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Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It
From ACM Opinion

Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It

I once worked with Steven Spielberg on the development of Minority Report, derived from the short story by Philip K. Dick featuring a future society that uses surveillance...

At Sxsw, the Next Big Thing May Be No Thing at All
From ACM Opinion

At Sxsw, the Next Big Thing May Be No Thing at All

Every year, just before South by Southwest Interactive starts, the froth starts churning. Everybody begins wondering what this year’s breakout hit app will be.

One-Hit Wonders
From ACM Opinion

One-Hit Wonders

For more than a year now, tens of millions of Americans have found time each day to devote themselves to an essential task: swiping at their phones and tablets...

Why Copyrighted Coffee May Cripple the Internet of Things
From ACM Opinion

Why Copyrighted Coffee May Cripple the Internet of Things

With its single-serving coffee pods, Green Mountain Coffee has transformed the business of brew.

What Do Data Brokers Know About Me?
From ACM Opinion

What Do Data Brokers Know About Me?

I once ran into a friend and her husband at the playground in our neighborhood in Manhattan.

How Movies and Tv Give Life to the Mundane Text Message
From ACM Opinion

How Movies and Tv Give Life to the Mundane Text Message

In the last decade, movies and television have sprouted a new plot weakness: if tension hinged in any way on a situation that could have been solved by a simple...

The Weirdest Thing About the Apple Security Bug Is How Simple It Was
From ACM Opinion

The Weirdest Thing About the Apple Security Bug Is How Simple It Was

So for the past 18 months, there has been a horrific security hole in many of Apple's products that has allowed "man in the middle" attacks on supposedly secure...

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card
From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card

Predictions about technology's future are almost always doomed.

How I Quit Google
From ACM Opinion

How I Quit Google

I think it was the search for "pink glitter tiny toms" that finally prompted me to quit Google.

The Problem with Easy Technology
From ACM Opinion

The Problem with Easy Technology

In the history of marketing, there's a classic tale that centers on the humble cake mix.

Comcast's Deal with Netflix Makes Network Neutrality Obsolete
From ACM Opinion

Comcast's Deal with Netflix Makes Network Neutrality Obsolete

For the past two decades, the Internet has operated as an unregulated, competitive free market.

Life Before (and After) Page Numbers
From ACM Opinion

Life Before (and After) Page Numbers

Print media evolved into its present forms.

The Interstellar Contract
From ACM Opinion

The Interstellar Contract

Last September, the Times reported that Voyager 1, the hardy spacecraft launched in 1977, had exited the solar system and entered the interstellar void.

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions
From ACM Opinion

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions

It seems as if every week there's a news story about someone committing a crime and confessing to it on Facebook, bragging about it on Twitter or sharing photos...

An Easy Way to Improve the Olympics: Make Performance Enhancements Legal
From ACM Opinion

An Easy Way to Improve the Olympics: Make Performance Enhancements Legal

In February 2013, Lindsey Vonn—perhaps the most accomplished female skier in American history—tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a crash in the mountains of...

The Political Science of Cybersecurity III—How International Relations Theory Shapes U.S. Cybersecurity Doctrine
From ACM Opinion

The Political Science of Cybersecurity III—How International Relations Theory Shapes U.S. Cybersecurity Doctrine

U.S. cybersecurity officials have been much more skeptical about international cooperation than their Cold War counterparts were.

This Ingenious Touchscreen ­i Should Be in Every Car
From ACM Opinion

This Ingenious Touchscreen ­i Should Be in Every Car

There may be no greater design crime today than putting a touchscreen in an automobile.

Why Watson Is Real Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

Why Watson Is Real Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is here now.

Forget Its Hotels, Sochi's Tech Has Been ­p For the Olympic Challenge
From ACM Opinion

Forget Its Hotels, Sochi's Tech Has Been ­p For the Olympic Challenge

The scale and grandeur of the Winter Olympics in Sochi is estimated to have cost Russia an astronomical $46 billion.

Some Predict Computers Will Produce a Jobless Future. Here's Why They're Wrong.
From ACM Opinion

Some Predict Computers Will Produce a Jobless Future. Here's Why They're Wrong.

Will "smart machines" steal our jobs?
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