Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2011
From ACM Opinion
An Interview with Joseph F. Traub
Joseph F. Traub is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and External Professor, Santa Fe Institute. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses his early research, organizations…
From ACM TechNews
Internet Architect Vint Cerf to Young People: Science and Tech Careers Can Be Rewarding
Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's original inventors, notes in an interview that although industry awards are important, they do not receive enough visibility.
From ACM News
Security 'tokens' Take Hit
RSA Security is offering to provide security monitoring or replace its well-known SecurID tokens—devices used by millions of corporate workers to securely log on to their computers—"for virtually every customer we have," the…
From ACM Opinion
Feds Versus the Hacker nderground: Army of Informers Turned By Fear
When Jeff Moss, popularly known as the Dark Tangent, started holding underground hacker conferences in Las Vegas he knew he had a problem. All previous gatherings had been strictly invitation-only to ensure privacy. Moss wanted…
From ACM Opinion
On the Latest Google Chinese-Hacking News
Thanks to many people who have written in asking whether the recent Google announcement of a new China-based wave of attacks on Gmail accounts is related to the takeover of my wife's Gmail account just after we spent two months…
From ACM TechNews
Why Talking Is So Much Tougher Than Math
In a recent interview, University of Toronto artificial intelligence professor Geoffrey Hinton discussed AI's future, including the technology's future opportunities, and diffuses fears about the dangers of AI.
From ACM News
Making the Case For Security
Major corporations have made serious mistakes with information security recently, resulting in spectacular failures to protect business and customer records. After years of warnings, why do so many businesses still fail to…
From ACM News
Google's Ceo Steps Into Spotlight
In his most extensive public comments since becoming Google's CEO, Larry Page on Thursday delivered a carefully crafted response to critics who say the company is too free-spending, too unfocused and too aloof to investors…
From ACM News
Darpa's Regina Dugan on 'the Nation
Dr. Regina Dugan is director of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, where she researches, develops, and demonstrates high-risk, high-payoff projects for the current and future combat force, prevents strategic surprises…
From ACM News
Parting Shots from a Mars Rover
NASA is no longer sending commands to the Spirit rover on Mars, but the long-silent robot still has a few more chances to phone home. Not that anyone is expecting Spirit to call, more than a year after the six-wheeled robot…
From ACM News
Vint Cerf on the Internet and Out-of-This-World Communications
Vint Cerf is one of the most recognized network engineers of all time. He is often referred to as one of the "fathers of the Internet" for his groundbreaking work as a co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture…
From ACM News
Google Missed 'friend Thing'
Google Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt said one of his biggest failures as chief executive of the search giant over the last decade was grappling with the rise of social identity services such as Facebook Inc.
From Communications of the ACM
Identity Management and Privacy: A Rare Opportunity To Get It Right
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace represents a shift in the way the U.S. government is approaching identity management, privacy, and the Internet.
From Communications of the ACM
The Risks of Stopping Too Soon
Good software design is never easy, but stopping too soon makes the job more difficult.
From Communications of the ACM
Think Before You Fork
Kode Vicious's thoughts on forking, config files, and using internal wikis.
From Communications of the ACM
Who Are We - Now?
Considerable progress has been made toward the formation of a computing profession since we started tracking it in this column a decade ago.
From Communications of the ACM
Practical Application of Theoretical Estimation
One of the most popular and successful approaches to estimating software projects is the Putnam model. Developed in the 1970s by Larry Putnam, Sr., this model shares with…
From Communications of the ACM
Computer Science Can Use More Science
Software developers should use empirical methods to analyze their designs to predict how working systems will behave.