Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2014
From ACM Opinion
What Your Cell Phone Can't Tell the Police
On May 28th, Lisa Marie Roberts, of Portland, Oregon, was released from prison after serving nine and a half years for a murder she didn't commit.
From ACM Opinion
The Troubling Truth of Why It's Still So Hard to Share Files Directly
It's not always easy to spot the compromises in the technology we use, where we've allowed corporate interests to trump public ideals like privacy and press freedom.
From ACM Opinion
The Tech-Savvy Supreme Court
The two major technology-related decisions handed down by the Supreme Court this week have been widely greeted by people in the tech industry as one win and one loss.
From ACM Opinion
New N.s.a. Chief Calls Damage From Snowden Leaks Manageable
The newly installed director of the National Security Agency says that while he has seen some terrorist groups alter their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Edward J. Snowden, the damage done over all…
From ACM Opinion
Ray Kurzweil Says He's Breathing Intelligence Into Google Search
The big announcements at Google's I/O event in San Francisco Wednesday didn't mention Web search, the technology that got the company started and made it so successful. But in a small session later that day, the inventor andRay…
From ACM Opinion
I Sent All My Text Messages in Calligraphy For a Week
I got my first mobile phone when I was in high school. It was 2005, and the feeling of "cool" overwhelmed me.
From ACM Opinion
Larry Page on Google's Many Arms
One way to think of Google is as an extremely helpful, all-knowing, hyper-intelligent executive assistant.
From ACM Opinion
Should We Fear the Robots of the Future?
The world's oldest technology magazine is the MIT Technology Review.
From ACM Opinion
Visualizing Algorithms
Algorithms are a fascinating use case for visualization.
From ACM Opinion
Joseph Ledoux
When it comes to the study of memory, we might be living in something of a golden age.
From ACM Opinion
Searching For Answers in Very Old Dna
As he puts it in the subtitle of his memoir, "Neanderthal Man," Svante Paabo goes in search of lost genomes.
From ACM Opinion
The Beautiful, Invisible Game
The first goal of the 2014 World Cup was Brazilian, and it was an own goal.
From ACM Opinion
How the Supreme Court Ruling Affects Aereo, the Cloud, and You
The chief of streaming-TV start-up Aereo has said his mission to bring unbundled broadcast TV to the Internet has greater stakes than just the fate of his company—and it's the crusaders, taking on those with power, who fill graveyards…
From ACM Opinion
Google's Sundar Pichai Is the Most Powerful Man in Mobile
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, Samsung introduced new software for its tablets, called the Magazine UX.
From ACM Opinion
The Case That Might Cripple Facebook
An Irish judge has rendered a preliminary judgment that may have sweeping consequences for U.S. e-commerce firms.
From ACM News
These Psychedelic Images Find Order Amid Chaos
What do you see when you look at these images?
From ACM Opinion
Nypd Commissioner Bill Bratton Advocates For Security Cameras to Be Added to All City Subway Cars
The NYPD could have dozens of new eyes in the transit system—without a cop setting foot on a train—if a plan to put surveillance cameras in subway cars gets the green light.
From ACM Opinion
Three Questions with Amazon's Technology Chief, Werner Vogels
In the eight years since Amazon.com rolled out its cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services, this has grown from a side project that took advantage of the online retailer’s extra computing power to a leader in the fast-growing…
From ACM Opinion
Former Nsa Chief Mike Mcconnell Says Culture, Not Tech, Is Key to Cyber Defense
John M. (Mike) McConnell says that technology alone isn't enough to secure corporate networks from pervasive and increasingly damaging cyberattacks.
From ACM Opinion
Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues
How hard can it be to determine whether a computer works as promised?
From ACM Opinion
What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality
Even Sunday night HBO watchers are worried the Federal Communications Commission will soon put an end to net neutrality.
From ACM Opinion
Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'
Here's what it's like to wake up in America's smartest home.
From ACM Opinion
Coder's High
These days I write more than I code, but one of the things I miss about programming is the coder's high: those times when, for hours on end, I would lock my vision straight at the computer screen, trance out, and become a human…
From ACM Opinion
When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?
Not long ago, I went to a nice restaurant with five friends. Good food. Better cocktails.
From ACM Opinion
Stephen Hawking: AI Could Be a 'real Danger'
I don't want to frighten you.
From ACM Opinion
Is China a Scientific Powerhouse?
China has vastly expanded higher education over the past three decades—in 1982, less than 1 percent of China’s twenty-somethings had attended college; by 2010, the figure had risen to 20 percent.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Eyes in the Sky
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page built the search engine that would become Google, they started by making maps.
From ACM Opinion
Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy
When Steven P. Jobs led Apple, he created a core principle for the company's designers and engineers: stay fully focused on making great products.
From ACM Opinion
Dobby, Pikachu, and Kermit Are My Robots' Role Models
Humanoid robots aren't very charismatic yet.
From ACM Opinion
Turn Detroit Into Drone Valley
The popular recipe for creating the "next" Silicon Valley goes something like this: