A survey of technology leaders, builders, and activists finds that most believe the Internet will continue to spread in a "flattening" and improving world. However, many others warn major problems will accompany the technology advances by 2020, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Findings from "The Future of the […]
CACM Staff
Advertisement
IBM will build a supercomputer capable of 1,000 trillion floating point operations per second (or one petaflop) using 16,000 of the Cell processor chips it designed for the PlayStation 3 video game machine. The New York Times reports the U.S. Department of Energy awarded IBM the contract to build the Roadrunner machine for a total […]
In 1981, seven young Indian engineers founded a tiny firm in a cramped apartment after begging the Indian government to allow them to buy a Western computer. What transpired over the next 25 years is now known worldwide as Infosys, a $2 billion outsourcing giant with 58,000 employees and a market value of $22 billion. […]
An inexpensive, wireless, battery-free microchip that stores documents, audio files, or video clips and can be pressed like a Post-it note onto just about any surface is potentially two to five years from market, according to its creators at Hewlett-Packard. The San Jose Mercury News reports these "memory spots," as HP calls them, can be […]
A promising scanning device that would allow airline passengers to keep their shoes on while walking through security checkpoints is now being tested, reports USA Today. The ShoeScanner uses technology similar to an MRI to detect explosives in five to eight seconds. Rather than remove shoes and jackets, travelers stand in a kiosk where radio […]
With all the tools and technologies available to predict the weather, nothing apparently beats the accuracy of a cell phone tower. BBC News reports a team of scientists from Tel Aviv University has been following the signals from mobile phone masts to measure rainfall patterns in Israel—a technique it claims is more accurate than current […]
In the battle for precision, the Encyclopædia Britannica recently called for Nature magazine to retract an article it published last December impugning the accuracy of Britannica’s Web site. The article compared the accuracy of two online reference resources—the renowned leader Britannica and the upstart Wikipedia, which is created, written, and edited completely by non-experts. The […]
RFID tags, often debated over their surveillance capabilities, may be as vulnerable to destructive software viruses as other computing devices. The New York Times reports a group of computer researchers affiliated with Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam recently demonstrated how it is possible to infect a very small portion of the memory in an RFID chip […]
Statewide Databases of Registered Voters
A study of accuracy, privacy, usability, security, and reliability issues.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get Involved