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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.


Speed of Light Could Be Dropped to Zero ­sing Crystals
From ACM News

Speed of Light Could Be Dropped to Zero ­sing Crystals

In a vacuum like space, the speed of light is just over 186,280 miles per second. Scientists have now shown it's possible to slow it down to zero miles per second...

Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts
From ACM News

Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts

More than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users in recent days as the company faces growing criticism over...

Data Visualization Tools Drive Interactivity and Reproducibility in Online Publishing
From ACM News

Data Visualization Tools Drive Interactivity and Reproducibility in Online Publishing

As Benjamin Delory started his paper documenting a new way to quantify plant morphology, he realized that one of the figures could pose a problem.

Vista From Mars Rover Looks Back Over Journey So Far
From ACM News

Vista From Mars Rover Looks Back Over Journey So Far

A panoramic image that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took from a mountainside ridge provides a sweeping vista of key sites visited since the rover's 2012 landing,...

How Programmers Learn to Code
From ACM TechNews

How Programmers Learn to Code

Most coders' programming skills are self-taught, and more than a quarter of  surveyed developers wrote their first piece of code before they were 16 years old. ...

Every Study We Could Find on What Automation Will Do to Jobs, in One Chart
From ACM Careers

Every Study We Could Find on What Automation Will Do to Jobs, in One Chart

You've seen the headlines: "Robots Will Destroy Our Jobs—and We're Not Ready for It." "You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot—and Sooner Than You Think." "Robots May...

A New Recipe For Hunting Alien Life
From ACM News

A New Recipe For Hunting Alien Life

Imagine stepping into a time machine, one that could traverse not only billions of years but also countless light years of space, all in search of life in the universe...

Blockchain Is This Year's Buzzword, But Can It Outlive the Hype?
From ACM News

Blockchain Is This Year's Buzzword, But Can It Outlive the Hype?

The speculation around cryptocurrencies has obscured the fact that blockchain, the decentralised, open-source ledger that drives bitcoin, could radically change...

Engineering School Attempts to Overcome 'memory Wall'
From ACM TechNews

Engineering School Attempts to Overcome 'memory Wall'

The University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science has received $27.5 million to launch the Center for Research in Intelligent Storage and Processing...

Artificial Neurons Compute Faster Than the Human Brain
From ACM News

Artificial Neurons Compute Faster Than the Human Brain

Superconducting computing chips modelled after neurons can process information faster and more efficiently than the human brain.

How Pixar's Cartoon Cheese Led to a Smarter View of Science
From ACM Careers

How Pixar's Cartoon Cheese Led to a Smarter View of Science

Ten years ago, a chunk of animated cheese in Pixar's "Ratatouille" captured the imagination of cell biologist Janet Iwasa. So much so that it changed the way she...

Strava Suggests Military ­sers 'opt Out' of Heatmap as Row Deepens
From ACM News

Strava Suggests Military ­sers 'opt Out' of Heatmap as Row Deepens

Fitness-tracking company Strava has defended its publication of heatmaps that accidentally reveal sensitive military positions, arguing that the information was...

Tech Giants Brace For Europe's New Data Privacy Rule
From ACM News

Tech Giants Brace For Europe's New Data Privacy Rule

Over the past two months, Google has started letting people around the world choose what data they want to share with its various products, including Gmail and...

Your Sloppy Bitcoin Drug Deals Will Haunt You For Years
From ACM News

Your Sloppy Bitcoin Drug Deals Will Haunt You For Years

Perhaps you bought some illegal narcotics on the Silk Road half a decade ago, back when that digital black market for every contraband imaginable was still online...

Vulnerable Industrial Controls Directly Connected to Internet? Why Not?
From ACM News

Vulnerable Industrial Controls Directly Connected to Internet? Why Not?

Siemens issued an update to a year-old product vulnerability warning for its SIMATIC S7-300 and S7-400 families of programmable logic controllers (PLCs)—industrial...

Tech Firms Let Russia Probe Software Widely ­sed By ­.s. Government
From ACM News

Tech Firms Let Russia Probe Software Widely ­sed By ­.s. Government

Major global technology providers SAP (SAPG.DE), Symantec (SYMC.O) and McAfee have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded...

DARPA Wants to Build an Image Search Engine Out of Dna
From ACM News

DARPA Wants to Build an Image Search Engine Out of Dna

Most people use Google's search-by-image feature to either look for copyright infringement, or for shopping.

Physicists Create Star Wars-Style 3D Projections; Just Don't Call Them Holograms
From ACM News

Physicists Create Star Wars-Style 3D Projections; Just Don't Call Them Holograms

Daniel Smalley has long dreamed of building the kind of 3D holograms that pepper science-fiction films.

The (almost) Complete History of 'fake News'
From ACM News

The (almost) Complete History of 'fake News'

In record time, the phrase morphed from a description of a social media phenomenon into a journalistic cliche and an angry political slur.

Major Payment Company: 'fewer and Fewer ­se Cases' For Bitcoin Payments
From ACM News

Major Payment Company: 'fewer and Fewer ­se Cases' For Bitcoin Payments

Stripe is one of the most popular ways for small online organizations to accept credit card payments. And in 2014 it became one of the first major payment processors...
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