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Eye Am a Camera: Surveillance and Sousveillance in the Glassage
From ACM Opinion

Eye Am a Camera: Surveillance and Sousveillance in the Glassage

Digital eye glasses like Google’s Project Glass, and my earlier Digital Eye Glass, will transform society because they introduce a two-sided surveillance and sousveillance...

Why Nate Silver and Others Predicted the Election Perfectly
From ACM Opinion

Why Nate Silver and Others Predicted the Election Perfectly

Guess what, accurately predicting the outcomes of elections really isn't a partisan affair.

From ACM Opinion

A Sample Security Agenda For Obama's Second Term

When Barack Obama was sworn in four years ago for his first term, there was genuine optimism that he would make meaningful improvements to the security of the nation's...

How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away
From ACM Opinion

How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away

Not long after I began writing about cybersecurity, I became a paranoid caricature of my former self.

Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win
From ACM Opinion

Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win

In late spring, the backroom number crunchers who powered Barack Obama's campaign to victory noticed that George Clooney had an almost gravitational tug on West...

Wrath of the Math: Obama Wins Nerdiest Election Ever
From ACM Opinion

Wrath of the Math: Obama Wins Nerdiest Election Ever

Congratulations, Barack Obama: You have prevailed in the nerdiest election in the history of the American Republic.

Future Mars Missions: Can Humans Actually Trump Robots?
From ACM Opinion

Future Mars Missions: Can Humans Actually Trump Robots?

For decades scientists have backed the idea of sending robots to collect Martian rocks and return them to Earth, a project that should be possible well before humans...

Probability Versus Prediction in Volcanic Hazards (and Elections)
From ACM Opinion

Probability Versus Prediction in Volcanic Hazards (and Elections)

Unless you've been living on the far side of the moon for the past two years, you'll know that the U.S. presidential election is next week. Now, I'm by no means...

Can You Do a Day's Work on a Cell Phone?
From ACM Opinion

Can You Do a Day's Work on a Cell Phone?

"It’s really a little computer." You remember the first time you said it, a few years ago, when you grasped just how much a smartphone can do.

Is Failure to Predict a Crime?
From ACM Opinion

Is Failure to Predict a Crime?

I learned with disbelief last Monday about the decision of an Italian judge to convict seven scientific experts of manslaughter and to sentence them to six years...

The Flop That Saved Microsoft
From ACM Opinion

The Flop That Saved Microsoft

It wasn't very easy to get my hands on a Zune. After Microsoft's long-pitied music player wonSlate's Reader Takeover poll—in which I'd promised to reassess an overlooked...

The Consequences of Machine Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

The Consequences of Machine Intelligence

The question of what happens when machines get to be as intelligent as and even more intelligent than people seems to occupy many science-fiction writers.

Rapture of the Nerds: Will the Singularity Turn ­S Into Gods or End the Human Race?
From ACM Opinion

Rapture of the Nerds: Will the Singularity Turn ­S Into Gods or End the Human Race?

Hundreds of the world’s brightest minds—engineers from Google and IBM, hedge funds quants, and Defense Department contractors building artificial intelligence—were...

Few Winners in Heated Cellphone Wars
From ACM Opinion

Few Winners in Heated Cellphone Wars

If you are wondering who will be your cellphone provider next year, so are the cellphone companies.

Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2013
From ACM Careers

Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2013

On Monday, the research firm laid out "10 critical tech trends for the next five years." Tuesday, it took a look at a little closer in, providing a list of the...

The Michigan Fight Song and Four Other Reasons to Avoid Internet Voting
From ACM Opinion

The Michigan Fight Song and Four Other Reasons to Avoid Internet Voting

In a Monday article, we described the security and reliability problems that have undermined public confidence in electronic voting machines within the United States...

Cybercrime: Mobile Changes Everything—and No One's Safe
From ACM Opinion

Cybercrime: Mobile Changes Everything—and No One's Safe

The FBI recently put out a mobile malware alert, providing us with a sobering reminder of this "evil software" for phones and tablets.

Learning to Teach Computer Science
From Communications of the ACM

Learning to Teach Computer Science: The Need For a Methods Course

A multipronged approach to preparing computer science teachers is critical to success.

Decentralization Versus Centralization in IT Governance
From Communications of the ACM

Decentralization Versus Centralization in IT Governance

It's not as simple as you might think.

Oracle v. Google
From Communications of the ACM

Oracle v. Google: Are APIs Copyrightable?

Assessing the first phase of the trial based on claims that Google's Android platform infringes Oracle's Java-related copyrights and patents.
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