Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2013
From ACM Opinion
Privacy Entrepreneur Turns Nsa Snooping Into Profit (q&a)
In a double dose of irony, the National Security Agency's prying has given a big helping hand to Phil Zimmermann's business, Silent Circle.
From ACM Opinion
In Search of Planetary Intelligence
It is said that Mahatma Gandhi, when asked about Western civilization, remarked, "I think it would be a good idea."
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Chief Defends Collecting Americans' Data
The head of the National Security Agency delivered a vigorous defense Wednesday of his agency's collection of Americans' phone records for counterterrorism purposes, asserting that the program was helpful in investigations of…
From ACM Opinion
Forget Foreign Languages and Music. Teach Our Kids to Code
J. Paul Gibson began to teach programming classes for teens out of frustration.
From ACM Opinion
At 15, Google's Ambitions Remain nbridled
Google turned 15 on Friday, smack in the middle of its adolescence.
From ACM Opinion
Design Thinker Don Norman on His Stealth Startup, Apple vs. Android vs. Microsoft, and Experience Design
Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things is the bible for design thinking and technology.
From ACM Opinion
Finally: Bill Gates Admits Control-Alt-Delete Was a Mistake
Bill Gates made many exceptional decisions while he was leading Microsoft to immense success. He did, however, make a few errors.
From ACM Opinion
Why I'll Never Ditch My Blackberry
My BlackBerry is my lifeline.
From ACM TechNews
Ella Gale: Building a Neuromorphic (brainlike) Computer
Ella Gale, one of the young researchers attending the 1st Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany, says her interest is unconventional computing.
From ACM Opinion
Large Patent Holders Hate This Reform Proposal. That’s a Good Sign.
The fight over patent reform has turned into a two-front war.
From ACM Opinion
The Fatal Mistake That Doomed Blackberry
Beleaguered gadgetmaker BlackBerry said on Monday that it's signed a tentative agreement to be purchased by a group led by Canadian holding company Fairfax Financial in a $4.7 billion deal.
From ACM Opinion
Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments
Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.
From ACM Opinion
Many Questions For Michael Dell on Going Private, and What's Next
Michael Dell is feeling aggressive.
From ACM Opinion
Lost to the Ages
You are standing on a dock beside the jutting masts and crow's nest of a sunken ship, water lapping calmly under your feet.
From ACM Opinion
How Ios 7 Will Spark a Boom in App Design
You probably feel strongly about iOS 7.
From ACM Opinion
Does Digital Age Overcomplicate Design?
There is a scene in the television series "Boss" in which the mayor of Chicago, played by Kelsey Grammer, is discovered by his wife washing bed sheets by hand at three o'clock in the morning. "Why don’t you use the washing machine…
From ACM Opinion
Life on Mars: Down But Not Out Says Mars Society Founder
Hopes of alien life on Mars were dashed Thursday when a paper published in the journal Scienceconcluded that the Curiosity rover has yet to find any methane gas, a strong indicator of microbial life. But Robert Zubrin, cofounder…
From ACM Opinion
Bruce Schneier: Nsa Spying Is Making S Less Safe
Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer and author on security topics, provides perspective on the revelations from documents purloined from the U.S. National Security Agency by contractor Edward Snowden, and hints that more are coming…
From ACM News
Apple: The 64-Bit Question
There's been an interesting sideshow in tech land since Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S last week: Does having the first 64-bitmicroprocessor in a phone mean anything?
From ACM Opinion
Apple Chiefs Discuss Strategy, Market Share—and the New iPhones
Apple's doomed.
From ACM Opinion
Why Today's Inventors Need to Read More Science Fiction
How will police use a gun that immobilizes its target but does not kill? What would people do with a device that could provide them with any mood they desire? What are the consequences of a massive, instant global communications…
From ACM Opinion
Civics For a Digital Age
Over half of the world’s population lives in urban environments, and that number is rapidly growing according to the World Health Organization.
From ACM Opinion
To Boldly Go Nowhere, For Now
On Aug. 20, NASA's administrator formally welcomed the newest candidates of the astronaut corpsand released a space exploration roadmap that includes robotic and human missions to destinations that include near-Earth asteroids…
From ACM Opinion
The New National Identity Is What Smartphone You Prefer, and Nobody's Quite Sure Why
In a fascinating note at Asymco, mobile analyst and ex-Nokian Horace Dediu details how people's taste in smartphones varies from place to place:
From ACM Opinion
Behold! Jonathan Ive's Apple
Apple is today releasing the much-anticipated iOS 7, and with it, the biggest overhaul of its mobile operating system since it debuted in 2007 with the original iPhone.
From ACM Opinion
The 'legalization' of China’s Internet Crackdown
Internet usage—especially microblogging on Sina Weibo, China’s largest Twitter-like social media site—is presenting new challenges and new attempts to meet them from a government determined to maintain control.
From ACM Opinion
Ios 7, Thoroughly Reviewed
When we reviewed iOS 6 a year ago, we called it a "spit-and-polish" release and stand by that assessment today.
From ACM Opinion
Neal Stephenson on Tall Towers and Nsa Cyber-Spies
Neal Stephenson is thinking big—20km (12.4 miles) big, to be precise.
From ACM Opinion
Forget Moocs
For a year or two there, free online classes seemed like they just might be the future of higher education.
From ACM Opinion
Cryptographers Have an Ethics Problem
Last week, I visited the MIT computer science department looking for a very famous cryptographer.