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dateMore Than a Year Ago
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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.


From ACM News

Typos May Earn Google $500m a Year

Google may be earning $500 million a year via companies and individuals who register deceptive Web site addresses. The claim centers on a controversial scheme known...

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
From ACM News

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack

Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms
From ACM News

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms

A SWARM of "smart dust" spacecraft, positioned at a sweet spot between the Earth and the sun, could alert us to the approach of dangerous space storms well before...

Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams
From ACM News

Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams

LET'S face it: power cables are unsightly dust-traps. PCs, TVs and music players are becoming slicker every year, but the nest of vipers in the corner of everyAn...

From ACM News

Touchscreen Merges the Real and Digital Worlds

For all the advances in table-top and tablet computing, some design professionals will always prefer the feel of pen on paper to stylus on glass. A new device could...

From ACM News

Microsoft's Body-Sensing, Button-Busting Controller

A LONG-lived videogaming skill could be on the way out this year as Microsoft hones an add-on to its Xbox 360 console aimed at making button-studded games controllers...

Motion-Sensing Phones That Predict Your Every Move
From ACM TechNews

Motion-Sensing Phones That Predict Your Every Move

Technical University of Delft researchers have developed a smartphone program that learns users' behavior patterns to provide better cell phone service. The program...

Smart Cctv Learns to Spot Suspicious Types
From ACM TechNews

Smart Cctv Learns to Spot Suspicious Types

An international team of computer scientists at Queen Mary, University of London are developing intelligent video-surveillance software designed to spot suspicious...

From ACM TechNews

Proper ­se of English Could Get a Virus Past Security

Johns Hopkins University security researcher Josh Mason says hackers could potentially evade most existing antivirus programs by hiding malicious code within ordinary...

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons
From ACM News

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons

A man lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel,...

Triple Shadows and Fake Reflections: Future Graphics
From ACM TechNews

Triple Shadows and Fake Reflections: Future Graphics

At the second annual ACM SIGGRAPH Asia conference, which takes place December 16-19 in Yokohama, Japan, computer graphics professionals and researchers will demonstrate...

Virtual Crashes and Clatters Get Real
From ACM News

Virtual Crashes and Clatters Get Real

The clatter of a dropped trash can and the crash of a cymbal – both easily recognisable sounds. That's why computer games or CGI movies that feature such noises...

From ACM TechNews

Computer Detects Abuse Before Doctors

Ben Reis at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School led a research team that developed software that could spot warning signs of domestic abuse. 

Aid Agencies Turn to Open-Source Software
From ACM TechNews

Aid Agencies Turn to Open-Source Software

Wesleyan University and Trinity College students have developed Collabbit, software that acts as a virtual emergency response center. Collabbit serves as a central...

Locust Flight Simulator Helps Robot Insects Evolve
From ACM TechNews

Locust Flight Simulator Helps Robot Insects Evolve

A team at the University of Oxford has built a computer model of the wing motion of a locust, and says the surface structures of the wings are key to generating...

Robots Get Smarter By Asking For Help
From ACM TechNews

Robots Get Smarter By Asking For Help

Willow Garage researchers are developing robots that ask human for help when they cannot recognize objects. Willow Garage computer scientist Alan Sorokin has designed...

From ACM TechNews

Super-Dense Data Stores Cool Down

Super-dense "millipede"-style data storage systems could be enabled to function at room temperature with the development of a material that becomes soft when placed...

From ACM News

Quantum Computers Are Coming

WHATEVER happened to quantum computers? A few years ago, it seemed, it was just a case of a tweak here, a fiddle there, and some kind of number-crunching Godzilla...

'spiderbots' Talk Amongst Themselves Inside Active Volcano
From ACM TechNews

'spiderbots' Talk Amongst Themselves Inside Active Volcano

A group of "spiderbots" released inside Mount St. Helens in Washington is the first network of volcano sensors capable of automatically communicating with each...

From ACM TechNews

Robots to Get Their Own Operating System

Robots are limited by the fact that they are often designed and built in isolation for specific functions, and roboticists have started to consider what aspects...
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