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How the Supreme Court Ruling Affects Aereo, the Cloud, and You
From ACM Opinion

How the Supreme Court Ruling Affects Aereo, the Cloud, and You

The chief of streaming-TV start-up Aereo has said his mission to bring unbundled broadcast TV to the Internet has greater stakes than just the fate of his company—and...

The Case That Might Cripple Facebook
From ACM Opinion

The Case That Might Cripple Facebook

An Irish judge has rendered a preliminary judgment that may have sweeping consequences for U.S. e-commerce firms.

These Psychedelic Images Find Order Amid Chaos
From ACM News

These Psychedelic Images Find Order Amid Chaos

What do you see when you look at these images?

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues
From ACM Opinion

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues

How hard can it be to determine whether a computer works as promised?

What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality
From ACM Opinion

What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality

Even Sunday night HBO watchers are worried the Federal Communications Commission will soon put an end to net neutrality.

Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'
From ACM Opinion

Why I'm Not in a Hurry For a 'smart Home'

Here's what it's like to wake up in America's smartest home.

Coder's High
From ACM Opinion

Coder's High

These days I write more than I code, but one of the things I miss about programming is the coder's high: those times when, for hours on end, I would lock my vision...

When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?
From ACM Opinion

When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?

Not long ago, I went to a nice restaurant with five friends. Good food. Better cocktails.

Is China a Scientific Powerhouse?
From ACM Opinion

Is China a Scientific Powerhouse?

China has vastly expanded higher education over the past three decades—in 1982, less than 1 percent of China’s twenty-somethings had attended college; by 2010,...

Google's Eyes in the Sky
From ACM Opinion

Google's Eyes in the Sky

When Sergey Brin and Larry Page built the search engine that would become Google, they started by making maps.

Turn Detroit Into Drone Valley
From ACM Opinion

Turn Detroit Into Drone Valley

The popular recipe for creating the "next" Silicon Valley goes something like this:

China's Anti-Windows 8 Tirade
From ACM Opinion

China's Anti-Windows 8 Tirade

China's ambivalence about American technology has long been clear, but recently the nation kicked off a fresh, trash-talking effort targeting Windows 8, suggesting...

The Turing Test Is Not What You Think It Is
From ACM Opinion

The Turing Test Is Not What You Think It Is

Whether or not you caught wind of the excited announcement that "Eugene Goostman," a computer program ("chatbot") devised by Vladimir Veselov, Eugene Demchenko,...

Why Electric Car Maker Tesla Has Torn ­p Its Patents
From ACM Opinion

Why Electric Car Maker Tesla Has Torn ­p Its Patents

Why is Tesla opening up its patents to competitors? Because rival electric car makers are not the enemy — petrol stations are.

The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (again)
From ACM Opinion

The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (again)

I've been preoccupied lately with thoughts of marauding broomsticks, genies in bottles, and monkey's paws.

The Nightmare on Connected Home Street
From ACM Opinion

The Nightmare on Connected Home Street

I wake up at four to some old-timey dubstep spewing from my pillows.

Why Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier
From ACM Opinion

Why Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier

The marketers that follow you around the web are getting nosier.

Vermeer's Paintings Might Be 350-Year-Old Color Photographs
From ACM Opinion

Vermeer's Paintings Might Be 350-Year-Old Color Photographs

I was sitting in the bathtub in 2008 when I thought of a simple way Johannes Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) might have painted his photorealistic pictures...

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet
From ACM Opinion

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet

A few months ago I went to Cambridge, Mass. to check in with the Event Horizon Telescope crew and found Shep Doeleman, the project leader, fresh off the completion...

How to ­se Tech Like a Teenager
From ACM Opinion

How to ­se Tech Like a Teenager

Enough with complaining that young people these days are addicted to their phones. The question you should be asking is: What do they know that you don't?
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