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 Communications of the ACM
On Turbocharged, Heat-Seeking, Robotic Fishing Poles
There is a well-known proverb, "If you give someone a fish, they'll eat for a day; if you teach them how to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime." The point is obvious...
From Communications of the ACM
The Legacy of Steve Jobs
Reflecting on the career and contributions of the Apple cofounder.
From Communications of the ACM
Life, Death, and the iPad: Cultural Symbols and Steve Jobs
In the days that followed Steve Jobs' death, he was frequently compared to Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. But Jobs was creating experiences, not technologies or...
From Communications of the ACM
The Most Ancient Marketing
Before Apple, Steve Jobs famously went to India with a college friend. While I never had occasion to talk to Jobs about it, I have a theory I wish I had a chance...
From ACM Opinion
Take That, Adobe! Jobs Gets Last Laugh on Flash
In April, 2010, Steve Jobs devoted about 1,700 words to a public post ripping Adobe's Flash to shreds. His most cutting comments concerned the mobile version of...
From ACM Opinion
Irobot Ceo: Enough with the Gimmick 'bots
It's no surprise that uber-geek and iRobot CEO Colin Angle is a Star Wars fan.
From ACM Opinion
These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say
We revealed our ultimate reading list in "9 Essential Geek Books You Must Read Right Now" last month. Now Wired.com readers have spoken, voting for their favorites...
From ACM Opinion
Why Microsoft Embraced Gaming
When the original Xbox video-game console went on sale in 2001, it wasn't clear why Microsoft, known for staid workplace software, was branching out into fast...
From ACM Opinion
Apple
In his recent biography of Steve Jobs, author Walter Isaacson says the Apple visionary revealed to him that he had finally "cracked" the problem with TV and was...
From ACM Opinion
5 Wishes For the Next Generation of Consoles
So what do Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have in store for us with the next generation of consoles? When will we see the Xbox 720, the PS4, and the Wii-2, and...
From ACM Opinion
The Joke's on Your Computer: The Latest Humor Coded Into Software
In Google Maps, the distance-measuring tool offers a choice of three unit systems: Metric, English or "I’m Feeling Geeky." If you click the third one, you’re...
From ACM News
You Are Data
Bits and Base Pairs explores the concept that the information encoded in our DNA can be compressed down to just 4MB, the equivalent, for example, of "the three...
From ACM News
Animators Distill Steve Jobs's Bio Into 90 Seconds
Animators from NMA.TV have reached a new high in campy 3D synthesis of real-world events, boiling down all 630 pages of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio into...
From Communications of the ACM
Information Seeking: Convergence of Search, Recommendations, and Advertising
How to address user information needs amidst a preponderance of data.
From Communications of the ACM
Gender Demographics Trends and Changes in U.S. CS Departments
Using the past 10 years of Taulbee Survey data to evaluate female student enrollment across varied academic institutions and departments.
From Communications of the ACM
Teaching-Oriented Faculty at Research Universities
Nine teacher-oriented faculty in computer science departments at research universities in the U.S. or Canada describe how their positions work, how they contribute...
From Communications of the ACM
Will Software Engineering Ever Be Engineering?
Considering whether software engineering and engineering can share a profession.
From Communications of the ACM
Why the Google Book Settlement Failed - and What Comes Next?
Assessing the implications of the Google Book Search settlement.
From Communications of the ACM
What Gets Measured Gets Done
"U.S. broadband is terrible" has become a familiar meme. Given the growing importance of broadband Internet connections, a poor broadband infrastructure would...
From Communications of the ACM