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subjectComputer Applications
authorWired
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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.


In Search of New Rules to Protect Other Worlds From Earth's Cooties
From ACM News

In Search of New Rules to Protect Other Worlds From Earth's Cooties

NASA has to start protecting planets better. The international treaty governing space—there is one—and the laws and regulations that follow it date back to the...

The Rise of DNA Data Storage
From ACM News

The Rise of DNA Data Storage

The 144 words of Robert Frost's seminal poem "The Road Not Taken" fit neatly onto a single printed page. Or in a 1-kilobyte data file.

The Quest to Make Super-cold Quantum Blobs in Space
From ACM News

The Quest to Make Super-cold Quantum Blobs in Space

On a frigid day last January in northern Sweden, a German-led team of physicists loaded a curious machine onto an unmanned rocket.

Pain Is Weird. Making Bionic Arms Feel Pain Is Even Weirder
From ACM News

Pain Is Weird. Making Bionic Arms Feel Pain Is Even Weirder

Pain is an indispensable tool for survival.

The Unexpected Fallout of Iran's Telegram Ban
From ACM News

The Unexpected Fallout of Iran's Telegram Ban

Seven weeks after Iran's conservative-led judiciary banned the secure communications app Telegram inside the country, Iranians are still reeling from the change...

Cosmic Ray Showers Crash Supercomputers. Here's What to Do About It
From ACM News

Cosmic Ray Showers Crash Supercomputers. Here's What to Do About It

The Cray-1 supercomputer, the world's fastest back in the 1970s, does not look like a supercomputer.

Stealthy, Destructive Malware Infects Half a Million Routers
From ACM News

Stealthy, Destructive Malware Infects Half a Million Routers

Home routers have become the rats to hackers' bubonic plague: An easily infected, untreated and ubiquitous population in which dangerous digital attacks can spread...

It Takes a Single Autonomous Car to Prevent Phantom Traffic Jams
From ACM News

It Takes a Single Autonomous Car to Prevent Phantom Traffic Jams

Honk if you've heard this one before: Autonomous and connected cars will make driving less of a drudge by handling the stop-n-go mundanity of your commute for you...

Tech Firms Move to Put Ethical Guard Rails Around AI
From ACM News

Tech Firms Move to Put Ethical Guard Rails Around AI

One day last summer, Microsoft's director of artificial intelligence research, Eric Horvitz, activated the Autopilot function of his Tesla sedan.

House Democrats Release 3,500 Russia-Linked Facebook Ads
From ACM News

House Democrats Release 3,500 Russia-Linked Facebook Ads

On Thursday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee published more than 3,500 Facebook and Instagram ads linked to the Russian propaganda group Internet...

Could Artificial Intelligence Predict the Next Avengers: Infinity War?
From ACM News

Could Artificial Intelligence Predict the Next Avengers: Infinity War?

Some movies are obvious hits. Like, for example, Avengers: Infinity War, which made a record-breaking $258 million at the domestic box office last weekend, filling...

Some Startups ­se Fake Data to Train AI
From ACM News

Some Startups ­se Fake Data to Train AI

Berlin startup Spil.ly had a problem last spring. The company was developing an augmented-reality app akin to a full-body version of Snapchat's selfie filters—hold...

Cracking the Crypto War
From ACM News

Cracking the Crypto War

On December 2, 2015, a man named Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire on employees of the Department of Public Health in San Bernardino,...

Heat-Seeking Cameras Could Help Keep Self-Driving Cars Safe
From ACM News

Heat-Seeking Cameras Could Help Keep Self-Driving Cars Safe

After Uber's fatal self-driving crash last month in Tempe, Arizona, most observers had two basic question: Why did the car not see Elaine Herzberg crossing the...

Google's New AI Head Is So Smart He Doesn't Need AI
From ACM News

Google's New AI Head Is So Smart He Doesn't Need AI

Google's heavy investment in artificial intelligence has helped the company's software write music and beat humans at complex board games. What unlikely feats could...

A Long-Awaited IoT Crisis Is Here, and Many Devices Aren't Ready
From ACM News

A Long-Awaited IoT Crisis Is Here, and Many Devices Aren't Ready

You know by now that Internet of Things devices like your router are often vulnerable to attack, the industry-wide lack of investment in security leaving the door...

A 200-Year-Old Idea Offers a New Way to Trace Stolen Bitcoins
From ACM TechNews

A 200-Year-Old Idea Offers a New Way to Trace Stolen Bitcoins

Researchers are using an 1816 legal precedent to track down stolen bitcoins.

A Brain-Boosting Prosthesis Moves From Rats to Humans
From ACM News

A Brain-Boosting Prosthesis Moves From Rats to Humans

The shape on the screen appears only briefly—just long enough for the test subject to commit it to memory. At the same time, an electrical signal snakes past the...

The Next NSA Chief Is More ­sed to Cyberwar Than Spy Games
From ACM News

The Next NSA Chief Is More ­sed to Cyberwar Than Spy Games

After sailing through two friendly Senate hearings—one so uncontroversial that only six senators tops bothered to even show up at any given point in the hour—Lieutenant...

Facebook's New Data Restrictions Will Handcuff Even Honest Researchers
From ACM News

Facebook's New Data Restrictions Will Handcuff Even Honest Researchers

Last week, when news broke (again) that Cambridge Analytica had allegedly misused 50 million Facebook users' data, it immediately raised a difficult question: When...
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