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The Google Formula For Success
From ACM Careers

The Google Formula For Success

Can Google’s winning ways be applied to all kinds of businesses?

Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?
From ACM Opinion

Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?

When I was 12, I invented a superhero named Boy Genius, a guy my age who awakens one morning with access to 100 percent of his brain power.

A ­nified Theory
From ACM Opinion

A ­nified Theory

For the last half-century we've had a popular notion that our intellectual culture is sundered in two—the literary and the scientific.

Where Tech Is Taking ­s: A Conversation With Intel's Genevieve Bell
From ACM Opinion

Where Tech Is Taking ­s: A Conversation With Intel's Genevieve Bell

Genevieve Bell grew up among Aboriginal people in Australia, taught anthropology at Stanford and for the past 16 years has worked for Intel.

The Future of Robot Caregivers
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Robot Caregivers

Each time I make a house call, I stay much longer than I should.

The Trouble With Brain Science
From ACM Opinion

The Trouble With Brain Science

Are we ever going to figure out how the brain works?

Seeker, Doer, Giver, Ponderer
From ACM Opinion

Seeker, Doer, Giver, Ponderer

James H. Simons likes to play against type.

Larry Page on Google's Many Arms
From ACM Opinion

Larry Page on Google's Many Arms

One way to think of Google is as an extremely helpful, all-knowing, hyper-intelligent executive assistant.

Searching For Answers in Very Old Dna
From ACM Opinion

Searching For Answers in Very Old Dna

As he puts it in the subtitle of his memoir, "Neanderthal Man," Svante Paabo goes in search of lost genomes.

Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy
From ACM Opinion

Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

When Steven P. Jobs led Apple, he created a core principle for the company's designers and engineers: stay fully focused on making great products.

Every Little Byte Counts
From ACM Opinion

Every Little Byte Counts

In "On What We Can Not Do," a short and pungent essay published a few years ago, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben outlined two ways in which power operates...

An Iphone Engineer-Turned-Game Maker Shares His Apple Story
From ACM Opinion

An Iphone Engineer-Turned-Game Maker Shares His Apple Story


The Cloud Industry Needs Aereo to Win. But Consumers Need Something Better.
From ACM Opinion

The Cloud Industry Needs Aereo to Win. But Consumers Need Something Better.

The best way to think about Aereo, the company at the center of this week's Supreme Court battle over the future of computing, is as an example of legal performance...

If You Like Immersion, You'll Love This Reality
From ACM Opinion

If You Like Immersion, You'll Love This Reality

The news that Facebook paid $2 billion for a virtual reality start-up, Oculus VR, might strike you as a bit zany.

Hey, Robot: Which Cat Is Cuter?
From ACM Opinion

Hey, Robot: Which Cat Is Cuter?

One recent morning, while contemplating writing this column, I scrolled through thousands and thousands of listings for mundane microgigs on Mechanical Turk, or...

From ACM Opinion

Abstract Ideas Don't Deserve Patents

The Constitution gives Congress the power to grant inventors a temporary monopoly over their creations to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."

Is the ­niverse a Simulation?
From ACM Opinion

Is the ­niverse a Simulation?

In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita," the protagonist, a writer, burns a manuscript in a moment of despair, only to find out later from the Devil...

I Had My Dna Picture Taken, With Varying Results
From ACM Opinion

I Had My Dna Picture Taken, With Varying Results

I like to plan ahead; that much I knew about myself before I plunged into exploring my genetic code.

Google Puts Money on Robots, ­sing the Man Behind Android
From ACM Opinion

Google Puts Money on Robots, ­sing the Man Behind Android

In an out-of-the-way Google office, two life-size humanoid robots hang suspended in a corner.

A Force For Face-to-Face Communication
From ACM Opinion

A Force For Face-to-Face Communication

Clifford I. Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford who died on Saturday, regaled me several times over the years about his method for torturing students...
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