Communications of the ACM
Why the Simplex Method, at Age 75, is Still the Go-To Algorithm
Daniel A. Spielman and colleague Shang-hua Teng solved the mystery of the Simplex Method using a technique called smoothed analysis… From ACM NewsAn 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
Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
Internet companies have appropriated the real estate business’s mantra—it’s all about location, location, location. But while a home on the beach will always be...
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Wikipedia Age Challenges Scholars
For professors, publishing in elite journals is an unavoidable part of university life. The grueling process of subjecting work to the up-or-down judgment of...
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Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime
It’s 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and...
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Step 1: Post Elusive Proof. Step 2: Watch Fireworks.
The potential of Internet-based collaboration was vividly demonstrated this month when complexity theorists used blogs and wikis to pounce on a claimed proof for...
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Google Plan With Verizon Disillusions Some Allies
On Friday at lunchtime, as Google employees dined al fresco, a hundred protesters descended on the company’s Silicon Valley campus. A group called the Raging...
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Web Plan Is Dividing Companies
In an emerging battle over regulating Internet access, companies are taking sides.
From ACM TechNews
Web Plan From Google and Verizon Is Criticized
Google and Verizon's proposal for how Internet service should be regulated was criticized by groups in favor of keeping the Web as open as possible.
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In a Video Game, Tackling the Complexities of Protein Folding
In a match that pitted video game players against the best known computer program designed for the task, the gamers outperformed the software in figuring out...
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For E-Data, Tug Grows Over Privacy vs. Security
The threat by the United Arab Emirates to shut down mobile services on BlackBerrys like email and text messaging underscores a growing tension between communications...
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Hackers With Enigmatic Motives Vex Companies
The world of hackers can be roughly divided into three groups. "Black hats" break into corporate computer systems for fun and profit, taking credit card numbers...
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The Web Means the End of Forgetting
Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that...
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Crash Spurs Interest in Real-Time Flight Data
In the year since the fatal, still-unexplained crash of a French airliner over the mid-Atlantic, interest has intensified in technologies to enhance the tracking...
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Google's Do-It-Yourself App Creation Software
Google is bringing Android software development to the masses. The company will offer a software tool, starting Monday, that is intended to make it easy for people...
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Techmeme Offers Tech News at Internet Speed
One of the first Web sites loaded on Silicon Valley’s laptops and iPhones each morning—and then again and again throughout the day—is Techmeme.
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Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality
Middleshcool students are champion time-wasters. And the personal computer may be the ultimate time-wasting appliance. Put the two together at home, without hovering...
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Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot
The boy, a dark-haired 6-year-old, is playing with a new companion. The two hit it off quickly—unusual for the 6-year-old, who has autism—and the boy is imitating...
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Loophole May Have Aided Theft of Classified Data
The soldier accused of downloading a huge trove of secret data from military computers in Iraq appears to have exploited a loophole in Defense Department security...
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Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity
The Obama Administration is trying to fix the Internet’s dog problem.
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To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery
The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida.
From ACM TechNews