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
P ? Np? It's Bad News For the Power of Computing
Has the biggest question in computer science been solved? On 6 August, Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California, sentdraft...
From ACM News
Social Web: The Great Tipping Point Test
Every move you make, every twitter feed you update, somebody is watching you. You may not think twice about it, but if you use a social networking site, a cellphone...
From ACM News
Twitter Mood Maps Reveal Emotional States of America
America, are you happy? The emotional words contained in hundreds of millions of messages posted to the Twitter website may hold the answer.
From ACM News
Google May Know Your Desires Before You Do
Google attempts to return relevant search results in the blink of an eye. But in future it could go one better, delivering search results to its users even before...
From ACM TechNews
Geo-Tags Reveal Celeb Secrets
U.S. computer scientists have demonstrated that by using information from Internet images and videos it is possible to determine the addresses and locations of...
From ACM News
The Tech Refresher Russia's Spies Needed
From James Bond to Johnny English, the movies give us the impression that spies are top of the tree when it comes to money-no-object espionage technology. But that...
From ACM News
Drone Alone: How Airliners May Lose Their Pilots
Would you fly in an airliner knowing there were no pilots in the cockpit? This is no mere hypothetical question. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is taking...
From ACM News
Immortal Avatars: Back Up Your Brain, Never Die
Zoe Graystone is a girl with two brains. Only one of them is human: the other is an exact digital copy that has become conscious in its own right. When the human...
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Robots Some Manners
People are more likely to adapt to and use robots if they behave more like humans, even if that means they operate less efficiently.
From ACM TechNews
Web Science: Exploring the Network Without Guesswork
University of Southampton professor Nigel Shadbolt, speaking at a recent conference on the emerging discipline of Web science, says the Internet has become such...
From ACM News
Crumbling Labs Could Clip Nasa's Wings
Years of neglect have left many NASA labs that might be used for breakthrough technology research in rough shape, says a report from the U.S. National Academies...
From ACM TechNews
Schrodinger's Cash: Minting Quantum Money
MIT researcher Scott Aaronson has brought quantum money a step closer to reality by outlining a computationally secure quantum money scheme founded on the type...
From ACM TechNews
Barcodes Help Objects Tell Their Stories
Five U.K. academic institutions have collaborated to create the Tales of Things, a Web site based on the concept of the Internet of things that enables users to...
From ACM TechNews
Frank Moss: Tech to Help Those Who Can't Help Themselves
Frank Moss, head of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says there are real opportunities in developing technology for disabled or disadvantaged...
From ACM News
Amputees Could Get a Helping Hand in the Virtual World
What is the best way to for someone to get used to their artificial limb? Put them in a virtual environment. So says Anthony Steed, a computer scientist at University...
From ACM TechNews
Safety Issues Loom as Humanoid Invasion Approaches
As robot technology advances, and their use puts them in closer contact with humans, safety has become a top priority for some researchers.
From ACM News
Cellphone Traces Reveal You're So Predictable
We may all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But a study of the traces left by 50,000 cellphone users over three months has conclusively proved otherwise...
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...
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...
From ACM TechNews