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Why I Love the National Internet Sales Tax Plan
From ACM Opinion

Why I Love the National Internet Sales Tax Plan

The Internet, in the popular imagination, is supposed to be free—"the last bastion of our economy untouched by the government," as they say on Fox News.

Governments Won't Need to Issue Ids: Data Brokers Will Identify You For Them
From ACM Opinion

Governments Won't Need to Issue Ids: Data Brokers Will Identify You For Them

Our government collects a lot of information about us. Tax records, legal records, license records, records of government services received—it's all in databases...

20 Years On, the Open Web Faces Challenges
From ACM Opinion

20 Years On, the Open Web Faces Challenges

For people of a certain age in the technology industry, one of the ways of establishing a connection with someone is by asking some version of the following question...

Nate Silver: What Big Data Can't Predict
From ACM Opinion

Nate Silver: What Big Data Can't Predict

Statistician Nate Silver isn't famous because he's a mathematical genius. (Although, he is.)

Christoph Bregler on the Future of Surveillance
From ACM Opinion

Christoph Bregler on the Future of Surveillance

Surveillance camera images of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev catalyzed not only the manhunt which caught them, but calls for more surveillance cameras around the...

The Medium of the Moment
From ACM Opinion

The Medium of the Moment

After the Boston Marathon bombings, the process by which breaking news and information are generated and disseminated looked more ragged and exposed than ever: ...

How Boston Police Won the Twitter Wars During the Marathon Bomber Hunt
From ACM Opinion

How Boston Police Won the Twitter Wars During the Marathon Bomber Hunt

The first official announcement that law enforcement agencies had concluded their manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev didn't come at a...

How Ray Kurzweil Will Help Google Make the ­ltimate AI Brain
From ACM Opinion

How Ray Kurzweil Will Help Google Make the ­ltimate AI Brain

Google has always been an artificial intelligence company, so it really shouldn't have been a surprise that Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading scientists in the field...

Apple's Next Big Thing
From ACM Opinion

Apple's Next Big Thing

The iPad has always labored under the shadow of its little brother the iPhone.

­nraveling Boston Suspects' Online Lives, Link By Link
From ACM Opinion

­nraveling Boston Suspects' Online Lives, Link By Link

It is America's first fully interactive national tragedy of the social media age.

The Science in Computer Science
From Communications of the ACM

The Science in Computer Science

Computer science is in a period of renaissance as it rediscovers its science roots.

Human-Centered Computing
From Communications of the ACM

Human-Centered Computing: A New Degree For Licklider's World

Combining computing and psychology, J.C.R. Licklider's prescient ideas are being applied in contemporary educational settings.

Max Newman
From Communications of the ACM

Max Newman: Forgotten Man of Early British Computing

Reflections on a significant, yet often overlooked, computing pioneer.

Fair Use in Europe
From Communications of the ACM

Fair Use in Europe

Examining the mismatch between copyright law and technology-influenced evolving social norms in the European Union.

Google Execs Say 'the Power of Information Is ­nderrated'
From ACM Opinion

Google Execs Say 'the Power of Information Is ­nderrated'

"We fear that the natural action for, in particular, autocratic governments experiencing what we describe as 'virtual urbanization' will be to balkanize the Internet...

The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution
From ACM Opinion

The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution

How do you explain to people that they are a YouTube sensation, when they have never heard of YouTube or the Internet?

The Flattening of Design
From ACM Opinion

The Flattening of Design

It might sound audacious to think that Microsoft, the arbiter of uncool, was at the forefront of design a few years ago. But it was.

#freejahar Hashtag Rallies Emerging Cult of Boston Bomb Suspect
From ACM Opinion

#freejahar Hashtag Rallies Emerging Cult of Boston Bomb Suspect

Barely two days after cops apprehended Suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombings, supporters of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are rallying online.

'total Noise,' Only Louder
From ACM Opinion

'total Noise,' Only Louder

Kids used to ask each other: If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears, does it make a sound? Now there's a microphone in every tree and a loudspeaker on every...

The $12 Gongkai Phone
From ACM Opinion

The $12 Gongkai Phone

How cheap can you make a phone?
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