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Intellectual Ventures: Why the Patent System Needs Aggregators Like ­S
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....

No Longer Vaporware: The Internet of Things Is Finally Talking
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.

The Next Big Os War Is in Your Dashboard
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...

How James Dyson Makes the Ordinary Extraordinary
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...

Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can't Protect ­S Anymore
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.

Wrath of the Math: Obama Wins Nerdiest Election Ever
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.

Probability Versus Prediction in Volcanic Hazards (and Elections)
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...

Cybercrime: Mobile Changes Everything—and No One's Safe
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.

Craig Venter Imagines a World with Printable Life Forms
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.

Linus Torvalds Compares Hard Disks to Satan
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.

Why Everyone (not Just Geeks) Should Care About Big Data
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...

If Design's No Longer the Killer Differentiator, What Is?
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.

William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (thankfully) Almost Always Wrong
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...

Rumor Review: What to Expect from Apple's September 12 Media Event
From ACM Opinion

Rumor Review: What to Expect from Apple's September 12 Media Event

Six years since its debut, the iPhone shows no signs of slowing in popularity.

Meet the Man Who's Rewiring Google From the Inside Out
From ACM Opinion

Meet the Man Who's Rewiring Google From the Inside Out

It was a tweet that fired the imagination like few others. On May 10, 2011, at 1:35 in the afternoon, Eric Brewer told the world he was redesigning the most important...

Todd Akin and the Anti-Science House Science Committee
From ACM Opinion

Todd Akin and the Anti-Science House Science Committee

Aside from the sheer biological ludicrousness of Todd Akin's ideas on female physiology, one unsettling subplot to the debacle is his presence on the House of Committee...

Nasa Mohawk Guy Bobak Ferdowsi on Sci-Fi, Legos, and Becoming a Meme
From ACM Opinion

Nasa Mohawk Guy Bobak Ferdowsi on Sci-Fi, Legos, and Becoming a Meme

As space geeks watched nervously to see if NASA's Curiosity rover would land safely on Mars, many found themselves wondering, "Hey, who's that cool dude with the...

Robot Master
From ACM Opinion

Robot Master

When you visit Manuela Veloso at Carnegie Mellon University, you're not guided to her office by a security officer or even issued instructions by a secretary at...

How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
From ACM Opinion

How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed.
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