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
Why Private Companies Won't Make p For Cuts in Government Science Funding
The budget cuts that took effect last week could wipe out as much as $54 billion in federal funding of science, research, and innovation over the next five years...
From ACM Opinion
Computer Interfaces: Tech's Next Great Frontier
Consider the tongue. It's sensitive yet muscular, packed with taste buds and nerves, and without its acrobatic ability humans wouldn’t be able to eat or talk. It's...
From ACM Opinion
The 3 Most-Important Things at Mobile World Congress
Gadget fans walked away this week from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the annual geek fest for connected devices, grumbling about a glaring lack of breakthrough...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Does Not Fear Dropbox or an Office-Less Ipad
When Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer does his bounding these days, it's often in front of an 82-inch interactive display mounted on the wall of...
From ACM Careers
Atari's Bankruptcy: Gen X Bids Pong Farewell
Reading the news that Atari’s U.S. subsidiary is filing for bankruptcy was a little like hearing that Bob Hope died—in that you were surprised to discover he had...
From ACM Opinion
Hp Ceo Whitman Dubs Windows 8 a Work in Progress
There are plenty of Meg Whitman doubters out there. Some say the former EBay chief executive officer doesn't have the requisite big company experience to run a...
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Remember Aaron Swartz
The Internet is not so old. Its graybeards live still. Vint Cerf, author of the Internet Protocol, has been installed as Google's "chief Internet evangelist," a...
From ACM Opinion
Howie Choset, Robot-Snake Charmer
Howie Choset, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, has spent years creating mechanical snakes with names such as Uncle Sam, Betsy Ross, Pepperoni...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook's Freshman Year: The Apple Ceo Speaks
Prior to his death on Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs made sure that the elevation of Tim Cook—his longtime head of operations and trusted deputy—to Apple chief executive...
From ACM News
A Short To-Do List For Intel's Next Ceo
With Paul Otellini heading in May to the nearest 18-hole course, speculation is rampant about who will replace him.
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.
From ACM Opinion
Facebook's 'Next Billion': A Q&A With Mark Zuckerberg
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard University dorm room, hoping to see what his classmates were up to on campus. The following eight years...
From ACM Opinion
The Iphone 5's A6 Chip Could Be Apple's Sweetest Revenge Against Samsung
Four years ago, Apple set out on a dangerous path. It spent about $300 million on a struggling chip designer called PA Semi. The purchase signaled that Apple intended...
From ACM Opinion
Death to Powerpoint!
No matter what your line of work, it's only getting harder to avoid death by PowerPoint.
From ACM Opinion
The First Five Years of the Iphone Obsession
The big question: Is the iPhone a "bicycle for the mind," as the late Steve Jobs said about the first Mac, or a crutch that does too much of our thinking for us...
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.
From ACM Opinion
Zoran Popovi?: Recruiting Gamers to Fight Disease
Proteins are the workhorses of our cells: They turn food into energy and determine our health. Each one is a chain of molecules—sometimes thousands of links long—that...
From ACM Opinion
Can Facebook 'monetize Eyeballs?'
In the days of the Internet bubble of the mid to late 1990s, companies received millions of dollars of venture capital to offer products that weren't especially...
From ACM Careers
Bre Pettis: 3d Printing's First Celebrity
Bre Pettis looks like a throwback. He’s got an Elvis Presley-meets-Buddy Holly thing going on with his chunky sideburns, thick-rimmed black glasses, and sculpted...
From ACM Careers