Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2014
From ACM TechNews
Seven Ways DARPA Is Trying to Kill the Password
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding research at institutions working on desktop and mobile authentication technologies.
From ACM TechNews
The Internet of Things Brings Far-Reaching Security Threats
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency program manager Randy Garrett warns the advent of the Internet of Things will create a large number of new threat vectors that could be exploited by malicious hackers.
From ACM TechNews
STEM Partnerships Connect Students to Schools and Libraries
Public libraries have started partnering with local schools to provide science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to students. A recent survey found that one in six libraries host maker spaces focused on STEM…
From ACM News
Can an Armadillo Paper Airplane Fly? Autodesk Says Yes
We've all made the standard paper airplane, that elongated triangle made up of six simple folds.
From ACM News
A Grand Vision For the Impossible
Subhash Khot's bold conjecture is helping mathematicians explore the precise limitations of computation.
From ACM Careers
When Hackers Test For Flaws, They Might Earn Cash—or Threats
To hack or not to hack?
From ACM Opinion
Why One of Cybersecurity's Thought Leaders ses a Pager Instead of a Smart Phone
In the computer and network security industry, few people are as well known as Dan Geer.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Shows Off Video Stabilization Tools
New software from Microsoft researchers can stabilize shaky video taken while cycling, climbing, kayaking, or engaging in some other high-speed sport, and speed the footage up to make it more watchable.
From ACM TechNews
Big Data's High-Priests of Algorithms
Industry demand for data scientists is exploding with many businesses looking for people skilled in sifting through massive volumes of data streaming in from different sources for patterns into customer habits and in crafting…
From ACM TechNews
What Cars Did for Today's World, Data May Do for Tomorrow's
The acquisition and processing of digital information has become the dominant industrial ecosystem, which calls for new and improved ways of collecting, shipping, and processing data.
From ACM TechNews
Google's Big-Data Tool, Mesa, Holds Petabytes of Data Across Multiple Servers
Google says its big-data architecture, Mesa, can store petabytes of data, update millions of rows of data per second, and field trillions of queries daily across multiple servers, enabling continuous operation of the data warehouse…
From ACM TechNews
U-M Developing Wearable Tech For Disease Monitoring
University of Michigan researchers are developing a wearable vapor sensor that could offer continuous disease monitoring for patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, anemia, or lung disease.
From ACM Careers
Here's How the Feds Are Teaming Up With Hackers to Save US All from Robocalls
The Federal Trade Commission is at one of the world's biggest hacker conferences this weekend, where hackers are competing to help save us all from robocalls.
From ACM TechNews
A New Chip Functions Like a Brain, Ibm Says
IBM researchers have developed a new kind of computer chip that tries to mimic the way brains recognize patterns, relying on densely interconnected webs of transistors similar to the brain's neural network.
From ACM News
Traffic Light Hackers Could Cause Jams Across the US
Branden Ghena pulls his car up under a traffic light in a city in Michigan.
From ACM News
Malware Traffic Spikes Preceded Russian and Israeli Conflicts
A study of malware operating on corporate and government networks suggests that the communication patterns of these programs could warn of major conflicts.
From ACM News
Augmented Reality Gives Physical World a Vrtual Dimension
For some it seems, the world is not enough.
From ACM Careers
Meet the Puzzle Mastermind Who Designs Def Con's Hackable Badges
Def Con is one of the world's biggest hacker conventions, an annual gathering of security experts, cryptographers and at least a few people who could surreptitiously drain your bank account if they wanted.
From ACM TechNews
Now You Can See the Invisible
University of California, Santa Barbara researchers are using Wi-Fi signals to look through solid walls and see what is on the other side.
From ACM TechNews
Mobile Gadgets That Connect to Wi-Fi Without a Battery
A new breed of mobile wireless device does not need a battery or other energy storage to send data over Wi-Fi. Researchers have developed prototype gadgets that obtain power by using the Wi-Fi, TV, radio, and cellular signals…
From ACM TechNews
Transportation Institute Works on Study That Could Display Traffic Signs Inside Vehicles
Researchers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Transportation Institute are exploring the idea of moving traffic signs from the side of the road and into vehicles via dashboard screens.
From ACM TechNews
Alternative STEM Programs Offer Early Career Prep For Students
The Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program's Summer Bridge program included more than 20 high school students who took college-level math courses and interned with STEM-oriented agencies or companies.
From ACM TechNews
A Room Where Executives Go to Get Help from IBM's Watson
IBM researchers are experimenting with a room where executives can go to discuss business problems with a version of the Watson supercomputing system.
From ACM News
Cassini Prepares For Its Biggest Remaining Burn
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will execute the largest planned maneuver of the spacecraft's remaining mission on Saturday, Aug. 9. The maneuver will target Cassini toward an Aug. 21 encounter with Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
From ACM News
Origami Robot Folds Itself p, Crawls Away
For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots—reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into arbitrary shapes.
From ACM News
Messaging App Lets You Leave Secrets on Street Corners
It's your birthday and a message from a friend suggests you go to a nearby street corner.
From ACM News
Organic Synthesis: The Robo-Chemist
In faded photographs from the 1960s, organic-chemistry laboratories look like an alchemist's paradise.
From ACM Opinion
How Wwi Codebreakers Taught Your Gas Meter to Snitch on You
In the depths of night on August 5th 1914 the British Cable Ship Alert took the first significant action of World War I, severing the five German submarine cables that ran through the English Channel.
From ACM TechNews
No-Power Wi-Fi Connectivity Could Fuel Internet of Things Reality
Wi-Fi backscatter uses RF signals as a power source and reuses Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to Internet of Things-linked devices.
From ACM TechNews
Communication-Optimal Algorithms For Contracting Distributed Tensors
A new framework derives algorithms for distributed contraction of arbitrary dimensional tensors on the IBM Blue Gene/Q Mira supercomputer.