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
Government Can Grab Cell Phone Location Records Without Warrant, Appeals Court Says
In a major victory for the Justice Department over privacy advocates, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that government agencies can collect records showing...
From ACM News
Google Says It Can Guess Movie Box Office Hauls—with 94% Accuracy
Google released a research paper this week showing that the frequency of a movie being searched for on Google and YouTube is a surprisingly accurate indicator of...
From ACM Careers
Hack a Virus, Win a Prize: Scientist Recognized For 'useful' Germ Modding
The inventor of a viral technology behind tomorrow's electric car batteries, flexible touchscreen computers, and non-invasive cancer screening was awarded a $500...
From ACM News
Xbox? More Like Xbody: Future Game Consoles Will Get nder Your Skin
Imagine playing through a level of the popular zombie shooter "Left 4 Dead" on a system that tracks your heart rate, eye movements, even how clammy your skin is...
From ACM News
Dawn of the Bot? New Era Nears, Experts Say
Science fiction is quickly taking a back seat to science fact. Just look at a new report by the country's leading roboticists.
From ACM Careers
In the Virtual Cockpit: What It Takes to Fly a Drone
Drone pilots escape the physical demands and dangers of a traditional cockpit. There's no g-force pinning them to their seats, no uncomfortable pressure suit to...
From ACM News
Tech-Savvy Public Plays Key Role in Hunt For Bombing Suspects
Since the bombs went off in Boston's Copley Square on Monday, the FBI and Boston Police Department have been enlisting the public's help with what may be the world's...
From ACM News
As Boston Bombing Photos and Videos Pour In, Where Do Investigators Begin?
When bombs went off at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday, there were nearly as many camera-equipped smartphones as people there in Copley Square.
From ACM News
Cyberattack on Florida Election Is First Known Case in U.s., Experts Say
An attempt to illegally obtain absentee ballots in Florida last year is the first known case in the U.S. of a cyberattack against an online election system, according...
From ACM Opinion
Kim Dotcom Is the Anti-Zuckerberg: Share Nothing, Encrypt Everything, Be Happy
Appearing like a retro-futuristic apparition, digitally transmitted through pneumatic tubes from a future that was but will never be, the disembodied head of Kim...
From ACM News
Popular Office Phones Vulnerable to Eavesdropping Hack, Researchers Say
High-tech telephones common on many workplace desks in the U.S. can be hacked and turned into eavesdropping devices, researchers at Columbia University have discovered...
From ACM News
There's So Much Data that We're Running Out of Words to Describe It
The world is producing and storing data at such a rate that the day isn't far off when we will literally no longer have a proper way of describing it.
From ACM Opinion
Future Mars Missions: Can Humans Actually Trump Robots?
For decades scientists have backed the idea of sending robots to collect Martian rocks and return them to Earth, a project that should be possible well before humans...
From ACM News
Report Sees Decline in Voting Glitches ... but Vote-By-Mail Sparks Concern
The good news about voting technologyis that the upgrades put into place since the controversial 2000 presidential election have made ballot tallies twice as accurate...
From ACM News
U.s. Bank Website Hackers Used Advanced Botnets, Diverse Tools
The hackers behind the cyber attacks on major U.S. banks have repeatedly disrupted online banking by using sophisticated and diverse tools that point to a carefully...
From ACM News
Why Your Next 'passw0rd' Might Not Be a Password
It's been a rough year for passwords. First, 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords were leaked online. Soon after, millions of passwords from eHarmony and Yahoo users...
From ACM News
Rover Reveals More of Martian Peak
Newly received images from NASA's Curiosity rover are filling out the high-resolution view of its surroundings at Gale Crater on Mars—and providing an up-close...
From ACM News
Reprogrammed Mars Rover Getting Ready to Roll
NASA's Curiosity rover is almost fully reprogrammed for its two-year, $2.5 billion science mission on Mars, and mission managers say it should be ready to take...
From ACM News