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I Tried to Get an AI to Write This Story
From ACM Opinion

I Tried to Get an AI to Write This Story

What a time for artificial intelligence!

The 'Terms and Conditions' Reckoning Is Coming
From ACM Opinion

The 'Terms and Conditions' Reckoning Is Coming

Eleanor Margolis had used PayPal for more than a decade when the online payment provider blocked her account in January. The reason: She was 16 years old when she...

The Tech Giants' Secret War Against Fake News Is Too Secret
From ACM Opinion

The Tech Giants' Secret War Against Fake News Is Too Secret

Facebook, Google, and Twitter have a problem with harmful content.

Why Rite Aid and Cvs Stopped Taking Apple Pay
From ACM Opinion

Why Rite Aid and Cvs Stopped Taking Apple Pay

The introduction of Apple Pay last Monday was widely described as the dawn of a new era for smartphone payments.

Ungoogle Me: The Case For Scrubbing Search Results
From ACM Opinion

Ungoogle Me: The Case For Scrubbing Search Results

The Internet has much to say about the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which determines that if a person wants some personal information...

The Dollar Will Never Fall to Bitcoin
From ACM Opinion

The Dollar Will Never Fall to Bitcoin

Last month, several people appeared before a U.S. Senate committee to defend bitcoin, among them Patrick Murck, general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation...

The False Promise of Classroom Technology
From ACM Opinion

The False Promise of Classroom Technology

The cover story of Life magazine on Oct. 16 was "U.S. Schools: They Face a Crisis."

Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters
From ACM Opinion

Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters

The Internet is piling yet more vitriol on the shoddy Obamacare rollout in response to a report, by Bloomberg's Alex Wayne, that the administration has recruited...

Why Apple Wants Its Software to Be Free
From ACM Opinion

Why Apple Wants Its Software to Be Free

Who knew Apple would become such a big shareware company?

Nsa Surveillance Makes For Strange Bedfellows
From ACM Opinion

Nsa Surveillance Makes For Strange Bedfellows

The controversy over U.S. government surveillance has produced a king-size collection of strange bedfellows. Beneath the covers one finds both amusing ironies and...

Will Facebook's Robot Censors Know Porn When They See It?
From ACM Opinion

Will Facebook's Robot Censors Know Porn When They See It?

The old trope about pornography is that you’ll know it when you see it. Facebook is betting that not only will it know it, but that the social network will be able...

Balancing Security and Liberty in the Age of Big Data
From ACM Opinion

Balancing Security and Liberty in the Age of Big Data

A very large Internet company once had the noble impulse to share some of its data with the research community.

How Boston Police Won the Twitter Wars During the Marathon Bomber Hunt
From ACM Opinion

How Boston Police Won the Twitter Wars During the Marathon Bomber Hunt

The first official announcement that law enforcement agencies had concluded their manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev didn't come at a...

Apple and the Mysterious Case of the Missing Moonshot
From ACM Opinion

Apple and the Mysterious Case of the Missing Moonshot

When John Morrell left his post at Yale University last year and decamped to Apple, some members of the robotics community were perplexed.

Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy's Last Safe Haven
From ACM News

Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy's Last Safe Haven

One of the oddest bits of news to emerge from the economic collapse of Cyprus is a corresponding rise in the value of Bitcoin, the Internet’s favorite, media-friendly...

Why All Reporters (not Just J-School Students) Should Learn to Fly Drones
From ACM Opinion

Why All Reporters (not Just J-School Students) Should Learn to Fly Drones

These days the future of journalism may look cloudy. But one thing about the future of the business is clear, according to ABC News. It will be full of drones.

Brogrammers Making Sex Jokes and Other Reasons Startups Need Hr Departments
From ACM Opinion

Brogrammers Making Sex Jokes and Other Reasons Startups Need Hr Departments

When I worked at a startup, we jokingly referred to our "HR department"—a cardboard box that held resumes, NDAs, tax forms, whatever.

Computer Interfaces: Tech's Next Great Frontier
From ACM Opinion

Computer Interfaces: Tech's Next Great Frontier

Consider the tongue. It's sensitive yet muscular, packed with taste buds and nerves, and without its acrobatic ability humans wouldn’t be able to eat or talk. It's...

The 3 Most-Important Things at Mobile World Congress
From ACM Opinion

The 3 Most-Important Things at Mobile World Congress

Gadget fans walked away this week from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the annual geek fest for connected devices, grumbling about a glaring lack of breakthrough...

Atari's Bankruptcy: Gen X Bids Pong Farewell
From ACM Careers

Atari's Bankruptcy: Gen X Bids Pong Farewell

Reading the news that Atari’s U.S. subsidiary is filing for bankruptcy was a little like hearing that Bob Hope died—in that you were surprised to discover he had...
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