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IBM Says Future Computers Will Be Constant Learners
From ACM TechNews

IBM Says Future Computers Will Be Constant Learners

Tomorrow's computers will constantly improve their understanding of the data they work with, which will help them provide users with more appropriate information...

Why Lightsquared Failed: It Was Science, Not Politics
From ACM Opinion

Why Lightsquared Failed: It Was Science, Not Politics

The seeds of LightSquared's failure to win government clearance to build a 4G-LTE network can, ironically, be found in the "approval" the company received just...

Tech Pioneer Channels Hard Lessons Into Silicon Valley Success
From ACM Opinion

Tech Pioneer Channels Hard Lessons Into Silicon Valley Success

Modern computer games and their fast-paced graphics require an incredible amount of computing horsepower. So much, in fact, that the kinds of chips commonly used...

From ACM Opinion

Apple's Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the Ipad

Apple's iPhones and iPads get most of the attention, but Apple is now directing the spotlight on the Mac.

Api: Three Letters That Change Life, the ­niverse, and Even Detroit
From ACM News

Api: Three Letters That Change Life, the ­niverse, and Even Detroit

Sam Ramji met AT&T chief technology officer John Donovan on a speed date—or at least the tech world equivalent of a speed date.

Hp R&d Chief Shows Road to Terabyte Backplane
From ACM TechNews

Hp R&d Chief Shows Road to Terabyte Backplane

New technologies will be the key to dealing with the coming flood of digital data, says HP Labs director Prith Banerjee.  

Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion
From ACM Opinion

Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion

There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft. But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest of all. Or at least the most harrowing. Over the past five years, he's taken...

From ACM Opinion

Yes We Scan

Locked in our federal vaults is a tremendous storehouse of information that if digitized would form a core for our digital public libraries in America with huge...

From ACM Opinion

Why The 'check Engine' Light Must Be Banned

It's pretty easy to dismiss the "check engine" light as just stupid, because, well, it is. 

How Siri Makes Computers (and Coders) More Human
From ACM TechNews

How Siri Makes Computers (and Coders) More Human

Siri, a program in the latest Apple iPhone that can carry out a wide spectrum of vocal commands without requiring training or special syntax from the user, stands...

Should Computers Have Their Own Web Sites?
From ACM TechNews

Should Computers Have Their Own Web Sites?

Organizations could use a new top-level domain, .data, to share data in a standard form, writes Stephen Wolfram, creator of the computational knowledge engine Wolfram...

From ACM Opinion

You Need To Learn How To Program

If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically,...

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future
From ACM Opinion

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future

Over the past 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries.

Kinect Weighs Astronauts Just By Looking at Them
From ACM TechNews

Kinect Weighs Astronauts Just By Looking at Them

A body-tracking camera system built into Microsoft's Kinect gaming sensor could be used to monitor the weight of astronauts in space, says Eurecom computer scientist...

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech
From ACM TechNews

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech

The next big advances in technology include the replacement of desktop computers with smartphones, the emergence of nanotech batteries, and the rise of augmented...

The IBM PC
From Communications of the ACM

The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard

Looking back at three decades of PC platform evolution.

From ACM Opinion

The Year in Computing

2011 saw the personal computer continue to be marginalized. Although PCs are still the workhorse computing device in homes and offices, the most exciting innovations...

From ACM Opinion

5 Game Stories to Watch in 2012

Goodbye 2011, you tumultuous, fickle, lovely year—hello 2012, another 365-day stretch full of promises, disappointments, and with a little luck, a few pleasant...

Five Questions with Astronaut Rex Walheim
From ACM Careers

Five Questions with Astronaut Rex Walheim

Rex Walheim is an astronaut. He's gone to space three times, including on the last flight of the space shuttle. He has spent an accumulated 36 hours outside the...

Dna: The Next Big Hacking Frontier
From ACM Careers

Dna: The Next Big Hacking Frontier

Imagine computer-designed viruses that cure disease, new bacteria capable of synthesizing an unlimited fuel supply, new organisms that wipe out entire populations...
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