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 Purpose of Science Fiction
How it teaches governments—and citizens—how to understand the future of technology.
From ACM Opinion
25 Years of Digital Vandalism
In January 1986, Basit and Amjad Alvi, sibling programmers living near the main train station in Lahore, Pakistan, wrote a piece of code to safeguard the latest...
From Communications of the ACM
Technology, Conferences, and Community
Considering the impact and implications of changes in scholarly communication.
From ACM News
Dealing With Assange and the Secrets He Spilled
This past June, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, phoned me and asked, mysteriously, whether I had any idea how to arrange a secure communication....
From ACM Opinion
Why You Should Never, Ever Use Two Spaces After a Period
Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong. And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere...
From ACM News
Bending and Stretching Classroom Lessons to Make Math Inspire
At the aptly named Tiny Thai restaurant here, a small table, about two and a half feet square, was jammed with a teapot, two plates of curry, a bowl of soup,...
From ACM Opinion
Stuxnet Authors Made Several Basic Errors
There is a growing sentiment among security researchers that the programmers behind the Stuxnet attack may not have been the super-elite cadre of developers that...
From ACM Opinion
What Does Jobs' Absence Mean For the Future of Apple?
With Steve Jobs' third medical-related absence in six years, Silicon Valley must again confront one of its great mysteries: How much does Jobs matter to Apple?
From ACM News
Wolfram Education Apps Raise Teaching Dilemma
Wolfram Research, a software company with deep mathematical and scientific expertise, is expanding to the broad education market with a range of mobile apps.
From ACM News
Nsa's Home Base May Have Crappiest Web Site Ever
Through the gates of Fort George Meade pass the most powerful technical minds that the government employs. But Fort Meade's website contains pixelized, faux-shaded...
From ACM Opinion
The Case Against the Consumer Electronics Show
A year ago, Steve Ballmer took the stage of the Consumer Electronics Show to tout a technology that he promised would change the world: the Windows operating...
From ACM News
Hackers Find New Way to Cheat on Wall Street
High-frequency trading networks, which complete stock market transactions in microseconds, are vulnerable to manipulation by hackers who can inject tiny amounts...
From ACM News
The American Wikileaks Hacker
Jacob Appelbaum fights repressive regimes around the world—including his own.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Track Me, Bro
Here is how Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, describes the current state of affairs on the Internet: "Say I’m walking through a mall...
From ACM Opinion
Android Programming's ps and Downs
As smartphones using Google's Android operating system become mainstream, James Steele and Nelson To are in a pretty good position.
From ACM Opinion
10 Things Web sers Should Fear in 2011
As in the real world, cyberspace has bad neighborhoods. But unlike the real world, risks in cyberspace are not easy to spot—and the location of those digital...
From ACM Opinion
2011 Preview: Million-Dollar Mathematics Problem
A draft solution to the so-called "P versus NP" problem generated excitement in 2010; will 2011 bring a correct proof?
From ACM News