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Linux's Creator Wants Us All to Chill Out About the Leap Second
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...

A 100-Year Study of Artificial Intelligence? Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz Explains
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,...

This Mathematician Figured Out How to Solve For Zero
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.

How to Design the Fighter Cockpit of Tomorrow
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.

What the World Will Speak in 2115
From ACM Opinion

What the World Will Speak in 2115

In 1880 a Bavarian priest created a language that he hoped the whole world could use.

If the Supreme Court Tackles the Nsa in 2015, It'll Be One of These Five Cases
From ACM Opinion

If the Supreme Court Tackles the Nsa in 2015, It'll Be One of These Five Cases

Roughly a year and a half since the first Snowden disclosures, there's already been a judicial order to shut down the National Security Agency's bulk metadata collection...

The Biggest Security Threats We'll Face in 2015
From ACM Opinion

The Biggest Security Threats We'll Face in 2015

As the clock strikes midnight on the new year, so begins the countdown to a new round of security threats and breaches that doubtless will unfold in 2015. But this...

2014 in Computing: Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence
From ACM News

2014 in Computing: Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence

The holy grail of artificial intelligence—creating software that comes close to mimicking human intelligence—remains far off. But 2014 saw major strides in machine...

This Year's 8 Smartest ­i Design Ideas
From ACM News

This Year's 8 Smartest ­i Design Ideas

When your family gathered for the holidays this year, did you take note of the technology everyone was using?

A Q&a With the Hackers Who Say They Helped Break Into Sony's Network
From ACM Opinion

A Q&a With the Hackers Who Say They Helped Break Into Sony's Network

Lizard Squad. That's the hacker group whose name is suddenly on everyone's lips after it took credit for ruining Christmas for PlayStation and Xbox gamers everywhere...

Are These the Five Craziest Space Missions?
From ACM Opinion

Are These the Five Craziest Space Missions?

The landing of the Philae Lander—on a comet travelling at 135,000km/h (84,000mph)—has been hailed as the start of a new chapter in space exploration.

North Korea and Cyberterrorists Won Big in Sony Hack, Researcher Says
From ACM Opinion

North Korea and Cyberterrorists Won Big in Sony Hack, Researcher Says

It looks like the great cyber-war with North Korea has begun, at least by proxy.

Fear Artificial Stupidity, Not Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

Fear Artificial Stupidity, Not Artificial Intelligence

It is not often that you are obliged to proclaim a much-loved genius wrong, but in his alarming prediction on artificial intelligence and the future of humankind...

Comet Breakthrough of the Year + People's Choice
From ACM Opinion

Comet Breakthrough of the Year + People's Choice

This year's breakthrough captured the public's imagination with a series of hard-won pictures, beamed to Earth from a place beyond Mars.

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked
From ACM Opinion

Sony Made It Easy, but Any of ­S Could Get Hacked

Earlier this month, a mysterious group that calls itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems and began revealing many...

The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists
From ACM Opinion

The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists

The Sony Pictures hack is important, and the Sony Pictures hack is terrifying.

From Pc to Navy, Ars Pits Casual Flight Sim Skills Against a Real Cockpit Trainer
From ACM Opinion

From Pc to Navy, Ars Pits Casual Flight Sim Skills Against a Real Cockpit Trainer

A little over a year ago, I was lucky enough to take a short ride in a Folland Gnat trainer—a nimble little two-seat jet maintained by Rick Sharpe of Houston's ...

Dumbing It Down in the Cockpit
From ACM Opinion

Dumbing It Down in the Cockpit

Long gone are the leather jackets, goggles, and silk scarves flung over the shoulders of aviators who wrestled with flight controls, furiously scanned instruments...

Forget Turing—i Want to Test Computer Creativity
From ACM Opinion

Forget Turing—i Want to Test Computer Creativity

What are the elements of the Turing test?

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Threat—Yet

Does artificial intelligence threaten our species, as the cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently suggested?
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