Communications of the ACM
From ACM Opinion
Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses
Architects draw detailed plans before a brick is laid or a nail is hammered. Programmers and software engineers don't. Can this be why houses seldom collapse and...
From ACM Opinion
Why Subtraction Is the Hardest Math in Product Design
Simple doesn't just sell, it sticks.
From ACM Opinion
The Fbi Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors
Just imagine if all the applications and services you saw or heard about at CES earlier this month had to be designed to be "wiretap ready" before they could be...
From ACM Opinion
On Stephen Hawking, Vader, and Being More Machine Than Human
Click-click-click: This is what you hear when having a conversation with Stephen Hawking. No voice, no other sounds, no facial expressions.
From ACM Opinion
Better Than Human: Why Robots Will—and Must—take Our Jobs
It's hard to believe you'd have an economy at all if you gave pink slips to more than half the labor force.
From ACM Opinion
Intellectual Ventures: Why the Patent System Needs Aggregators Like S
The U.S. patent system borrowed from mainland Europe a concept that had evolved over hundreds of years: the "moral right" for inventors to protect their ideas....
From ACM Opinion
No Longer Vaporware: The Internet of Things Is Finally Talking
The rise of the machines has begun: Steve Sande’s household fan is now self-aware.
From ACM Opinion
The Next Big Os War Is in Your Dashboard
Competition in automotive technology has long been about who's got the most horsepower, the best towing capacity or the fastest acceleration. These days, though...
From ACM Opinion
How James Dyson Makes the Ordinary Extraordinary
James Dyson leaps out of his chair like a restless child and picks up a big yellow-and-gray vacuum—one of several Dyson contraptions congregated around the podium...
From ACM Opinion
Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can't Protect S Anymore
You have a secret that can ruin your life.
From ACM Opinion
Wrath of the Math: Obama Wins Nerdiest Election Ever
Congratulations, Barack Obama: You have prevailed in the nerdiest election in the history of the American Republic.
From ACM Opinion
Probability Versus Prediction in Volcanic Hazards (and Elections)
Unless you've been living on the far side of the moon for the past two years, you'll know that the U.S. presidential election is next week. Now, I'm by no means...
From ACM Opinion
Cybercrime: Mobile Changes Everything—and No One's Safe
The FBI recently put out a mobile malware alert, providing us with a sobering reminder of this "evil software" for phones and tablets.
From ACM Opinion
Craig Venter Imagines a World with Printable Life Forms
Craig Venter imagines a future where you can download software, print a vaccine, inject it, and presto! Contagion averted.
From ACM Opinion
Linus Torvalds Compares Hard Disks to Satan
Linus Torvalds—creator of the Linux open source operating system—is a man of strong opinions.
From ACM Opinion
Why Everyone (not Just Geeks) Should Care About Big Data
Hugo Campos has a cardiac defibrillator implanted in his body. It sends data about his heart to his doctors and back to the manufacturer, but it takes days to get...
From ACM Opinion
If Design's No Longer the Killer Differentiator, What Is?
We already know that design matters. Product design. Industrial design. Experience design. Supply chain design. Witness the renewed fervor for the iPhone 5 today...
From ACM Opinion
Air Force Video Compares Facebook, Iphone to Atom Bombs
The world of tomorrow is going to be a dark and sinister place, according to a group of Air Force futurists. One reason why it'll be so scary: Facebook.
From ACM Opinion
William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (thankfully) Almost Always Wrong
William Gibson, one of science fiction's most visionary and distinctive voices, maintains that he and his fellow writers don't possess some mystical ability to...
From ACM Opinion