Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2012
From ACM Opinion
Tides Are Changing For Web Surfers
David Weinberger has a new book out entitled Too Big to Know in which he argues that one of the implications of a comprehensively networked society is that the nature of knowledge itself is changing.
From ACM Opinion
Apps For Ipad 3: What Apple Should Demo at the Grand nveiling
All indicators suggest Apple will unveil the iPad 3 during the first week of March. That’s less than a month away, and sources at The Next Web say Apple is in "crunch mode," working hard to line up apps that show off the unique…
From ACM Opinion
Erasing the Boundaries
Technology used to be so simple.
From ACM Opinion
Are Supercomputers Worth Their Super Price Tags?
"Why do we have to aim for the world's No. 1 — what's wrong with being the world's No. 2?" That short question about Japan's vaunted K supercomputer program has haunted policymakers since it was posed live on national television…
From ACM Opinion
Google Knows Too Much About You
If you use Google, and I know you do, you may have noticed a little banner popping up at the top of the page announcing: "We're changing our privacy policy and terms."
From ACM Opinion
Why William Gibson Distrusts Aging Futurists' Nostalgia
Few things seem more pathetic than a science fiction writer who pines for the "good old days."
From ACM Opinion
The Science Fiction Effect
It's alive! Neurophysiology. Huddled around a warm fireplace one cold summer's night in 1816, a small group of friends decided to hold a competition to see who could write the scariest horror story.
From ACM Opinion
Five Reasons The Robo-Car Haters Are Wrong
The self-driving cars we’ve been promised since the dawn of the auto age are here.
From ACM Opinion
Who Cares About Apple TV? Bring Us the Apple Car
The much-mythologized Apple television could be a terrible next step for the company.
From ACM News
Api: Three Letters That Change Life, the niverse, and Even Detroit
Sam Ramji met AT&T chief technology officer John Donovan on a speed date—or at least the tech world equivalent of a speed date.
From ACM Opinion
No Objections to Nano?
Some forms of biotechnology have become notoriously controversial. Genetic modification of crops, for example, altered the food supply in ways some consumers found troublesome, either because of anticipated consequences, a…
From ACM TechNews
Hp R&d Chief Shows Road to Terabyte Backplane
New technologies will be the key to dealing with the coming flood of digital data, says HP Labs director Prith Banerjee.
From ACM Opinion
Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion
There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft. But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest of all. Or at least the most harrowing. Over the past five years, he's taken on the tiny task of redesigning the operating system used by like…
From ACM TechNews
A Discussion With David Farber: Bandwidth, Cyber Security, and the Obsolescence of the Internet
Internet technology veteran David Farber projects that within a decade, computers will be outfitted with optical connections rather than pins for networking, and routers will be swamped by the sheer volume of transmitted data…
From ACM Opinion
Facebook Is Using You
Last week, Facebook filed documents with the government that will allow it to sell shares of stock to the public. It is estimated to be worth at least $75 billion. But unlike other big-ticket corporations, it doesn't have an…
From ACM Opinion
Welcome to the Desktop Degree
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in 1995 to be precise, a scholar named Eli Noam published an article in the prestigious journal Science under the title "Electronics and the Dim Future of the University."
From ACM Opinion
'a Clockwork Orange' Strikes 40
The New York Times recently ran an opinion piece about the concept of a morality pill, a theoretical-but-apparently-not-implausible panacea for humankind's ethical shortcomings.
From ACM Opinion
Rethinking the Soul As the 'net Becomes More Lifelike
Does the Internet have a soul?
From ACM Opinion
Facebook is finally going public.
From ACM Opinion
Privacy, Technology, and Law
Every day, those of us who live in the digital world give little bits of ourselves away. On Facebook and LinkedIn. To servers that store our email, Google searches, online banking, and shopping records. Does the fact that so…
From Communications of the ACM
Wanton Acts of Debuggery
Keep your debug messages clear, useful, and not annoying.
From Communications of the ACM
Incentive Auctions
Reallocating valuable wireless spectrum can generate billions of dollars in revenue to the U.S. federal government while also benefiting consumers.
From Communications of the ACM
Emotion and Security
Examining the role of human emotional response in making complex security-related decisions.
From Communications of the ACM
Peer Instruction: A Teaching Method to Foster Deep Understanding
How the computing education community can learn from physics education.
From Communications of the ACM
Yet Another Technology Cusp: Confusion, Vendor Wars, and Opportunities
Considering the unexpected risks associated with seemingly minor technological changes.
From Communications of the ACM
What Have We Learned About Software Engineering?
Upon closer examination, everything old appears to be new again in the realm of software engineering.