acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Opinion


bg-corner

When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?
From ACM Opinion

When Is It Ok to Check a Smartphone at the Dinner Table?

Not long ago, I went to a nice restaurant with five friends. Good food. Better cocktails.

Dobby, Pikachu, and Kermit Are My Robots' Role Models
From ACM Opinion

Dobby, Pikachu, and Kermit Are My Robots' Role Models

Humanoid robots aren't very charismatic yet.

The Nightmare on Connected Home Street
From ACM Opinion

The Nightmare on Connected Home Street

I wake up at four to some old-timey dubstep spewing from my pillows.

How to ­se Tech Like a Teenager
From ACM Opinion

How to ­se Tech Like a Teenager

Enough with complaining that young people these days are addicted to their phones. The question you should be asking is: What do they know that you don't?

Big Tech Walking Fine Line on Data
From ACM Opinion

Big Tech Walking Fine Line on Data

A year after Edward Snowden shocked citizens with details of how much of their lives are being snapped up by the National Security Agency, tech giants have sounded...

Tetris at 30: An Interview with the Historic Puzzle Game's Creator
From ACM Opinion

Tetris at 30: An Interview with the Historic Puzzle Game's Creator

Thirty years ago today, a little game about dropping geometrically strange thingamajigs — originally clusters of punctuation marks—into neat, lookalike rows kicked...

A Fast Look at Swift, Apple's New Programming Language
From ACM Opinion

A Fast Look at Swift, Apple's New Programming Language

If anyone outside Apple saw Swift coming, they certainly weren't making any public predictions.

Robots: Can We Trust Them with Our Privacy?
From ACM Opinion

Robots: Can We Trust Them with Our Privacy?

Joss Wright is training a robot to freak people out.

The End Is A.i.: The Singularity Is Sci-Fi's Faith-Based Initiative
From ACM Opinion

The End Is A.i.: The Singularity Is Sci-Fi's Faith-Based Initiative

In 1993, Vernor Vinge wrote a paper about the end of the world.

Meet the People Behind the Wayback Machine, One of Our Favorite Things About the Internet
From ACM Opinion

Meet the People Behind the Wayback Machine, One of Our Favorite Things About the Internet

Brewster Kahle is quick to point out that we are not standing inside a former Scientology church.

A Summer Reading List For Innovators
From ACM Opinion

A Summer Reading List For Innovators

For this summer's reading list, we bring you seven very different types of books that have been published since the start of the year, each of them exploring the...

Beyond Data and Analysis
From Communications of the ACM

Beyond Data and Analysis

Why business analytics and big data really matter for modern business organizations.

Avalanches Are Coming
From Communications of the ACM

Avalanches Are Coming

Computing technology has generated conditions for radical transformations of jobs and professions — including education. How shall we cope?

FUD
From Communications of the ACM

FUD: A Plea For Intolerance

Relying on dubious claims can cause researchers to focus on the wrong questions and organizations to misdirect security spending.

EMV
From Communications of the ACM

EMV: Why Payment Systems Fail

What lessons might we learn from the chip cards used for payments in Europe, now that the U.S. is adopting them too?

How Google Built Its 3-D Interactive Rubik's Cube Doodle
From ACM News

How Google Built Its 3-D Interactive Rubik's Cube Doodle

Today Google launched one of its coolest doodles yet: a 3-D interactive Rubik's Cube.

Our Smartphones Are Making Live Tv Better Than Ever
From ACM Opinion

Our Smartphones Are Making Live Tv Better Than Ever

The history of the Internet is one of lonely ­people trying to find one another.

The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere
From ACM Opinion

The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere

Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know?

Here's How to Learn How Much Your Data Is Worth to Facebook and Google
From ACM Opinion

Here's How to Learn How Much Your Data Is Worth to Facebook and Google

The anti-virus software company AVG has created PrivacyFix, an app to help you get a handle on just how much you're worth to big-time data players Facebook and...

The Wizard of Minecraft
From ACM Opinion

The Wizard of Minecraft

It's a wet monday morning in Stockholm, and the door to Markus Persson's office is closed.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account