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
The Year in Computing
2011 saw the personal computer continue to be marginalized. Although PCs are still the workhorse computing device in homes and offices, the most exciting innovations...
From ACM Opinion
5 Game Stories to Watch in 2012
Goodbye 2011, you tumultuous, fickle, lovely year—hello 2012, another 365-day stretch full of promises, disappointments, and with a little luck, a few pleasant...
From ACM Careers
Five Questions with Astronaut Rex Walheim
Rex Walheim is an astronaut. He's gone to space three times, including on the last flight of the space shuttle. He has spent an accumulated 36 hours outside the...
From ACM Careers
Dna: The Next Big Hacking Frontier
Imagine computer-designed viruses that cure disease, new bacteria capable of synthesizing an unlimited fuel supply, new organisms that wipe out entire populations...
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Computing Promises New Insights, Not Just Supermachines
Today's quantum computer researchers have a solid blueprint for a new type of computer that could solve certain problems in seconds that would probably take millennia...
From ACM TechNews
Will Microsoft's 'minority Report' i Leap-Frog Apple?
Although Apple has pioneered the mainstream multitouch user interface (UI), Microsoft could provide the next major UI breakthrough by combining voice, touch, and...
From ACM TechNews
Q&a: Exascale Now a Global Race For Tech
Peter Beckman, director of the Exascale Technology and Computing Institute at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, recently spoke with Computerworld...
From ACM TechNews
Q&a: Exascale Now a Global Race For Tech
Peter Beckman, director of the Exascale Technology and Computing Institute at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, recently spoke with Computerworld...
From ACM Opinion
Q&a: Exascale Now a Global Race For Tech
The international competition to build an exascale supercomputer is gaining steam, especially in China and Europe, according to Peter Beckman, a top computer...
From ACM Opinion
Q&a: Exascale Now a Global Race For Tech
The international competition to build an exascale supercomputer is gaining steam, especially in China and Europe, according to Peter Beckman, a top computer...
From ACM Opinion
Google and Microsoft Talk Artificial Intelligence
Google and Microsoft don't share a stage often, being increasingly fierce competitors in areas such as Web search, mobile, and cloud computing. But the rivals...
From ACM Opinion
Misconceptions in Ai: Or Why Watson Can't Talk to Siri
On Tuesday night, I was schooled by Watson on playing Jeopardy in an exhibition match at the Computer History Museum. I discovered that despite our fear of the...
From ACM Opinion
The Genius of Jobs
One of the questions I wrestled with when writing about Steve Jobs was how smart he was. On the surface, this should not have been much of an issue.
From ACM Opinion
Why Do Big It Projects Fail? Part One: The Professionals
Academics, CIOs, lawyers, a professor of outsourcing, a consultant, and an investigative journalist answer the question on the minds of many a business and IT...
From ACM Opinion
What Open Source Can Learn From Steve Jobs, Part 1
The passing of Steve Jobs earlier this month triggered reactions that spanned the gamut—from expressions of appreciation and sober reflection to some tasteless...
From Communications of the ACM
What Gets Measured Gets Done
"U.S. broadband is terrible" has become a familiar meme. Given the growing importance of broadband Internet connections, a poor broadband infrastructure would...
From ACM Opinion
Dennis Ritchie: The Other Man Inside Your Iphone
The groundbreaking work he did with Ken Thompson led to the operating system behind everything from set-top boxes to the iPhone, but who sings the praises of...
From ACM Opinion
Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On
The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.
From ACM Opinion
The Singularity Isn't Near
Futurists like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil have argued that the world is rapidly approaching a tipping point, where the accelerating pace of smarter and smarter...
From ACM News