Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Talking To Your Mac: The Coolest Feature of Mountain Lion, and the Future of Computers
Mountain Lion, the next big software cat for your Mac, has a gazillion new features. Too many to name, and frankly, to care about. But there's one you should pay...
From ACM Opinion
The Sun Shines on 'the Cloud'
What's the real lesson to be learned from Amazon's cloud computing failure two weeks ago, the one that knocked Netflix and other Websites offline?
From ACM Opinion
Why the Days Are Numbered For Hadoop As We Know It
Hadoop is everywhere. For better or worse, it has become synonymous with big data. In just a few years it has gone from a fringe technology to the de facto standard...
From ACM Opinion
How to Fly the .s.'s Trillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter Jet
The first rule of flying the world's most advanced fighter jet: Do not push the red button until you absolutely mean to.
From ACM Opinion
Future Planetary Rovers May Make Their Own Decisions
It's a hot summer day, and your eyes spot an ice cream cart up ahead. Without even really thinking, you start walking that direction. Planetary scientists would...
From ACM Opinion
We Already se Wi-Fi More Than Cellular; Why Not Continue the Trend?
We think of our mobile phones as connecting to mobile networks, but that’s really not the case. When it comes to mobile data, our smartphones are far more reliant...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google Glass Is the Next Frontier For Developers
When Google co-founder Sergey Brin demoed Google Glass, the search giant's attempt to build a next-generation wearable computer, with skydivers live streaming their...
From ACM Opinion
What the Well's Rise and Fall Tell S About Online Community
In the late 1980s, decades before the term "social media" existed, in a now legendary and miraculously still living virtual community called "The WELL," a fellow...
From ACM Careers
Automate or Perish
In Automate This, a book due out next month, author and entrepreneur Christopher Steiner tells the story of stockbroker Thomas Peterffy, the creator of the first...
From ACM Opinion
Google Glass Team: 'wearable Computing Will Be the Norm'
Even though I followed Google's I/O Conference from across the country, the event made it obvious that a company created with a strict focus on search has become...
From ACM Opinion
Would Apple Iglass Be Better Than Google's Glasses?
Apple just got awarded a new patent that may become the wearable version of the iPad one day: eyeglasses that would display apps, video, images, and overlay information...
From ACM Opinion
Battle Plan: Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Google
In the past few weeks, the tech industry's biggest players have shown off their newest software and hardware, all aiming to make big moves before the end of the...
From ACM Opinion
gly Buttons
I can't figure out how to watch my brother's TV. He's explained it to me a hundred times, but that's the curse of the baby-sitting uncle: It's harder to work a...
From ACM Opinion
'lightweight' Drm Isn't the Answer
The world doesn't need another DRM platform, regardless of whether it's called "lightweight." DRM is annoying for customers and provides a false sense of security...
From ACM Opinion
Think Smartphones Are biquitous Now? Just Wait a Few Years
Five years after the first iPhone went on sale, the sales of smartphones—loosely defined as phones that can run third-party "apps," and access the Internet directly—now...
From ACM Opinion
How To Make a Viral Hit in Four Easy Steps
Last Wednesday, BuzzFeed's Jack Shepherd published an irresistible piece called, "21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity." The post is exactly as...
From ACM Opinion
A Weapon We Can't Control
The decision by the United States and Israel to develop and then deploy the Stuxnet computer worm against an Iranian nuclear facility late in George W. Bush's presidency...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft Is the Most Exciting Company in Tech, Hands Down
I never thought I'd ever hear myself utter such words post-1995. But after the reveal of the Surface tablet—complete with an ultra-thin, pressure-sensitive keyboard...
From ACM Opinion
The First Five Years of the Iphone Obsession
The big question: Is the iPhone a "bicycle for the mind," as the late Steve Jobs said about the first Mac, or a crutch that does too much of our thinking for us...
From ACM Opinion