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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.


A Strong Password Isn't the Strongest Security
From ACM News

A Strong Password Isn't the Strongest Security

Make your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it—never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few...

Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites
From ACM News

Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites

The shoes that Julie Matlin recently saw on Zappos.com were kind of cute, or so she thought. But Ms. Matlin wasn’t ready to buy and left the site. Then the shoes...

For Pianist, Software Is Replacing Sonatas
From ACM News

For Pianist, Software Is Replacing Sonatas

The pianist Robert Taub was puttering around the house one afternoon in 2004 while his teen-age daughter was practicing for a violin lesson—a Schubert sonatina...

From ACM TechNews

Google's Do-It-Yourself App Creation Software

Google is offering software designed to make it simple for users to create their own applications for Android smartphones. The free software has been under development...

Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity
From ACM News

Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity

The Obama Administration is trying to fix the Internet’s dog problem.

Judge Sides With Google in Viacom Video Suit
From ACM News

Judge Sides With Google in Viacom Video Suit

In a major victory for Google in its battle with media companies, a federal judge in New York on Wednesday threw out Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement...

The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In
From ACM News

The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In

While waiting for an elevator at the Fair Oaks Mall near her home in Virginia recently, Janice Im, who works in early-childhood development, witnessed a troubling...

From ACM News

Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it. Not just for a day or two, but 12...

Cellphone in New Role: Loyalty Card
From ACM News

Cellphone in New Role: Loyalty Card

Loyalty cards--those little paper cards that promise a free sandwich or coffee after 10 purchases, but instead get lost or forgotten--are going mobile.

Apple Passes Microsoft as No. 1 in Tech
From ACM News

Apple Passes Microsoft as No. 1 in Tech

Wall Street has called the end of an era and the beginning of the next one: The most important technology product no longer sits on your desk but rather fits in...

Idea Man of Limewire at a Crossroads
From ACM News

Idea Man of Limewire at a Crossroads

Mark Gorton is a confident guy. He’s confident about his ideas. He’s confident about his enthusiasms. And he’s confident that his successes--like making money on...

Audiences, and Hollywood, Flock to Smartphones
From ACM News

Audiences, and Hollywood, Flock to Smartphones

It might be hard to imagine watching "The Office" on a screen no bigger than a business card. But tens of thousands of people--by the most conservative estimate...

The Data-Driven Life
From ACM News

The Data-Driven Life

Humans make errors. We make errors of fact and errors of judgment. We have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stream of attention. Sometimes we...

From ACM News

Privacy Concerns Limit Online Ads, Study Says

Privacy advocates have had an impact on Madison Avenue after all, according to a new study.

Spammers Pay Others to Answer Security Tests
From ACM News

Spammers Pay Others to Answer Security Tests

Faced with stricter Internet security measures, some spammers have begun borrowing a page from corporate America’s playbook: they are outsourcing. The going rate...

For Web
From ACM News

For Web

Mark Brooks wants the whole Web to know that he spent $41 on an iPad case at an Apple store, $24 eating at an Applebee’s, and $6,450 at a Florida plastic surgery...

From ACM News

Sas Seeks to Improve Data Mining of Social Media

No one doubts that social media--all the stuff on Facebook, Twitter and other online forums--provides a rich lode of user sentiment that companies ought to be able...

Researchers Trace Data Theft to Intruders in China
From ACM News

Researchers Trace Data Theft to Intruders in China

Canadian and United States computer security researchers have monitored the spying operation of a China-based computer espionage gang for the past eight months...

How Privacy Vanishes Online
From ACM News

How Privacy Vanishes Online

If a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security number and e-mail address? Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal...

Instant Ads Set the Pace on the Web
From ACM News

Instant Ads Set the Pace on the Web

 Advertisers have been able to direct online messages based on demographics, income and even location, but one element has been largely missing until recently:...
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