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
A Graphene Discoverer Speculates on the Future of Computing
In 2010 two physicists at Manchester University in the U.K. shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on a new wonder material: graphene, a flat sheet of carbon...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft Hololens: A Sensational Vision of the Pc's Future
It's generally wise to take demonstrations of new technologies with a grain of salt.
From ACM Opinion
How the Home Telephone Sparked the ser-Centered Design Revolution
Have you ever thought about why doorknobs are positioned at around two-fifths of the door's height, instead of right in the middle? Or why a washing machine is...
From ACM Opinion
Hands-On With Microsoft's nbelievable New Holographic Goggles
It's the end of October, when the days have already grown short in Redmond, Washington, and gray sheets of rain are just beginning to let up.
From ACM Opinion
Ex Machina: Quest to Create an AI Takes No Prisoners
It's a rare thing to see a movie about science that takes no prisoners intellectually.
From ACM Opinion
Blackhat Brings Some Hacking Realism to Hollywood, but to What Effect?
During one scene in the upcoming hacker action movie Blackhat, a team is sent into the control room of a burned-out nuclear power plant to gather clues about the...
From ACM Opinion
The Voice-Activated Video Game
When he was in grad school, the roboticist Daniel Wilson installed 150 binary sensors in his house.
From ACM Opinion
Rosie or Jarvis: The Future of the Smart Home Is Still in the Air
The tech industry once again can't decide: When it comes to the home of the future, will it have a centralized computer telling you when to mop floors, clean windows...
From ACM Opinion
Robots Are Sneaking p On Congress (along with Four Other Tech Trends)
One of the best Twitter accounts inside the Beltway or out—belongs to former representativeJohn Dingell (D-Mich.), who announced his retirement with self-effacing...
From ACM Opinion
Linux's Creator Wants Us All to Chill Out About the Leap Second
The leap second is the rare and obscure practice of occasionally adding a second to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) system that most of us use to set our watches...
From ACM Opinion
A 100-Year Study of Artificial Intelligence? Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz Explains
It's challenging enough to sustain any scientific study for a decade. Now Eric Horvitz, managing director of the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, Washington,...
From ACM Opinion
The Little-Known Programming Problem Inside Dynamic Scoring
Dynamic scoring, as adopted on Jan. 6 by the House of Representatives, seems like the ultimate no-brainer.
From ACM Opinion
Why Cheap Cameras and Boring Sensors Make the Best Smart Home Stuff
The twin fixations of CES this year are, to no one's surprise, wearable technology and the internet of things.
From ACM Opinion
This Mathematician Figured Out How to Solve For Zero
To mathematician Amir Aczel the most important number of all might just be zero.
From ACM News
How to Design the Fighter Cockpit of Tomorrow
If you think your office needs a lick of paint and some new furniture, spare a thought for fighter pilots.
From ACM Opinion