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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.


The Internet Is Killing Most Languages
From ACM News

The Internet Is Killing Most Languages

You might be living through another mass extinction of species—brought on by us humans, who have been changing climate and fragmenting habitats at an increasing...

Pay with Your Fingerprint
From ACM News

Pay with Your Fingerprint

Anyone with an iPhone 5 can use its fingerprint reader to unlock the device and pay for apps or music in Apple's iTunes store.

Carnegie Mellon Robot Invites Humans to Play Mean Game of Scrabble
From ACM News

Carnegie Mellon Robot Invites Humans to Play Mean Game of Scrabble

Victor is obsessed with SCRABBLE.

Getting to Know ... Jason
From ACM News

Getting to Know ... Jason

The JASON group is a low-profile, high-level adviser to the U.S. government on defense, science, and technology.

How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today
From ACM News

How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today

If you wanted to pick a single date to mark the beginning of the modern era of the web, you could do a lot worse than choosing Thursday, April 1, 2004, the day...

Teen to Government: Change Your Typeface, Save Millions
From ACM TechNews

Teen to Government: Change Your Typeface, Save Millions

A Pittsburgh-area middle school student says his school district can save up to $21,000 annually by printing documents exclusively in the Garamond font.

Experts Say Nsa Rules Leave Privacy Vulnerable
From ACM TechNews

Experts Say Nsa Rules Leave Privacy Vulnerable

Cybersecurity experts doubt U.S. President Barack Obama's assurance the U.S. National Security Agency is not spying on ordinary Americans' communications.

Nsa Infiltrated Rsa Security More Deeply Than Thought  Study
From ACM News

Nsa Infiltrated Rsa Security More Deeply Than Thought Study

Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's...

How Twitter Knows You're Obese
From ACM TechNews

How Twitter Knows You're Obese

A researcher contends Twitter and other social media can complement other data sources for public health officials to identify at-risk communities. 

NASA Model Provides a 3-D Look at L.A.-area Quake
From ACM News

NASA Model Provides a 3-D Look at L.A.-area Quake

On March 28, residents of Greater Los Angeles experienced the largest earthquake to strike the region since 2008.

How Far Will the Supreme Court Go to Stop Patent Trolls?
From ACM News

How Far Will the Supreme Court Go to Stop Patent Trolls?

What kinds of software—if any—deserve a patent?

Stodgy, Old Baseball Invents the Future of Instant Replay
From ACM News

Stodgy, Old Baseball Invents the Future of Instant Replay

Major League Baseball is not inclined to tinker much with America's pastime, aside from the occasional tweak to the number of teams in the playoffs.

Open Enigma Project Makes Encryption Machines Accessible
From ACM News

Open Enigma Project Makes Encryption Machines Accessible

Enigma machines have captivated everyone from legendary code breaker Alan Turing and the dedicated cryptographers from England's Bletchley Park to historians and...

Human Evolution: The Neanderthal in the Family
From ACM News

Human Evolution: The Neanderthal in the Family

Before ancient DNA exposed the sexual proclivities of Neanderthals or the ancestry of the first Americans, there was the quagga.

In New Case, Supreme Court Revisits the Question of Software Patents
From ACM News

In New Case, Supreme Court Revisits the Question of Software Patents

If you write a book or a song, you can get copyright protection for it. If you invent a pill or a better mousetrap, you can patent it.

The Electronic Holy War
From ACM News

The Electronic Holy War

In May, 1997, I.B.M.'s Deep Blue supercomputer prevailed over Garry Kasparov in a series of six chess games, becoming the first computer to defeat a world-champion...

Comet Lander Checks In with Earth
From ACM News

Comet Lander Checks In with Earth

The Philae lander, which Europe hopes to put on the surface of a comet later this year, has been re-activated after three years in deep-space hibernation.

Search For Lost Jet Is Complicated By Geopolitics and Rivalries
From ACM News

Search For Lost Jet Is Complicated By Geopolitics and Rivalries

The frantic hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been, in one way, a nearly miraculous display of international collaboration: 26 nations, many of them rivals...

How the Nsa Would Get Phone Data ­nder Obama Administration's New Plan
From ACM News

How the Nsa Would Get Phone Data ­nder Obama Administration's New Plan

One of the key points in the "fact sheet" that the White House published today about its plan to end the NSA's bulk collection of phone record data is that while...

Apple Seeks Greater Emoji Racial Diversity
From ACM TechNews

Apple Seeks Greater Emoji Racial Diversity

Apple says it wants to boost the ethnic diversity of the emoji used in text-messaging apps.
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