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What's in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot
From ACM Opinion

What's in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot

The next time you're thinking of throwing away a used boarding pass with a barcode on it, consider tossing the boarding pass into a document shredder instead.

How to Make a Rubber Ducky Comet: Smash Two Comets Together! Carefully.
From ACM Opinion

How to Make a Rubber Ducky Comet: Smash Two Comets Together! Carefully.

It was a bit of a surprise when the Rosetta probe, after a decade of travel around the Sun, approached the comet and sent the first decently resolved pictures of...

Apple Ceo Tim Cook: 'privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'
From ACM Opinion

Apple Ceo Tim Cook: 'privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

Apple has long touted the power and design of its devices, but recently the world's most valuable company has been emphasizing another feature: privacy.

Apple's 3d Touch Is the Start of a New Interface Revolution
From ACM Opinion

Apple's 3d Touch Is the Start of a New Interface Revolution

If you want to understand the potential of 3D Touch, the new of method of tapping and pressing on the screens of the latest iPhones, forget about the marketing...

Two Paths Toward Our Robot Future
From ACM Opinion

Two Paths Toward Our Robot Future

In 1970, Life magazine published an article about a Stanford University research project that had resulted in the construction of what it called the first-ever...

Fighting Isis Online
From ACM Opinion

Fighting Isis Online

The two men pecked out messages on opposite sides of the country.

'martian' Author Andy Weir Figured Out Faster-Than-Light Travel For His New Novel
From ACM Opinion

'martian' Author Andy Weir Figured Out Faster-Than-Light Travel For His New Novel

Readers and astrophysicists alike praised Andy Weir's The Martian for a fact-first approach to the sci-fi disaster model.

How Chicago Got Smart About Sensors
From ACM Opinion

How Chicago Got Smart About Sensors

I've been excited about the Array of Things—a network of beautifully designed sensors poised to capture and make public real-time, non-personal data about the livability...

How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There
From ACM Opinion

How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There

There's something about the Red Planet—so close yet so far, inhospitable yet perhaps not totally uninhabitable—that keeps us dreaming about getting there one day...

Modelling: Build Imprecise Supercomputers
From ACM Opinion

Modelling: Build Imprecise Supercomputers

Today's supercomputers lack the power to model accurately many aspects of the real world, from the impact of cloud systems on Earth's climate to the processing...

Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
From ACM Opinion

Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky

NASA scientists announced today the best evidence yet that Mars, once thought dry, sterile and dead, may yet have life in it: Liquid water still flows on at least...

Openbci: Control An Air Shark With Your Mind
From ACM Opinion

Openbci: Control An Air Shark With Your Mind

Le's be clear: This is a parlor trick, not neuroscience. Nonetheless, with the help of some friends, I was able to make a toy shark fly through the air using brain...

Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
From ACM Opinion

Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.

College students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected.

Thinking Thoughts
From Communications of the ACM

Thinking Thoughts

On brains and bytes.

Storming the Cubicle
From Communications of the ACM

Storming the Cubicle

Acquisitive redux.

In Defense of IBM
From Communications of the ACM

In Defense of IBM

The ability to adjust to various technical and business disruptions has been essential to IBM's success during the past century.

How Tetris Explains the Promise of the ­ltimate Algorithm
From ACM Opinion

How Tetris Explains the Promise of the ­ltimate Algorithm

Pedro Domingos is a serious guy with big ambitions.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.
From ACM Opinion

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.

The distinction between man and machine is under siege.

Tomorrow's Terrorist
From ACM Opinion

Tomorrow's Terrorist

Terrorism is a game of both revolution and evolution.

We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants
From ACM Opinion

We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants

Here's a quick story you’ve probably heard before, followed by one you probably haven't.
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