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
Let's School the Presidential Hopefuls on Cybersecurity
In the build up to the 2016 U.S. election, both Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls are talking about cybersecurity—and specifically state-sponsored...
From ACM Opinion
How Fiction Can Reveal the Horrors of Future Wars
The fact that he couldn't feel the drill going into the back of his skull made the noise all the more terrifying.
From ACM Opinion
Why I'm Addicted to Browsing Sepia Photos of Old-School Nyc
It's not a game or social media site, but OldNYC.org is as addictive as Angry Birds and as time consuming as Facebook.
From ACM Opinion
The Martian's Andy Weir Is All Buddy-Buddy with Nasa
When sci-fi author Andy Weir went to visit mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center, the International Space Station was going through a crisis—an air leak...
From ACM Opinion
Cli-Fi—That's Climate Fiction—Is the New Sci-Fi
Extreme weather events, changes in precipitation levels, species migration and extinction—climate change promises so many fun things. But why wait?
From ACM News
Leap Motion's Augmented-Reality Computing Looks Stupid Cool
We have a habit of filling new technologies with old ideas.
From ACM Opinion
Calculating Pluto's Mass With Snapshots From New Horizons
As the New Horizons spacecraft is approaching Pluto, it's getting some great shots.
From ACM Opinion
We Should Drop the Leap Second Before It Causes Real Damage
The latest leap second couldn’t have come at a worse time.
From ACM Opinion
Humans Are Tech's Next Big Thing—and That Could Be Risky
Internet companies make billions of dollars by capturing one of the world's most precious commodities: your attention.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Opm Breach Is Such a Security and Privacy Debacle
If it's not already a maxim, it should be: Every big hack discovered will eventually prove to be more serious than first believed.
From ACM Opinion
Stop Laughing at Those Clumsy Humanoid Robots
The humanoid robot, built like a linebacker with an oversized head, tiptoes on two feet through the dirt.
From ACM Opinion
I Made an ntraceable 'ghost Gun' in My Office—and It Was Easy
This is my ghost gun. To quote the rifleman's creed, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
From ACM Opinion
Looking For Creativity in Brains Will Take More Creativity
About a decade and a half ago, the neuroscience world got super-stoked about a sexy new way to look at living brains: functional magnetic resonance imaging.
From ACM News
Google's Search pdated Will Remake the Web in Its Own Image
Some people are calling it Mobilegeddon.
From ACM Opinion
Snowden's 'sexy Margaret Thatcher' Password Isn't So Secure
Edward Snowden appears to have a thing for the late British conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher. And his obsession may even be clouding his famously paranoid...
From ACM Opinion
Here's Google's Secret to Hiring the Best People
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" was the tagline for a Head & Shoulders shampoo ad campaign in the 1980s. It unfortunately encapsulates...
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Doesn't Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets
Governments and corporations gather, store, and analyze the tremendous amount of data we chuff out as we move through our digitized lives.
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Design Some Things to Be Difficult to se
The first car I ever drove was a bashed Land Rover Defender.
From ACM Opinion
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question...
From ACM Opinion