Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the August 23, 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 390 Date: August 23, 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, August 23, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "She Wants P2P for the People" "Firms Team to Push OLED Displays" "IBM To Build Network to Link Emergency Services in Crises" "Linux, the Cheap Chic for Computer Fashionistas" "Rivals Envy Chinese Mix of High Tech, Cheap Labor" "Secret Service Expands Cybersecurity Task Forces" "White House Officials Debating Rules for Cyberwarfare" "A New Way to Type With Your Eyes" "As Threat of Cyber Attacks Grows, Security Specialists Blame Faulty Software" "Cyberterrorism Scenarios Scrutinized" "DOJ to Prosecute File Swappers" "'Bell Telegraph' May Enable Cosmic Communications" "Vaunted Technologies That Don't Measure Up" "Doing It With Meaning" "The Approaching Age of Virtual Nations" "Faking Intelligence" "How to S+m+a+s+h Your Strategy" "The Mod Squad" "Out of Their Minds" ******************* News Stories *********************** "She Wants P2P for the People" Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), who has publicly opposed peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks, will face competition when he runs for reelection. His opponent is Tara Sue Grubb, a real estate agent running as a Libertarian candidate who has established a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item1 "Firms Team to Push OLED Displays" Intellectual property company Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and chip-design firm MediaWorks will embark on a joint venture to help device manufacturers incorporate polymer organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays into future products. This will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item2 "IBM To Build Network to Link Emergency Services in Crises" IBM has been awarded a $20-million contract to develop a wireless network that will link about 40 different organizations in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., to help agencies communicate in cases of emergency. The project, which is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item3 "Linux, the Cheap Chic for Computer Fashionistas" The semiannual LinuxWorld conference has confirmed that corporate IT departments are embracing the rogue operating system as a way to drive "business value," in the words of Doug Elix, chief of IBM Global Services, who delivered a keynote address at the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item4 "Rivals Envy Chinese Mix of High Tech, Cheap Labor" Zhang Hongjiang of Microsoft Research Asia's Beijing Laboratory says that China's high-tech effort and educational investment of the last two decades has produced an exceptionally skilled and inexpensive domestic workforce that may have no other ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item5 "Secret Service Expands Cybersecurity Task Forces" Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTF) set up by the Secret Service will facilitate quarterly meetings where corporate IT experts can convene and confer on their companies' cybersecurity strategies. Secret Service members say their involvement will ensure that the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item6 "White House Officials Debating Rules for Cyberwarfare" In an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, Office of Cyberspace Security head Richard Clarke declared that the real threat of cyberattacks comes from nation-states rather than terrorist groups, and this danger has sparked an internal ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item7 "A New Way to Type With Your Eyes" Cambridge University researchers have developed software that could significantly aid disabled and mobile computer users because it enables text to be entered without the need for fingers. Dasher, created by David MacKay and David Ward of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item8 "As Threat of Cyber Attacks Grows, Security Specialists Blame Faulty Software" When it comes to why the United States has become even more vulnerable to electronic attacks after Sept. 11, experts list bad software as the No. 1 reason. Watts Humphrey, formerly of IBM, attributes more than 90 percent of security holes to faulty ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item9 "Cyberterrorism Scenarios Scrutinized" Government and industry IT professionals hashed out plans to prevent terrorists from harming critical Internet communications at the first-ever SECTOR5 conference held in Washington, D.C. Representatives of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item10 "DOJ to Prosecute File Swappers" Speaking at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual technology and politics summit on Tuesday, deputy assistant attorney general John Malcolm announced that the Justice Department is ready to start prosecuting people who swap illegal ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item11 "'Bell Telegraph' May Enable Cosmic Communications" Using telegraph-like dots and dashes, a quantum mechanic device may one day allow people to communicate with each other from across the galaxy at speeds faster than light. Einstein himself said the quantum mechanic properties enabling this communication ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item12 "Vaunted Technologies That Don't Measure Up" There are a number of technologies that promise more than they can actually deliver in terms of reliability and performance. Although firewalls can repel 99 percent of computer intrusions, relying on them as a sole means of protection is folly, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item13 "Doing It With Meaning" More companies are turning to semantics-based integration tools to resolve conflicting meanings among diverse data sources, which can hamper effective interpretation by conventional middleware. Many of the tools boast state-of-the-art cognitive technologies, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item14 "The Approaching Age of Virtual Nations" Virtual nations (v-nations) are online masses of individuals, unified by a common cause or ideology, that mirror real nations in the inclusion of and progression toward leadership, laws, power, security, monetary systems, and other elements. They will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item15 "Faking Intelligence" Pseudo-smart robots are not really intelligent, but are capable of feigning intelligence. Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center has created Horatio "Doc" Beardsley, an animatronic robot made from off-the-shelf ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item16 "How to S+m+a+s+h Your Strategy" IBM's simple, many, self-healing (SMASH) strategy involves splitting computer systems into small, interchangeable elements that have specific goals, watch their own performance, and solve hardware or software problems as they occur. This biological or ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item17 "The Mod Squad" A community of hackers who like to tweak PC games to their own tastes has been a financial windfall to the gaming industry, since the mods, although usually free, cannot be played without the original game CD-ROM. A major development in the mod ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item18 "Out of Their Minds" Artificial intelligence (AI) advocates and startups are touting AI and its supposedly lucrative applications, but past experience has taught others--sometimes to their detriment--that the technology has yet to match the hype. AI remains too esoteric a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0823f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0821w.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.