Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the July 26, 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 378 Date: July 26, 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 Friday, July 26, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "New Bill Allows Tech Measures to Fight Peer-to-Peer Piracy" "On Trial: Digital Copyright Law" "Experts Say Liability, Antitrust Protections Needed to Improve Cyber-Security" "Time to Hop on the Gridwagon" "Women Look to Shape the Future" "In the Wings, Rugged Rivals to an Aging Memory Standard" "Atom-Level Memory Points to Speed Limit" "Future Wireless 'Net to Change Telecom" "New Robot Has Basic Social Skills" "Senate Bill Would Increase NSF's Spending for Technology Research" "What Has Your Floppy Drive Done for You Lately?" "Coming Soon: Attack of the Super Worms" "Open-Source Movement Fueled by Community Spirit" "Students Still See Careers With IT Leaders" "Britain Gives a Boost to Science" "The Endless Search for a Crystal Ball" "Only the Strong Survive" "Inventor of E-mail, A New Discourse" "Waste Not, Want Not" ******************* News Stories *********************** "New Bill Allows Tech Measures to Fight Peer-to-Peer Piracy" New legislation proposed by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) on Thursday would give copyright owners the right to use assorted technological applications to safeguard their works, as long as the measures do not damage users' files or computers, or incur . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item1 "On Trial: Digital Copyright Law" The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of programmer Ben Edelman on Thursday, calling for a federal judge to overturn parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on the grounds that it unconstitutionally hampers researchers' rights to circumvent the . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item2 "Experts Say Liability, Antitrust Protections Needed to Improve Cyber-Security" Computer security experts argue that companies will only be able to properly address cybersecurity if certain legal safeguards are in place. Financial security specialist Stanley "Stash" Jarocki explained to a government panel on Wednesday that companies . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item3 "Time to Hop on the Gridwagon" Grid computing is moving from the scientific to the commercial sphere, as attested by the growing number of IT vendors at the Global Grid Forum (GGF) in Edinburgh, Scotland. GGF chair Charlie Catlett says "were seeing attendance double for every . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item4 "Women Look to Shape the Future" Wired Woman Society founder Emma Smith notes that more women are using computers, but fewer are taking computer science courses in their university education. Technology experts can wield an enormous amount of influence, and Smith recommends that women in . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item5 "In the Wings, Rugged Rivals to an Aging Memory Standard" Cutting-edge flash memory that the wireless industry depends on has drawbacks: It does not boast adequate density for applications that require a lot of memory, and it degrades after it is read from or written to approximately one million times . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item6 "Atom-Level Memory Points to Speed Limit" A team of American and Swiss physicists has created a memory in which data is stored through the detection of a single silicon atom's presence or absence. The device can store 250 Tbits of data per square inch, although Professor Franz Himpsel of . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item7 "Future Wireless 'Net to Change Telecom" MIT Media Lab researchers expect new forms of wireless Internet communications to trigger a dramatic shift in the way telecoms operate. The 802.11 standard is allowing more and more people to access wireless networks without significantly straining them or . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item8 "New Robot Has Basic Social Skills" GRACE (Graduate Robot Attending Conference) will have the opportunity to demonstrate its social skills at this weekend's American Association of Artificial Intelligence's National meeting in Alberta. The autonomous robot uses a combination of . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item9 "Senate Bill Would Increase NSF's Spending for Technology Research" The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a bill boosting the National Science Foundation's 2003 fiscal budget by 11.8 percent, which includes earmarking $102.1 million for computer, information science, and engineering research. This year's . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item10 "What Has Your Floppy Drive Done for You Lately?" Windows-based PC makers continue to support the floppy drive, despite waning consumer demand. Floppy drives are still a standard component of most consumer desktops, while attempts from IBM and Dell to market "legacy-free" systems were failures . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item11 "Coming Soon: Attack of the Super Worms" Security experts warn that advanced Internet worms capable of wreaking even more havoc are on the horizon. Symantec's Stephen Trilling expects to see worms that can propagate via instant messaging over the next year or two. "They can steal documents . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item12 "Open-Source Movement Fueled by Community Spirit" Community spirit is a key driver of the open source and free software movements, writes Dan Gillmor. Source code is open to the general public, and programmers tweak the code and share it with the rest of the community. This spirit of volunteerism runs . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item13 "Students Still See Careers With IT Leaders" The computing industry's leading companies are the most popular career choice for today's IT students, according to a survey of 6,000 undergraduates at 56 U.S. colleges by Universum Communications. IT students expect to make $50,000 annually when . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item14 "Britain Gives a Boost to Science" On July 23, the British government approved a $1.97 billion increase in the Department of Trade and Industry's annual science budget in the hopes of ramping up the nation's capitalization of cutting-edge research. "At the same time that we renew the . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item15 "The Endless Search for a Crystal Ball" The Longbets.org Web site allows participants to post bets on future technological developments and trends, with winners receiving public credit, while financial winnings go to a charity of their choice. For instance, editor Jason Epstein bet Internet expert Vinton Cerf that over half of the books sold globally will . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item16 "Only the Strong Survive" Computer science ought to draw on biology in order to create more efficient and intelligent systems, says Santa Fe Institute researcher Melanie Mitchell. She says that evolutionary computing is already emerging in many real-world applications, . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item17 "Inventor of E-mail, A New Discourse" Email inventor Ray Tomlinson of BBN Technologies is hailed as the winner of the 13th Annual Discover Magazine Award for Innovation in Science and Technology in the field of computing. His invention has fundamentally changed the way people structure . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item18 "Waste Not, Want Not" Roughly 45 participants from the corporate sector, environmental groups, and U.S. federal regulatory agencies have been meeting as part of a National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) to hammer out a voluntary program for the recycling of . . . http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0726f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0724w.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.