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Snowden's 'sexy Margaret Thatcher' Password Isn't So Secure
From ACM Opinion

Snowden's 'sexy Margaret Thatcher' Password Isn't So Secure

Edward Snowden appears to have a thing for the late British conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher. And his obsession may even be clouding his famously paranoid...

Nsa Doesn't Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets
From ACM Opinion

Nsa Doesn't Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets

Governments and corporations gather, store, and analyze the tremendous amount of data we chuff out as we move through our digitized lives.

Why We Should Design Some Things to Be Difficult to ­se
From ACM Opinion

Why We Should Design Some Things to Be Difficult to ­se

The first car I ever drove was a bashed Land Rover Defender.

15 Predictions For Tech and Design in 2015
From ACM Opinion

15 Predictions For Tech and Design in 2015

It's our favorite time of year, when frogs from around the world examine the state of technology's future.

In the Future, Your Touchscreens Will Touch You Back
From ACM Opinion

In the Future, Your Touchscreens Will Touch You Back

You comfort your grieving friend online over chat, but you can't reach out and touch their shoulder.

How the Home Telephone Sparked the ­ser-Centered Design Revolution
From ACM Opinion

How the Home Telephone Sparked the ­ser-Centered Design Revolution

Have you ever thought about why doorknobs are positioned at around two-fifths of the door's height, instead of right in the middle? Or why a washing machine is...

Hands-On With Microsoft's ­nbelievable New Holographic Goggles
From ACM Opinion

Hands-On With Microsoft's ­nbelievable New Holographic Goggles

It's the end of October, when the days have already grown short in Redmond, Washington, and gray sheets of rain are just beginning to let up.

9 of the World's Leading Designers Talk About What Matters Now
From ACM Opinion

9 of the World's Leading Designers Talk About What Matters Now

Design is in flux.

Why Cheap Cameras and Boring Sensors Make the Best Smart Home Stuff
From ACM Opinion

Why Cheap Cameras and Boring Sensors Make the Best Smart Home Stuff

The twin fixations of CES this year are, to no one's surprise, wearable technology and the internet of things.

This Year's 8 Smartest ­i Design Ideas
From ACM News

This Year's 8 Smartest ­i Design Ideas

When your family gathered for the holidays this year, did you take note of the technology everyone was using?

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem
From ACM Opinion

Sure, Artificial Intelligence May End Our World, But That Is Not the Main Problem

The robots will rise, we're told.

Algorithms Are Great and All, But They Can Also Ruin Lives
From ACM Opinion

Algorithms Are Great and All, But They Can Also Ruin Lives

On April 5, 2011, 41-year-old John Gass received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

A Sad Fact of Life: It's Actually Smart to Be Mean Online
From ACM Opinion

A Sad Fact of Life: It's Actually Smart to Be Mean Online

I'm generally upbeat on Twitter. Many of my posts are enthusiastic blurts about science or research in which I use way too many exclamation points!!

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally ­nleashed AI on the World
From ACM Opinion

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally ­nleashed AI on the World

A few months ago I made the trek to the sylvan campus of the IBM research labs in Yorktown Heights, New York, to catch an early glimpse of the fast-arriving, long...

Is Apple Watch's Pressure-Sensitive Screen a Bigger Deal Than the Gadget Itself?
From ACM Opinion

Is Apple Watch's Pressure-Sensitive Screen a Bigger Deal Than the Gadget Itself?

Forget about the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay and even the company's bold step into wearables.

On Death and Ipods: A Requiem
From ACM Opinion

On Death and Ipods: A Requiem

Have you ever loved a car? Maybe it was an old truck you drove for hundreds of thousands of miles, or maybe it was your very first car: where you had your very...

Robot Servants Are Going to Make Your Life Easy. Then They'll Ruin It
From ACM Opinion

Robot Servants Are Going to Make Your Life Easy. Then They'll Ruin It

Jibo, the "world's first family robot," hit the media hype machine like a bomb.

How to Save the Net: Keep It Open
From ACM Opinion

How to Save the Net: Keep It Open

For all of its history, the Internet has enjoyed the fruits of an openness principle: the idea that anyone can reach any site online and that information and data...

The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career
From ACM Opinion

The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career

Jim Yurchenco was responsible for squeezing the guts inside the impossibly slim Palm V.

This Sci-Fi Author Thinks Amazon Will Cause an Apocalypse
From ACM Opinion

This Sci-Fi Author Thinks Amazon Will Cause an Apocalypse

Charles Stross is an award-winning science fiction author whose books include The Bloodline Feud, about timeline-hopping narco-terrorists, Halting State, a near...
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