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
Learning to Accept, and Master, a $110,000 Mechanical Arm
After the explosion, Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos awoke to see the October sun glinting through the water, an image so lovely he thought he was dreaming.
From ACM News
China Developing GPS-on-a-Shoestring Plan
When it comes to satellite navigation systems, everybody's gotta have one.
From ACM News
An Accelerometer So Good That Only Quantum Mechanics Limits It
We take it for granted now, but the fact that you can flip your phone from portrait to landscape mode depends on accelerometers. As everyone knows, though, the...
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop Featherweight Chips That Dissolve in Water
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed integrated circuits that can stick to the skin and in some cases dissolve in water when they...
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
They Know What You're Shopping For
Georgia resident Andy Morar is in the market for a BMW.
From ACM Opinion
'biology Is a Manufacturing Capability'
Soon we'll be able to engineer living things with mechanical precision, says Tom Knight, father of synthetic biology.
From ACM TechNews
Point of Light
Caltech researchers have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers across, a breakthrough they say could lead to next-generation...
From ACM News
A Rising Tide of Noise Is Now Easy to See
When a hurricane forced the Nautilus to dive in Jules Verne’s "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," Captain Nemo took the submarine down to a depth of 25 fathoms...
From ACM News
Heart Gadgets Test Privacy-Law Limits
The small box inside Amanda Hubbard's chest beams all kinds of data about her faulty heart to the company that makes her defibrillator implant.
From ACM News
Federal Agency Wants Black Boxes in Every New Car By September 2014
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed a new unified standard for event data recorders for cars, commonly known as "black boxes."
From ACM News
Iran: All Data of Captured U.S. RQ-170 Drone Decoded
A senior Iranian commander announced that the country has extracted all the data and information existing in the intelligence gathering systems of the United States'...
From ACM Careers
In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung
So sprawling is Samsung’s modern-day empire that some South Koreans say it has become possible to live a Samsung-only life: You can use a Samsung credit card to...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook's Freshman Year: The Apple Ceo Speaks
Prior to his death on Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs made sure that the elevation of Tim Cook—his longtime head of operations and trusted deputy—to Apple chief executive...
From ACM News
In Eye Control, a Promise to Let Your Tablet Go Hands-Free
Forget touch screens and voice recognition; what if you could control your computer just by looking at it?
From ACM News
A Machine That Makes Cameras: The Aesthetics of the Lytro
Let's think about photography as people live it.
From ACM Opinion
Online Social Science: Can the Web Graduate from Digital Petri Dish to Virtual Laboratory?
In many ways the Internet is the ultimate virtual laboratory.
From ACM TechNews
New '4-D' Transistor Is Preview of Future Computers
Researchers at Purdue and Harvard universities have developed a transistor that consists of three nanowires made out of indium-gallium-arsenide. The three nanowires...
From ACM Opinion
Planning His Legacy, Cisco Chief Maps an Expansion
John T. Chambers has readied his last great act as the leader of Cisco Systems, fearing major changes in the technology business that could doom his company.
From ACM Opinion