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
The Many Ways to Map the Brain
Brain mapping has come a long way since the days of Korbinian Brodmann.
From ACM News
Gps Doesn't Work nderwater
To prepare for the possibility that it will one day deploy swarms of uncrewed drone submarines, the U.S. Navy is developing a system that will allow the global...
From ACM News
The Internet's Favorite Website
It's usually idle curiosity that drives me to Wikipedia.
From ACM News
Is Digital Privacy Becoming a Partisan Issue?
In a Congress where lawmakers have trouble performing even the most basic functions of the legislative branch—funding the government or approving judicial nominees...
From ACM News
Facebook Is Making a Map of Everyone in the World
Americans inhabit an intricately mapped world.
From ACM News
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
There's a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.
From ACM News
How Do Americans Weigh Privacy Versus National Security?
Three years ago, Edward Snowden leaked troves of previously classified information that laid bare the American government's widespread surveillance of its citizens...
From ACM News
A Search Engine For Your Memories
People are always forgetting names. That's because, at least in part, names are arbitrary. A name, in and of itself, doesn't offer much context.
From ACM News
The Convenience-Surveillance Tradeoff
People love free stuff. That's the principle that helps explain the complicated series of privacy-related calculations that modern life increasingly requires.
From ACM News
What Does the Internet Actually Look Like?
It’s difficult to define "the cloud." Even more difficult, perhaps, is photographing it. But that's precisely what Peter Garritano set out to do with his photoThe...
From ACM News
Do Computers Need Pressure-Sensing Screens?
The computer mouse, when it first went mainstream, was awkward to describe but easy to use.
From ACM News
The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers
The race to bring driverless cars to the masses is only just beginning, but already it is a fight for the ages.
From ACM News
Why New York Subway Lines Are Missing Countdown Clocks
There are people who stand every morning outside the Carroll Street station in Brooklyn staring dead-eyed into the middle distance.
From ACM News
After 10 Years, Google Books Is Legal
On Friday, a federal circuit court made clear that Google Books is legal.
From ACM News
The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy
In the Northern hemisphere's sky, hovering above the Milky Way, there are two constellations—Cygnus the swan, her wings outstretched in full flight, and Lyra, the...
From ACM Opinion
If You're Not Paranoid, You're Crazy
I knew we'd bought walnuts at the store that week, and I wanted to add some to my oatmeal.
From ACM News
What's Killing Mars?
The question of whether there is life on Mars is woven into a much larger thatch of mysteries. Among them: What happened to the ancient ocean that once covered...
From ACM News
Engineering Humans For War
Retired four-star general Paul F. Gorman recalls first learning about the "weakling of the battlefield" from reading S.L.A. Marshall, the U.S. Army combat historian...
From ACM News