Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Is D-Wave's Quantum Processor Really 10⁸ Times Faster Than a Normal Computer?
We have been following D-Wave's claims about its quantum hardware at Ars for a number of years. Over that time, my impression has oscillated between skepticism,...
From ACM Opinion
From Exile to Eminence: How the Alien Hunters Conquered Astronomy
When Jill Tarter first began to look for aliens, she drew looks askance from her friends and colleagues.
From ACM Opinion
Why Safe Harbor 2.0 Will Lose Again
Over the weekend, negotiators from the European Union's executive body, and the US Federal Trade Commission worked frantically to thrash out a deal to allow transatlantic...
From ACM Opinion
Power Wars: How Obama Justified, Expanded Bush-Era Surveillance
Over the winter holidays, I took some well-needed time offline, away from e-mail and social media.
From ACM Opinion
In 2016, Terror Suspects and 7-Eleven Thieves May Bring Surveillance to Supreme Court
It has now been 2.5 years since the first Snowden revelations were published. And in 2015, government surveillance marched on in both large (the National Security...
From ACM Opinion
In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls
Today, the first Snowden disclosures in 2013 feel like a distant memory.
From ACM Opinion
What the Government Should've Learned About Backdoors from the Clipper Chip
In the face of a Federal Bureau of Investigation proposal requesting backdoors into encrypted communications, a noted encryption expert urged Congress not to adopt...
From ACM Opinion
We Flew a Simulated 747 at Nasa and Didn't Crash or Barf
From a viewing spot in a high bay room at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, I peer through a glass window at a cab that simulates the cockpit of a commercial...
From ACM Opinion
Movies That Predicted the Future—and Some That Didn't
Making fun of how movies screw up the future is one of the main reasons why the Internet was invented.
From ACM News
Here Are Eff's Most Influential Cases from Its First 25 Years
On Friday, July 10, the Electronic Frontier Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary.
From ACM Opinion
Saving Fuel with Software
Energy efficiency isn't just a good idea from an environmental perspective; it makes business sense as well.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Entire Premise of Tor-Enabled Routers Is Ridiculous
Ars recently reviewed two "Tor routers," devices that are supposed to improve your privacy by routing all traffic through the Tor anonymity network. Although the...
From ACM Opinion
As Moore's Law Turns 50, What Does the Future Hold For the Transistor?
"The future of integrated electronics is the future of electronics itself."
From ACM Opinion
The New Spam: Interactive Robo-Calls from the Cloud as Cheap as E-Mail
It was the middle of the day, and my cell phone rang with a local number I didn't recognize.
From ACM Opinion
Surveillance-Based Manipulation: How Facebook or Google Could Tilt Elections
Someone who knows things about us has some measure of control over us, and someone who knows everything about us has a lot of control over us.
From ACM Opinion
Secrets Become History: Edward Snowden in Citizenfour Wins Documentary Oscar
Citizenfour is filmmaker Laura Poitras' account of the first meetings between herself, Glenn Greenwald, and Edward Snowden.
From ACM Opinion
Tetris Creators Talk Virtual Reality, Touch Screens, History, E-Sports
As the second and final day of the 2015 DICE Summit came to a close, Alexey Pajitnov took the stage in a rare public appearance to talk frankly about the history...
From ACM Opinion
Blackhat Brings Some Hacking Realism to Hollywood, but to What Effect?
During one scene in the upcoming hacker action movie Blackhat, a team is sent into the control room of a burned-out nuclear power plant to gather clues about the...
From ACM News