sören Schwertfeger finished his postdoctorate research on autonomous robots in Germany, and seemed set to go to Europe or the United States, where artificial intelligence...

What Self-Driving Cars See
From ACM News

What Self-Driving Cars See

Giant tech companies are fighting over the technology in court. Start-ups around the world are racing to develop new versions of it. And engineers say it is essential...

Google's Alphago Defeats Chinese Go Master in Win For AI
From ACM TechNews

Google's Alphago Defeats Chinese Go Master in Win For AI

Google DeepMind's AlphaGo program beat a Chinese world champion in the first of three Go games held this week.

China, Addicted to Bootleg Software, Reels From Ransomware Attack
From ACM News

China, Addicted to Bootleg Software, Reels From Ransomware Attack

China is home to the world's largest group of internet users, a thriving online technology scene and rampant software piracy that encapsulates its determination...

A Robot Revolution, This Time in China
From ACM News

A Robot Revolution, This Time in China

Even a decade ago, car manufacturing in China was still a fairly low-tech, labor-intensive endeavor.

The Harmony That Keeps Trappist-1's 7 Earth-Size Worlds From Colliding
From ACM News

The Harmony That Keeps Trappist-1's 7 Earth-Size Worlds From Colliding

In February, astronomers announced the discovery of a nearby star with seven Earth-size planets, and at least some of the planets seemed to be in a zone that could...

Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer
From ACM TechNews

Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has issued a challenge to programmers to boost the performance of its Pleiades supercomputer.

Geniuses Wanted: Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer
From ACM News

Geniuses Wanted: Nasa Challenges Coders to Speed ­p Its Supercomputer

To improve the performance of one of the world's biggest supercomputers, NASA is crowdsourcing some new ideas about an old coding language. And there are cash prizes...

How to Prepare For an Automated Future
From ACM Careers

How to Prepare For an Automated Future

We don't know how quickly machines will displace people's jobs, or how many they'll take, but we know it's happening—not just to factory workers but also to ...

Sent to Prison By a Software Program's Secret Algorithms
From ACM News

Sent to Prison By a Software Program's Secret Algorithms

When Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last month, he was asked a startling question, one with overtones of science fiction...

In Europe's Election Season, Tech Vies to Fight Fake News
From ACM TechNews

In Europe's Election Season, Tech Vies to Fight Fake News

Scientists are attempting to counter a rash of fake news spreading online as European elections loom.

Hubert L. Dreyfus, Philosopher of the Limits of Computers, Dies at 87
From ACM News

Hubert L. Dreyfus, Philosopher of the Limits of Computers, Dies at 87

A philosopher who believed humans will always be smarter.

Meet the People Who Train the Robots (to Do Their Own Jobs)
From ACM Careers

Meet the People Who Train the Robots (to Do Their Own Jobs)

What if part of your job became teaching a computer everything you know about doing someone's job—perhaps your own?

Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug?
From ACM News

Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug?

In early January, I went to see Mark Zuckerberg at MPK20, a concrete-and-steel building on the campus of Facebook's headquarters, which sits across a desolate highway...

Harry Huskey, Pioneering Computer Scientist, Is Dead at 101
From ACM News

Harry Huskey, Pioneering Computer Scientist, Is Dead at 101

Huskey was a pioneering computer scientist who worked on early computing systems, and later helped universities around the world establish computer centers and...

50 Years Ago, a Computer Pioneer Got a New York Subway Race Rolling
From ACM Careers

50 Years Ago, a Computer Pioneer Got a New York Subway Race Rolling

Fifty years ago, Peter Samson, one of the inventors of Spacewar, considered the world's first video game, began another craze underground.

How Youtube's Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
From ACM Careers

How Youtube's Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media

At the age of 21, David Pakman started a little Massachusetts community radio talk program.

Robert Taylor, Innovator Who Shaped Modern Computing, Dies at 85
From ACM News

Robert Taylor, Innovator Who Shaped Modern Computing, Dies at 85

Taylor had the idea that led to the Arpanet, the forerunner of the Internet.
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