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The Shocking Strangeness of Our 25-Year-Old Digital Privacy Law
From ACM Opinion

The Shocking Strangeness of Our 25-Year-Old Digital Privacy Law

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was signed into law on October 21, 1986. Although it was forward-looking at the time, ECPA's privacy protections...

From ACM Opinion

Running Out of Bandwidth

At a time of slow economic growth and declining competitiveness, wireless technology remains a shining example of innovation. In the last 10 years, wireless communications...

Information Seeking: Convergence of Search, Recommendations, and Advertising
From Communications of the ACM

Information Seeking: Convergence of Search, Recommendations, and Advertising

How to address user information needs amidst a preponderance of data.

Gender Demographics Trends and Changes in U.S. CS Departments
From Communications of the ACM

Gender Demographics Trends and Changes in U.S. CS Departments

Using the past 10 years of Taulbee Survey data to evaluate female student enrollment across varied academic institutions and departments.

Teaching-Oriented Faculty at Research Universities
From Communications of the ACM

Teaching-Oriented Faculty at Research Universities

Nine teacher-oriented faculty in computer science departments at research universities in the U.S. or Canada describe how their positions work, how they contribute...

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.

Why the Google Book Settlement Failed - and What Comes Next?
From Communications of the ACM

Why the Google Book Settlement Failed - and What Comes Next?

Assessing the implications of the Google Book Search settlement.

What Gets Measured Gets Done
From Communications of the ACM

What Gets Measured Gets Done

"U.S. broadband is terrible" has become a familiar meme. Given the growing importance of broadband Internet connections, a poor broadband infrastructure would...

Security Risks in Next-Generation Emergency Services
From Communications of the ACM

Security Risks in Next-Generation Emergency Services

Sounding the alert on emergency calling system deficiencies.

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...

Technology and the Innovation Economy
From ACM Opinion

Technology and the Innovation Economy

By adopting policies such as a permanent R&D tax credit, more effective university knowledge commercialization, improving STEM worker training, and regional economic...

From ACM Opinion

The Scary Prospect of Global Drone Warfare

 Drone technology is spreading rapidly. As many as 50 countries are developing or purchasing these systems, including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. Even...

When Technology Disrupts Enforcement of Judicial Decisions
From ACM Opinion

When Technology Disrupts Enforcement of Judicial Decisions

The relationship between law and technology has been described accurately as a cat and mouse game. Technology readily fills the role of mouse, always outpacing...

The Cyber Arms Race Has Begun
From ACM Opinion

The Cyber Arms Race Has Begun

The Stuxnet virus was the starting gun for an arms race in cyberspace. Not only do all major powers feel compelled to develop threatening malware; many smaller...

From ACM Opinion

The Importance of Word Choice: Terms with Multiple Meanings For Scientists and the Public

If you haven't seen the excellent post on Mountain Beltway—Words matter—you should head over there and take a look. The post brought up some interesting ideas about...

Steve Jobs and the ­ser Psyche
From ACM Opinion

Steve Jobs and the ­ser Psyche

In a 1989 interview, Steve Jobs of NeXT Computer impressed Communications Editor Peter J. Denning as viewing the future as infinitely malleable, as something he...

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...

Do Volunteer Programmers Produce Better Code?
From ACM Opinion

Do Volunteer Programmers Produce Better Code?

Volunteer programmers do better if they are in it for the long haul, says blogger Robert Pogson. "It's human nature to do better work when you are doing something...

Ada Lovelace and Brazil's Female It Pros
From ACM Opinion

Ada Lovelace and Brazil's Female It Pros

Computer science higher education classes today are heavily skewed towards men. Researcher Jamie Swim's Master's thesis at the University of Texas was focused...

­.s. v. Jones: Where Privacy, Technology and the Constitution Collide
From ACM Opinion

­.s. v. Jones: Where Privacy, Technology and the Constitution Collide

What is at stake in United States v. Jones is nothing less than the continued vitality of the Fourth Amendment in the modern technological age.
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