My Avatar, My Self
Cyberexperts and Engineers
Wanted by FBI
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have forced the
Federal Bureau of Investigations to get more serious about its
computer skills by increasing its IT hiring efforts and
waiving some requirements to lure more IT professionals. The
FBI created the Cyber Division two years ago as agency ...
[read more]
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Dodgy Patents Rile Tech
Industry
The software industry has helped dramatically increase the
number of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO), which recently awarded a number of
controversial patents that could stifle innovation and ruin
thousands of small companies. Among the more egregious ...
[read more]
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Sharing Spectrum the
Smarter Way
Researchers are working on radical new radio designs that
would allow wireless devices to share broad swaths of spectrum
with licensed users such as TV broadcasters. Cognitive radio
has emerged as the optimal solution, not only adjusting itself
to new environments as software-defined radio ...
[read more]
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Workers Asked to Train
Foreign Replacements
The effect of globalization on the U.S. IT sector is felt
most acutely when workers are asked to train their foreign
replacements, a practice that is fairly widespread, according
to new survey results from the Washington Alliance of
Technology Workers (WashTech). That survey reports that one in
...
[read more]
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Budgets, Mandates Slow
Adoption of E-Voting
Supporters of electronic voting say security concerns have
not stopped state and local governments from embracing
e-voting systems. They maintain that most state and local
government officials have been more concerned about the cost
of the technology and whether they will be able to meet ...
[read more]
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Helping Business Tool Up
for Software Engineering
Component-based software engineering (CBSE) is made easier,
faster, and cheaper with the help of a new software toolbox
called ECO-ADM, one of the European Commission's Information
Society Technologies projects. The ECO-ADM project was
coordinated by Centro de Calculo de Sabadell in Spain ...
[read more]
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Electronics Makers, Holders
of Copyright Fight Over 'Fair Use'
Consumer electronics makers and consumer advocates say fair
use rights are being eroded as new digital technologies
emerge, such as HDTV. The movie industry and other content
owners are allied with Microsoft in enforcing more strict
copyright protection than was in place in the pre-digital ...
[read more]
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Net Plan Builds in
Search
Chinese university researchers have developed an Internet
search framework that could one day lead to customized
Internet search interfaces that are more effective than
general search engines. Huazhong University of Science and
Technology researchers say their Domain Resource Integrated
System ...
[read more]
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Supercomputing's Latest
Challenge: Keeping Cool
Participants of the National High Performance Computing and
Communications Conference in Newport, R.I., discussed the need
to find new ways to keep supercomputers cool. Silicon Graphics
chief technology officer Eng Lim Goh says while processing
power continues to soar, data centers are being ...
[read more]
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Robo-Cars Make Cruise
Control So Last Century
Automakers are increasingly adding electronics to cars in
order to increase their safety as more traditional measures
yield diminishing returns. New technologies allow cars to
sense their surroundings and avoid collisions with other cars,
adjust vehicle settings for increased safety, or even park ...
[read more]
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The Myth of the Secure
Operating System
No operating system or software program is inherently more
secure than another, says Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio,
who says all programs connected to the Internet are at risk.
Nevertheless, recent bulletins by U.K.-based security
consultancy mi2g Intelligence Unit suggest that there has ...
[read more]
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The Pervasive Computing
Community
In the future, people will interact with hundreds of tiny
computers embedded in their environment in natural and
convenient ways, say researchers from the Cambridge-MIT
Institute (CMI), a strategic alliance between Cambridge
University in the United Kingdom and the Massachusetts ...
[read more]
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World Resists
One-Size-Fits-All Web Laws
A new global survey of 277 companies indicates that the
issue of Internet jurisdiction is considered a greater risk by
businesses in North America than it is in Europe and Asia,
writes Internet legal expert Michael Geist. Businesses based
out of Canada and the U.S. are increasingly ...
[read more]
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WPFC Releases Position
Paper on Internet Governance
On March 10, 2004, the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)
released a position paper on Internet governance in
preparation for the second World Summit on the Information
Society, which will be held in Tunis, Tunisia, in November
2005. Some countries have proposed that the United Nations
(UN) ...
[read more]
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Frontline
Defenders
Symantec manages the frontline computer defenses for 600
companies at its Security Operations Center (SOC) in
Alexandria, Va.; dozens of analysts and security engineers
rotate shifts, monitoring and investigating disturbances in
global Internet activity, and sending customers alerts within
15 minutes ...
[read more]
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IBM, Dutch Scientists to
Explore First Moments of Universe
IBM and Dutch astronomy organization ASTRON say they will
use IBM's Blue Gene/L supercomputer technology in developing a
new kind of radio telescope used to examine the beginnings of
stars and galaxies not long after the formation of the
universe. The Blue Gene/L system, expected to be one of ...
[read more]
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My Avatar, My
Self
Simulated worlds such as There and Linden Lab's Second Life
are environments where people can socialize through digital
avatars, but accommodating increasing numbers of users in
these ever-expanding simulations is a constant challenge.
There, which was put together by a ...
[read more]
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