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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.


You Wouldn't Think It, But Typeface Piracy Is a Big Problem
From ACM News

You Wouldn't Think It, But Typeface Piracy Is a Big Problem

It's safe to assume that most people have no idea that fonts, like music or movies, are protected by intellectual property laws, they usually come with a hefty...

Search For Intelligent Aliens Near Bizarre Dimming Star Has Begun
From ACM News

Search For Intelligent Aliens Near Bizarre Dimming Star Has Begun

The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an "alien megastructure" is now underway.

Why Robot That Gets 'tired and Hormonal' Is a Good Thing
From ACM TechNews

Why Robot That Gets 'tired and Hormonal' Is a Good Thing

Having certain robots operate using the electronic equivalent of an endocrine system could present advantages, according to researchers. 

Academics Present New Breakthroughs For Fundamental Problems in Computer Science
From ACM TechNews

Academics Present New Breakthroughs For Fundamental Problems in Computer Science

Researchers this week presented papers on two fundamental problems in computer science at the IEEE symposium on Foundations of Computer Science. 

Museum Specimens Find New Life Online
From ACM News

Museum Specimens Find New Life Online

In a brightly lit room on the third floor of the Museum of Natural History here, stacks of wooden drawers are covered in glass, some panes so dusty that it is difficult...

X-Ray Scans Expose an Ingenious Chip-and-Pin Card Hack
From ACM News

X-Ray Scans Expose an Ingenious Chip-and-Pin Card Hack

The chip-enabled credit card system long used in Europe, a watered down version of which is rolling out for the first time in America, is meant to create a double...

New Research Method Identifies Stealth Attacks on Complicated Computer Systems
From ACM TechNews

New Research Method Identifies Stealth Attacks on Complicated Computer Systems

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University researchers have developed a program anomaly-detection approach to discovering stealth attacks on computers. ...

Most Americans Would Be Fine with Some Internet Surveillance If They Were Notified
From ACM News

Most Americans Would Be Fine with Some Internet Surveillance If They Were Notified

Despite increasingly heated rhetoric from opponents of government surveillance, a recent survey shows that most Americans would be okay with many kinds of Internet...

Apple Ceo Defends Encryption, Opposes Government Back Door
From ACM News

Apple Ceo Defends Encryption, Opposes Government Back Door

Apple Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer and the director of the National Security Agency squared off on Monday in a debate over how much access technology companies...

A Robot Finds Its Way ­sing Artificial 'gps' Brain Cells
From ACM News

A Robot Finds Its Way ­sing Artificial 'gps' Brain Cells

The behavior and interplay of two types of neurons in the brain helps give humans and other animals an uncanny ability to navigate by building a mental map of their...

Quantum Technology Set to Hit the Streets Within Two Years
From ACM TechNews

Quantum Technology Set to Hit the Streets Within Two Years

The United Kingdom kicked off an initiative in 2013 that could result in the development of the world's most powerful quantum computer by 2020. 

Seeing Stars, Again: Naval Academy Reinstates Celestial Navigation
From ACM Careers

Seeing Stars, Again: Naval Academy Reinstates Celestial Navigation

The same techniques guided ancient Polynesians in the open Pacific and led Sir Ernest Shackleton to remote Antarctica, then oriented astronauts when the Apollo...

The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy
From ACM News

The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy

In the Northern hemisphere's sky, hovering above the Milky Way, there are two constellations—Cygnus the swan, her wings outstretched in full flight, and Lyra, the...

How Human Nature Could Foil Tesla's New Autopilot
From ACM TechNews

How Human Nature Could Foil Tesla's New Autopilot

Researchers and driving safety experts warn the new autopilot option installed in most Tesla vehicles could cause unsafe conditions. 

Vast Cosmic Voids Merge Like Soap Bubbles
From ACM News

Vast Cosmic Voids Merge Like Soap Bubbles

Vast regions of near-empty space in the Universe are growing and shrinking, much as bubbles merge and separate in soapsuds, astronomers have discovered.

How the Nsa Can Break Trillions of Encrypted Web and Vpn Connections
From ACM News

How the Nsa Can Break Trillions of Encrypted Web and Vpn Connections

For years, privacy advocates have pushed developers of websites, virtual private network apps, and other cryptographic software to adopt the Diffie-Hellman cryptographic...

An Error Leads to a New Way to Draw, and Erase, Computing Circuits
From ACM News

An Error Leads to a New Way to Draw, and Erase, Computing Circuits

For the physics researcher Andrew L. Yeats, a light-bulb moment led to an important new insight.

IBM Making Plans to Commercialize Its Brain-Inspired Chip
From ACM News

IBM Making Plans to Commercialize Its Brain-Inspired Chip

In August last year, IBM unveiled a chip designed to operate something like the neurons and synapses of the brain (see "IBM Chip Process Data Similar to the Way...

Sensors May Soon Give Prosthetics a Lifelike Sense of Touch
From ACM News

Sensors May Soon Give Prosthetics a Lifelike Sense of Touch

Prosthetic limbs may work wonders for restoring lost function in some amputees, but one thing they can't do is restore an accurate sense of touch.

Closest Northern Views of Saturn's Moon Enceladus
From ACM News

Closest Northern Views of Saturn's Moon Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun returning its best-ever views of the northern extremes of Saturn's icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus.
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