The Future Starts Here
Are Security Threats Really
Overhyped?
Gartner principal analyst Lawrence Orans and Gartner vice
president John Pescatore recently released a report of the top
five most "overhyped IT security threats." The list includes
attacks on IP telephony and mobile devices, because warnings
about such attacks are significantly ahead of any ...
[read more]
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Building a
Computer-Readable Web
The Web Service Modeling Framework (WSMF) created by
researchers working on the IST Semantic Web Enabled Web
Services project is overcoming the problem of automated query
and analysis of Web page data. "The idea is to enable software
applications to carry out a complete instruction such as, say,
...
[read more]
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DARPA Assailed for Cutting
Back Support of Basic Computing Research at U.S.
Universities
The computing research community jas joined forces in
criticizing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) for reducing funding of basic, open-ended, blue-sky"
computing research at colleges across the country. In a joint
...
[read more]
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European Commission Mulls
Who Should Govern the Internet
The European Commission has published a 13-page
communication that calls for a new cooperation model for
Internet governance, but does not get very specific about a
role for ICANN. "Existing Internet governance mechanisms
should be founded on a more solid democratic, transparent, and
multilateral ...
[read more]
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Grey Matter, Blue
Matter
IBM and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
of Switzerland are collaborating on an effort to reproduce the
human brain using computers. In a project expected to take two
to three years to complete, the two will work to build a
simulation of a neocortical column of the ...
[read more]
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How Computers Make Our Kids
Stupid
A growing body of evidence suggests that excessive use of
computers and the Internet can impair children's learning
faculties by distracting them from homework, encouraging
compulsive behavior and superficial thinking, and supplanting
live student-teacher interaction. Analysis of the results of
...
[read more]
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Internet Founders Honored
With Computing's "Nobel"
The ACM bestowed its highest honor upon Vinton Cerf and
Robert Kahn at its annual banquet held last weekend in San
Francisco. The ACM's 2004 A.M. Turing Award, the computing
industry's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, was given to Cerf
and Kahn for their ...
[read more]
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Making IT
Women-Friendly
Over 250 women from over 20 nations have descended in
Baltimore, Md., this week to attend a symposium put together
by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Center for
Women and Information Technology. The symposium's goal is to
establish a five-year initiative to help women ...
[read more]
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Microsoft Research Aims to
Ease Development
Microsoft Research India in Bangalore is developing new
technology that will make it easier for software developers
and systems integrators to add new features or modify
functionality in enterprise business applications. The effort,
called the Rigorous Software Engineering project internally,
...
[read more]
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Scheme Promoting IT Jobs
to Girls
The South East England Development Agency is funding a
program that seeks to encourage girls to pursue IT-related
careers. The Computer Club for Girls (CC4G) is a government
initiative designed to educate school girls that IT jobs are
not exclusively for boys. The program is being introduced ...
[read more]
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Somehow, Usenet Lumbers
On
Usenet, founded in 1979 at Duke University and the favorite
online hangout for computer buffs for years, is making a
comeback after being overwhelmed by spam and piracy since
America Online made it easily accessible in 1993. Usenet, a
type of peer-to-peer network, is a system comprised of
thousands ...
[read more]
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Sun Builds a Fortress for
Scientists
Sun Microsystems is developing a technical language called
Fortress that is envisioned as a successor to Fortran,
although the new language will not be ready for at least
another five years. The Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency is helping fund the development of Fortress in the hope
...
[read more]
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Xen Getting Multiprocessor
Support
Version 3.0 of XenSource's Xen software will likely undergo
testing this month and could be ready for release in August or
even sooner, according to company founder Ian Pratt. Xen is a
type of software known as a "hypervisor," allowing multiple
operating systems to run on a single ...
[read more]
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Poker-Faced
Computer software handed chess legend Garry Kasparov his
first professional loss and rewrote 2,000 years of strategy in
backgammon, but can it conquer poker? The answer, say experts,
is yes but not now and maybe not in the near future as well.
Next month, Las Vegas will host the "World Series of ...
[read more]
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Internet Piracy Sails
On
The Supreme Court is soon expected to issue a decision in
the MGM vs. Grokster case, a ruling that will have
ramifications for the file-sharing and recording industries
and the issue of Internet piracy. In advance of the ruling,
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ...
[read more]
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Software a Sight for Sore
Eyes
IBM's Web Adaptation Technology software permits people
with impaired vision and disabilities to control Web pages to
meet their needs. The software can recite out loud what is on
the page, enlarge text, block distracting screen backgrounds
or animation, and make the keyboard simpler ...
[read more]
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The Future Starts
Here
Popular Science spotlights several research projects with
stunning potential as future technologies. The RoboCoaster
envisioned by Gino De-Gol aims to take a time-honored thrill
ride to a new level by enhancing a traditional roller coaster
with virtual-reality simulation and ...
[read more]
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