Communications of the ACM
Why ACM?
"Another reason to ditch ACM," thundered an ACM member in a social-media posting during recent debate over the Research Works Act, introduced by Congress in 2011. While deep concerns with the bill were widespread, the nasty tone …DEPARTMENT: Letters to the editor
Operationalizing Privacy By Design
While I largely agree with Sarah Spiekermann's "The Challenges of Privacy by Design" (July 2012), I want to make it clear that many organizations do understand the need to embed privacy in their systems and technologies and …DEPARTMENT: BLOG@CACM
Incremental Research vs. Paradigm-Shift Mania
Bertrand Meyer asks why too many research agencies seem obsessed with funding only groundbreaking projects.COLUMN: News
Atomic-Level Computing
Thanks to the University of New South Wales and IBM Research, scientists are moving closer to the junction of quantum and digital computing.Chips Go Upscale
After decades in Flatland, the end of Moore's Law is pushing semiconductors into the third dimension.Garbage In, Info Out
Security researchers used malware to investigate large-scale Internet censorship in Egypt and Libya.In Honor of Alan Turing
Thirty-two of the 39 living A.M. Turing Award laureates gathered in San Francisco to pay tribute to "the father of CS" and discuss the past, present, and future of computing.COLUMN: Historical reflections
Seven Lessons From Bad History
Journalists, historians, and the invention of email.COLUMN: The profession of IT
Don't Feel Bad If You Can't Predict the Future
Wise experts and powerful machines are no match for chaotic events and human declarations. Beware of their predictions and be humble in your own.COLUMN: Law and technology
Automated Prediction: Perception, Law, and Policy
A few predictions about predictions.COLUMN: Broadening participation
The Need to Balance Innovation and Implementation in Broadening Participation
Seeking to improve the process for writing and reviewing proposals for new educational programs.COLUMN: Viewpoint
Author Order: What Science Can Learn from the Arts
Some thoughts about author order in research papers.Alan and I
A personal account of Alan Turing's life and impact.SECTION: Practice
A New Objective-C Runtime: From Research to Production
Backward compatibility always trumps new features.Software Needs Seatbelts and Airbags
Finding and fixing bugs in deployed software is difficult and time-consuming. Here are some alternatives.All Your Database Are Belong To Us
In the big open world of the cloud, highly available distributed objects will rule.SECTION: Contributed articles
Success Factors For Deploying Cloud Computing
Trust between client organization and cloud provider is a strong predictor of successful cloud deployment.Self-Adaptive Software Needs Quantitative Verification at Runtime
Continually verify self-adaptation decisions taken by critical software in response to changes in the operating environment.SECTION: Review articles
Questioning Naturalism in 3D User Interfaces
Three-dimensional user interfaces are uniquely able to achieve superior interaction fidelity, and this naturalism can be a huge advantage.SECTION: Research highlights
Technical Perspective: Innovative Interaction: From Concept to the Wild
The history of the relationship between writing systems and technology is as long as it is varied. Likewise, the challenge of entering text using portable gadgets has a long history.The Word-Gesture Keyboard: Reimagining Keyboard Interaction
As computing technologies expanded beyond the confines of the desktop, the need for effective text entry methods alternative to the ubiquitous desktop keyboards has inspired both academic researchers and the information technology …Technical Perspective: SQL on an Encrypted Database
There is some risk in trusting the cloud providers with sensitive data. Why not encrypt the data stored in cloud services?CryptDB: Processing Queries on an Encrypted Database
An ideal solution to satisfying the dual goals of protecting data confidentiality and running computations is to enable a server to compute over encrypted data, without the server ever decrypting the data to plaintext.COLUMN: Last byte
