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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.


What Do the H-Bomb and the Internet Have in Common? Paul Baran
From ACM News

What Do the H-Bomb and the Internet Have in Common? Paul Baran

Paul Baran set out to build a means of communication that could survive a nuclear war. And he ended up inventing the fundamental networking techniques that underpin...

Bae's Striker Helmet Gives Fighter Pilots 'x-Ray Vision'
From ACM News

Bae's Striker Helmet Gives Fighter Pilots 'x-Ray Vision'

When a pilot in a Eurofighter Typhoon jet glances down, he doesn't see a steel-grey floor. Instead he sees clouds, and maybe sheep and cows in green fields below...

Computational Social Science: Making the Links
From ACM News

Computational Social Science: Making the Links

Jon Kleinberg's early work was not for the mathematically faint of heart.

Meet the Man Who's Rewiring Google From the Inside Out
From ACM Opinion

Meet the Man Who's Rewiring Google From the Inside Out

It was a tweet that fired the imagination like few others. On May 10, 2011, at 1:35 in the afternoon, Eric Brewer told the world he was redesigning the most important...

Making Web Applications More Efficient
From ACM News

Making Web Applications More Efficient

Most major Websites these days maintain huge databases: Shopping sites have databases of inventory and customer ratings, travel sites have databases of seat availability...

The Digital Wallet Is Starting to Take Shape
From ACM News

The Digital Wallet Is Starting to Take Shape

Imagine if, in addition to all the things your smartphone does now, it could also act as your keys to the real world.

Take a Spin on the Moon and Mars
From ACM News

Take a Spin on the Moon and Mars

The death of first moonwalker Neil Armstrong and the success of NASA's Curiosity rover have reignited interest in the idea of taking a spin on the moon and Mars...

The Jet Propulsion Lab Is Way Weirder (and Awesomer) Than You Even Imagined
From ACM Opinion

The Jet Propulsion Lab Is Way Weirder (and Awesomer) Than You Even Imagined

For a center of cutting-edge scientific research, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab seems to be a pretty wacky place. Luke Johnson, a graphic designer at the lab, set...

The Joys of ­rban Tech
From ACM Careers

The Joys of ­rban Tech

For as long as many of us can remember, high-tech industries have flourished in the suburban office parks that are so ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, North Carolina's...

A Who's Who of Mideast-Targeted Malware
From ACM News

A Who's Who of Mideast-Targeted Malware

What do Stuxnet, Duqu, Gauss, Mahdi, Flame, Wiper, and Shamoon have in common?

Visual Programming Means Anyone Can Be a Coder
From ACM TechNews

Visual Programming Means Anyone Can Be a Coder

New York University programmer Toby Schachman has developed Recursive Drawing, an experimental programming interface that enables coders to manipulate source code...

Researchers Hack Brainwaves to Reveal Pin Numbers, Other Personal Data
From ACM News

Researchers Hack Brainwaves to Reveal Pin Numbers, Other Personal Data

Don't you dare even think about your banking account password when you slap on those fancy new brainwave headsets.

This Touch Screen Knows Your Touch
From ACM TechNews

This Touch Screen Knows Your Touch

Rutgers University researchers have developed a device that could identify an individual user and rapidly switch a system's settings to adjust to the user, providing...

From Smart to Genius: Will Design Define Future Gadgets?
From ACM News

From Smart to Genius: Will Design Define Future Gadgets?

In a pre-iPhone age, mobile phones came in all shapes and sizes. Remember the clamshell, candy bar, swivel, backflip, slider, dual-slider, lipstick, and, of course...

How Steve Jobs' Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution
From ACM Opinion

How Steve Jobs' Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution

Steve Jobs' interest in design began with his love for his childhood home.

Nasa's Dawn Prepares For Trek Toward Dwarf Planet
From ACM News

Nasa's Dawn Prepares For Trek Toward Dwarf Planet

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant destinations to help scientists answer questions about the formation...

From Bug Drones to Disease Assassins, Super Weapons Rule ­.s. War Game
From ACM News

From Bug Drones to Disease Assassins, Super Weapons Rule ­.s. War Game

A rogue state is on the verge of developing a deadly biological weapon against which the rest of the world has no defense.

Google Seeing-Hand Patent Shows Smart Glove Ambitions
From ACM TechNews

Google Seeing-Hand Patent Shows Smart Glove Ambitions

Google has received a patent for a device and methods for obtaining information with one's hands. Some observers view the patent as a sign of Google's plans for...

How Pacific Island Missile Tests Helped Launch the Internet
From ACM News

How Pacific Island Missile Tests Helped Launch the Internet

There are a thousand stories about the origin of the internet, each with their own starting point and their own heroes. Charles Herzfeld's tale began in 1961 on...

Active in Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing
From ACM News

Active in Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing

Within a few years, Amazon.com's creative destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes to the company’s larger and more secretive...
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