Recommended Computing Reads This Week

Her Code Got Humans On the Moon—and Invented Software Itself
The programmer and working mother who led work on the Apollo module’s flight computers pioneered core concepts of the software industry and was central to the mission’s success.

Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data
The White House says it won’t require companies that make mobile devices and software to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies a way to bypass encryption. The Obama administration had previously said it wanted that power, despite objections from major tech companies (see “Google and Facebook Execs Question Government Desire for Encryption Backdoors”).

The Cyber Activists Who Want to Shut Down ISIS
A band of online vigilantes are running a well-organized campaign to shut down social media accounts and websites linked to the Islamic State, or ISIS. The organization has made social media into a powerful publicity and recruiting tool (see “Fighting ISIS Online”).

Hewlett-Packard, SanDisk Join Forces on New-Breed Memory
Memory chips a thousand times faster than those that store data in smartphones and thumb drives are promised by new collaborators HP and memory chip maker SanDisk. Details of the technology they’re using are minimal, but HP is to contribute know-how from the memristor technology that it has so far struggled to get to market (see “HP Puts the Future of Computing On Hold” and “Machine Dreams”).