Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Light Is Not Fast Enough For High-Speed Stock Trading
Every microsecond counts in stock trading. The New York Stock Exchange handles a third of the world's stock trading—around 22 billion messages a day. But NYSE...
From ACM News
nbridled Ingenuity at Maker Faire
Around noon this past Sunday, I found myself asking a young girl why, even though the music-producing device she and her family had made was called "Slugophone...
From ACM News
Quantum Minds: Why We Think Like Quarks
The fuzziness and weird logic of the way particles behave applies surprisingly well to how humans think.
From ACM News
Robot 'mission Impossible' Wins Video Prize
You could call it Mission Impossible: Robot Library Heist. An army of flying, rolling, and climbing robots have been taught to work together to find and snatch...
From ACM News
Mapping the Most Complex Object in the Known niverse
It's paint-by-numbers for neuroscientists. At the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, researchers have devised a faster way of computing...
From ACM News
'Fluid Cloak' to Help Submarines Leave No Wake
Super-stealthy submarines may one day glide through the water without creating a wake, if a plan to channel fluid intelligently around objects can be made to...
From ACM News
Ok, Climate Skeptics: Here's the Raw Data You Wanted
Anyone can now view for themselves the raw data that was at the centre of last year's "climategate" scandal.
From ACM News
Why Bitcoin Is Not As Anonymous As Most sers Think
People who use Bitcoin to ensure their purchases remain anonymous may want to reconsider their reliance on the online peer-to-peer currency, say researchers who...
From ACM TechNews
Computers Understand Hand-Waving Descriptions
A new gesture-based interface developed by the Hasso Plattner Institute's Christian Holz and Microsoft Research's Andy Wilson does not require users to memorize...
From ACM News
Robots se Kinect to nderstand Our World
Picture the scene, a few years from now. "Robot, fetch me that pillow over there," you say to your ever-willing butlerbot. "Certainly sir," it replies. "What's...
From ACM TechNews
Buy Now or Wait For a Sale? Let the Computer Decide
Microsoft researchers have developed Prodcast, a tool that helps consumers decide whether to buy a new product now or wait for prices to fall.
From ACM TechNews
Mining Social Networks to Predict Your App Choices
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab have analyzed the smartphone use of students on social networks in an attempt to determine...
From ACM TechNews
Protecting Protestors With Photos That Never Existed
In a response to protestors getting arrested for taking pictures of government-instigated violence, researchers have developed a method that uses graphics processors...
From ACM News
Interview with Key Lulzsec Hacker
It was early May when LulzSec's profile skyrocketed after a hack on the giant Sony corporation. LulzSec's name comes from Lulz, a corruption of LOL, often denoting...
From ACM News
Autopiloted Glider Knows Where to Fly For a Free Ride
Hawks and albatrosses soar for hours or even days without having to land. Soon robotic gliders could go one better, soaring on winds and thermals indefinitely...
From ACM News
The Defenders: Inside an Online Siege
In a quiet, windowless auditorium in Bristol, in the west of England, Lucy Robson and her team hunch over their laptops as the seconds on a giant clock above...
From ACM News
Intel Anthropologist: Fieldwork with the Silicon Tribe
Anthropologist Genevieve Bell gives the chip maker insight into how people experience new technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Earthquake? Terrorist Bomb? Call in the AI
Durham University researchers are developing a training simulation system designed to help emergency services workers adapt to chaotic situations. The system takes...
From ACM News
Amusement Park Rides that Know When You're Scared
What would it feel like to ride on a roller-coaster that reacts to your emotional state? Visitors to amusement parks may soon be able to find out.
From ACM News