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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.


Finding the 'holy Grail' of Making Smarter Robots
From ACM News

Finding the 'holy Grail' of Making Smarter Robots

Robots that can learn how to do just about anything, including anticipating what their human owners are about to do, may be lurking around the corner if scientists...

Why Big Data Has Some Big Problems When It Comes to Public Policy
From ACM Opinion

Why Big Data Has Some Big Problems When It Comes to Public Policy

For all the talk about using big data and data science to solve the world’s problems—and even all the talk about big data as one of the world’s problems—it seems...

In Praise of Efficient Price Gouging
From ACM Opinion

In Praise of Efficient Price Gouging

In the four years since the car service Uber launched, it has been beset by criticism from myriad groups, including city officials annoyed by its sometimes cavalier...

The Surveillance Engine: How the Nsa Built Its Own Secret Google
From ACM News

The Surveillance Engine: How the Nsa Built Its Own Secret Google

The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a "Google-like" search engine built to share more than...

For Sale: Systems that Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone ­sers Go Around the Globe
From ACM News

For Sale: Systems that Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone ­sers Go Around the Globe

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they...

The Cookies You Can't Crumble
From ACM News

The Cookies You Can't Crumble

If you've used the Internet for longer than the iPhone has been around, you're probably familiar with cookies, those little packets of personal data that help load...

For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone ­sers Go Around the Globe
From ACM TechNews

For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone ­sers Go Around the Globe

Privately owned surveillance companies are offering systems capable of tracking the location of any cellphone user to governments around the globe. 

Hacking Traffic Lights With a Laptop Is Easy
From ACM TechNews

Hacking Traffic Lights With a Laptop Is Easy

Security researchers with permission from local road authorities hacked into nearly 100 wirelessly networked traffic lights and were able to change the lights on...

China Targets Own Operating System to Take on Likes of Microsoft, Google
From ACM News

China Targets Own Operating System to Take on Likes of Microsoft, Google

China could have a new homegrown operating system by October to take on imported rivals such as Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc, Xinhua news agency said...

Queen Pardons Gay Codebreaker Alan Turing
From ACM News

Queen Pardons Gay Codebreaker Alan Turing

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II this week granted a Royal pardon for internationally acclaimed British codebreaker and computer scientist Alan Turing, who took his...

A Chinese Internet Giant Starts to Dream
From ACM News

A Chinese Internet Giant Starts to Dream

Punk bands from Blondie to the Ramones once played in Broadway Studios, an age-worn 95-year-old neoclassical building surrounded by strip clubs in San Francisco’s...

Is Emailing Your Brainwaves the Future of Communication?
From ACM News

Is Emailing Your Brainwaves the Future of Communication?

Here's something you probably didn't expect in your inbox: Researchers have now developed a way to email brainwaves.

Tor Project's Struggle to Keep the Dark Net in the Shadows
From ACM Opinion

Tor Project's Struggle to Keep the Dark Net in the Shadows

The BBC has interviewed Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project.

Anatomy of an Air Strike: Three Intelligence Streams Working in Concert
From ACM Opinion

Anatomy of an Air Strike: Three Intelligence Streams Working in Concert

In a fast-moving war with an elusive foe like the Islamic State militants, information is as important as guns, jet fighters and bombs.

Google's Fact-Checking Bots Build Vast Knowledge Bank
From ACM News

Google's Fact-Checking Bots Build Vast Knowledge Bank

Google is building the largest store of knowledge in human history—and it's doing so without any human help.

Listening In: The Navy Is Tracking Ocean Sounds Collected By Scientists
From ACM News

Listening In: The Navy Is Tracking Ocean Sounds Collected By Scientists

In a retired shore station for transpacific communications cables on the western coast of Vancouver Island sits a military computer in a padlocked cage.

Vexed in the City: Starved For Tech Talent and Yet Nobody to Hire?
From ACM Careers

Vexed in the City: Starved For Tech Talent and Yet Nobody to Hire?

Darin Wedel made headlines in 2012 when his wife, Jennifer, asked President Barack Obama during a Google+ Hangout why her husband was still out of work while H-1B...

New Era in Safety When Cars Talk to One Another
From ACM News

New Era in Safety When Cars Talk to One Another

A driver moves along in traffic, the forward view blocked by a truck or a bend in the road. Suddenly, up ahead, someone slams on the brake. Tires screech.

Technology Can Make Lawful Surveillance Both Open and Effective
From ACM TechNews

Technology Can Make Lawful Surveillance Both Open and Effective

New technology could enable law enforcement to identify people whose actions justify  investigation and demonstrate probable cause via an authorized electronic...

Cryptography Expert Says, 'pgp Encryption Is Fundamentally Broken, Time For Pgp to Die'
From ACM Opinion

Cryptography Expert Says, 'pgp Encryption Is Fundamentally Broken, Time For Pgp to Die'

A Senior cryptography expert has claimed multiple issues with PGP email encryption—an open source end-to-end encryption to secure email.
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