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Voice Recognition: Has It Come of Age?
From ACM Opinion

Voice Recognition: Has It Come of Age?

The man sits down in front of the computer and says, affably: "Computer!"

The Grounding Practice
From Communications of the ACM

The Grounding Practice

The skill of making and recognizing grounded claims is essential for professional practice. Getting objective data to support your conclusions is not enough.

Debugging on Live Systems
From Communications of the ACM

Debugging on Live Systems

It is more of a social than a technical problem.

From ACM Opinion

Blogging the Stanford Machine Learning Class

After three weeks of frustrating math dealing with dull statistics problems, we’re on to frustrating math dealing with "neural networks"—models of how the cells...

These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say
From ACM Opinion

These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say

We revealed our ultimate reading list in "9 Essential Geek Books You Must Read Right Now" last month. Now Wired.com readers have spoken, voting for their favorites...

Why Your Next Phone Might Be Bendable
From ACM Opinion

Why Your Next Phone Might Be Bendable

As we enter the final months of 2011, the thoughts of tech watchers like me are turning to what we can expect in 2012. Voice recognition in all our devices? Touch...

From ACM Opinion

The Genius of Jobs

One of the questions I wrestled with when writing about Steve Jobs was how smart he was. On the surface, this should not have been much of an issue.

Will Software Engineering Ever Be Engineering?
From Communications of the ACM

Will Software Engineering Ever Be Engineering?

Considering whether software engineering and engineering can share a profession.

From ACM Opinion

Don't ­nderestimate the Singularity

Although Paul Allen paraphrases my 2005 book, The Singularity Is Near, in the title of his essay (cowritten with his colleague Mark Greaves), it appears that he...

From ACM Opinion

Dennis Ritchie: The Other Man Inside Your Iphone

The groundbreaking work he did with Ken Thompson led to the operating system behind everything from set-top boxes to the iPhone, but who sings the praises of...

From ACM Opinion

Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On

The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.

From ACM Opinion

The Singularity Isn't Near

 Futurists like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil have argued that the world is rapidly approaching a tipping point, where the accelerating pace of smarter and smarter...

From ACM Opinion

Innovation Starvation

My lifespan encompasses the era when the United States of America was capable of launching human beings into space.

Testing: Failing to Succeed
From Communications of the ACM

Testing: Failing to Succeed

There are two situations in software testing that scare testers: when they see "too many" defects and when they do not see "enough."

File-System Litter
From Communications of the ACM

File-System Litter

Cleaning up your storage space quickly and efficiently.

What Became of Multi-Core Programming Problems?
From ACM Opinion

What Became of Multi-Core Programming Problems?

As the Intel Developer Forum gets under way this week, one hardly unexpected theme of CEO Paul Otellini's keynote address was that Moore's Law continues. Ivy...

From ACM News

The 10 Commandments of Steve

More than anything else, Jobs's genius is in managing the creative process. Here's his playbook.

Let's Get Back to Real Space Exploration
From ACM Opinion

Let's Get Back to Real Space Exploration

Time to ditch the black armbands and look beyond low Earth orbit again. The shuttle's passing marks the start of an exciting new era.

From ACM Opinion

Let Our Bots Do Our Tweeting For ­S

My tweets generally reflect a set of parochial interests I continually revisit: the shuffle function in iTunes, the Phillies’ crummy batting lineup, reviews of...

Arrogance in Business Planning
From Communications of the ACM

Arrogance in Business Planning

Technology business plans that assume no competition — ever.
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