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
Beloit College Mindset List For the Class of 2014
Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college...
From ACM Opinion
Location Services Show the Way to the Next Great Internet Bubble
When Silicon Valley misses the mark on a new technology, the problem usually is an issue of timing. It's not what is going to happen, but when it will happen...
From ACM Opinion
The Itch of Curiosity
Curiosity is one of those personality traits that gets short scientific shrift. It strikes me as a really important mental habit—how many successful people are...
From ACM Opinion
I Tweet, Therefore I Am
On a recent lazy Saturday morning, my daughter and I lolled on a blanket in our front yard, snacking on apricots, listening to a download of E. B. White reading...
From ACM Opinion
Protecting Privacy
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog but advertisers may infer that you own one. The flow of information from users of the internet both to social networks...
From ACM Opinion
Apple, Trackpads, and the Long Death of the Mouse
Another day, another envelope-pushing design from Apple intended to make us rethink the way we interact with our computers. Welcome to the Magic Trackpad.
From ACM Opinion
Killed By Code: Software Transparency in Implantable Medical Devices
Software is an integral component of a range of devices that perform critical, lifesaving functions and basic daily tasks. As patients grow more reliant on computerized...
From ACM Opinion
How Often Does Your Phone Drop Calls?
Apple, Research in Motion, and the rest of the cell phone industry don't want you to know.
From ACM Opinion
Five Things that Could Topple Facebook's Empire
Facebook is primed to announce this week that it's amassed a half billion active friends, a milestone reinforcing its status as the king of social networks—a company...
From ACM Opinion
What Apple Must Do to Stop the Iphone 4 Bleeding
It'd be an understatement to say that this has been a terrible week for Apple, and we haven't even reached the halfway point.
From ACM Opinion
Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis By (insert Name)
A friend who teaches at a well-known eastern university told me recently that plagiarism was turning him into a cop.
From ACM Opinion
The Medium Is the Medium
Recently, book publishers got some good news. Researchers gave 852 disadvantaged students 12 books (of their own choosing) to take home at the end of the school...
From ACM Opinion
Google Should Answer Some Searching Questions
Google woos people with its "don't be evil" slogan and assures us that everything it does is meant to enhance our online experience. But a new study by U.S. advocacy...
From ACM Opinion
Are Cells the New Cigarettes?
The great cosmic joke would be to find out definitively that the advances we thought were blessings--from the hormones women pump into their bodies all their lives...
From ACM Opinion
Now Can We Have Instant Replay?
Two horrendous calls at the World Cup show the need for technology—but don't tell the 'slippery slopers'
From Communications of the ACM
Is Computer Science Truly Scientific?
Reflections on the (experimental) scientific method in computer science.
From Communications of the ACM
Outsourcing Versus Shared Services
Choosing between outsourcing and shared services has significant implications for long-term corporate strategy.
From ACM Opinion
Why Minority Report Was Spot On
The launch of Microsoft's new Kinect games system, which allows players to run, jump, punch and shoot without having to wear strange clothing or hold any kind of...
From ACM Opinion