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
How 9/11 Completely Changed Surveillance in .s.
Former AT&T engineer Mark Klein handed a sheaf of papers in January 2006 to lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, providing smoking-gun evidence that...
From ACM News
Why Cisco's Flip Flopped in the Camera Business
Cisco is shutting down a business unit that it bought for over half-a-billion dollars: the Flip camcorder division. That's a shame, considering how high the Flip...
From ACM Opinion
Why the Basis of the niverse Isn't Matter or Energy
Information flows everywhere, through wires and genes, through brain cells and quarks. But while it may appear ubiquitous to us now, until recently we had no...
From ACM Opinion
No Moammar, No Fly: How to Stop Gadhafi
Keep the surveillance planes flying. Fry the radar. While the sun hangs in the sky, let Libya’s pilots know they’re on borrowed time if they take off.
From ACM News
The 'Panda' That Hates Farms: A Q&A With Google
Google's new update to its search engine addressed the growing complaint that low-quality content sites (derisively referred to as content farms) were ranked higher...
From ACM News
Is the Navy Trying to Start the Robot Apocalypse?
Whenever the military rolls out a new robot program, folks like to joke about SkyNet or the Rise of the Machines. But this time, the military really is starting...
From ACM News
Nsa's Home Base May Have Crappiest Web Site Ever
Through the gates of Fort George Meade pass the most powerful technical minds that the government employs. But Fort Meade's website contains pixelized, faux-shaded...
From ACM Opinion
Why Wikileaks Is Good For America
A truly free press—one unfettered by concerns of nationalism—is apparently a terrifying problem for elected governments and tyrannies alike.
From ACM Opinion
5 Reasons the Media Cover Apple So Much
A study published Monday drew on a host of metrics to conclude something we all already knew: The media covers Apple more than any other company.
From ACM Opinion
Search Top Secret America's Database of Private Spooks
Figuring out exactly who's cashing in on the post-9/11 boom in secret programs just got a whole lot easier.
From ACM Opinion
How to Silence the Obnoxious and Deafening Vuvuzela
Do you hear that? The hideous, piercing dirge of a B-flat drone that is the unfortunate backdrop to every single World Cup match? It’s the vuvuzela, a stupid plastic...
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Learn the Language of Data
"How can global warming be real when there’s so much snow?" Hearing that question—repeatedly—this past February drove Joseph Romm nuts. A massive snowstorm had...
From ACM Opinion
Today Facebook, Tomorrow the World
With a dizzying array of announcements this week, it seems almost inevitable that the web will become, at least for the near future, an extension of Facebook. Like...
From ACM Opinion
Beware the Nsa
Early this year, the big brains at Google admitted that they had been outsmarted. Along with 33 other companies, the search giant had been the victim of a major...
From ACM Opinion
How Movies Activate Your Neural G-Spot
Here’s a typical “date night” with me and Hollywood: I don’t know what I want to see. Neither does Hollywood. But it bangs on my eyeballs and eardrums like Stanley...
From ACM Opinion
'don't Be Evil,' Meet 'spy on Everyone': How the Nsa Deal Could Kill Google
The company once known for its "don't be evil" motto is now in bed with the spy agency known for the mass surveillance of American citizens. The National Security...
From ACM Opinion