Why Software Quality
Matters
Talent Leak Drains AT&T
Think Tank
The decline of AT&T is reflected by the defection of
top talent at the AT&T Labs facility, which was
foreshadowed by the corporate downsizing of 200 researchers in
2002. Many former AT&T scientists cite slashed long-range
research, travel restrictions, publication of fewer scholarly
articles, ...
[read more]
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Candidates Unclear on Tech
Issues
President Bush and his Democratic rival in the 2004
election, John Kerry, have placed little emphasis on
technology-related issues in their campaigns apart from an
intense debate on offshore outsourcing, which American
University adjunct professor David Holtzman is unsure will
expand beyond ...
[read more]
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Time For Games to Reflect
Larger World
There is a growing movement to make both computer games and
the computer game industry more inclusive: Southern Methodist
University students Ryan Champ and Derrick Levy are enrolled
in a digital game development graduate program so they can
help give minorities better representation in games, as ...
[read more]
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NASA Develops
'Mind-Reading' System
NASA scientists have developed a software program that can
analyze the nerve signals in the mouth and throat to read a
person's mind. "Biological signals arise when reading or
speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial
movement," says Chuck Jorgensen, a neuroengineer at NASA's ...
[read more]
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Sketchy
Information
Graphical search interfaces use data visualization and
relationship analysis methods to provide a different view of
available Web data than the list of links typical of most
search results. Human Factors International director Phil H.
Goddard contends that such tools exploit "the effect that ...
[read more]
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Better Bombing Through
Technology
The Pentagon believes more effective warfare could be
conducted if the identification of underground enemy
facilities is fine-tuned before smart bombs are deployed; the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Counter
Underground Facilities (CUGF) program seeks to develop ...
[read more]
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Wireless Alliance Touts
'Magic Touch' RFID Technology
Nokia has joined Sony and Philips in their effort to
develop Near Field Communication (NCF) wireless technology,
which would enable electronic devices to use radio-frequency
identification (RFID) to interact when touched together. Sony
and Philips began the NCF initiative in 2002 (and ...
[read more]
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True Randomness Upon
Request
The University of Geneva's Group of Applied Physics and its
Computer Science department have partnered with id Quantique,
a company spun off from the university, to launch the first
Web site where true random numbers can be generated and
downloaded on demand. Users could request a specific ...
[read more]
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Tech Center Converts
Research
The Chinese government is counting on academic research and
development to serve as a catalyst for the growth of the
nation's high-tech sector. The government has partnered with
the National Central University through the Institute for
Information Industry to provide the support necessary to turn
...
[read more]
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Cashing in on Virus
Infections
Security experts wonder whether the software industry has
enough incentive or drive to find new ways to stop malicious
software, pointing to the recent rash of nasty computer
viruses as an example. Some say the antivirus industry is
content with a business model that is hard for users ...
[read more]
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Vibrating Pedal Says 'Ease
Off Gas'
DaimlerChrysler has developed a prototype alert system that
produces a vibration in the accelerator to suggest when
drivers should ease off the gas, which motorists are more
likely to react to faster than dashboard lights. This approach
is designed to save fuel and thus money by weaning ...
[read more]
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Learning Functional
Programming Through Multimedia
Haskell is a purely functional programming language and the
book, "The Haskell School of Expression: Learning Functional
Programming Through Multimedia," is a great introduction to
the platform now being used for cutting-edge programming
language research. The Haskell community is still ...
[read more]
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Experts Publish 'How to'
Book for Software Exploits
Leading security researchers have published a book that
teaches how to write hacker code exploiting software security
holes. "The Shellcoder's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting
Security Holes," set for release next week, is intended for
network administrators, but includes working examples ...
[read more]
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IT Phone
Home
Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) deployments have been
announced by enterprises wishing to connect voice to data,
slash costs, and boost efficiency, which represents the
technology's first significant step out of limbo. Dan Marmion,
CIO of hat manufacturer New Era Cap, elected to ...
[read more]
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Geek War on
Terror
With funding from the CIA, Systems Research and Development
founder Jeff Jonas is developing a data-mining system for
weeding out terrorists and other criminals without
compromising people's personal privacy. The CIA first became
interested in the anti-terrorist potential of Jonas' work when
...
[read more]
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The End of Spectrum
Scarcity
A combination of new technologies and regulatory reforms
could spell the end of spectrum scarcity and the beginning of
spectrum abundance, changing the face of the communications
industry. The notion that spectrum is a physically limited
resource is false--what is limited is the right to set ...
[read more]
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Why Software Quality
Matters
Software errors that led to the deaths of Panamanian cancer
patients from overexposure to radiation--and criminal
prosecution against the technicians who used the
software--illustrates the vital need to anticipate and remove
glitches before they become a problem with potentially fatal
consequences. ...
[read more]
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