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To Boldly Go Nowhere, For Now
From ACM Opinion

To Boldly Go Nowhere, For Now

On Aug. 20, NASA's administrator formally welcomed the newest candidates of the astronaut corpsand released a space exploration roadmap that includes robotic and...

The New National Identity Is What Smartphone You Prefer, and Nobody's Quite Sure Why
From ACM Opinion

The New National Identity Is What Smartphone You Prefer, and Nobody's Quite Sure Why

In a fascinating note at Asymco, mobile analyst and ex-Nokian Horace Dediu details how people's taste in smartphones varies from place to place:

Behold! Jonathan Ive's Apple
From ACM Opinion

Behold! Jonathan Ive's Apple

Apple is today releasing the much-anticipated iOS 7, and with it, the biggest overhaul of its mobile operating system since it debuted in 2007 with the original...

Ios 7, Thoroughly Reviewed
From ACM Opinion

Ios 7, Thoroughly Reviewed

When we reviewed iOS 6 a year ago, we called it a "spit-and-polish" release and stand by that assessment today.

The 'legalization' of China’s Internet Crackdown
From ACM Opinion

The 'legalization' of China’s Internet Crackdown

Internet usage—especially microblogging on Sina Weibo, China’s largest Twitter-like social media site—is presenting new challenges and new attempts to meet them...

Neal Stephenson on Tall Towers and Nsa Cyber-Spies
From ACM Opinion

Neal Stephenson on Tall Towers and Nsa Cyber-Spies

Neal Stephenson is thinking big—20km (12.4 miles) big, to be precise.

Forget Moocs
From ACM Opinion

Forget Moocs

For a year or two there, free online classes seemed like they just might be the future of higher education.

Cryptographers Have an Ethics Problem
From ACM Opinion

Cryptographers Have an Ethics Problem

Last week, I visited the MIT computer science department looking for a very famous cryptographer.

How Robots Can Trick You Into Loving Them
From ACM Opinion

How Robots Can Trick You Into Loving Them

I like to think of my Roomba as cute and industrious.

If 'e.t.' Finds Voyager 1, Will It Phone Earth?
From ACM Opinion

If 'e.t.' Finds Voyager 1, Will It Phone Earth?

In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan launched the expedition that completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. And so humanity learned the full...

Grand Theft Auto V Lives ­p to Hype, Steals Its Car, Sets House on Fire
From ACM Opinion

Grand Theft Auto V Lives ­p to Hype, Steals Its Car, Sets House on Fire

I'm trying to put into words how difficult a situation it is attempting to summarize my thoughts on a game that I've only been playing for two weeks when I know...

The Message Voyager 1 Carries For Alien Civilizations
From ACM Opinion

The Message Voyager 1 Carries For Alien Civilizations

The year was 1977.

Grand Theft Auto 5: Inside the Creative Process with Dan Houser
From ACM Opinion

Grand Theft Auto 5: Inside the Creative Process with Dan Houser

We're four days away now. After a year of pre-publicity and a five-year wait since GTA IV, the latest instalment in Rockstar's gangland opus is almost upon us.

Trigger Finger: Apple Fires Biometrics Into the Mainstream
From ACM Opinion

Trigger Finger: Apple Fires Biometrics Into the Mainstream

By adding a fingerprint scanner to its newest mobile phone, Apple Inc. is offering a tantalizing glimpse of a future where your favorite gadget might become a biometric...

The Real Reasons Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip Makes Sense
From ACM Opinion

The Real Reasons Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip Makes Sense

Apple injected a lot of marketing hyperbole into its claims about the wonders of 64-bit computing when it showed off the A7 processor at the heart of the new ...

VCs Doerr and Khosla on Gov't Snooping: It's a Tradeoff
From ACM Opinion

VCs Doerr and Khosla on Gov't Snooping: It's a Tradeoff

Two of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, John Doerr and Vinod Khosla, weighed in on the current controversy government surveillance, contending...

How Facebook Makes ­s ­nhappy
From ACM Opinion

How Facebook Makes ­s ­nhappy

No one joins Facebook to be sad and lonely.

Google Security Exec: 'passwords Are Dead'
From ACM Opinion

Google Security Exec: 'passwords Are Dead'

New startups looking for ways to keep their users secure should know one thing, a top Google security executive said Tuesday: "Passwords are dead."

Apple's New Iphone 'touch Id' Makes Fingerprint Scans Easy, But Don't Ditch Passcodes Yet
From ACM Opinion

Apple's New Iphone 'touch Id' Makes Fingerprint Scans Easy, But Don't Ditch Passcodes Yet

The latest iPhone has arrived, and along with it what may be the slickest integration of biometric security yet: A fingerprint scanner built seamlessly into the...

Imagining a Cyberattack on the Power Grid
From ACM Opinion

Imagining a Cyberattack on the Power Grid

It's electrifying.
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