The Dream of a
Lifetime
Copyright Program to
Require Explorer
Starting Oct. 24, artists can go online to pre-register
certain works for copyright protection with the U.S. Copyright
Office, but are required to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer
browser. Technologists and other experts object to this
requirement, claiming it gives preference to one browser and
...
[read more]
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Who'll Mind the
Mainframes?
Mainframe computing is a critical component of global
infrastructure, yet the field is underrepresented in academia.
Mainframe computer users and developers are especially worried
about a shortage of mainframe talent as veteran mainframers
retire or pass away. ''If mainframes are going to be ...
[read more]
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Computer Character Lia
Schools Girls in Tech
Efforts are underway to counter young girls' disinterest in
science and technology, which tends to take root around middle
school. One such effort is Lia, a virtual Hispanic teenager
designed to be a role model for girls as well as minorities.
Leigh Hallisey with Boston University's Photonics ...
[read more]
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Guiding the Way Towards ICT
Standardisation
COPRAS is a three-year, IST-funded project developed by
three European standards bodies in collaboration with the Open
Group and the World Wide Web Consortium, whose goal is to
develop guidelines that can help research project partners
determine whether or not they should pursue ICT ...
[read more]
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Rumble in the
Mojave
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) 2005
Grand Challenge is a race for a $2 million prize in which
customized robot vehicles will traverse a 150-mile off-road
course in the Mojave Desert without human intervention. The
unmanned vehicles will follow a programmed route using ...
[read more]
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IT Sourcing: 'Workforce
Trends and Skills Development'
As the issue of IT sourcing promises to pose a central
challenge to tomorrow's business leaders, the Stevens
Institute of Technology has developed a four-course program
for MS and MBA students that approaches the sourcing issue in
the categories of governance, legal issues, relationship ...
[read more]
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Hackers Attack Via Chinese
Web Sites
Hackers have been focusing attacks on hundreds of
unclassified U.S. government systems through Chinese Web sites
for several years, reported anonymous government officials.
Analysts are split on whether these intrusions are the work of
a coordinated Chinese government initiative to ...
[read more]
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NASA Research Team
Envisions Flock of Robot Aircraft Monitoring
Wildfires
NASA researchers have tested a concept for monitoring
wildfires through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
programmed to simulate the flocking of birds through
innovative flight control software. Their vision involves
dispatching two or three robotic aircraft to circle about
1,500 feet above ...
[read more]
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New Directions for
Computational Science Education
A group of professors describe undergraduate
high-performance computing (HPC) education as "broken,"
because HPC skills and technologies are undervalued and
underappreciated despite the fact that they essentially
support the software, computing systems, and networks
comprising the U.S. ...
[read more]
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New Center Looks to
Advance Search Technology
A new UC Berkeley center is exploring how people use search
engines to improve search results. The facility involves the
participation of 22 faculty members of various departments
that include electrical engineering, business, computer
science, and information management systems. Computer ...
[read more]
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Grants Aids Computer
Scientist in Drive to Help Colour-Blind
A computer science researcher at the University of East
Anglia is making progress on a prototype of software that
would help color-blind individuals distinguish the various
colors that they encounter while surfing the Internet. The PhD
student is still in the process of developing the ...
[read more]
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IBM Works Toward
Replaceable Biometrics
Although biometrics holds considerable promise for securing
the systems of the future, the technology has been dogged by
the vulnerability that could arise if a hacker were able to
replicate an authentic user's physical feature used as an
identifier. IBM is developing a software system that ...
[read more]
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GPS-Based Applications Are
Getting Around
The global positioning system (GPS), which was originally
designed as a navigation aid with military use in mind, is
breaking out into the civilian sector. Siemens' corporate
technology unit is developing a GPS-based system for
transmitting text messages to specific locations, where they
are ...
[read more]
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Project Aims to Create 3D
Television by 2020
Japan envisions the future television as not only providing
high-definition images in 3D from all angles, but also
offering the opportunity to touch and smell objects that are
being viewed. Japanese officials want to bring "virtual
reality" television to the commercial market by 2020, and the
...
[read more]
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Electoral Commission Eyes
Open Source Voting
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) CIO Ken Hunter said
it is possible that its next-generation election application,
known as the general enrollment election support information
system (Genesis), will use open source software thanks to a
migration away from incumbent legacy systems. ...
[read more]
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AWOCADO: Using Metadata
for Information Retrieval in Intranet-Based Document
Management Systems
Mirjana Andric and Wendy Hall with the University of
Southampton's Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group describe
their prototype Adaptive WOrkflow Controller And Document
Organizer (AWOCADO) system as "an enriched internal mailing
system combined with a searchable 'source control'-like ...
[read more]
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Pies in the
Sky
NASA is funding a $75,000, six-month feasibility study into
the concept of a food processor that can create tasty dishes
to sustain astronauts on long space flights as well as enhance
the terrestrial food industry by generating entirely new
foods. The processor was envisioned by Icosystem ...
[read more]
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Smart Talk: Speech-Enabled
Apps Deliver Bottom-Line Benefits
Speech-enabled applications have started to positively
affect the bottom line, says Datamonitor analyst Daniel Hong.
He estimates that cost savings facilitated through a
speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) system can
allow the product to pay for itself in one to two years. ...
[read more]
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The Dream of a
Lifetime
John Markoff's new book, "What the Dormouse Said...,"
details the beginnings of personal computing by chronicling
the work of such pioneers as Doug Engelbart, whose stories are
largely unheard of, writes Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill
Joy. Engelbart envisioned the augmentation of ...
[read more]
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