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Discovering Two Screens Aren't Better Than One
From ACM Opinion

Discovering Two Screens Aren't Better Than One

For years, techies have argued that getting an extra monitor or two for your desktop computer is an especially effective way to increase personal productivity.

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid
From ACM Opinion

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid

How can a commercial airliner go missing?

The Future of Internet Freedom
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Internet Freedom

Over the next decade, approximately five billion people will become connected to the Internet.

From ACM Opinion

Waiting For the Black Box

Days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shortly after midnight on Saturday, investigators considering a range of possible causes—mechanical...

How I Quit Google
From ACM Opinion

How I Quit Google

I think it was the search for "pink glitter tiny toms" that finally prompted me to quit Google.

How to Get a Job at Google
From ACM Opinion

How to Get a Job at Google

Last June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google—i.e., the guy in charge of hiring...

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions
From ACM Opinion

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions

It seems as if every week there's a news story about someone committing a crime and confessing to it on Facebook, bragging about it on Twitter or sharing photos...

Satya Nadella, Chief of Microsoft, on His New Role
From ACM Opinion

Satya Nadella, Chief of Microsoft, on His New Role

Q. What leadership lessons have you learned from your predecessor, Steve Ballmer?

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...

The Digital Ties That Bind: Love, Loss and Oversharing in the Internet Age
From ACM Opinion

The Digital Ties That Bind: Love, Loss and Oversharing in the Internet Age

The most serious relationship of my life so far ended last summer without a trace—physically at least.

Bitcoin and the Fictions of Money
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin and the Fictions of Money

How should we think about a currency like Bitcoin?

Why Bitcoin Matters
From ACM Opinion

Why Bitcoin Matters

A mysterious new technology emerges, seemingly out of nowhere, but actually the result of two decades of intense research and development by nearly anonymous researchers...

Ann Cavoukian
From ACM Opinion

Ann Cavoukian

Ann Cavoukian is the information and privacy commissioner in Ontario, Canada, and a longtime advocate of default online confidentiality.

When Doctors 'google' Their Patients
From ACM Opinion

When Doctors 'google' Their Patients

I remember when I first looked up a patient on Google.

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower
From ACM Opinion

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower

Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency's reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United...

Viewing Where the Internet Goes
From ACM Opinion

Viewing Where the Internet Goes

Will 2014 be the year that the Internet is reined in?

Civilian Photography, Now Rising to New Level
From ACM Opinion

Civilian Photography, Now Rising to New Level

Five years ago, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision would have seemed like a science fiction film prop or a piece of surveillance hardware flown only by the sexiest of superspies...

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.

From ACM Opinion

Bits and Barbarism

This is a tale of three money pits.

An Homage to Douglas Engelbart and a Critique of the State of Tech
From ACM Opinion

An Homage to Douglas Engelbart and a Critique of the State of Tech

Theodor Holm Nelson, who coined the term hypertext, has been a thorn in the side of the computing establishment for more than a half century.
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