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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've Got Mail!
From Communications of the ACM

You've Got Mail!

And that's not all. Email is not what it used to be.

The Supreme Court Takes On the Police Use of Cellphone Records
From ACM News

The Supreme Court Takes On the Police Use of Cellphone Records

The Supreme Court has handed down what may be the most important privacy case of the digital era, ruling on Friday that the government cannot force cellphone service...

Why a 40-Year-Old SCOT­S Ruling Against Software Patents Still Matters Today
From ACM News

Why a 40-Year-Old SCOT­S Ruling Against Software Patents Still Matters Today

Forty years ago this week, in the case of Parker v. Flook, the US Supreme Court came close to banning software patents.

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.

Finally, a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve
From ACM News

Finally, a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve

Early on in the study of quantum computers, computer scientists posed a question whose answer, they knew, would reveal something deep about the power of these futuristic...

How to Control Robots with Brainwaves and Hand Gestures
From ACM News

How to Control Robots with Brainwaves and Hand Gestures

Getting robots to do things isn't easy: Usually, scientists have to either explicitly program them or get them to understand how humans communicate via language...

Martian Dust Storm Grows Global; Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze
From ACM News

Martian Dust Storm Grows Global; Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze

A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations.

The Science Behind the World Cup Ball
From ACM News

The Science Behind the World Cup Ball

Each World Cup, the sportswear giant Adidas designs an official ball to be used in the tournament.

New Human Gene Tally Reignites Debate
From ACM News

New Human Gene Tally Reignites Debate

One of the earliest attempts to estimate the number of genes in the human genome involved tipsy geneticists, a bar in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and pure guesswork...

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...

New AI System Can Imagine What It Hasn't Seen
From ACM News

New AI System Can Imagine What It Hasn't Seen

"Before we work on artificial intelligence, why don't we do something about natural stupidity?" computer scientist Steve Polyak once joked.

Astronomers See Distant Eruption as Black Hole Destroys Star
From ACM News

Astronomers See Distant Eruption as Black Hole Destroys Star

For the first time, astronomers have directly imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the powerful gravity of a supermassive...

Spotlight Falls on Russian Threat to ­ndersea Cables
From ACM News

Spotlight Falls on Russian Threat to ­ndersea Cables

The Trump administration's new sanctions on Russia are casting light on the threat posed to the undersea cables that carry the world's electronic communications...

If You're A Facebook ­ser, You're Also a Research Subject
From ACM News

If You're A Facebook ­ser, You're Also a Research Subject

The professor was incredulous.

Seafloor Fiber Optic Cables Can Work Like Seismometers
From ACM News

Seafloor Fiber Optic Cables Can Work Like Seismometers

There are enough seismometers around these days to detect and locate nearly all earthquakes on land, except the most minuscule ones.

Computer Program Looks Five Minutes Into the Future
From ACM TechNews

Computer Program Looks Five Minutes Into the Future

Self-learning software can predict actions five minutes into the future by first learning typical sequences of events from video footage, and then predicting actions...

Drone Swarms Are the New Fireworks Lighting Up China's Skies
From ACM News

Drone Swarms Are the New Fireworks Lighting Up China's Skies

Since China banned fireworks across more than 400 cities to reduce pollution, a new entertainment has emerged to fill the skies: drone swarms.

Ramp-­p in Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Sea Level Rise
From ACM News

Ramp-­p in Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Sea Level Rise

Ice losses from Antarctica have tripled since 2012, increasing global sea levels by 0.12 inch (3 millimeters) in that timeframe alone, according to a major new...

Colliding Wormholes May Be Causing Gravitational Waves
From ACM News

Colliding Wormholes May Be Causing Gravitational Waves

One of the most significant scientific developments of recent times has been the five separate observations of the elusive ripples in space-time known as gravitational...

Massive Martian Dust Storm Endangers NASA Rover
From ACM News

Massive Martian Dust Storm Endangers NASA Rover

An enormous dust storm is blanketing much of Mars, blocking the sunlight that NASA's 15-year-old Opportunity rover needs to survive.
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