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
'bullet Time' to Stop Cyber Attacks on Power Grids
In The Matrix, the famous "bullet time" effect showed how Keanu Reeves's character Neo was able to sway out of the path of incoming bullets, as time appeared to...
From ACM TechNews
Network Your Stuff: Amateurs Inventing a New Internet
A growing number of computer hobbyists are merging the online and physical worlds in new ways.
From ACM TechNews
Free Apps Eat Up Your Phone Battery Just Sending Ads
Free versions of Android apps use up to 75 percent of their energy serving ads or tracking and uploading user data, says Purdue University's Abhinav Pathak. Free...
From ACM News
Free Apps Eat Up Your Phone Battery Just Sending Ads
Struggling to make your smartphone battery last the whole day? Paying for your apps might help.
From ACM TechNews
Poll Consensus on Million-Dollar Logic Problem
University of Maryland, College Park computer scientist William Gasarch has re-run his poll on the biggest problem in computer science.
From ACM News
Seven Equations That Rule Your World
The alarm rings. You glance at the clock. The time is 6.30 am. You haven't even got out of bed, and already at least six mathematical equations have influenced...
From ACM News
Nash's Beautiful Mind Pre-Empted Million-Dollar Puzzle
John Nash's mind is even more exquisite than we thought. The Nobel laureate, famous for both his work in game theory and his schizophrenia—as portrayed in the book...
From ACM News
Slow Graphene Down, Speed Computers Up
Astonishing conductivity helped the discoverers of graphene win the Nobel prize in physicsin 2010. Now a way to switch off the easy flow of electrons in this wonder...
From ACM TechNews
Phase-Change Materials Can Fix Machine Memory Crunch
Phase-change materials (PCMs) could thwart the limits of digital memory and enable a massive increase in storage density. PCM's biggest advantage is that it can...
From ACM News
Light Is Not Fast Enough For High-Speed Stock Trading
Every microsecond counts in stock trading. The New York Stock Exchange handles a third of the world's stock trading—around 22 billion messages a day. But NYSE Euronext...
From ACM News
Light Is Not Fast Enough For High-Speed Stock Trading
Every microsecond counts in stock trading. The New York Stock Exchange handles a third of the world's stock trading—around 22 billion messages a day. But NYSE...
From ACM News
Intel Anthropologist: Fieldwork with the Silicon Tribe
Anthropologist Genevieve Bell gives the chip maker insight into how people experience new technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Bye-Bye Electrons? Circuit Made From Flowing Atoms
Kevin Wright and colleagues at NIST chilled 100,000 sodium atoms then used lasers to shape the blob of atoms into a torus and give it enough energy to circulate...
From ACM TechNews
Metamorphosis Key to Creating Stable Walking Robots
A study to find the quickest way to evolve walking behaviors in virtual robots was conducted by University of Vermont researcher Josh Bongard. He ran simulations...
From ACM TechNews
Ice and a Slice Makes Transistors More Precise
Transistors can be built more precisely by using ice as a mask, according to researchers at Harvard University. The ice lithography process resembles how computer...
From ACM News
Robot Arm Punches Human to Obey Asimov's Rules
Isaac Asimov would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over...
From ACM TechNews
Shape-Shifting Robot Compensates For Damaged Limb
European roboticists have developed software that enables a modular robot to adapt when one part stops working.
From ACM News
Wonder Conductors Will Spin p Cooler Computers
Newly discovered materials called topological insulators could clear the way for blisteringly fast laptops and smartphones that don't warm your lap or singe your...
From ACM TechNews
Lizard-Like Robot Can 'swim' Through Sand
Inspired by the sandfish lizard, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are collaborating with Northwestern University's Paul Umbanhowar to develop...
From ACM TechNews