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A Q&a With the Hackers Who Say They Helped Break Into Sony's Network
From ACM Opinion

A Q&a With the Hackers Who Say They Helped Break Into Sony's Network

Lizard Squad. That's the hacker group whose name is suddenly on everyone's lips after it took credit for ruining Christmas for PlayStation and Xbox gamers everywhere...

What It Means to Receive the Turing Award
From Communications of the ACM

What It Means to Receive the Turing Award

The Turing Award gives us a unique opportunity to become ambassadors of our wonderful field. It increases our outside visibility and enables us to build bridges...

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?
From Communications of the ACM

Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?

Yes, but this may not be as bad as it sounds…

Wearables
From Communications of the ACM

Wearables: Has the Age of Smartwatches Finally Arrived?

Time will tell if smartwatches will find their niche.

The Tears of Donald Knuth
From Communications of the ACM

The Tears of Donald Knuth

Has the history of computing taken a tragic turn?

A Little Queue Theory
From Communications of the ACM

A Little Queue Theory

When more work means less done.

A Right to Be Forgotten?
From Communications of the ACM

A Right to Be Forgotten?

Searching for an answer to the question of how much responsibility search engine operators should bear for privacy-related issues connected to search engine results...

How Traditional Firms Must Compete in the Sharing Economy
From Communications of the ACM

How Traditional Firms Must Compete in the Sharing Economy

Considering the evolving relationship between established companies and their sharing-economy counterparts.

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked
From ACM Opinion

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked

Earlier this month, a mysterious group that calls itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems and began revealing many...

The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists
From ACM Opinion

The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists

The Sony Pictures hack is important, and the Sony Pictures hack is terrifying.

How to Conquer the Galaxy on a Computer
From ACM Opinion

How to Conquer the Galaxy on a Computer

Space is big. Really big. And not just in terms of the mind-boggingly vast distances between the stars and planets out there in the Universe at large.

From Pc to Navy, Ars Pits Casual Flight Sim Skills Against a Real Cockpit Trainer
From ACM Opinion

From Pc to Navy, Ars Pits Casual Flight Sim Skills Against a Real Cockpit Trainer

A little over a year ago, I was lucky enough to take a short ride in a Folland Gnat trainer—a nimble little two-seat jet maintained by Rick Sharpe of Houston's ...

William Gibson Sees the Future
From ACM Opinion

William Gibson Sees the Future

"The thing to keep in mind," William Gibson tells me when we meet in the quiet lounge of a Victorian-style hotel in Chicago, "is that I’m not actually predicting...

What Are Moocs Good For?
From ACM Opinion

What Are Moocs Good For?

A few years ago, the most enthusiastic advocates of MOOCs believed that these "massive open online courses" stood poised to overturn the century-old model of higher...

Boston Researcher Cynthia Breazeal Is Ready to Bring Robots Into the Home. Are You?
From ACM Opinion

Boston Researcher Cynthia Breazeal Is Ready to Bring Robots Into the Home. Are You?

The MIT Media Lab's Personal Robots Group flanks the soaring atrium on the fourth floor of the Wiesner Building, a wall of metal panels along the southern edge...

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console
From ACM Opinion

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console

Even if you're a devoted fan of video games, there's a decent chance you're not familiar with the name Ralph H. Baer.

The World Cracks Down on the Internet
From ACM Opinion

The World Cracks Down on the Internet

In September of last year, Chinese authorities announced an unorthodox standard to help them decide whether to punish people for posting online comments that are...

Finding an Image with an Image and Other Feats of Computer Vision
From ACM Opinion

Finding an Image with an Image and Other Feats of Computer Vision

"We found that people were searching for squirrels just to favorite them, just to click 'like.' And the same with buses."

The Internet That Facebook Built
From Communications of the ACM

The Internet That Facebook Built

The on-ramp might appear free but exiting takes a toll.

The Whole Professional
From Communications of the ACM

The Whole Professional

A new book inspires a reflection on what it means to be a whole, competent, and effective professional — and may portend a wave of disruption in education.
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