Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2010
From ACM Opinion
Google's Nightmare: Facebook 'like' Replaces Links
Facebook dropped a bombshell on the tech industry last week in the form of a Web-wide "Like" button and the launch of the "Open Graph". Using this new platform, Web sites can drive Web traffic from Facebook by including Like…
From ACM Opinion
Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Flash
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple…
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Learn the Language of Data
"How can global warming be real when there’s so much snow?" Hearing that question—repeatedly—this past February drove Joseph Romm nuts. A massive snowstorm had buried Washington, D.C., and all across the capital, politicians…
From ACM TechNews
Info Systems Must 'connect the Dots' on Terrorism
Additional personnel alone cannot address the lapses in the U.S. intelligence community, which also needs state-of-the-art information technologies that enhance human capabilities to "connect the dots."
From ACM Opinion
Today Facebook, Tomorrow the World
With a dizzying array of announcements this week, it seems almost inevitable that the web will become, at least for the near future, an extension of Facebook. Like it or not.
From ACM Opinion
App Rejected? There's a Rule For That.
The story could have been programmed to draw media coverage, were it not for its implausibility: Apple (a reader magnet) banned a future Pulitzer Prize winner's iPhone application (invoking journalists' professional pride) because…
From ACM Opinion
Internet Age Needs Clear Regulation, Computer Law Expert Says
Tracy Mitrano, Cornell University's director of IT Policy says the recent U.S. Federal Appeals Court decision in Comcast v. FCC and the FCC's efforts to enforce "network neutrality" points to a need for clear regulatory authority…
From ACM Opinion
A Less Personal Computer
In Web parlance, "chrome" is the part of the browser that surrounds the page: the address bar, the "Back" button, and those all-important bookmarks. Chrome is also the name of the Web browser that Google introduced back in September…
From ACM Opinion
Has Apple Reached the Limits of Industrial Design?
The next iPhone is going to look amazing. This is as close to a truism as you get in the tech industry--it's sort of like predicting that Warren Buffett will make smart investments, or that the next Judd Apatow movie will feature…
From ACM Opinion
The 50 Most Innovative Companies 2010
Once U.S. companies dominated Business Week's Most Innovative Companies ranking, outnumbering corporations outside of America. But for the first time ever, more companies on theTop 50 are based outside the U.S.
From ACM Opinion
So, How Real Are Robots?
Robots can do all kinds of tasks, from folding clothes to fighting wars. But a professor says we should consider the ethics of unleashing robots.
From ACM TechNews
Wendy Hall on What Web Science Could Mean For Businesses
Professor Dame Wendy Hall, who is involved in the newly founded Institute of Web Science, says the field is experiencing rapid growth as governments increasingly acknowledge the value the digital economy will bring to the developed…
From ACM Opinion
Eff Backs Yahoo! to Protect ser from Warrantless Email Search
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) along with Google and numerous other public interest organizations and Internet industry associations joined with Yahoo! in asking a federal court Tuesday to block a government attempt…
From ACM TechNews
How the Internet Will Change the World
Pew Internet & American Life Project director Lee Rainie discusses the results of a survey of experts on how technology will develop and impact society in the year 2020.
From ACM Opinion
Why Nasa Is Sending a Robot to Space That Looks Like You
A humanoid robot will visit space for the first time in September aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA announced Wednesday. The Robonaut 2, which was co-developed by NASA with General Motors, will serve as an assistant to…
From ACM Opinion
Marc Maiffret: The Quick Rise of a Teen Hacker
For Marc Maiffret, the turning point in his life came when—at the age of 17—he woke up to an FBI agent pointing a gun at his head. A runaway and high school dropout, he had landed his first professional job but his past was…
From ACM TechNews
Challenges to Exascale Computing
Former IBM researcher and visiting lecturer at MIT Irving Wladawsky-Berger writes that supercomputing and the IT industry must undergo a major technology and architectural transition in order to reap the benefits of exascale…
From ACM Opinion
Blogging in India and Apple's Ipad
Amit Agarwal, based in India, has been blogging about technology for six years. He answers a few questions on his blogging career, the future of the Internet in India and his current favorite gadget—the iPad.
From ACM Opinion
I Was Hacked in Beijing
The reality--and my fears--dawned only slowly.
For weeks, friends and colleagues complained I had not answered their e-mail messages. I swore I had not received them.
My e-mail program began crashing almost daily. But only …From ACM Opinion
How Science Became Cool
The incredible ambition of the Large Hadron Collider has fired our imagination; physicists have become cult TV stars; dramatic new pictures from space grace a million computer screensavers. Is this a golden age of science?
From ACM Opinion
Rethinking a Gospel of the Web
For about a decade now, ever since it became clear that the jungle of the World Wide Web would triumph over the walled gardens of CompuServe, AOL and MSN, a general consensus has solidified among the otherwise fractious population…
From ACM Opinion
The Idiocy of Text-Message Adultery
"How did you fool so many people for so long?" a reporter asked Tiger Woods at his press conference Monday. Woods replied: "I fooled myself."
And how. Woods was talking about the usual self-delusions of celebrity adulterers:…From ACM Opinion
Get Prepared For the Html5 Revolution
HTML5 promises to revolutionize the way you build Web sites. Check out what fantastic new features are in store in the forthcoming Web standard.
From ACM Opinion
You Don't Need an Ipad
But once you try one, you won't be able to resist.
I picked up my iPad at a San Francisco Apple Store early on Saturday morning, and I spent the rest of the weekend putting Apple's new touch-screen computer through its paces…From ACM Opinion
North Korea Needs to Set p Practical It Training and Certification Systems
The promotion of the IT industry in North Korea can be done in a way that could minimize the extent of market opening.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Memories May Lead to Faster, More Secure Computers
Future communications networks could be based on quantum memories, which store data in a pulse of light and are the focus of research by University of Delaware professor Virginia Lorenz.
From Communications of the ACM
Be Careful What You Wish For
Reflections on the decline of mathematical tables.
From Communications of the ACM
When Network Neutrality Met Privacy
Incorporating the consideration of privacy into the ongoing debate concerning network neutrality.
From Communications of the ACM
Development 2.0: The IT-Enabled Transformation of International Development
The fundamental assumptions of international development are changing, increasingly putting the tools for a digital economy into the hands of the world's poor.
From Communications of the ACM
Q&A: Systematic Thinking
Andrew S. Tanenbaum talks about MINIX, microkernels, and electronic voting systems.