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What Makes Google's Maps So Good
From ACM Opinion

What Makes Google's Maps So Good

Wow. Nothing makes you appreciate something like losing it.

The Internet? We Built That
From ACM Opinion

The Internet? We Built That

Who created the Internet and why should we care? These questions, so often raised during the Bush-Gore election in 2000, have found their way back into the political...

Why Wi-Fi Is Often So Slow
From ACM Opinion

Why Wi-Fi Is Often So Slow

A number of Internet service providers, including Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., have recently upped the maximum speeds of broadband they offer...

From ACM Opinion

When Gps Tracking Violates Privacy Rights

For the right to personal privacy to survive in America in this digital age, courts must be meticulous in applying longstanding privacy protections to new technology...

Breaking ­p the Echo
From ACM Opinion

Breaking ­p the Echo

It is well known that when like-minded people get together, they tend to end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk...

From ACM Opinion

The Iphone Stimulus

Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to...

Why '­ser Friendly' Is So Friendly: A Tribute to Bill Moggridge
From ACM Opinion

Why '­ser Friendly' Is So Friendly: A Tribute to Bill Moggridge

Some considered it an inspired choice, others simply surprising, when Bill Moggridge was appointed director of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum...

Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing
From ACM Opinion

Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing

It has become fashionable in many architectural circles to declare the death of drawing. What has happened to our profession, and our art, to cause the supposed...

From ACM Opinion

Apple Case Muddies the Future of Innovations

Apple's victory on Friday in a patent lawsuit against Samsung could, if upheld, give its rivals a kick in the pants to create more original products.

Giving In to the Surveillance State
From ACM Opinion

Giving In to the Surveillance State

In March 2002, John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the National...

Why Apple Might Be Better Off Losing Its Patent Lawsuit
From ACM Opinion

Why Apple Might Be Better Off Losing Its Patent Lawsuit

Could it be in Apple’s self-interest to lose its bitter court battle with Samsung?

Trust: Ill-Advised in a Digital Age
From ACM Opinion

Trust: Ill-Advised in a Digital Age

Bruce Schneieer ordered a Coke, no ice, at the Rio casino on a Saturday afternoon. I ordered Diet Coke, also no ice, and handed the bartender an American Express...

Suggestions For an Apple Shopping List
From ACM Opinion

Suggestions For an Apple Shopping List

Question: What would you do if you had $117 billion?

From ACM Opinion

The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance

A big part of Magistrate Judge Stephen W. Smith's job in Federal District Court in Houston is to consider law enforcement requests for cellphone and email records...

The Trouble With Online Education
From ACM Opinion

The Trouble With Online Education

"Ah, you're a professor. You must learn so much from your students."

From ACM Opinion

The End of Privacy?

Cellphones, email, and online social networking have come to rule daily life, but Congress has done nothing to update federal privacy laws to better protect digital...

With Apple
From ACM Opinion

With Apple

Late last summer, I was introduced to a new special someone. I wasn’t looking to meet this new muse; it all just kind of happened.

How Depressives Surf the Web
From ACM News

How Depressives Surf the Web

In what way do you spend your time online? Do you check your email compulsively? Watch lots of videos? Switch frequently among multiple Internet applications—from...

Desktop Computers Look More and More Like Smartphones
From ACM Opinion

Desktop Computers Look More and More Like Smartphones

If you're an experienced computer user, you probably remember explaining to newbies how a desktop computer worked: Your photos should go in this folder; your documents...

Apple's Stash of Credit Card Numbers Is Its Secret Weapon
From ACM News

Apple's Stash of Credit Card Numbers Is Its Secret Weapon

That little iPhone in your pocket is perfectly positioned to become a clone of the credit cards in your wallet or purse.
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