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Google's Hybrid Approach to Research
From Communications of the ACM

Google's Hybrid Approach to Research

By closely connecting research and development Google is able to conduct experiments on an unprecedented scale, often resulting in new capabilities for the company...

Alan Turing's Other Universal Machine
From Communications of the ACM

Alan Turing's Other Universal Machine

All computer scientists know about the Universal Turing Machine, one of the foundation stones of theoretical computer science. Much less well known is the practical...

Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the Pc Industry
From ACM Opinion

Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the Pc Industry

On June 18, Microsoft beckoned 200 or so members of the media to a grimy, industrial part of Hollywood for what it described as a can’t-miss affair.

The Highly Productive Habits of Alan Turing
From ACM News

The Highly Productive Habits of Alan Turing

June 23 marks the 100th birthday of Alan Turing. If I had to name five people whose personal efforts led to the defeat of Nazi Germany, the English mathematician...

How Flame Virus Has Changed Everything For Online Security Firms
From ACM Opinion

How Flame Virus Has Changed Everything For Online Security Firms

Here's a question: if you connect an unprotected Windows computer to the Internet, how long will it take before it is infected by malicious software?

Alan Turing: Why the Tech World's Hero Should Be a Household Name
From ACM Opinion

Alan Turing: Why the Tech World's Hero Should Be a Household Name

I've worked in computing, and more specifically computer networking, nearly all my life. It's an industry in a constant state of innovation, always pushing beyond...

What Have We Learned: Flame Malware
From ACM Opinion

What Have We Learned: Flame Malware

When the news about the Flame malware first broke several weeks ago, people from all parts of the security community, political world and elsewhere quickly began...

The Vulnerabilities Market and the Future of Security
From ACM Opinion

The Vulnerabilities Market and the Future of Security

Recently, there have been several articles about the new market in zero-day exploits: new and unpatched computer vulnerabilities. It's not just software companies...

How Depressives Surf the Web
From ACM News

How Depressives Surf the Web

In what way do you spend your time online? Do you check your email compulsively? Watch lots of videos? Switch frequently among multiple Internet applications—from...

Desktop Computers Look More and More Like Smartphones
From ACM Opinion

Desktop Computers Look More and More Like Smartphones

If you're an experienced computer user, you probably remember explaining to newbies how a desktop computer worked: Your photos should go in this folder; your documents...

From ACM Opinion

Apple's Strategy of Built-In Obsolescence

Ross Miller made a good point about Apple's new flagship laptop, in his review for the Verge. Once you take into account that it has a solid-state drive, it's actually...

Researcher: Interdependencies Could Lead to Cloud 'meltdowns'
From ACM TechNews

Researcher: Interdependencies Could Lead to Cloud 'meltdowns'

As cloud computing becomes increasingly common, serious operational "meltdowns" could take place as end users and vendors mix, match, and bundle services for various...

World's Largest Organization For Computer Professionals Comes Out Against Cispa
From ACM Opinion

World's Largest Organization For Computer Professionals Comes Out Against Cispa

The U.S. Public Policy Council of the Association of Computing Machinery, representing ACM, came out against CISPA, the cybersecurity legislation recently passed...

Google Fights Back in China
From ACM News

Google Fights Back in China

Two giants on the world stage are battling over the future of information.

Apple's Stash of Credit Card Numbers Is Its Secret Weapon
From ACM News

Apple's Stash of Credit Card Numbers Is Its Secret Weapon

That little iPhone in your pocket is perfectly positioned to become a clone of the credit cards in your wallet or purse.

Is Flame Virus Fallout a Chinese, Russian Plot to Control the Internet?
From ACM Opinion

Is Flame Virus Fallout a Chinese, Russian Plot to Control the Internet?

Has the U.S. government been caught with its virtual hands in the world's cookie jar? And might it lose control of the Internet as a consequence?

From ACM News

Back to Stuxnet: The Missing Link

Two weeks ago, when we announced the discovery of the Flame malware we said that we saw no strong similarity between its code and programming style with that of ...

From ACM Opinion

Drones, Computer Viruses, and Blowback

Another day, another senior al-Qaeda leader killed by a drone strike. (I can't be the first to point out that being al-Qaeda's No. 2 is like being the drummer for...

From ACM Opinion

Cyberweapons: Bold Steps in a Digital Darkness?

In 1945, the United States organized a committee to investigate whether nuclear weapons should become a central military technology, or whether to abjure the weapons...

How Google and Microsoft Taught Search to 'understand' the Web
From ACM Opinion

How Google and Microsoft Taught Search to 'understand' the Web

Despite the massive amounts of computing power dedicated by search engine companies to crawling and indexing trillions of documents on the Internet, search engines...
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