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
How Isis Is Winning the Online War For Iraq
As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claimed control of Iraq's biggest oil refinery and akey border crossing between Iraq and Jordan—it lost a key...
From ACM News
Pluto-Bound Craft Seeks Manhattan-Sized Lump of Ice
Desirable destinations at the fringes of the solar system can be hard to find.
From ACM News
Watson in Your Pocket: Supercomputer Gets Own Apps
If you could quiz Watson, IBM's all-knowing supercomputer, from an app on your phone, what would you ask it?
From ACM News
Hot on the Trail of Consciousness in Brain and Machine
"Nowhere in science have so many devoted so much to create so little consensus," writes physicist, author, and TV presenter Michio Kaku of consciousness research...
From ACM News
'Soft' Biometrics Is the New Way to Monitor People
Cameras are strewn around our environment, catching glimpses of our faces everywhere we go, yet even the best facial recognition technology still has a hard time...
From ACM News
Matchstick-Sized Sensor Can Record Your Private Chats
Everyone knows that to have a private chat in the NSA era, you go outdoors.
From ACM News
The Real Tron: It Security As a Shoot 'em p
Alert to a sudden threat, you race down a virtual corridor of servers, hot on the tail of malicious software.
From ACM News
Wired Is the New Wireless: Spreading the Web in China
It's not easy to give over 1.3 billion people access to the internet—especially if that population is spread across a vast area that ranges from hinterland to sprawling...
From ACM News
Telepathy Machine Reconstructs Speech from Brainwaves
When you read this sentence to yourself, it's likely that you hear the words in your head. Now, in what amounts to technological telepathy, others are on the verge...
From ACM TechNews
Google sability Chief: Ideas Have to Be Discoverable
Google's Dan Russell recently spoke to New Scientist on improving searches.
From ACM News
Spies Can Send Messages Hidden in a Google Search
The peculiar list of search options that Google suggests as you type in a query could be hijacked to let people communicate secretly.
From ACM News
The Search Engine That Predicts What You Want
In the future the news will find you—at least according to Futureful, a Finnish startup building a predictive discovery iPad app that will deliver personalised...
From ACM News
Virtual Spheres Speed Up Skimming Through Mobile Video
With more than 35 hours of video uploaded to YouTube each minute, finding the right video without downloading it first is difficult. And video searching on mobile...
From ACM News
Google, Twitter, and Facebook Build the Semantic Web
A truly meaningful way of interacting with the web may finally be here, and it is called the semantic web. The idea was proposed over a decade ago by Tim Berners...
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 News
Shrewd Search Engines Know What You Want
For better or worse, search engines have become the gateway to the Web. They help users to find information, advertisers to sell products—they even help hackers...
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