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
Metadata Isn't Going Away. Here's How to Control It.
It's a good bet that, in the next few weeks, President Obama will impose some serious reforms—and ask Congress to enact a few more—on how the National Security...
From ACM Opinion
Tor Is Supposed to Hide You Online. In This Harvard Student's Case, It Did the Opposite.
At 9 a.m. Monday, fire alarms went off in Harvard's Emerson Hall.
From ACM Opinion
An Homage to Douglas Engelbart and a Critique of the State of Tech
Theodor Holm Nelson, who coined the term hypertext, has been a thorn in the side of the computing establishment for more than a half century.
From ACM Opinion
The Judge and the Nsa
Federal Judge Richard Leon has become a sudden political celebrity after his remarkable opinion holding that antiterror surveillance is unconstitutional and, even...
From ACM Opinion
An Nsa Coworker Remembers The Real Edward Snowden: 'a Genius Among Geniuses'
Perhaps Edward Snowden's hoodie should have raised suspicions.
From ACM Opinion
Why Bitcoin Needs Banks
On a mission to convince the world that Bitcoin is enduring and serious, enthusiasts convened at a place that symbolizes the ephemeral and the glitzy: Las Vegas...
From ACM Opinion
Nasa's Chief Scientist on Mars, Moons, and Money
Planetary geologist Ellen Stofan joined NASA in August as the agency's chief scientist, an overarching role in which she advises on the science of all NASA programmes...
From ACM Opinion
Ars Editors Remember Their First Taste of Doom, 20 Years Later
On December 10, 1993, id Software uploaded the first publicly available version of Doom to a crowded BBS and FTP server, unleashing on the world the most influential...
From ACM Opinion
Why We Can't Let American Tech Take Over the World
Whenever an app, a website, or a physical product like a gaming console is exported, it ships with a side of cultural influence.
From ACM Opinion
President Obama Talks About Teaching Everyone to Code. This Professor Does It.
On Monday, President Obama kicked off computer science education week, encouraging every young person to acquire computer programming skills, even if they have...
From ACM Opinion
For Steve Ballmer, a Lasting Touch on Microsoft
On the eve of his exit as chief executive officer of Microsoft, after more than a decade on the job, Steve Ballmer is more than ever a CEO whose image does not...
From ACM Opinion
2013: The Year 'the Stream' Crested
The Stream has been the organizing metaphor for the web for the past several years.
From ACM Opinion
Why It's a Shame that Computer Science Courses Aren't Mandatory
Millions of students will learn some lessons in computer coding this week as part of "Hour of Code," a national campaign offering free tutorials.
From ACM Opinion
Edward Snowden, The Dark Prophet
To avoid surveillance, the first four Americans to visit Edward Snowden in Moscow carried no cell phones or laptops.
From ACM Opinion
Doom's Creator Looks Back on 20 Years of Demonic Mayhem
At the stroke of midnight on December 10, 1993, an executive at id Software uploaded a file to an FTP site on the University of Washington's network.
From ACM Opinion
Singularity: Reading Our Genes Like Computer Code
Raymond McCauley may go blind as he gets older.
From ACM Opinion
Will Your Next Phone Have No Screen?
Google is predicting a generation of screenless computing devices that rely on voice recognition, a senior engineer has said, emphasising that the company encrypts...
From ACM Opinion
Could a $500 Gadget Have Prevented the Metro-North Tragedy?
Investigators are still studying what caused the derailment of a Metro-North commuter train on its way to Grand Central Terminal just over a week ago, killing four...
From ACM Opinion