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Anger on Weibo Over Flight 370
From ACM Opinion

Anger on Weibo Over Flight 370

Tragedy, when its cause and the fate of its victims are still unknown, is supposed to occasion solidarity.

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...

The Problem with Easy Technology
From ACM Opinion

The Problem with Easy Technology

In the history of marketing, there's a classic tale that centers on the humble cake mix.

The Interstellar Contract
From ACM Opinion

The Interstellar Contract

Last September, the Times reported that Voyager 1, the hardy spacecraft launched in 1977, had exited the solar system and entered the interstellar void.

Starman
From ACM Opinion

Starman

It was a mild October day in Hollywood, but a trace of artificial snow remained on the ground as Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, at...

Through a Face Scanner Darkly
From ACM Opinion

Through a Face Scanner Darkly

Anonymity forms a protective casing.

Making It
From ACM Opinion

Making It

In January of 1903, the small Boston magazine Handicraft ran an essay by the Harvard professor Denman W. Ross, who argued that the American Arts and Crafts movement...

Google's Robot Army
From ACM Opinion

Google's Robot Army

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos unveiled, on "60 Minutes," that his company plans to deliver packages to customers with a swarm...

The Daunting Challenge of Secure Email
From ACM News

The Daunting Challenge of Secure Email

When users of Lavabit, an encrypted e-mail service, logged on to the site this past August, they found a bewildering letter on the site's main page.

Why We Should Think About the Threat of Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

Why We Should Think About the Threat of Artificial Intelligence

If the New York Times's latest article is to be believed, artificial intelligence is moving so fast it sometimes seems almost "magical."

How Facebook Makes ­s ­nhappy
From ACM Opinion

How Facebook Makes ­s ­nhappy

No one joins Facebook to be sad and lonely.

E-Book Vs. P-Book
From ACM Opinion

E-Book Vs. P-Book

When Barnes & Noble announced, a couple of weeks ago, that its Nook division lost almost five hundred million dollars last year and that its C.E.O. was resigning...

What It's Like to Get a National-Security Letter
From ACM Opinion

What It's Like to Get a National-Security Letter

In the summer of 2011, while he was fighting an indictment for alleged computer crimes, Aaron Swartz, an information activist, read Kafka’s "The Trial" and ...

The Prism
From ACM Opinion

The Prism

An extraordinary fuss about eavesdropping started in the spring of 1844, when Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian exile in London, became convinced that the British government...

The Medium of the Moment
From ACM Opinion

The Medium of the Moment

After the Boston Marathon bombings, the process by which breaking news and information are generated and disseminated looked more ragged and exposed than ever: ...

The Creator
From ACM Opinion

The Creator

When Markus Persson visited Las Vegas in 2011, for the first international convention held in honor of Minecraft, the video game he designed and built, a young...

The Story of My App
From ACM Opinion

The Story of My App

Recently, I created an app called Petting Zoo. It is an interactive app for iPhones and iPads, and creating it was a difficult but interesting process.

Moral Machines
From ACM Opinion

Moral Machines

Google's driver-less cars are already street-legal in three states, California, Florida, and Nevada, and some day similar devices may not just be possible but mandatory...

Steve Jobs: 1955
From ACM Opinion

Steve Jobs: 1955

Steve Jobs is dead. One big question is whether the unbelievably innovative culture he forged will live. Jobs was not a great human being, but he was a great,...

In Praise of Distraction
From ACM Opinion

In Praise of Distraction

For many Americans, March Madness has been a time to worry about office pools, busted brackets, and buzzer beaters. For American businesses, though, the N.C.A...
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