Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the September 30, 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 the latest on ACM activities, member benefits, and industry issues, 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 405 Date: September 30, 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, September 30, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Recession Hits R&D in Silicon Valley" "Prospect of Iraq Conflict Raises New Cyberattack Fears" "PC Makers Hit Speed Bumps; Being Faster May Not Matter" "Visionaries See a Day When Radio Spectrum Isn't Scarce Commodity" "Plastics Could Solve the Riddles of Spintronics" "North Carolina State University Chemist Creates Structure In Amorphous Materials" "IBM Finds New Way to Make Nanotubes" "Software Agents Ask for Help" "Computer Defense System Proposed" "For Users Who Dash Back and Forth, a Watchful Laptop" "NCS Prepping 'Gee-Whiz' Pilot" "Goodbye to the Video Store" "Panelists: Jobless IT Workers Should Reinvent Themselves" "The Presence Factor" "Thought Control" "Chip Design in the 21st Century" "Reviews.com: Comprehensively Covering Computer Science" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Recession Hits R&D in Silicon Valley" Analysts warn that the pullback in research and development among Silicon Valley companies could signal a sea change in the IT industry. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco economist Dan Wilson notes that the reduction in R&D is even more severe than ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item1 "Prospect of Iraq Conflict Raises New Cyberattack Fears" Intelligence experts warn that military action against Iraq will probably trigger an unprecedented rash of cyberattacks directed against U.S. networks and infrastructure, and such attacks could occur in greater numbers and extend to a wider spectrum of U.S. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item2 "PC Makers Hit Speed Bumps; Being Faster May Not Matter" PC sales growth has slowed to the lowest point in years, with just 11 percent of homes with existing PCs saying they expected to buy another in the coming six months. In comparison, Odyssey Ventures says that 21 percent of households expected imminent PC ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item3 "Visionaries See a Day When Radio Spectrum Isn't Scarce Commodity" The radio spectrum is currently split up into specific frequencies because of worries that transmitters will interfere with each other, but the Open Spectrum movement challenges this notion, claiming that bandwidth scarcity could be eliminated ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item4 "Plastics Could Solve the Riddles of Spintronics" The development of spintronics technology could lead to more energy-efficient computers that can store more data and process it faster, but one of the major challenges is that traditional electronic materials such as silicon and gallium arsenide are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item5 "North Carolina State University Chemist Creates Structure In Amorphous Materials" Dr. James D. Martin of North Carolina State University reports a breakthrough in the Sept. 26 issue of Nature that sheds new light on the atomic and molecular structure of liquids and glass, one that could pave the way for new materials with unique optical and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item6 "IBM Finds New Way to Make Nanotubes" IBM researchers report in the October issue of Nanoletters that they have successfully fabricated carbon nanotubes that use silicon rather than metallic catalysts, thus preventing damage to the samples and promising greater manufacturing yields. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item7 "Software Agents Ask for Help" Researchers from Portugal's University of Porto have developed a methodology in which electronic agents exchange advice, a process that researcher Luis Nunes says could be applied to Internet traffic routing, robot cooperation, and task balancing among ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item8 "Computer Defense System Proposed" Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles are working on a new tool for preventing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks through the Internet. Called D-WARD, the program is meant to protect networks from becoming unsuspecting ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item9 "For Users Who Dash Back and Forth, a Watchful Laptop" Users who worry that their laptops and the sensitive data on them could be plundered while they are away could find Zero-Interaction Authentication (ZIA) useful. Developed by Dr. Brian D. Noble and Mark Corner of the University of Michigan, ZIA ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item10 "NCS Prepping 'Gee-Whiz' Pilot" The National Communications System (NCS) is preparing a worldwide Internet monitoring service that would warn the nation's leaders of imminent cyberattack or other disturbances on the Web. Intended for launch next year, the pilot project will watch key ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item11 "Goodbye to the Video Store" Anytime, anywhere video-on-demand can only be achieved through compression/decompression algorithms (codecs) that are far more advanced than current programs such as MPEG-2, and both major technology vendors such as RealNetworks and upstarts such as ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item12 "Panelists: Jobless IT Workers Should Reinvent Themselves" Unemployed IT workers disturbed over the influx of foreign H-1B and L-1 workers and overseas outsourcing should accept their presence and instead focus on boosting their own talents beyond programming, said a panelist at a recent outsourcing conference ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item13 "The Presence Factor" As new protocols are being worked out, vendors are preparing to infuse presence technology into more business applications, including voice and video, taking the technology out of the realm of instant messaging and making it a standard part of corporate ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item14 "Thought Control" Initiatives to develop technologies that would allow paralysis victims to perform simple activities--moving a cursor on a computer screen, for example--by thought have been constrained by inaccurate motion reproduction and prolonged training periods, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item15 "Chip Design in the 21st Century" A new model for semiconductor design will be necessary as chips approach the sub-submicron level, a development that is impractical unless such chips can be produced cheaply and in mass quantities. Platform-based embedded systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item16 "Reviews.com: Comprehensively Covering Computer Science" Reviews.com is a retooled version of Computing Services, one that offers more pros than cons, in the opinion of SMF Information Services owner Susan Fingerman. Books, articles, symposia, technical reports, theses, and Web-only publications are covered ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0927f.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.