The World Is Your
Perimeter
Firms Push to Expand Visa
Program
Although chances for approval are slim, U.S. manufacturers
and high-tech firms are lobbying Congress to authorize an
exception to current H1-B visa policy in order to work around
the 65,000 yearly visa cap, which was reached by February. The
exception would grant H1-Bs to foreign applicants ...
[read more]
to the top
Legislators Urge E-Voting
Halt
California Sens. Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Ross Johnson
(R-Irvine) sent a letter to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
urging him to declare a moratorium on paperless electronic
voting systems, arguing that a debacle akin to Florida's woes
in the 2000 election could be in the offing if the ...
[read more]
to the top
DARPA Takes Aim at IT
Sacred Cows
In its push to usher in the age of network-driven warfare,
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is
considering upgrading some of the key elements of IT, or
scrapping them altogether. Program managers at the DARPATech
conference such as Col. Tim Gibson of ...
[read more]
to the top
Autonomous Vehicles to Put
Embedded Technology to the Test
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Grand
Challenge, a March 13 off-road race between driverless
vehicles stretching about 250 miles between Barstow, Calif.,
and Las Vegas, will serve as a testbed for embedded technology
that could be applied to defense, agriculture, ...
[read more]
to the top
Java Stewards Announce New
Version of Java Community Process
A new version of the Java Community Process (JCP), JCP 2.6,
was announced on March 9 by the committees that oversee Java:
JCP executive relations manager Aaron Williams stated that JCP
2.6 will offer more transparency and earlier developer
involvement than before by making the first draft review ...
[read more]
to the top
In Search of the Deep
Web
Google, Yahoo!, and many other companies are working to
make search Engines capable of mining the deep Web--a vast,
largely untapped reservoir of structured or semi-structured
data; this approach should not only yield more focused search
results, but also break the control over customer ...
[read more]
to the top
Hebrew University Scientist
Co-Directing European Research Project for Internet of
Future
Scientists are working on ways to measure the growth of the
Internet and make future networking more efficient. The
European Union-funded EVERGROW project involves IT companies,
25 universities, and more than 100 scientists. The four-year
program started at the beginning of the year and ...
[read more]
to the top
Robotic Skeleton Takes Load
Off Humans
Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a self-powered,
robotic skeleton that is designed to frame the human body,
called Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX). Homayoon
Kazerooni, a mechanical engineering professor who is the
director of the Robotics and Human Engineering ...
[read more]
to the top
Invasion of the
Robots
Innovations in robot technology are expected to spark a
revolution in health care, domestic assistance, military
operations, and other areas that will foster the creation of a
multibillion-dollar market within several years. Companies
making notable strides include iRobot, which developed ...
[read more]
to the top
Brain Circuitry Findings
Could Influence Computer Design
Using funding from the National Institutes of Health and
the RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center, neuroscientist
Guosong Liu has uncovered new data about neurons that could
have a bearing on future computer design. Liu has learned that
neurons use a trinary systems of zeros, ones, and ...
[read more]
to the top
Robots That Build (But
Still Won't Do Windows)
The brainchild of University of Southern California
engineering professor Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis is a
computer-controlled robotic gantry that can build concrete
walls layer by inch-thick layer, and Khoshnevis believes such
technology could pave the way for completely automated
construction. ...
[read more]
to the top
Productivity's Technology
Iceberg
Director of MIT's Center for eBusiness Erik Brynjolfsson
says the tremendous growth in U.S. productivity is directly
related to the way companies use information technology, but
dismisses the notion that technology alone can boost
efficiency. Innovations introduced half a ...
[read more]
to the top
Alliance Sets Blade
Standards in Motion
Blade server technology is getting a further boost from the
joint efforts of two standards bodies: The Distributed
Management Task Force (DMTF) and Blade System Alliance
(BladeS) partnership, which focuses on server management and
utility computing standards. The DMTF's Web Based ...
[read more]
to the top
For Rural Pennsylvania,
Wireless Is the Ticket to the 21st
Century
Lehigh University electrical and computer engineering
professor Shalinee Kishore has won a five-year grant from the
National Science Foundation to develop multitier wireless
networks and demonstrate their viability in Pennsylvania's
Susquehanna County, which extends across 823 square ...
[read more]
to the top
Physics: "Putting the
Weirdness to Work"
Government and corporate scientists are working to
understand the laws of physics at the atomic scale, where a
single atom is able to exist in many places at once and can be
strangely "entangled" with another atom even at far distances:
Researchers theorize that these bizarre quantum effects can
...
[read more]
to the top
Stay Just a Little Bit
Longer
Bob Morison of The Concours Group cites Bureau of Labor
Statistics estimates that the United States will suffer a
shortage of 10 million workers by the end of the decade, but
even more detrimental will be a paucity of skilled labor
stemming from the mass retirement of aging baby ...
[read more]
to the top
Should Embedded Linux Be
Standardized?
Embedded Linux system developers are weighing the costs and
benefits of standardization, and their ultimate decision could
drastically affect future embedded development. The Embedded
Linux Consortium's Platform Specification (ELCPS) 1.0,
published more than two years ago, was touted as ...
[read more]
to the top
The 100-Million-Mile
Network
The Deep Space Network extends across more than 100 million
miles of space as the means of communication between the
Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars and their controllers on
Earth. The robot explorers usually send their data to the
orbiting Mars Odyssey and Global Surveyor probes, which ...
[read more]
to the top
The World Is Your
Perimeter
Corporate security perimeters are becoming less protective
as more and more corporate information systems employ tools
and processes outside the conventional firewall, and as
employees, partners, and customers use multiple devices to
access corporate data; coping with this trend requires ...
[read more]
to the top
To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact: