A proposal to improve the way information flows across the Internet has privacy advocates worried the design could be used to trace a person’s identity. The proposal, an addressing system called IPv6, was created by the Internet Engineering Task Force, an international standards body, and would include a unique serial number for each computer’s network […]
News
Advertisement
Software Engineering Code of Ethics Is Approved
The exhaustive efforts of the ACM and IEEE–CS has resulted in the adoption of a code of professional practices for software engineers to consider—and use.
An ongoing experiment that may change the nature of air traffic control is being studied by the Federal Aviation Administration. The $25 million experiment, funded in partnership by government and the airlines, uses a radical new approach to the way pilots relay information to ground controllers: incorporating GPS with a technology that identifies the precise […]
The National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in July voted to promulgate the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), formerly the Article 2B amendment of the Uniform Commercial Code. Under much scrutiny, and in the works for over 10 years, UCITA will govern all contracts in the development, sale, licensing, maintenance, and […]
Just as computers around the world are coping with the Y2K bug, the sun will enter the most violent and disruptive phase of its 11-year cycle, say astronomers, causing disruptions in satellite transmissions and triggering blackouts. According to reports at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers are forecasting the sun’s cycle to peak […]
The design of a device that could quickly unscramble computer-generated code that until now has been considered secure was presented in Prague by one of the world’s foremost cryptographers, Adi Shamir, coinventor of R.S.A., the international standard for secure transmission. Shamir’s idea combines existing technology into a special, reasonably priced computer that would make factoring […]
At major U.S. corporations last year, there was a 43% chance—up sharply from 35% in 1997—employers monitored workers’ email files, voice mail, computer files, phone calls or other work-related activities, according to the American Management Association (AMA). Polling 1,054 human resource managers, the New-York-based AMA said the sample mirrored its corporate membership of 10,000 organizations […]
Changes in ACM’s Revised Copyright Policy
A helpful introduction to the new additions and alterations to this pioneering policy, particularly since the advent of digital libraries.
Direct losses technology companies attribute to theft are now $250 million a year, and the industry spends another $750,000 a year on insurance and security measures, according to a study by the Rand Corp. The survey included 95 companies representing 40% of industry sales and found 1,700 incidents of theft in a nine-month period in […]
The speed of light, which travels through empty space at about 186,171 miles per second—the highest speed anything can attain—has been slowed to 38 miles an hour by Danish physicists, reports Nature. The medium used in slowing light by a factor of 20 million was a cluster of atoms called a “Bose-Einstein condensate” chilled to […]
ACM Digital Library Enhancements
As the new Executive Director and CEO of ACM, I am delighted to have this opportunity to share with you my excitement regarding some of the new initiatives and services ACM is launching this year. The organization has made major investments and taken significant strides in the area of electronic publishing and services—the ACM Digital Library is the cornerstone of this initiative.
This month, two special sections explore how software agents independently and through their interaction in multiagent systems are transforming the Internet’s already tumultuous character and mission. Functioning through the medium of autonomous actions, agents and agent systems move out into the Net’s distributed, large-scale, dynamic structure on behalf of often-anonymous servers and human users scattered […]
Some U.S. elementary school computer workstations could put children at risk for developing poor postures and painful repetitive stress injuries, according to a Cornell University study. In the study, to be published in the May issue of the journal Computers in the Schools, researchers watched 95 elementary school children as they worked on computers in […]
The transfer of sensitive U.S. space technology to China is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, reports CNN. A preliminary Defense Department report found that Hughes Electronics gave China potentially damaging information after a Chinese rocket carrying a Hughes-built satellite crashed in 1995. After satellites belonging to Hughes and Loral were destroyed in two […]
Even though the gap continues to narrow between U.S. high school boys and girls in math and science, girls make up a smaller percentage of students in computer science classes, reports the American Association of University Women (AAUW). “Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children,” is the first study to document the enrollment of […]
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.
Learn More