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From ACM Opinion

Are Cells the New Cigarettes?

The great cosmic joke would be to find out definitively that the advances we thought were blessings--from the hormones women pump into their bodies all their lives...

Stanford's Top Engineer From Chips to Abcs
From ACM TechNews

Stanford's Top Engineer From Chips to Abcs

James Plummer, dean of Stanford University's school of engineering, envisions an expansion of the electronics industry's purview from information technology to...

In Defense of Computers and the Internet For Learning
From ACM Opinion

In Defense of Computers and the Internet For Learning

If you’re reading this blog post on a computer, mobile phone or e-reader, please stop what you’re doing immediately. You could be making yourself stupid. And whatever...

Vint Cerf on What the Net Needs Now
From ACM TechNews

Vint Cerf on What the Net Needs Now

Google's Vint Cerf says the Internet needs better security across all of its levels, and says that common ground must be found concerning what constitutes Internet...

Against Instant Replay
From ACM Opinion

Against Instant Replay

Extraordinary cases make bad law. In a sense, Armando Galarraga’s non-perfect perfect game, spoiled by an umpire’s call on what should have been the 27th out, offers...

From ACM Opinion

The Death of the Open Web

The Web is a teeming commercial city. It's haphazardly planned. Its public spaces are mobbed, and signs of urban decay abound in broken links and abandoned projects...

I Was Hacked in Beijing
From ACM Opinion

I Was Hacked in Beijing

The reality--and my fears--dawned only slowly. For weeks, friends and colleagues complained I had not answered their e-mail messages. I swore I had not received...

Rethinking a Gospel of the Web
From ACM Opinion

Rethinking a Gospel of the Web

For about a decade now, ever since it became clear that the jungle of the World Wide Web would triumph over the walled gardens of CompuServe, AOL and MSN, a general...

North Korea Needs to Set ­p Practical It Training and Certification Systems
From ACM Opinion

North Korea Needs to Set ­p Practical It Training and Certification Systems

The promotion of the IT industry in North Korea can be done in a way that could minimize the extent of market opening.

From ACM Opinion

Not Creating Content. Just Protecting It.

Should we be surprised that the biggest fight over freedom of expression in years involves Google, a company that produces algorithms rather than articles? Probably...

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google
From ACM Opinion

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google

China's censorship of the Internet may be blunt, but Google has found negotiations with the Chinese government in recent weeks to be subtle and uncertain. That...

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google
From ACM Opinion

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google

China's censorship of the Internet may be blunt, but Google has found negotiations with the Chinese government in recent weeks to be subtle and uncertain. That...

From ACM Opinion

Google Loss Won't Hamper Business Gains in China

When Google made its threat to pull out of China on January 12, it titled its online announcement "A new approach to China," indicating its high expectations for...

To Stop Crime, Share Your Genes
From ACM Opinion

To Stop Crime, Share Your Genes

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than President Obama’s decision to give an interview for "America’s Most Wanted" last weekend was his apparent agreement...

From ACM Opinion

Driving By the Numbers

In the wake of the U.S. Congressional hearings on the Toyota recalls, we have heard various proposals for countering unintended acceleration in automobiles. Transportation...

From ACM Opinion

Virtual Reality War

My battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Kurilla, gave the directive that my squad leaders, platoon sergeant, and myself had heard countless times: my platoon was...

From ACM TechNews

Making Computer Science More Enticing

Employment at the top 10 Silicon Valley companies declined for Hispanics, blacks, and women for the decade ending in 2005, according to a San Jose Mercury News...

From ACM Opinion

Why Google Wants a Faster Internet

There was no lack of, well, buzz about Google's new Buzz social-media platform last week, but more important were a series of moves that suggest the search giant...

Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism
From ACM Opinion

Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism

The more, the better. That’s the fashionable recipe for nurturing new ideas these days. It emphasizes a kind of Internet-era egalitarianism that celebrates the...

The Madness of Crowds and an Internet Delusion
From ACM TechNews

The Madness of Crowds and an Internet Delusion

An early advocate of the Internet's culture of openness, computer scientist Jaron Lanier has written a new book in which he reconsiders that view and takes a more...
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