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
Review: Strong Passwords and Other Security Tips
Rarely does a week go by without news of another hacking incident, whether it's Chinese hackers accused of breaking in to The New York Times' computer systems or...
From ACM Opinion
Hackers Could se 'the Internet of Things' to Turn Everyday Devices Into Paths of Attack
The "Internet of Things" is great—we'll soon be able to build apps for our cars, thermostats, refrigerators, and more. But what happens when attackers get into...
From ACM Opinion
Interview with Creators of Romo Iphone Robot
One of the biggest charmers at TED2013 so far has been Romo the Robot, who rolled and whizzed around the stage with one of his creators, Keller Rinaudo.
From ACM Opinion
Is It Time To Take Cyborg Rights Seriously? A Q&a With Neil Harbisson.
Harbisson was born without the ability to see color, but a device he calls his "eyeborg" allows him to now "hear" color.
From ACM Opinion
The 3 Most-Important Things at Mobile World Congress
Gadget fans walked away this week from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the annual geek fest for connected devices, grumbling about a glaring lack of breakthrough...
From ACM Opinion
The Art of Cyberwar
The New York Times’ front-page report last week that the Chinese army is hacking into America's most sensitive computer networks from a 12-story building outside...
From ACM Opinion
Why Marissa Mayer's Ban on Remote Working at Yahoo Could Backfire Badly
Not long after her arrival at Yahoo, new CEO Marissa Mayer started handing out carrots to her new employees, including new smartphones, free food, and other Google...
From ACM Opinion
How Augmented-Reality Content Might Actually Work
Augmented reality is very exciting. The promise of it is this: all the information on the Internet overlaid on the real world exactly where and when you need it...
From ACM Opinion
The Ar-15 Is More Than a Gun. It's a Gadget
I was shaking as I shouldered the rifle and peered through the scope at the small steel target 100 yards downrange.
From ACM Opinion
What China's Hackers Get Wrong About Washington
"Start asking security experts which powerful Washington institutions have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies," report my colleagues Craig Timberg and Ellen...
From ACM Opinion
How Google Did the Right Thing with the Nascar Crash Video, and Why It Matters
At a NASCAR event on Saturday, debris created by a serious crash flew into the stands and injured a number of fans.
From ACM Opinion
Steve Ballmer on the Strategy Behind His Strangest Product
Windows 8, the most recent version of Microsoft's operating system, is the most ambitious and the strangest major product ever released by the software giant.
From ACM Opinion
Inside Google's Ultrabook Gambit
Cloud computing has been around for some time now. But not many people believe they can do all their computing in the cloud. Not many, that is, outside the brainaics...
From ACM News
How Secure Is the Papal Election?
As the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new pope, security people like me wonder about the process. How does it work, and just how hard would it be to hack...
From ACM Opinion
The Definitive Story of Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Phone Phreaking
Like the flap of a butterfly's wings causing a hurricane half a world away, the ripples of unintended consequences from Ron Rosenbaum's "Secrets of the Little Blue...
From ACM Opinion
The Newest Overhyped Mobile Industry Buzzword: Lte-Advanced
Admittedly, mobile technology evolves at a very fast pace. But somewhere along the way we seem to have skipped an entire generation of networks.
From ACM Opinion
Windows 8: Design Over sability
Windows 8 is a computer science masterpiece trapped inside a user interface kerfuffle.
From ACM Opinion
The Brain Is Not Computable
Miguel Nicolelis, a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers will never replicate the human brain and that the technological Singularity is "a bunch...
From ACM Opinion
How Samsung Is Out-Innovating Apple
There's no arguing that Apple set the standard for modern mobile devices with the iPhone and the iPad. It didn't take long after those two products launched for...
From ACM Opinion