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
Smart Dust? Not Quite, but We
In computing, the vision always precedes the reality by a decade or more. The pattern has held true from the personal computer to the Internet, as it takes time...
From ACM News
The Web Way to Learn a Language
The young woman seated next to us at the sushi bar exuded a vaguely exotic air; her looks and style, we thought, made it likely that she was not American born. ...
From ACM News
In Digital Combat, U.s. Finds No Easy Deterrent
On a Monday morning earlier this month, top Pentagon leaders gathered to simulate how they would respond to a sophisticated cyberattack aimed at paralyzing the...
From ACM News
If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It Hackme
Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.” Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.” Despite all the reports...
From ACM TechNews
At Argonne Lab, a Shift From Radioactivity to Supercomputers
Argonne National Laboratory is phasing out its use of radioactive materials in favor of supercomputers for the purpose of conducting research. "The past was the...
From ACM News
Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards
LAS VEGAS — To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated...
From ACM News
Obama to Name Chief of Cybersecurity
Nearly seven months after highlighting the vulnerability of banking, energy and communications systems to Internet attacks, the White House on Tuesday is expected...
From ACM News
A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing
In a speech given just a few weeks before he was lost at sea off the California coast in January 2007, Jim Gray, a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher...
From ACM News
Open Source as a Model For Business Is Elusive
SAN FRANCISCO — In many ways, MySQL embodies the ideals of the populist software movement known as open source, in which a program’s creator releases it to the...
From ACM News
Adding a Sixth Sense to Your Cellphone
Many Indians bought their first mobile phones before they had their first experiences with personal computers. Pranav Mistry thinks that most of them might also...
From ACM News
.s. Begins Antitrust Inquiry of I.b.m.
The Justice Department has started a preliminary investigation into whether I.B.M. has abused its monopoly position in the market for mainframe computers, which...
From ACM News
Netflix Awards $1 Million Prize and Starts a New Contest
Netflix, the movie rental company, has decided its million-dollar-prize competition was such a good investment that it is planning another one. The company’srecommendation...
From ACM News
Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks
Like a ghost ship, a rogue software program that glided onto the Internet last November has confounded the efforts of top security experts to eradicate the program...
From ACM TechNews
The Corporate Lab as Ringmaster
The advent of the Internet era is shrinking the role of corporate research and development laboratories in the innovation process, according to experts. Michael...
From ACM News
Contractors Vie For Plum Work, Hacking For U.s.
The U.S. government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. The...
From ACM News