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subjectPersonal Computing
authorThe New York Times
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


The First Computer Musician
From ACM News

The First Computer Musician

In 1957 a 30-year-old engineer named Max Mathews got an I.B.M. 704 mainframe computer at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, to generate 17 seconds...

From ACM News

How Drudge Has Stayed on Top

For most big news Web sites, about 60 percent of the traffic is homegrown, people who come directly to the site by dint of a bookmark or typing in www.latimes...

From ACM News

Divorce Lawyers' New Friend: Social Networks

Discretion and privacy have become antiquated notions on social networks, and the generous revelation of secrets make some people cringe—though not divorce lawyers...

For Buyers of Web Start-­ps, Quest to Corral Young Talent
From ACM News

For Buyers of Web Start-­ps, Quest to Corral Young Talent

Sam Lessin sold his Web start-up to Facebook for millions last year, and Facebook promptly shut it down. All Facebook wanted was Mr. Lessin.

The Class That Built Apps, and Fortunes
From ACM News

The Class That Built Apps, and Fortunes

All right, class, here’s your homework assignment: Devise an app. Get people to use it. Repeat.

Data Privacy, Put to the Test
From ACM News

Data Privacy, Put to the Test

To the catalog of corporate "bigs" that worry a lot of us little people, add this: Big Data.

Google, a Giant in Mobile Search, Seeks New Ways to Make It Pay
From ACM News

Google, a Giant in Mobile Search, Seeks New Ways to Make It Pay

In early 2008, in the early days of the iPhone era, Google engineers began noticing something unusual in the search engine’s logs. Owners of these new phones...

From ACM News

When There

Information overload is a headache for individuals and a huge challenge for businesses. Companies are swimming, if not drowning, in wave after wave of data—from...

From ACM News

What Location Data, Exactly, Does an Iphone Reveal?

On Wednesday, security researchers demonstrated that the certain versions of the iPhone and iPad were logging and storing location data about their owners. Long...

In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers
From ACM News

In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers

Deep into one of her favorite computer games, Lesly Lopez, 10, moves her mouse to click on a cartoon bee. She drags and drops it into an empty panel, creating...

The Business Market Plays Cloud Computing Catch-­p
From ACM News

The Business Market Plays Cloud Computing Catch-­p

The big spenders on technology are businesses and government agencies. They buy about 75% of the computing goods and services sold worldwide. Yet it is increasingly...

3d Avatars Could Put You in Two Places at Once
From ACM News

3d Avatars Could Put You in Two Places at Once

If Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson are right, here is what’s in store for you and your avatar very soon, probably within the next five years:

Intel, on the Outside, Takes Aim at Smartphones
From ACM News

Intel, on the Outside, Takes Aim at Smartphones

With an "Intel Inside" sticker affixed to their PCs, computer buyers in the 1990s could hardly avoid knowing whose microchip was making their machines work. The...

New Search Technology Is Enhanced With Videos
From ACM News

New Search Technology Is Enhanced With Videos

The line between cyberspace and the physical world is blurring with a new search technology being demonstrated by Autonomy, a British software publisher.

More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality
From ACM News

More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London...

Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library
From ACM News

Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library

Is the tantalizing dream of a universal library dead? Some scholars and librarians across the country fear it may be, now that a federal judge in New York has...

Swiping Is the Easy Part
From ACM News

Swiping Is the Easy Part

The cellphone has been more than a cellphone for years, but soon it could take on an entirely new role—standing in for all of the credit and debit cards crammed...

From ACM News

Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling

Bryan Taylor, 36, could not shake the feeling that something funny was going on. Three of his most frequent opponents on an online poker site were acting oddly...

Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
From ACM News

Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software

When five television studios became entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS, the cost was immense. As part of the obscure task of "discovery"—providing...

Moonlighting Within Microsoft, in Pursuit of New Apps
From ACM News

Moonlighting Within Microsoft, in Pursuit of New Apps

If you have a smartphone, you probably have apps on it to check the news, play games, help with shopping or further a hobby like travel or bird-watching. But...
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