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 TechNews
Creating Apps Just For Cars
Ford Motor Co. is working with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Microsoft to offer a computer science and engineering course in which Michigan students...
From ACM News
Fingertip Bacteria: A Promising Forensic Tool
It's not just our genomes that make us unique. The genomic profile of bacteria that rub off our fingertips and onto objects we touch--a computer keyboard, for instance...
From ACM TechNews
How to Build a Superluminal Computer
Vienna University of Technology physicists Volkmar Putz and Karl Svozil have devised a way to process information that exceeds the speed of light.
From ACM News
Toyota Applies the Brakes
In the wake of a massive public-relations nightmare involving brake problems in its cars, Toyota is investigating two more reports this week of unintended acceleration...
From ACM News
Getting More from Location Data
Thanks to smart phones and other mobile devices, the number of applications that make use of geolocation data is exploding. But developers and device makers face...
From ACM News
Magnetic Solder to Wire 3-D Chips
A new type of solder can be melted and shaped in three dimensions under the force of a weak magnetic field. Using a magnet to pull the solder up through narrow...
From ACM News
Faster Optical Switching Through Chemistry
New molecules produced at Georgia Tech could enable engineers to build all-optical data routers, ultimately leading to transmission speeds as high as two terabits...
From ACM TechNews
Putting the Web in a Spreadsheet
IBM researchers have developed BigSheets, a data analysis tool based on Hadoop designed to help users analyze large Web data sets. BigSheets uses Hadoop to comb...
From ACM News
Touch Screens that Touch Back
Forget putting your phone on vibrate. A novel "high-definition" touch-feedback display can give a touch screen the feel of a textured surface. The technology was...
From ACM News
Making Sense of Mountains of Data
"How do you take a big collection of things and make sense out of it?" asks Gary Flake, founder and director of Microsoft Live Labs, a division of the softwarePivot...
From ACM TechNews
Stopping Stealthy Downloads
SRI International and Georgia Tech researchers have developed Block All Drive-By Download Exploits (BLADE), free software that can stop Internet attacks brought...
From ACM News
Augmented Identity
An application that lets users point a smart phone at a stranger and immediately learn about them premiered last Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona...
From ACM TechNews
How to Make the Internet a Lot Faster
Google recently announced plans to build an experimental fiber network that would offer gigabit-per-second broadband speeds to up to 500,000 U.S. homes. The speeds...
From ACM News
A Faster Wireless Web
Transfers of large amounts of data across the Internet to wireless devices suffer from a key problem: The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used to send and receive...
From ACM News
Wi-Fi at the Speed of Light
A wireless network that uses reflected infrared light instead of radio waves has transmitted data through the air at a speed of one gigabit per second—six to 14...
From ACM News
A 50-Watt Cellular Network
An Indian telecom company is deploying simple cell phone base stations that need as little as 50 watts of solar-provided power. It will soon announce plans to sell...
From ACM News
Getting a Grip on Online Buzz
Big-name companies increasingly recognize the importance of discussions about their products on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But keeping track...
From ACM News
Searching For Disease Clues in Genetic Diversity
Over the last few years, scientists have discovered hundreds of genetic variants linked to disease. But the vast majority of that research has focused on people...
From ACM News
What's Inside the Ipad's Chip?
Despite widespread speculation, nothing beyond what Steve Jobs announced last week is known about the A4 chip at the heart of the Apple iPad. Jobs described the...
From ACM TechNews