Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2011
From ACM Opinion
Take IT Out of the IT Department
It's time to reverse the trend of centralized information technology that has been the hallmark of most companies for at least 10 years. Control of IT shouldn't rest with the IT staff.
From ACM Opinion
Why Far Fewer Bettors Pony p on the Horses
Horse bettor John Astarita have plenty of explanations why horse racing revenue is on the decline. One complaint concerns deep-pocket investors who use computer programs to track historical race information, wagering millions…
From ACM News
Customers Had More Faith in Sony Than It Deserved
In the wake of the recent hacking attacks, which compromised more than 100 million account records on its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services, Sony has beefed up security—a tacit admission it could have…
From ACM Opinion
Can Tech Experts Save the .s. Postal Service?
Some of the folks responsible for developing and promoting the technologies that have undermined the U.S. Postal Service are banding together in an attempt to save the nation's mail-delivery service. They will meet atPostalVision…
From ACM Opinion
Sorry But the Game Does Not Build Anymore
Continuous integration and an automated asset pipeline should guarantee that you can produce an up-to-date working version of the game you are working on in very little time. But a collection of things can go wrong when you…
From ACM Opinion
In the Tech Industry, Power Management is a Key to Going Green
Reuse, recycle, repurpose, renewables. This past Earth Day, we heard a lot about these concepts. As important as they are, I've noticed one phrase missing from the vernacular: Power management.
From ACM Opinion
Your Data Isn't Secure, Don't Trust Companies to Keep It Safe
It's time for a major change in the way our personal, private data is handled. We need to take back our data from companies that are unwilling and unable to protect it.
From ACM Opinion
Sohaib Athar on Twitter Fame After Bin Laden Raid (q&a)
As U.S. special forces assaulted Osama bin Laden's walled compound in Pakistan, a Twitter user was already recording a rough outline of the events to come. Sohaib Athar, who describes himself as a 33-year-old programmer and …
From ACM Opinion
Online 24/7: "life Logging" Pioneer Clarifies the Future of Cloud Computing
Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, paperless for more than a decade, envisions data centers saturated with information and services readily available via the Internet.
From ACM News
Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Rails Against Facebook, Says It's a Spy Tool For .s. Government
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Facebook "the most appalling spying machine ever invented" in an interview with Russia Today, pointing to the popular social networking site as one of the top tools for the U.S. to spy…
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.
From ACM Opinion
The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories
No sooner had President Obama released his long-form birth certificate than Orly Taitz, the doyenne of the "birther" movement, found reason to doubt it.
From ACM Opinion
Conspiracies Say Bin Laden Lives
The decision to drop terror chieftain Osama bin Laden’s corpse into the Arabian Sea was the final meticulous step in a raid whose details were calculated to exert deadly force but also to achieve maximum effect in the propaganda…
From ACM CareerNews
An Interview with Peter Denning: The End of the Future
In a comprehensive Q&A, Peter Denning, the editor-in-chief of Ubiquity, offers his thoughts on the future of computer science and discusses the art of making predictions about the future.
From Communications of the ACM
Online Advertising, Behavioral Targeting, and Privacy
Studying how privacy regulation might impact economic activity on the advertising-supported Internet.
From Communications of the ACM
Reaching Learners Beyond Our Hallowed Halls
Rethinking the design of computer science courses and broadening the definition of computing education both on and off campus.
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview with Steve Furber
Steve Furber, designer of the seminal BBC Microcomputer System and the widely used ARM microprocessor, reflects on his career.
From Communications of the ACM
Bell Labs and Centralized Innovation
In early 1935, a man named Clarence Hickman had a secret machine, about six feet tall, standing in his office. Hickman was an engineer at Bell Labs, and his invention was,…
From Communications of the ACM
The Importance of Reviewing the Code
Highlighting the significance of the often overlooked underlying software used to produce research results.