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
Empty F-16 Jet Tested By Boeing and .s. Air Force
Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones.
From ACM News
Robots: Is the Uncanny Valley Real?
Mick Walters opens a door in his lab and points his computer's camera towards the small, blurry, tan-coloured object he has just revealed. "This is Kaspar Two,"...
From ACM TechNews
Strands Project Develops Robot Security Guards
The European Union's Seventh Framework Program is funding the Strands project, which is developing software for robot brains that can be used as security guards...
From ACM News
Why Video Games May Be Good For You
Games have long been accused of making players violent, but evidence has been building over the years that they can have positive effects.
From ACM News
Laser Listening: Could You Eavesdrop on the Guardian?
The U.K. government has warned the Guardian newspaper that foreign agents could use laser technology to eavesdrop on them, in the wake of recent surveillance leaks...
From ACM News
Helping the Deaf to 'See' and 'Feel' Sound
Earlier this summer in a packed and freezing-cold auditorium in Doha, the all-female team of students from Qatar University burst into cheers and tears as theyINJAZ...
From ACM News
Users of Hidden Net Advised to Ditch Windows
Legitimate users of the Tor anonymous browsing service are being advised to stop using Windows if they want to keep their identity hidden.
From ACM News
Optical Lattice Atomic Clock Could 'Redefine the Second'
We currently use atomic clocks to count the seconds, but tests on an alternative atomic timekeeper have revealed that it is more precise.
From ACM TechNews
'virtual Lolita' Aims to Trap Chatroom Pedophiles
Negobot, a "virtual Lolita" robot, poses as a 14-year-old girl and tries to identify pedophiles in online chatrooms.
From ACM TechNews
Predicting Earthquakes and Saving Lives--With Smartphones
A new app called CrowdShake provides early earthquake warnings by converting a smartphone's accelerometer into a seismometer.
From ACM News
Touchscreens 'a Small Step' in Innovation
The way we use digital devices has become big news.
From ACM News
Unmasking Organized Crime Networks with Data
One of the big challenges in fighting organized crime is precisely that it is organized. It is run a bit like a business, with chains of command and responsibility...
From ACM News
Future Cops: How Technology Is Set to Change Policing
The sci-fi vision of police officers rushing to the scene of a crime before any crime has even been committed may be rather far-fetched but technology is increasingly...
From ACM Opinion
What Would Happen If All Satellites Stopped Working?
We may not always realise it, but we depend on space technology orbiting the Earth.
From ACM News
U.S. Spy Chief Clapper Defends PRISM and Phone Surveillance
U.S. spy chief James Clapper has strongly defended government surveillance programmes after revelations of phone records being collected and internet servers being...
From ACM TechNews
Html5 Webpage Locks 'would Stifle Innovation'
The Electronic Freedom Foundation objects to the World Wide Web Consortium's plans to include ways to digitally lock media in HTML5.
From ACM News
German Railways to Test Anti-Graffiti Drones
The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night.
From ACM News
How to Hack a Nation's Infrastructure
I'm watching a live video feed of people visiting a cafe in London.
From ACM News
Why Google and the Pentagon Want 'quantum Computers'
Imagine a computer that can teach your mobile phone to recognize any object it sees, or one that can instantly find optimal travel routes for thousands of planes...
From ACM News