Wary of E-Voting, Some
Professors Sound the Alarm
China Will Keep Pursuing
Digital Standards
Despite its decision to shelve a wireless-encryption
standard in response to international pressure, China is going
ahead with other initiatives to set standards for global
technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and
digital compression. Not only would this ...
[read more]
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Privacy Advocates Swap
Horror Stories
The hazards of e-voting, FBI wiretaps, and the accuracy of
Google searches were just some of the topics discussed at the
ACM's 14th Annual Computers, Freedom, and Piracy conference in
Berkeley. Keynote speaker and Stanford University computer
science professor David Dill warned that electronic ...
[read more]
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Scientists Peg Data's Speed
Limit
Scientists report in the April 21 edition of Nature that
the topmost speed at which data can be written on disk and
then retrieved is around 1,000 times faster than today's
cutting-edge storage devices. This conclusion was reached by
using Stanford University's particle accelerator to blast ...
[read more]
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Who Should Keep Out The
Hackers?
A recent Department of Homeland Security report that places
the responsibility for healing the Internet's security holes
squarely on the shoulders of tech providers has gained
credence with an April 21 DHS advisory that users and network
operators act quickly to prevent a pair of ...
[read more]
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Push for Voting Changes May
Not Cure All Ills
Despite the best intentions, the modernization of the U.S.
electoral process required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA)
of 2002 is behind schedule, which means that many voters will
still rely on traditional, non-computerized voting systems for
the November presidential election. ...
[read more]
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Linux Creator Calls
Backporting 'Good Thing'
The practice of backporting newer Linux features into older
versions sparked controversy at the Real World Linux
Conference in Toronto, when SUSE CTO Juergen Geck said
competitor Red Hat's backporting threatened to fragment Linux.
In an email exchange with internetnews.com, Linux creator ...
[read more]
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Nonlinear Nets Approach
Runway to Wireless Apps
New research in neural networks has yielded an
architectural network for telecommunications devices and a
mathematical model equivalent to the universal Turing machine
model used for computers; the developments are one more step
in creating man-made systems that function as efficiently and
...
[read more]
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E-Translators: The More You
Say, the Better
Scientists are improving electronic translation devices by
using entire phrases instead of individual words. Phrases are
far less ambiguous than individual words, says Carnegie Mellon
University systems scientist Robert Frederking, who works in
the school's Language Technologies Institute. NEC ...
[read more]
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Applying Grid Middleware to
Industry
Information Society Technologies' DAMIEN project is a
middleware toolset that can be applied to computational- and
communication-intensive tasks, such as simulation testing on
aircraft designs. "Most Grid projects tend to be aimed at new
applications, such as searching across databases or Web ...
[read more]
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Virtual Reality the World
Over
Some 180 virtual reality panoramas were taken in 40
different countries during the vernal equinox on March 20 as
part of the World Wide Panorama project. The
panoramas--360-degree images stitched together from still
photographs on a computer--are designed to give users the
experience of ...
[read more]
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Software Makers Ready
Desktop Lockdown
Leaked corporate documents have made headlines in recent
weeks, including an incriminating email from Microsoft, a memo
at the SCO Group, and RealNetworks' failed plans to partner
with Apple. That media attention, plus the entry of desktop
giants Microsoft and Adobe Systems, has given new ...
[read more]
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More Brain Power to Your
Engine
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) are
working on an engine that can boost its fuel efficiency and
halve harmful gas emissions through the use of neural network
software modeled after learning mechanisms of the human brain.
It is hoped that such a breakthrough would ...
[read more]
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Wooden Computers Offer
'Greener' Desktop
Swedx believes wooden computers might ease some of the
concerns people have about the impact of electronic waste on
the environment. The Swedish company manufactures computer
monitors, keyboards, and mice encased in wood that decompose
faster than the plastic skeletons of common personal ...
[read more]
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Why Does a Technical
Manager Function as a Regulator?
Around the middle of last month, the Center for Regulatory
Effectiveness (CRE) sent a letter to the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
regarding the issue of Internet governance. The content of the
letter addressed the transparency of ICANN's processes. The
...
[read more]
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IT's Uneasy About Being
Green
The information technology industry is facing some serious
challenges to the way in which companies build computers, as
concerns grow about the toxic materials in units. In the 2004
annual report from Washington-based Worldwatch Institute,
personal computers are described as "a toxics trap," ...
[read more]
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The
Internest
The Georgia Institute of Technology's Dr. Craig Tovey and
Oxford University's Dr. Sunil Nakrani are taking a cue from
honeybee colonies to optimize Internet server performance.
Their approach is based on the observation that bee colonies
maximize the rate of nectar collection by ...
[read more]
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Security Holes Force Firms
to Rethink Coding Processes
Microsoft recently released 14 patches to fix critical
security holes in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and earlier
iterations, but security experts say throwing patches at the
problem is not the solution; a much more effective strategy is
building tools and processes for creating more ...
[read more]
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IT Job Market Causes
Concern
With outsourcing dampening their hopes of finding stable,
well-paying IT work after graduation, Queens College
computer-science students are considering alternate careers,
while some are planning to pursue jobs outside the United
States. Queens senior Theodore Karoutsos laments, "If ...
[read more]
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Wary of E-Voting, Some
Professors Sound the Alarm
Respected academics are criticizing the security of direct
recording electronic voting machines and online voting,
alleging that such systems could be tampered with by just
about anyone and be used to commit electoral fraud without the
public's awareness. Their warnings have prompted ...
[read more]
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