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Can Machines Learn Morality?
From ACM Opinion

Can Machines Learn Morality?

When John Brennan, President Obama's choice to be the next head of the CIA, appeared before a Senate committee yesterday, one question supplanted all others at...

­nseen, All-Out Cyber War on the ­.s. Has Begun
From ACM Opinion

­nseen, All-Out Cyber War on the ­.s. Has Begun

There's a war going on, and it's raging here at home—not in the streets or the fields, but on the Internet.

Phreaks and Geeks
From ACM Opinion

Phreaks and Geeks

One of the most heartfelt—and unexpected—remembrances of Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last month at the age of 26, came from Yale professor Edward Tufte.

Don't Like Television? Then You're Not Going to Like the Future of Twitter Very Much
From ACM Opinion

Don't Like Television? Then You're Not Going to Like the Future of Twitter Very Much

According to a number of anonymous reports, Twitter is in the process of buying Bluefin Labs, an analytics company that specializes in broadcast media—an acquisition...

The Origins of 'big Data': An Etymological Detective Story
From ACM Opinion

The Origins of 'big Data': An Etymological Detective Story

Words and phrases are fundamental building blocks of language and culture, much as genes and cells are to the biology of life.

Geeks Are the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties
From ACM Opinion

Geeks Are the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties

A decade-plus of anthropological fieldwork among hackers and like-minded geeks has led me to the firm conviction that these people are building one of the most...

The Increasingly Blurry Line Between Big Data and Big Brother
From ACM Opinion

The Increasingly Blurry Line Between Big Data and Big Brother

The potential benefits of "big data" have been well described, both by us and others: the ability to spot flu trends earlier and potentially save lives, for example...

Eric Schmidt ­nloads on China in New Book
From ACM Opinion

Eric Schmidt ­nloads on China in New Book

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is brutally clear: China is the most dangerous superpower on Earth.

Inside the Targeted Attack on The New York Times
From ACM Opinion

Inside the Targeted Attack on The New York Times

The Chinese group behind the targeted attack on The New York Times was laser focused on accessing the email of a reporter and the newspaper’s former Beijing bureau...

How to Build the Perfect Gaming Pc For 2013–and Beyond
From ACM Opinion

How to Build the Perfect Gaming Pc For 2013–and Beyond

There's little doubt that PC gaming is undergoing a renaissance at the moment.

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal
From ACM Opinion

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal

In January 2011, I was assigned to cover a hearing in Newark, where Daniel Spitler, then 26, stood accused of breaching AT&T's servers and stealing 114,000 email...

The Two Classes of Cyber Threats
From ACM Opinion

The Two Classes of Cyber Threats

There is one number that matters most in cybersecurity.

Cellphone Chips Will Remake the Server World. Period.
From ACM News

Cellphone Chips Will Remake the Server World. Period.

Facebook recently ran an experiment. Inside a test lab, somewhere behind the scenes at the world's most popular network, engineers sidled up to a computer server...

The Explosive Growth of Postdocs in Computer Science
From Communications of the ACM

The Explosive Growth of Postdocs in Computer Science

Considering the factors influencing the recent rapid increase in the number of postdoctoral positions in computer science.

Cloud Services Certification
From Communications of the ACM

Cloud Services Certification

How to address the lack of transparency, trust, and acceptance in cloud services.

The Value of Microprocessor Designs
From Communications of the ACM

The Value of Microprocessor Designs

Applying a centuries-old technique to modern cost estimation.

Reflections on Stanford's MOOCs
From Communications of the ACM

Reflections on Stanford's MOOCs

New possibilities in online education create new challenges.

Divided By Division
From Communications of the ACM

Divided By Division

Is there a "best used by" date for software?

More Sight on Foresight
From Communications of the ACM

More Sight on Foresight

My previous column, "The Foresight Saga, Redux," began a discussion that is continued here regarding some lessons learned from the 2012 U.S. November elections. In...

The Tangled Web We Have Woven
From Communications of the ACM

The Tangled Web We Have Woven

Seeking to protect the fundamental privacy of network interactions.
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