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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectHardware
authorThe Atlantic
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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.


Why Google Maps Is Better Than Apple Maps
From ACM Opinion

Why Google Maps Is Better Than Apple Maps

There's a simple answer: people.

A Machine That Makes Cameras: The Aesthetics of the Lytro
From ACM News

A Machine That Makes Cameras: The Aesthetics of the Lytro

Let's think about photography as people live it.

What If NASA Could Figure Out the Math of a Workable Warp Drive?
From ACM News

What If NASA Could Figure Out the Math of a Workable Warp Drive?

When, a few weeks ago, astronomers announced that an Earth-sized planet had been detected orbiting a Alpha Centauri B, a star in the closest system of stars to...

For Lonely Astronauts, a Robotic Companion
From ACM News

For Lonely Astronauts, a Robotic Companion

You know the only thing lonelier than Sgt. Pepper's Hearts Club Band, and the Heartbreak Hotel, and the number one? Being alone and also not on Earth.

What Dna Actually Looks Like
From ACM News

What Dna Actually Looks Like

DNA, we are taught early on, is colorful.

In China, 25 Million People ­se Only Their Cell Phones to Read Books
From ACM Opinion

In China, 25 Million People ­se Only Their Cell Phones to Read Books

On vacation in China earlier this month, I stopped by Shanghai's seven-story downtown "Book City," bustling with activity on a weekday afternoon that, as a publisher...

An Amazon Engineer Had a Little Idea That Turned Into a Billion-Dollar Business
From ACM News

An Amazon Engineer Had a Little Idea That Turned Into a Billion-Dollar Business

Once upon a time, Amazon was a dot-com-era technology company best known for selling books.

The World Is Not Enough: Google and the Future of Augmented Reality
From ACM News

The World Is Not Enough: Google and the Future of Augmented Reality

It is The Future. You wake up at dawn and fumble on the bedstand for your (Google) Glass. Peering out at the world through transparent screens, what do you see?

The Consequences of Machine Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

The Consequences of Machine Intelligence

The question of what happens when machines get to be as intelligent as and even more intelligent than people seems to occupy many science-fiction writers.

Meet Mira, the Supercomputer That Makes ­niverses
From ACM Opinion

Meet Mira, the Supercomputer That Makes ­niverses

Cosmology is the most ambitious of sciences. Its goal, plainly stated, is to describe the origin, evolution, and structure of the entire universe, a universe that...

Iphone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'phone' of 2022 Look Like?
From ACM Opinion

Iphone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'phone' of 2022 Look Like?

The near-term future of phones is fairly well-established. The iPhone 5 was released Wednesday and its similarity to every Apple phone since 2007 serves as a reminder...

How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means For the Future of Everything
From ACM News

How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means For the Future of Everything

Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view.

The Jet Propulsion Lab Is Way Weirder (and Awesomer) Than You Even Imagined
From ACM Opinion

The Jet Propulsion Lab Is Way Weirder (and Awesomer) Than You Even Imagined

For a center of cutting-edge scientific research, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab seems to be a pretty wacky place. Luke Johnson, a graphic designer at the lab, set...

Curiosity's Martian Playground Is Technically Located in Pasadena
From ACM Careers

Curiosity's Martian Playground Is Technically Located in Pasadena

Seventeen miles from downtown L.A., on the campus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, there's a small stretch of earth covered in beach sand, decomposed...

The Robot of the Future That's About to Explore the Deep Past of Mars
From ACM News

The Robot of the Future That's About to Explore the Deep Past of Mars

I want to tell you about a special place on the surface of Mars. Back in the solar system's early days, a large object slammed into the red planet, leaving behind...

Get Ready, Because Voyager I Is *this Close* to Leaving Our Solar System
From ACM News

Get Ready, Because Voyager I Is *this Close* to Leaving Our Solar System

Last week, in the corners of the Internet devoted to outer space, things started to get a little, well, hot. Voyager 1, the man-made object farthest away from Earth...

Microsoft Wants to Serve You Ads Based on What You Do in Your Living Room
From ACM News

Microsoft Wants to Serve You Ads Based on What You Do in Your Living Room

A new patent application from Microsoft points to a future in which your Kinect watches you, and sends ads based on your mood.

Is It Possible to Wage a Just Cyberwar?
From ACM Opinion

Is It Possible to Wage a Just Cyberwar?

In the last week or so, cyberwarfare has made front-page news: the United States may have been behind the Stuxnet cyberattack on Iran; Iran may have suffered another...

How Big Data Is Changing Astronomy (Again)
From ACM News

How Big Data Is Changing Astronomy (Again)

Think of all the data humans have collected over the long history of astronomy, from the cuneiform tablets of ancient Babylon to images—like the one here—taken...

The Technology That Allowed the Titanic Survivors to Survive
From ACM News

The Technology That Allowed the Titanic Survivors to Survive

More than 1,500 people died in the sinking of the Titanic, but more than 700 survived. Those who did owed their escape to the newest communications technology of...
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