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How Computers Got US Into Space
From ACM News

How Computers Got US Into Space

When you look back at the past 50 years of human spaceflight, don't forget the computer scientists who helped make it possible.

Ralph Langner on Stuxnet, Copycat Threats
From ACM News

Ralph Langner on Stuxnet, Copycat Threats

A year ago, Ralph Langner was plugging away in relative obscurity, doing security consulting work for the industrial control system industry in his Hamburg headquarters...

The Man Who Invented the Microprocessor
From ACM News

The Man Who Invented the Microprocessor

Ted Hoff saved his own life, sort of. Deep inside this 73-year-old lies a microprocessor—a tiny computer that controls his pacemaker and, in turn, his heart.

Seven Questions For Prith Banerjee, Hewlett-Packard's Head of Research
From ACM News

Seven Questions For Prith Banerjee, Hewlett-Packard's Head of Research

It's been about two months since Hewlett-Packard’s new CEO Léo Apotheker put the company on a new cloud-centric path as part of a big speech laying out a new strategy...

From ACM Opinion

Let in the Super-Immigrants!

The best way to improve the U.S. economy fast is to poach entrepreneurs from the rest of the world. So why do we make it so difficult for them to immigrate?

Air France 447: How Scientists Found a Needle in a Haystack
From ACM News

Air France 447: How Scientists Found a Needle in a Haystack

Two weekends ago, investigators announced that they had recovered the flight data recorder from the wreckage of Air France 447—a jetliner that crashed in the deep...

There's No Data Sheriff on the Wild Web
From ACM Opinion

There's No Data Sheriff on the Wild Web

A company suffers a catastrophic attack on its servers. Gone are names, email addresses, home phone numbers, passwords, credit card numbers. Everything ends up...

From ACM Opinion

Five Gadgets that Will Be Dead in Five Years

If there's one thing that's predictable in the technology world, it's that things change. Products that were commonplace 10 years ago (PDAs, CRT televisions,...

Sputnik Helped Launch Career of Professor
From ACM Opinion

Sputnik Helped Launch Career of Professor

The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, had a profound impact on American higher education, and drove Andrew Romberger...

Sputnik Helped Launch Career of Professor
From ACM Opinion

Sputnik Helped Launch Career of Professor

The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, had a profound impact on American higher education, and drove Andrew Romberger...

From ACM Opinion

The Names

As long as it took to find and kill Osama bin Laden after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, it has taken even longer to commemorate the thousands...

Can Tech Experts Save the ­.s. Postal Service?
From ACM Opinion

Can Tech Experts Save the ­.s. Postal Service?

Some of the folks responsible for developing and promoting the technologies that have undermined the U.S. Postal Service are banding together in an attempt to save...

In the Tech Industry, Power Management is a Key to Going Green
From ACM Opinion

In the Tech Industry, Power Management is a Key to Going Green

Reuse, recycle, repurpose, renewables. This past Earth Day, we heard a lot about these concepts. As important as they are, I've noticed one phrase missing from...

Your Data Isn't Secure, Don't Trust Companies to Keep It Safe
From ACM Opinion

Your Data Isn't Secure, Don't Trust Companies to Keep It Safe

It's time for a major change in the way our personal, private data is handled. We need to take back our data from companies that are unwilling and unable to protect...

Sohaib Athar on Twitter Fame After Bin Laden Raid (q&a)
From ACM Opinion

Sohaib Athar on Twitter Fame After Bin Laden Raid (q&a)

As U.S. special forces assaulted Osama bin Laden's walled compound in Pakistan, a Twitter user was already recording a rough outline of the events to come.  Sohaib...

Online 24/7: "life Logging" Pioneer Clarifies the Future of Cloud Computing
From ACM Opinion

Online 24/7: "life Logging" Pioneer Clarifies the Future of Cloud Computing

Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, paperless for more than a decade, envisions data centers saturated with information and services readily available via the...

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Rails Against Facebook, Says It's a Spy Tool For ­.s. Government
From ACM News

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Rails Against Facebook, Says It's a Spy Tool For ­.s. Government

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Facebook "the most appalling spying machine ever invented" in an interview with Russia Today, pointing to the popular social...

From ACM Opinion

Conspiracies Say Bin Laden Lives

The decision to drop terror chieftain Osama bin Laden’s corpse into the Arabian Sea was the final meticulous step in a raid whose details were calculated to exert...

The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories
From ACM Opinion

The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories

No sooner had President Obama released his long-form birth certificate than Orly Taitz, the doyenne of the "birther" movement, found reason to doubt it.

From ACM Opinion

Iran's Answer to Stuxnet

Might a "halal Internet" be in the wings?
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