Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the July 1, 2002 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week. For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this service, please see below. ACM's MemberNet is now online. For discussion (and voting) forums on current industry issues and the latest on ACM activities, visit http://www.acm.org/membernet Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACM TechNews Volume 4, Number 368 Date: July 1, 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Site Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company ( ) HP is the premier source for computing services, products and solutions. Responding to customers' requirements for quality and reliability at aggressive prices, HP offers performance-packed products and comprehensive services. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top Stories for Monday, July 1, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Software Errors Cost Billions" "PCs: More Than 1 Billion Served" "Program Lets Blind 'See' and Draw" "Internet Group Leaves Ordinary Surfer High and Dry" "Who's Protecting Cyberspace?" "Industry, Universities Help NASA Get Nanotechnology Off the Ground" "Idea Is One Small Step for Quantum Computing" "Video Research at MIT Puts Words Into Mouths, With Startling Results" "No End to New Ideas" "Push Here to Save Energy" "Analysts: Broadband Competition a 'Firestorm'" "Web Standards Gain Voice" "Only a Few Community Colleges Training Future MEMS Workforce" "Cyberspace's Legal Visionary" "Virtual Reality Is Getting Real: Prepare to Meet Your Clone" "Spintronics" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Software Errors Cost Billions" Software glitches cost the U.S. economy $59.5 billion each year, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The study, conducted by the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item1 "PCs: More Than 1 Billion Served" About one billion PCs have shipped throughout the world since their introduction in the mid 1970s, but that number should double by 2007 or 2008, according to a Gartner study released Sunday. About 75 percent of all PCs shipped are used in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item2 "Program Lets Blind 'See' and Draw" University of California, Berkeley engineering student Hesham Kamel has created a software program that lets blind people draw on the computer. Frustrated by the lack of applications and technology that enables blind people to create graphics, Kamel, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item3 "Internet Group Leaves Ordinary Surfer High and Dry" ICANN has unanimously voted to discontinue its at-large elections--a vote that ICANN CEO Stuart Lynn says will send a strong message to various lawmakers that ICANN is earnest about reforming itself. ICANN has also voted to approve a grace period ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item4 "Who's Protecting Cyberspace?" President Bush's Homeland Security Act is currently undergoing review in the House Committee on Science, which is proposing raising the profile of cybersecurity research and development in the legislation. The new Department of Homeland Security would ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item5 "Industry, Universities Help NASA Get Nanotechnology Off the Ground" NASA is getting together with several U.S. universities on nanotechnology that will put powerful nanoprocessors on spacecraft and responsive, bird-like wings on aircraft. The collaboration in nanotechnology will be focused on three ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item6 "Idea Is One Small Step for Quantum Computing" A team of scientists are proposing a creative way of building a quantum computer from quantum technology that already works. The group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and the National Institute of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item7 "Video Research at MIT Puts Words Into Mouths, With Startling Results" Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a technique for incorporating new speech into old computer-aided video. Using the technology, the MIT team has made a video clip where Marilyn Monroe seems to sing a popular contemporary song. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item8 "No End to New Ideas" Internet pioneer Steven Crocker is still busy pushing new ideas, long after helping create the foundation for the Internet in the 1960s at the University of California, Los Angeles. While a graduate student at UCLA, Crocker worked with high-school friend ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item9 "Push Here to Save Energy" Bruce Nordman, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, hopes software and hardware firms will adopt standard controls for "on/off" and "sleep" functions. Nordman says office workers fail to turn off machines because of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item10 "Analysts: Broadband Competition a 'Firestorm'" Major changes must be made to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) telecom policy to facilitate the rollout of broadband services, according to a Gartner Dataquest report. Gartner analyst Ron Cowles says the FCC is too demanding, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item11 "Web Standards Gain Voice" The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced the first speech interface technology to reach candidate recommendation status, meaning the technology is well-developed and the W3C wants comments from the developer community. The XML ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item12 "Only a Few Community Colleges Training Future MEMS Workforce" Community colleges are just now beginning to look at training MEMS workers as the sector gains popularity. Schools that already have semiconductor programs make the most likely candidates for MEMS programs, because they usually have model ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item13 "Cyberspace's Legal Visionary" In an interview with Jesse Walker, Stanford University law professor and author Lawrence Lessig discusses the direction that copyrights and computer networks are taking. He is cocerned about a shift away from the end-to-end principle, which is based ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item14 "Virtual Reality Is Getting Real: Prepare to Meet Your Clone" Experts proclaim that virtual reality (VR) is poised to make a comeback and profoundly impact many aspects of everyday life in the next few decades, including business, communications, and entertainment. VR applications for desktops and office ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item15 "Spintronics" Spintronics--devices that exploit electron spins--could one day lead to the development of quantum computers. Metallic-alloy spintronics, the most mature category of spintronic devices, already forms the basis of MRAM and other storage technologies; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0701m.html#item16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0628f.html -- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to: http://www.acm.org/technews/ -- To unsubscribe from the ACM TechNews Early Alert Service: Please send a separate email to listserv@listserv2.acm.org with the line signoff technews in the body of your message. -- Please note that replying directly to this message does not automatically unsubscribe you from the TechNews list. -- To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact: technews@hq.acm.org -- ACM may have a different email address on file for you, so if you're unable to "unsubscribe" yourself, please direct your request to: technews-request@acm.org We will remove your name from the TechNews list on your behalf. -- For help with technical problems, including problems with leaving the list, please write to: technews-request@acm.org ---- ACM TechNews is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company.