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From ACM Opinion

You Need To Learn How To Program

If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically,...

Could You Make It Past Google's Gatekeepers?
From ACM Careers

Could You Make It Past Google's Gatekeepers?

How many taxis are there in New York City? You either know how to answer that question or you don't.

From ACM Opinion

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right

From the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that interact with...

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future
From ACM Opinion

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future

Over the past 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries.

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'
From ACM Opinion

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'

Here's my take on what I've begun calling the "knowosphere"—a word intentionally echoing the more allegorical "noosphere," the "planet of the mind" of Vladimir....

Flying Robots Build a Tower
From ACM Opinion

Flying Robots Build a Tower

Construction workers please note: Somebody just built a 20-foot tower using flying robots. The demo took place in a warehouse-like art gallery called FRAC, just...

Kinect Weighs Astronauts Just By Looking at Them
From ACM TechNews

Kinect Weighs Astronauts Just By Looking at Them

A body-tracking camera system built into Microsoft's Kinect gaming sensor could be used to monitor the weight of astronauts in space, says Eurecom computer scientist...

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech
From ACM TechNews

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech

The next big advances in technology include the replacement of desktop computers with smartphones, the emergence of nanotech batteries, and the rise of augmented...

From ACM Opinion

AI Will Change Our Relationship With Tech

In 1984, Canadian movie director James Cameron imagined a world in which computers achieved self-awareness and set about systematically destroying humankind. ...

From ACM Opinion

10 Tech Wishes For 2012

2011 was top-notch gadget-wise, but there's always room for improvement. Here, some hopes and wants for the new year.

From ACM Opinion

Why Books Are Better Than E-Books For Children

Do you read to your children from your iPad or other device, or encourage them to use an e-reader to read to you?

From ACM Opinion

2011 Was a Terrible Year For Tech

If you read tech criticism often, there’s a good chance that you’ve come upon a staple of the form that I like to call the "mommy dearest" review.

Smoke Screening
From ACM Opinion

Smoke Screening

Not until I walked with Bruce Schneier toward the mass of people unloading their laptops did it occur to me that it might not be possible for us to hang around...

Why Windows 8 Tablets Will Surprise Everyone
From ACM Opinion

Why Windows 8 Tablets Will Surprise Everyone

Windows-based tablets haven't been treated kindly by the test of time. Those released in the Windows XP era relied on wonky, stylus-based data entry, and even...

Interfaces For the Ordinary User
From Communications of the ACM

Interfaces For the Ordinary User: Can We Hide Too Much?

Increasing the visibility and access to underlying file structure on consumer devices can vastly improve the user experience.

The IBM PC
From Communications of the ACM

The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard

Looking back at three decades of PC platform evolution.

The Difference Engine
From Communications of the ACM

The Difference Engine

Observations on cognitive diversity and team performance.

The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology
From Communications of the ACM

The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology

Examining the recurring conflicts between copyright and technology from piano rolls to domain-name filtering.

From ACM Opinion

The Year in Computing

2011 saw the personal computer continue to be marginalized. Although PCs are still the workhorse computing device in homes and offices, the most exciting innovations...

From ACM Opinion

A Few Simple Checks Would Transform Science Reporting

The U.K.'s Leveson inquiry is not just about illegally obtained tittle-tattle, it's a chance to curb sensationalist misreporting of science.
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