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How New Military Technologies Can Help Prevent the Next Boston or Newtown
From ACM Opinion

How New Military Technologies Can Help Prevent the Next Boston or Newtown

This week, it's bombs. In December, it was guns.

How Pixar ­sed Moore's Law to Predict the Future
From ACM Opinion

How Pixar ­sed Moore's Law to Predict the Future

Whether you call it a data-driven prediction or think of it as a self-fulfilling prophecy, Moore's Law has been going strong.

Bitcoin: Whatever It Is, It's Not Money!
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin: Whatever It Is, It's Not Money!

When governments undermine faith in their currencies people turn to alternatives.

Interview with Brain Project Pioneer: Miyoung Chun
From ACM Opinion

Interview with Brain Project Pioneer: Miyoung Chun

Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) project, which President Obama announced in his State of the Union address in February, will...

Will Google's Ray Kurzweil Live Forever?
From ACM Opinion

Will Google's Ray Kurzweil Live Forever?

Ray Kurzweil must encounter his share of interviewers whose first question is: What do you hope your obituary will say?

Google Chief ­rges Action to Regulate Mini-Drones
From ACM Opinion

Google Chief ­rges Action to Regulate Mini-Drones

The influential head of Google, Eric Schmidt, has called for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.

Proceed with Caution Toward the Self-Driving Car
From ACM Opinion

Proceed with Caution Toward the Self-Driving Car

Driving on Interstate 495 toward Boston in a Ford Fusion one chilly afternoon in March, I did something that would've made even my laid-back long-ago driving instructor...

Human Genome, Then and Now
From ACM Opinion

Human Genome, Then and Now

Eight years of work, thousands of researchers around the world, $1 billion spent—and finally it was done.

A Talk With Computer Graphics Pioneer Ivan Sutherland
From ACM Opinion

A Talk With Computer Graphics Pioneer Ivan Sutherland

Dr. Ivan Sutherland is the 2012 winner of the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology. The award, created by Dr. Kazuo Inamori, founder of not one but two major Japanese...

Time and Navigation: How We Found Our Way in the World
From ACM Opinion

Time and Navigation: How We Found Our Way in the World

Type an address into your phone, and up will pop a step-by-step route from where you are to where you want to be. This is, in its way, magic—magic that has, at...

Should We Fall Out of Love with Robot Surgery?
From ACM Opinion

Should We Fall Out of Love with Robot Surgery?

Last fall, shoppers outside a Macy's store in Boston were given a chance to test drive a robot. They were invited, compliments of Brigham and Women’s Hospital,...

More Cracks ­ndermine the Citadel of Tv Profits
From ACM Opinion

More Cracks ­ndermine the Citadel of Tv Profits

For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational.

How Technology Is Slowly Developing Its Sense of Smell
From ACM Opinion

How Technology Is Slowly Developing Its Sense of Smell

Last week I attended what was, I think it is fair to say, the oddest conference I have been to yet. It was the first world congress of the Digital Olfaction Society...

Immigration and the Knowledge Economy
From ACM Opinion

Immigration and the Knowledge Economy

Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community.

Bitcoin Is No Longer a Currency
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin Is No Longer a Currency

Bitcoin might be a bubble or it might be THE FUTURE, but there's one thing it's not: a currency. It's a tech stock. The question is whether it's Pets.com or Paypal...

The Coming Golden Age For Mobile-Game Developers
From ACM Opinion

The Coming Golden Age For Mobile-Game Developers

Do you like video games? More to the point, do you like developing games and making money? Then here's some great news: The gaming boom that's been underway for...

Will Bitcoins Make Me Rich?
From ACM Opinion

Will Bitcoins Make Me Rich?

Let me begin this column with a lengthy disclosure. One morning last week, I stopped at my bank, filled out a withdrawal slip for $1,027.51, and walked away with...

If You Hate Red-Light Cameras, You'll Really Hate Speeding Ticket Robots
From ACM Opinion

If You Hate Red-Light Cameras, You'll Really Hate Speeding Ticket Robots

Four academics from West Point and Samford University in Alabama set out to answer a seemingly simple question: how would one write a computer program to issue...

Intel Cooks ­p Future of TV—A Potential Mess for Cable
From ACM Opinion

Intel Cooks ­p Future of TV—A Potential Mess for Cable

Visualize the TV service you've always wanted: a gorgeous interface that does away with clunky (and often ad-strewn) programming grids; a simple remote that isn't...

Why Retina Displays and 4k Tvs May Not Be Worth the Trouble
From ACM Opinion

Why Retina Displays and 4k Tvs May Not Be Worth the Trouble

When Apple unveiled its Retina screen on the iPhone 4, the world gasped.
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