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
When Google Brainstorms, Online World Shudders
Is Google about to do to online privacy what body scanners did to airline travelers?
From ACM News
Utilities Try to Learn From Smart Meters
Utilities have installed more than 60 million smart meters in North America in the past decade.
From ACM News
Say Goodbye to the Password
Here's the fundamental problem with passwords: They are most effective in protecting a company when they are long, complicated and changed frequently. In other...
From ACM News
The New Era of Toy Robotics
In olden times, the most an ambitious young tinkerer could hope for in a toy was to be able to stick one funny-shaped piece onto another. Kids built airplanes with...
From ACM Opinion
A Peek nder the Hood at the Brains of Self-Driving Cars
What car maker today doesn't seem to have an autonomous car bumbling around its test lot?
From ACM News
Think You Can Drive a Bulldozer?
As he closed the door, leaving me alone at the controls of a 41,000-pound bulldozer with list price of nearly $432,000, a Komatsu Ltd. executive shouted, "No worries...
From ACM News
A New 'dawn' in Exchanges' War on Hackers
When prices on some U.S. stocks suddenly zoomed one day last month and others unexpectedly plunged, stock-market officials set out to detect a possible computer...
From ACM Careers
Weather Channel Now Also Forecasts What You'll Buy
The Weather Channel knows the chance for rain in St. Louis on Friday, what the heat index could reach in Santa Fe on Saturday, and how humid Baltimore may get on...
From ACM News
Fbi Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects
Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information on suspects, bringing the criminal...
From ACM News
Google's Data-Trove Dance
In 2011, Google Inc. Chief Executive and co-founder Larry Page asked executives to develop a new, simplified privacy tool that would act as a kind of sliding scale...
From ACM News
Rethinking How We Watch Tv
To understand how much television could soon change, it helps to visit an Intel Corp. division here that runs like a startup.
From ACM Opinion
Hugh Herr and the Liberating Age of Bionics
"It's extraordinary that we live in this day and age with all our wonderful modern technology, and still we have shoes that give us blisters," says Hugh Herr, with...
From ACM News
Big Data Spells Trouble For Consumer Privacy
Matt Valentine, head of Microsoft's enterprise solutions for Hong Kong, shares a key piece of advice with his five- and seven-year-old children: when it comes to...
From ACM Careers
Huawei's Best-Kept Secret: An Army of Engineers
Huawei Technologies Co. has made a name supplying network equipment to clients world-wide, but the Chinese company's emphasis on research and development over manufacturing...
From ACM News
nderwater Drones Are Multiplying Fast
The next army of unmanned drones are scurrying beneath the ocean's surface.
From ACM News
Phones Leave a Telltale Trail
The April robbery at the Cartier store in Chevy Chase, Md., was brazen and quick.
From ACM News
A Revolution in the Making
On a dark and stormy night two weeks ago in Schenectady, N.Y., Ken Hislop was relaxing at home when his cellphone suddenly began buzzing in his pocket. It was an...
From ACM News
Now Hear This: Navy Abandons All Caps
MESSAGES SENT WITHIN THE U.S. NAVY NO LONGER HAVE TO BE WRITTEN OUT IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
From ACM News
Supreme Court Says Human Genes Aren't Patentable
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that human genes isolated from the body can't be patented, a victory for doctors and patients who argued that such...
From ACM News