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
Braking Bad
The Obama administration has said that it may require automakers to install “smart pedals” on all new cars. This kind of system—already used in BMWs, Chryslers...
From ACM Opinion
Apple's Multitouch Lawsuit Is Both Dumb and Dangerous
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at 2007's Macworld conference, he began by describing the device's groundbreaking user interface. "We have invented...
From Communications of the ACM
Orchestrating Coordination in Pluralistic Networks
Learning to build virtual teams of people of diverse backgrounds is an urgent challenge.
From Communications of the ACM
Gaming Will Save Us All
How gaming, as the first media market to successfully transition toward media-as-a-service, is an exemplar for a similar evolutionary transition of content and...
From ACM Opinion
Nhtsa Has No Software Engineers or Ees To Analyze Toyotas
A report in The Washington Post on the Congressional investigation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's response to multiple reports of Toyota...
From ACM Opinion
Google's Diplomatic Alliance with .s. Carries Risks
Google Inc.'s mastery of Internet search technology is unrivaled, but the high-tech pioneer is in uncharted territory as it finds itself embroiled in U.S. diplomatic...
From ACM Opinion
Humobots in Space
Despite the cancellation of NASA's back-to-the-moon program, the next steps on the moon will likely be taken sometime in the next decade under human control. It's...
From ACM Opinion
Can Silicon Valley Write Software For the 'normal'?
Apple gets a fair amount of criticism for its supposed elitism, but Apple products reveal the opposite: they're made for normal people who generally don't obsess...
From ACM Opinion
I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Make a -Turn
When Toyota Prius owners take their cars to the dealer under the company's latest recall, they'll likely be out of the shop in about 30 minutes. Even though the...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google Wants a Faster Internet
There was no lack of, well, buzz about Google's new Buzz social-media platform last week, but more important were a series of moves that suggest the search giant...
From ACM Opinion
Lost in #haiti
If Iran's post-election uprising last summer was the world's first "Twitter revolution," the massive Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti was the first "Twitter disaster...
From ACM Opinion
Estimating Programming Time
Accurately estimating programming time is, in part, a process of defining limitations—experience, domain knowledge, speed vs. quality. It is also about thinking...
From ACM Opinion
Don Syme: Geek of the Week
It came as a surprise to many when Microsoft pulled from its hat a rabbit in the form of an exciting, radical, language that offers an effective alternative to...
From ACM Opinion
Don Syme: Geek of the Week
It came as a surprise to many when Microsoft pulled from its hat a rabbit in the form of an exciting, radical, language that offers an effective alternative to...
From ACM Opinion
How Movies Activate Your Neural G-Spot
Here’s a typical “date night” with me and Hollywood: I don’t know what I want to see. Neither does Hollywood. But it bangs on my eyeballs and eardrums like Stanley...
From ACM Opinion
The Best Web Browser on the Planet
I like to think of myself as the Dick Cheney of the Browser Wars—an unyielding proponent of greater and greater hostilities between the developers working on Chrome...
From ACM Opinion
'don't Be Evil,' Meet 'spy on Everyone': How the Nsa Deal Could Kill Google
The company once known for its "don't be evil" motto is now in bed with the spy agency known for the mass surveillance of American citizens. The National Security...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft
As they marvel at Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, the technorati seem to be focusing on where this leaves Amazon’s popular e-book business. But the much more...
From ACM Opinion
Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism
The more, the better. That’s the fashionable recipe for nurturing new ideas these days. It emphasizes a kind of Internet-era egalitarianism that celebrates the...
From ACM Opinion