Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2015
From ACM Opinion
Eff at 25: Remembering the Case that Established Code as Speech
One of EFF's first major legal victories was Bernstein v. Department of Justice, a landmark case that resulted in establishing code as speech and changed United States export regulations on encryption software, paving the way…
From ACM Careers
Facebook Is Eating the Internet
Facebook, it seems, is unstoppable. The social publishing site, just 11 years old, is now the dominant force in American media.
From ACM Opinion
Statistics: P Values Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
There is no statistic more maligned than the P value.
From ACM Opinion
You Can't Backdoor a Platform
According to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, encryption should come with a backdoor.
From ACM Opinion
Mercury Mission Set to End with Dramatic Crash
On 30 April, after more than four years in orbit around Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER probe will plunge to its doom.
From ACM Opinion
Preparing For Warfare in Cyberspace
The Pentagon’s new 33-page cybersecurity strategy is an important evolution in how America proposes to address a top national security threat. It is intended to warn adversaries—especially China, Russia, Iran and North Korea—that…
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Sex: It Gets Better
When I was 10 years old, my friend Sarah and I found a newly minted copy of "The Joy of Sex" under her parents' bed.
From ACM Opinion
Considering 'the Philosophy of the Web'
We associate technology with the shiny and new. But humans have been using technology to change the environment and themselves since at least the lower Paleolithic period, when our ancestors were making stone tools.
From ACM Opinion
Building an Earth-Size Telescope, 1 Station at a Time
Imagine a trio of aerobatic aircraft. Over the years they've gotten very good at their routine. But they want to add another five or six or seven members.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Entire Premise of Tor-Enabled Routers Is Ridiculous
Ars recently reviewed two "Tor routers," devices that are supposed to improve your privacy by routing all traffic through the Tor anonymity network. Although the initial release of Anonabox proved woefully insecure, the basic…
From ACM Opinion
The Fbi's Stance on Encrypted Communications
Imagine an America where federal, state, and municipal law enforcement agencies cannot access critical communications, even when legally authorized to do so.
From ACM Opinion
Should Law Enforcement Have the Ability to Access Encrypted Communications?
People's distress over the privacy of their communications has never been more acute. Whether the fear is over U.S. surveillance or breaches by hackers of unknown origins, many consumers fear that there is no such thing as privacy…
From ACM Opinion
Honoring Technology's Power Couple: Moore's Law and the Network Effect
Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of Moore's Law, which I believe to be one of the most important business theorems of the last century.
From ACM Opinion
New Laws For New Threats Like Drones and Bioterrorism
You walk into your shower and see a spider.
From ACM Opinion
As Moore's Law Turns 50, What Does the Future Hold For the Transistor?
"The future of integrated electronics is the future of electronics itself."
From ACM News
Google's Search pdated Will Remake the Web in Its Own Image
Some people are calling it Mobilegeddon.
From ACM Opinion
3 Questions on Killer Robots
Delegates to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons are meeting this week in Geneva to discuss fully autonomous weapons—machines that could decide to kill someone without any human input.
From ACM Opinion
Moore's Law Will Bring Emotional Machines—softbank Ceo
Humans will face their biggest test when computers surpass human intellectual capabilities, according to Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder and CEO of SoftBank Corp., the Japanese telecommunications and Internet giant. But…
From ACM Opinion
Fateful Phone Call Spawned Moore's Law
In their new book, Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary, authors Arnold Thackray, David C. Brock and Rachel Jones chronicle the life and career of Intel co-founder and microprocessor prophet…
From ACM Opinion
Top 10 Hubble Images
As the famous telescope turns 25, scientists who worked on the project choose their favourite pictures.
From ACM Opinion
Moore's Law Hits 50, but It May Not See 60
Moore's Law turns 50 years old this Sunday. It may not make it to 60.
From ACM Opinion
The New Spam: Interactive Robo-Calls from the Cloud as Cheap as E-Mail
It was the middle of the day, and my cell phone rang with a local number I didn't recognize.
From ACM Opinion
Case Against Google May Be ndercut By Rapid Shifts in Tech
The antitrust case against Google filed by European Union regulators on Wednesday will inevitably draw comparisons to the long-running prosecution of Microsoft, in which regulators on both sides of the Atlantic pursued the software…
From ACM Opinion
Putting Technology in Its Place
Kentaro Toyama calls himself "a recovering technoholic"—someone who once was "addicted to a technological way of solving problems."
From ACM Opinion
The Inner Lives of Robots: An Interview with Filmmaker Alex Garland
Like self-replicating machines, robot movies are taking over Hollywood.
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 sense of security.
From ACM Opinion
10 Images that Explain the Incredible Power of Moore's Law
Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors per integrated circuit will double approximately every 18–24 months, has become the defining metaphor of the modern technological age.
From ACM Opinion
Meet the Bots
The day that science fiction writers have feared for so long has finally come—the machines have risen up.
From ACM TechNews
Interview with Concepcion A. Monje, a Researcher in c3m's Robotics Lab
Concepcion A. Monje, a researcher in the Robotics Lab at Carlos III University of Madrid, recently discussed the future of robotics and the science fiction film "Automata," in which humanoid robots develop intelligence.
From ACM Opinion
Why Mlb Fans Should Lament the Failure of Google Glass
The consumer tech world received a jolt in January when the Wall Street Journal reported that Google executives were freezing all sales of its futuristically goofy wearable device known as Glass and, perhaps as dramatically,…