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
On a New Jersey Islet, Twilight of the Landline
Hurricane Sandy devastated this barrier island community of multimillion-dollar homes, but in Peter Flihan's view, Verizon Communications has delivered a second...
From ACM Opinion
N.s.a. Director Gives Firm and Broad Defense of Surveillance Efforts
The director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, said in an interview that to prevent terrorist attacks he saw no effective alternative to...
From ACM News
The Rapid Advance of Artificial Intelligence
A gaggle of Harry Potter fans descended for several days this summer on the Oregon Convention Center in Portland for the Leaky Con gathering, an annual haunt of...
From ACM News
Bit By Bit, Virtual Reality Heads For the Holodeck
While sitting in a stuffy Hollywood hotel conference room recently, I plotted my next move outside a snow-covered, ancient castle.
From ACM Careers
All Is Fair in Love and Twitter
Right in the center of South Park, a large, grassy oval near San Francisco's financial district, there is a rinky-dink playground with slides, ladders, and firefighter...
From ACM News
And Then Steve Said, 'let There Be an Iphone'
The 55 miles from Campbell to San Francisco make for one of the nicest commutes anywhere.
From ACM News
As F.b.i. Pursued Snowden, an E-Mail Service Stood Firm
One day last May, Ladar Levison returned home to find an F.B.I. agent's business card on his Dallas doorstep.
From ACM News
A Google Glass Alternative in Japan
Foreign tourists visiting this city have long encountered translation help.
From ACM TechNews
The Science Author Clive Thompson Does Not Think Tech Is Ruining Your Mind
Technology writer Clive Thompson believes technology is improving human intelligence.
From ACM TechNews
Visually Impaired Turn to Smartphones to See Their World
Advocates for the visually impaired say smartphones and tablets could be the most helpful assistive aid to emerge since the invention of Braille.
From ACM TechNews
Military Lags in Push For Robotic Ground Vehicles
While private companies are moving forward with self-driving vehicles, the U.S. military has been slow to deploy the technology.
From ACM News
Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself," wrote Walt Whitman, America's great bard of self-promotion.
From ACM News
Harvey's Injury Shows Pitchers Have a Speed Limit
Glenn Fleisig's rather unusual laboratory has a pitcher's mound and a home plate, and when he rigs people up to throw a baseball, their motion is analyzed with...
From ACM Opinion
How Robots Can Trick You Into Loving Them
I like to think of my Roomba as cute and industrious.
From ACM Careers
The Boy Genius of lan Bator
Days before I was to meet Battushig Myanganbayar at his home in Mongolia, he sent me an e-mail with a modest request: Would I bring him a pair of tiny XBee wireless...
From ACM Careers
Intel's Extensive Makeover
While Apple talked about a couple of new products on Tuesday, Intel, with much less fanfare, talked about the transformation of a world, and itself.
From ACM News
Beyond Passwords: New Tools to Identify Humans
As everything around us becomes connected to the Internet, from cars to thermometers to the stuff inside our mobile phones, technologists are confronting a tough...
From ACM News
Drug Agents se Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.s.a.'s
For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that...
From ACM News
How Surveillance Changes Behavior: A Restaurant Workers Case Study
Surveillance is certainly much in the news lately. Most notably, of course, there is the continuing outcry over the National Security Agency’s call-tracking program...
From ACM TechNews