acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


bg-corner

From ACM Opinion

How to Silence the Obnoxious and Deafening Vuvuzela

Do you hear that? The hideous, piercing dirge of a B-flat drone that is the unfortunate backdrop to every single World Cup match? It’s the vuvuzela, a stupid plastic...

Glob-Ish
From ACM Opinion

Glob-Ish

Powered by the Internet and the global media, English has evolved into the world’s language.

From ACM Opinion

Buzz on Lie Detectors Is All a Lie, Nsa Video Says

The National Security Agency wants job applicants to know that its polygraph test is nothing to sweat. The eavesdropping and code-breaking organization has produced...

Software Studies, Rethinking Computing For Development in Africa
From ACM Opinion

Software Studies, Rethinking Computing For Development in Africa

The field of computer science builds on Western industry, military and government interests. Modern day computing has almost wholly emerged out of a western context...

In Defense of Computers and the Internet For Learning
From ACM Opinion

In Defense of Computers and the Internet For Learning

If you’re reading this blog post on a computer, mobile phone or e-reader, please stop what you’re doing immediately. You could be making yourself stupid. And whatever...

Does the Internet Make You Dumber?
From ACM Opinion

Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

The cognitive effects are measurable: We're turning into shallow thinkers, says Nicholas Carr.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?
From ACM Opinion

Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?

Amid the silly videos and spam are the roots of a new reading and writing culture, says Clay Shirky.

From ACM TechNews

The Cybersecurity Changes We Need

The Obama administration's progress toward the goal of making the U.S. digital infrastructure "secure, trustworthy, and resilient" has been sluggish due to the...

Against Instant Replay
From ACM Opinion

Against Instant Replay

Extraordinary cases make bad law. In a sense, Armando Galarraga’s non-perfect perfect game, spoiled by an umpire’s call on what should have been the 27th out, offers...

My (brief) Life as a Robot
From ACM Opinion

My (brief) Life as a Robot

On Wednesday I attended a Silicon Valley press conference dressed as a robot. Actually I was physically in New York City and virtually in Menlo Park, Calif. For...

From ACM Opinion

Venter: The Implications of Our Synthetic Cell

We did not create life from scratch: we transformed existing life into new life. Nor did we design and build a new chromosome from scratch. Rather, using only digitised...

Institutional Review Boards and Your Research
From Communications of the ACM

Institutional Review Boards and Your Research

Researchers in computer science departments throughout the U.S. are violating federal law and their own organization's...

Intel's Rebates: Above Board or Below the Belt?
From Communications of the ACM

Intel's Rebates: Above Board or Below the Belt?

Over several years, Intel paid billions of dollars to its customers. Was it to force them to boycott products developed by its rival AMD or so they could sell its...

Plotting Away
From Communications of the ACM

Plotting Away

Dear KV, I've been working with some code that generates massive data sets, and . . . I'm finding that more and more often I...

The Resurgence of Parallelism
From Communications of the ACM

The Resurgence of Parallelism

Parallel computation is making a comeback after a quarter century of neglect. Past research can be put to quick use today.

Privacy By Design: Moving From Art to Practice
From Communications of the ACM

Privacy By Design: Moving From Art to Practice

Designing privacy into systems at the beginning of the development process necessitates the effective translation of privacy principles, models, and mechanisms...

Myths and Fallacies of 'Personally Identifiable Information'
From Communications of the ACM

Myths and Fallacies of 'Personally Identifiable Information'

Developing effective privacy protection technologies is a critical challenge for security and privacy research as the amount and variety of data collected about...

From Facebook, Answering Privacy Concerns with New Settings
From ACM Opinion

From Facebook, Answering Privacy Concerns with New Settings

Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people...

From ACM Opinion

The Death of the Open Web

The Web is a teeming commercial city. It's haphazardly planned. Its public spaces are mobbed, and signs of urban decay abound in broken links and abandoned projects...

How the ­.s. Military Can Win the Robotic Revolution
From ACM Opinion

How the ­.s. Military Can Win the Robotic Revolution

One of the great conundrums of war and technology is the odd fact that there is no such thing as a permanent first-mover advantage.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account