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 We'll Never Make an npickable Lock
It would be roughly accurate to say that there have been locks as long as there have been things humans wanted to guard.
From ACM Opinion
Can Your Boss Read Your Email?
Harvard faculty members responded with shock after the Boston Globe revealed that theuniversity’s administration had searched 16 faculty deans’ email accounts to...
From ACM Opinion
Eye-Tracking Smartphones Have Arrived. What About the Privacy Implications?
Last March, I wrote in Slate about eye-tracking, which could allow computers and smartphones of the future to collect information not only about what we read, but...
From ACM Opinion
On Today's Battlefield, Is Information More Important Than Firepower?
Halo, Borderlands, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Metal Gear Solid—these kinds of games taught a generation to see enemies as red dots on a mini-map...
From ACM Opinion
Is It Time To Take Cyborg Rights Seriously? A Q&a With Neil Harbisson.
Harbisson was born without the ability to see color, but a device he calls his "eyeborg" allows him to now "hear" color.
From ACM Opinion
The Art of Cyberwar
The New York Times’ front-page report last week that the Chinese army is hacking into America's most sensitive computer networks from a 12-story building outside...
From ACM Careers
The Threat of Silence
For the past few months, some of the world's leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention.
From ACM Opinion
Phreaks and Geeks
One of the most heartfelt—and unexpected—remembrances of Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last month at the age of 26, came from Yale professor Edward Tufte.
From ACM Opinion
The Two Classes of Cyber Threats
There is one number that matters most in cybersecurity.
From ACM Opinion
Crapware Won't Crap Out
For a few years now, I've been expecting to write an obituary for crapware. Or not an obit, exactly—I was hoping to dance on its grave.
From ACM Opinion
How To Charge Your Laptop
Whether they're in our computers, cell phones, or cars, the only time we think about batteries is when they're almost dead and we need to find some place to charge...
From ACM Opinion
This Real-Life Pixar Lamp Cutely Refuses to Let You Turn It Off
Design-class projects have come a long way. That's the only conclusion I can draw from this brilliant video of a robotic desk lamp that squeaks, swivels, and mugs...
From ACM Opinion
Was a Texas Student Really Expelled for Refusing To Wear an RFID Chip?
The Texas school district that began requiring its students to wear RFID tracking chips this year is now facing a fight in federal court.
From ACM Opinion
This Is Your Brain on Neural Implants
You are in the future with technologies more advanced than today's.
From ACM Opinion
Instead of 'dead Dropping,' Petraeus and Broadwell Should Have sed These Email Security Tricks
Having an extramarital affair in 2012 is not an easy task if you’re the chief of the world’s most renowned spy agency.
From ACM Opinion
The Flop That Saved Microsoft
It wasn't very easy to get my hands on a Zune. After Microsoft's long-pitied music player wonSlate's Reader Takeover poll—in which I'd promised to reassess an overlooked...
From ACM Opinion
Will Neuroscience Radically Transform the Legal System?
Although academic fields will often enjoy more than Andy Warhol's famous 15 minutes of fame, they too are subject to today's ever-hungry machinery of hype. Like...
From ACM Opinion