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
Joseph Lechleider, a Father of the Dsl Internet Technology, Dies at 82
In the late 1980s, Joseph W. Lechleider came up with a clever solution to a puzzling technical problem, making it possible to bring high-speed Internet service...
From ACM News
Statcast Arrives, Offering Way to Quantify Nearly Every Move in Game
Which outfielders take the most efficient routes to a fly ball? Which pitcher's curveball has the highest spin rate? Which batter has the fastest speed to first...
From ACM News
On Time-Lapse Rocket Ride to Trade Center's Top, Glimpse of Doomed Tower
An imposingly realistic vision of the old 1 World Trade Center, the ultimately doomed north tower, will begin appearing next month in a most unlikely place: the...
From ACM News
Technology That Prods You to Take Action, Not Just Collect Data
The bookshelves in Natasha Dow Schüll’s office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are punctuated here and there with kitchen timers: a windup orange plastic...
From ACM Careers
The Hackathon Fast Track, From Campus to Silicon Valley
Shariq Hashme squints at his laptop screen as he scrolls through hundreds of lines of computer code.
From ACM News
Shrill? To N.c.a.a. Tournament Referees, It's Symphonic
Susan Mueller, a flutist and the chairwoman of the Nevada-Las Vegas music department, examined the referee's whistle in her hand.
From ACM News
To Bring Virtual Reality to Market, Furious Efforts to Solve Nausea
Few technologies have generated more attention than virtual reality, which promises to immerse people in 3-D games and video.
From ACM Careers
Hoping Google's Lab Is a Rainmaker
Google's research arm, Google X, is called the company's Moonshot Factory. One reason the company picked the word "Moonshot" was to remind people to tackle big...
From ACM Careers
Charles H. Townes, Who Paved Way For the Laser in Daily Life, Dies at 99
Charles H. Townes, a visionary physicist whose research led to the development of the laser, making it possible to play CDs, scan prices at the supermarket, measure...
From ACM News
To Lure Young, Movie Theaters Shake, Smell and Spritz
Having tried 3-D films, earsplitting sound systems and even alcohol sales in pursuit of younger moviegoers, some theater chains are now installing undulating seats...
From ACM Careers
Gregarious and Direct: China's Web Doorkeeper
When a major Chinese-American Internet conference convenes in Washington on Tuesday, a middle-aged Communist Party propaganda chief will be seated amid a room full...
From ACM News
Sculptor Offers Another Clue in 24-Year-Old Mystery at C.i.a.
The artist who created the enigmatic Kryptos, a puzzle-in-a-sculpture that has driven code breakers to distraction since it was installed 24 years ago in a courtyard...
From ACM News
A Super-Simple Way to nderstand the Net Neutrality Debate
It's one of the most important policy disputes that will determine the future of the Internet, and now President Obama has formally weighed in in favor of so-called ...
From ACM News
How Facebook Is Changing the Way Its sers Consume Journalism
Many of the people who read this article will do so because Greg Marra, 26, a Facebook engineer, calculated that it was the kind of thing they might enjoy.
From ACM Opinion
To Siri, With Love
Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri.
From ACM News
Oculus Brings the Virtual Closer to Reality
Virtual reality is virtually here—although its first incarnation will come with short battery life, images that do not quite track eye movements and a tendency...
From ACM News
E-Sports Set Video Gamers Fighting For Real Money in Virtual Contests
A bewitching creature—half woman, half deer—battles a shaman and a sentient tree.
From ACM News
Next For Virtual Reality: Video, Without the Games
Nearly all the hype around virtual reality—much of it fanned by Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, the headset maker—is about how the technology can...
From ACM Opinion
Where Tech Is Taking s: A Conversation With Intel's Genevieve Bell
Genevieve Bell grew up among Aboriginal people in Australia, taught anthropology at Stanford and for the past 16 years has worked for Intel.
From ACM News