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 Opinion
Could the Government Get a Search Warrant For Your Thoughts?
We don't have a mind reading machine.
From ACM TechNews
Twitter Can Tell Whether Your Community Is Happy or Not
Researchers recently released a study on whether a community's sense of happiness could be determined from communications on Twitter. The study demonstrates that...
From ACM News
The Creepy, Long-Standing Practice of Undersea Cable Tapping
In the early 1970s, the U.S. government learned that an undersea cable ran parallel to the Kuril Islands off the eastern coast of Russia, providing a vital communications...
From ACM TechNews
Y No Go Viral: The Emerging Science of Memes
Scientists are beginning to study how memes are created, which ones fail, and how certain memes go viral.
From ACM TechNews
The Quest For Seamless, High-Quality Virtual Reality
New virtual-reality peripherals are garnering attention as they enable users to feel truly present in a VR environment by addressing the challenge of movement.
From ACM Opinion
What the Digital Brains of the Future Might Be Like
It is the rare entrepreneur who hits it truly big twice. Those who do—such as Ev Williams, Ted Turner, and Elon Musk—tend to stay within the original industry that...
From ACM News
Where Rich People Live (AKA Maps of iPhone Use)
Our stuff often says a lot about us, whether we own a hybrid car or a station wagon, a MacBook Pro or an ancient desktop.
From ACM News
Is This Virtual Worm the First Sign of the Singularity?
For all the talk of artificial intelligence and all the games of SimCity that have been played, no one in the world can actually simulate living things. Biology...
From ACM News
Chatting in Code on Walkie-Talkies in Pakistan's Restive Tribal Areas
Sharif loves using his mukhabera. "I use it daily, mostly at night time, because signals are clear at that time," he says. "I am in touch with most of my friends...
From ACM Opinion
Paul Otellini's Intel: Can the Company That Built the Future Survive It?
Forty-five years after Intel was founded by Silicon Valley legends Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce, it is the world's leading semiconductor company.
From ACM News
How Facebook Designs the 'perfect Empty Vessel' For Your Mind
One day in March, I was sitting across from Facebook's design director, Kate Aronowitz, at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park when she told me, "It takes a lot of work...
From ACM News
How the Boston Pd Could Examine the Videos From the Bombing
As investigators try to figure out what happened during the bombings at the Boston Marathon, they'll turn to video taken at the scene of the explosions.
From ACM Opinion
How Augmented-Reality Content Might Actually Work
Augmented reality is very exciting. The promise of it is this: all the information on the Internet overlaid on the real world exactly where and when you need it...
From ACM TechNews
Buggy Software: Achilles Heel of Big-Data-Powered Science?
Software defects are a growing concern in the scientific computing community. A recent workshop focusing on maintainable software practices discussed how software...
From ACM News
A Machine That Makes Cameras: The Aesthetics of the Lytro
Let's think about photography as people live it.
From ACM News
What If NASA Could Figure Out the Math of a Workable Warp Drive?
When, a few weeks ago, astronomers announced that an Earth-sized planet had been detected orbiting a Alpha Centauri B, a star in the closest system of stars to...
From ACM News
For Lonely Astronauts, a Robotic Companion
You know the only thing lonelier than Sgt. Pepper's Hearts Club Band, and the Heartbreak Hotel, and the number one? Being alone and also not on Earth.
From ACM Opinion