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From ACM Opinion

Research Bought, Then Paid For

Through the National Institutes of Health, American taxpayers have long supported research directed at understanding and treating human disease.

Why America's Spies Struggle To Keep ­p
From ACM Opinion

Why America's Spies Struggle To Keep ­p

Before Sept. 11, 2011, there were 16 intelligence agencies in the United States.

Read My Email? Get a Warrant
From ACM Opinion

Read My Email? Get a Warrant

Last October the well-known hacking group Chaos Computer Club revealed that the German state police had been monitoring the computers of ordinary citizens using...

From ACM Opinion

China Bankrolls R&d While India Plays the Miser

Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underplay China's superiority over India in the field of science, research, and technology? Analysis of new data shared at the...

I Want to Translate the Web
From ACM Opinion

I Want to Translate the Web

I want to translate the Web into every major language: every Webpage, every video, and, yes, even Justin Bieber's tweets.

From ACM Opinion

What I Learned About the Future of Computing from Delving into IT's Past

Turing, Colossus, and even the Jacquard Loom still matter to the iPad generation.

From ACM Opinion

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right

From the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that interact with...

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'
From ACM Opinion

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'

Here's my take on what I've begun calling the "knowosphere"—a word intentionally echoing the more allegorical "noosphere," the "planet of the mind" of Vladimir....

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech
From ACM TechNews

The Next Big Thing(s) in Tech

The next big advances in technology include the replacement of desktop computers with smartphones, the emergence of nanotech batteries, and the rise of augmented...

From ACM Opinion

AI Will Change Our Relationship With Tech

In 1984, Canadian movie director James Cameron imagined a world in which computers achieved self-awareness and set about systematically destroying humankind. ...

From ACM Opinion

Why Books Are Better Than E-Books For Children

Do you read to your children from your iPad or other device, or encourage them to use an e-reader to read to you?

Smoke Screening
From ACM Opinion

Smoke Screening

Not until I walked with Bruce Schneier toward the mass of people unloading their laptops did it occur to me that it might not be possible for us to hang around...

Interfaces For the Ordinary User
From Communications of the ACM

Interfaces For the Ordinary User: Can We Hide Too Much?

Increasing the visibility and access to underlying file structure on consumer devices can vastly improve the user experience.

The IBM PC
From Communications of the ACM

The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard

Looking back at three decades of PC platform evolution.

The Difference Engine
From Communications of the ACM

The Difference Engine

Observations on cognitive diversity and team performance.

The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology
From Communications of the ACM

The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology

Examining the recurring conflicts between copyright and technology from piano rolls to domain-name filtering.

From ACM Opinion

A Few Simple Checks Would Transform Science Reporting

The U.K.'s Leveson inquiry is not just about illegally obtained tittle-tattle, it's a chance to curb sensationalist misreporting of science.

The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem
From ACM Opinion

The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem

At the beginning of this year I wrote that the transition to universal mobile digital money is likely to be among the most exciting, important and challenging...

From ACM Opinion

The Future of Moral Machines

A robot walks into a bar and says, "I’ll have a screwdriver." A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says "Give me what’s in your cash register."...

From ACM Opinion

The Year on the Web

We've been living in the age of social media for a long time, but 2011 was the year that all the information we share online began to accrete into something greater...
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