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subjectComputers And Society
authorThe New York Times
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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 Bartik, Software Pioneer, Dies at 86
From ACM News

Jean Bartik, Software Pioneer, Dies at 86

Jean Jennings Bartik, one of the first computer programmers and a pioneering forerunner in a technology that came to be known as software, died on March 23. She...

From ACM News

At Particle Lab, a Tantalizing Glimpse Has Physicists Holding Their Breaths

Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are planning to announce Wednesday that they have found a suspicious bump in their data that could be...

More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality
From ACM News

More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London...

Promoting Science, and Google, to Students
From ACM News

Promoting Science, and Google, to Students

Google is synonymous with "search engine," and now, for students, it wants to be synonymous with "science."

Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library
From ACM News

Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library

Is the tantalizing dream of a universal library dead? Some scholars and librarians across the country fear it may be, now that a federal judge in New York has...

In a New Web World, No Application Is an Island
From ACM News

In a New Web World, No Application Is an Island

The Web is poised for a comeback. How’s that? Isn’t the Web already the crucial utility of online commerce, information and entertainment? In many ways, it certainly...

It
From ACM News

It

A favorite pastime of Internet users is to share their location: services like Google Latitude can inform friends when you are nearby; another, Foursquare, has...

Security Firm Is Vague on Its Compromised Devices
From ACM News

Security Firm Is Vague on Its Compromised Devices

More than a day after RSA security posted an "urgent" alert warning that a sophisticated intruder might be able to initiate a "broad attack" on a password device...

From ACM News

Quake Moved Japan Closer to U.S. and Altered Earth's Spin

The magnitude-8.9 earthquake that struck northern Japan on Friday not only violently shook the ground and generated a devastating tsunami, it also moved the coastline...

From ACM News

Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling

Bryan Taylor, 36, could not shake the feeling that something funny was going on. Three of his most frequent opponents on an online poker site were acting oddly...

From ACM News

Researchers Show How a Car's Electronics Can Be Taken Over Remotely

With a modest amount of expertise, computer hackers could gain remote access to someone's car—just as they do to people's personal computers—and take over the...

From ACM News

Software Progress Beats Moore

One of the old jokes in computing is that what the hardware giveth, the software taketh away.

Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
From ACM News

Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software

When five television studios became entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS, the cost was immense. As part of the obscure task of "discovery"—providing...

From ACM Opinion

Google Schools Its Algorithm

To humans, computer intelligence is a puzzle, as if the machines have split personalities. They can be so remarkably smart at times, yet so bafflingly dumb at...

­U.S. Sets 21st-Century Goal: Building a Better Patent Office
From ACM News

­U.S. Sets 21st-Century Goal: Building a Better Patent Office

President Obama, who emphasizes American innovation, says modernizing the federal Patent and Trademark Office is crucial to "winning the future." So at a time when...

Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter
From ACM News

Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter

Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit,...

New Hacking Tools Pose Bigger Threats to Wi-Fi ­sers
From ACM News

New Hacking Tools Pose Bigger Threats to Wi-Fi ­sers

You may think the only people capable of snooping on your Internet activity are government intelligence agents or possibly a talented teenage hacker holed up...

Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts
From ACM News

Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts

With Facebook playing a starring role in the revolts that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, you might think the company’s top executives would use this...

From ACM News

Mature Mobile Industry Moves to Keep Customers It Has

In the pioneer days of the mobile phone industry, wireless carriers raced to put phones in the hands of the unconnected masses. With cellphones now ubiquitous...

Progress in Artificial Intelligence Brings Wonders and Fears
From ACM News

Progress in Artificial Intelligence Brings Wonders and Fears

At the dawn of the modern computer era, two Pentagon-financed laboratories bracketed Stanford University. At one laboratory, a small group of scientists and engineers...
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