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The Data Brokers: Selling Your Personal Information
From ACM Opinion

The Data Brokers: Selling Your Personal Information

Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data...

Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview
From ACM Opinion

Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview

At 58, Bill Gates is not only the richest man in the world, with a fortune that now exceeds $76 billion, but he may also be the most optimistic.

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid
From ACM Opinion

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid

How can a commercial airliner go missing?

The Search For Aliens Is Just Getting Started
From ACM Opinion

The Search For Aliens Is Just Getting Started

Over the past 50 years, several SETI projects have scoured the cosmos but have yet to turn up anything conclusive. What do you make of this cosmic radio-silence...

The Future of Internet Freedom
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Internet Freedom

Over the next decade, approximately five billion people will become connected to the Internet.

5 Things That Will Remake Big Data in the Next 5 Years
From ACM Opinion

5 Things That Will Remake Big Data in the Next 5 Years

Big data has evolved a lot of the past few years; from a happy buzzword to a hated buzzword, and from a focus on volume to a focus on variety and velocity.

Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It
From ACM Opinion

Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It

I once worked with Steven Spielberg on the development of Minority Report, derived from the short story by Philip K. Dick featuring a future society that uses surveillance...

Oscar-Winning Visual Effects Mastermind Behind Gravity, Talks Physics Lessons, Nasa Imagery, and Defining the Art of Cg 'weightlessness' in Space
From ACM Opinion

Oscar-Winning Visual Effects Mastermind Behind Gravity, Talks Physics Lessons, Nasa Imagery, and Defining the Art of Cg 'weightlessness' in Space

Tim Webber is a visual effects supervisor who has worked on an array of critically acclaimed blockbusters.

From ACM Opinion

Waiting For the Black Box

Days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shortly after midnight on Saturday, investigators considering a range of possible causes—mechanical...

At Sxsw, the Next Big Thing May Be No Thing at All
From ACM Opinion

At Sxsw, the Next Big Thing May Be No Thing at All

Every year, just before South by Southwest Interactive starts, the froth starts churning. Everybody begins wondering what this year’s breakout hit app will be.

From ACM Opinion

Why Robots Will Not Be Smarter Than Humans By 2029

In the last few days we've seen a spate of headlines like 2029: the year when robots will have the power to outsmart their makers, all occasioned by an Observer...

Are You Too Paranoid About Digital Privacy, or Not Paranoid Enough?
From ACM Opinion

Are You Too Paranoid About Digital Privacy, or Not Paranoid Enough?

Let's start with one thing you hear over and over again when interviewing people about privacy: "I've got nothing to hide."

One-Hit Wonders
From ACM Opinion

One-Hit Wonders

For more than a year now, tens of millions of Americans have found time each day to devote themselves to an essential task: swiping at their phones and tablets...

There's No Real Difference Between Online Espionage and Online Attack
From ACM Opinion

There's No Real Difference Between Online Espionage and Online Attack

Back when we first started getting reports of the Chinese breaking into U.S. computer networks for espionage purposes, we described it in some very strong language...

Language Barriers
From ACM Opinion

Language Barriers

The British scientist and polymath Stephen Wolfram has always had big ambitions.

Why Copyrighted Coffee May Cripple the Internet of Things
From ACM Opinion

Why Copyrighted Coffee May Cripple the Internet of Things

With its single-serving coffee pods, Green Mountain Coffee has transformed the business of brew.

Social Physics
From ACM Opinion

Social Physics

Since 2001, the Human Dynamics Laboratory at the MIT Media Lab has used digital technologies—from home-brewed portable sensors to cellphone call records—to try...

Ballmer: Microsoft Missed the Mobile Market Over Last Decade
From ACM Opinion

Ballmer: Microsoft Missed the Mobile Market Over Last Decade

Microsoft Corp largely missed the mobile market in the last decade, its recently departed chief executive officer said Tuesday.

Remembering Mit, When There Were Just 50 Women in a Class of 1,000
From ACM Opinion

Remembering Mit, When There Were Just 50 Women in a Class of 1,000

When Radia Perlman attended MIT in the late '60s and '70s, she was one of just a few dozen women (about 50) out of a class of 1,000.

Encryption Would Have Stopped Snowden From ­sing Secrets
From ACM Opinion

Encryption Would Have Stopped Snowden From ­sing Secrets

Edward Snowden could have been thwarted from leaking classified U.S. documents if the National Security Agency encrypted the information to make it unreadable,...
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