Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 9, 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 409 Date: October 9, 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 Wednesday, October 9, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Tech Panel Recommends Better Data Sharing, Analysis in War Against Terror" "More Students High-Tail it Out of High-Tech Classes" "Cutting-Edge Tech Grabs Federal Grants" "Better PCs with Plastic Magnets" "Are Tech Jobs Paying Less?" "Quantum Leaps May Solve Impossible Problems" "Beware of the Internet Toll Booth" "CMU Taking a Leading Role in War Against Cyberterror" "IT Advances to Drive Lots of Job Cuts, Gartner Predicts" "Chicago Researchers Move Toward Molecular Transistor" "Computer-Human Conversation Closer to Reality" "InfiniBand Finds Favor in Testing" "Most IT Not Ready for Cars, Says GM" "Studying Evolution with Digital Organisms" "ACM Conference to Spotlight the Strengthens, Apps of Object Technology" "Stolen Code" "PCAST Aims to Expand Offerings to Stir Broadband Growth" "What Does the Internet Look Like?" "Nowhere to Run" "Being Wireless" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Tech Panel Recommends Better Data Sharing, Analysis in War Against Terror" Federal officials need to think more critically about how to share and analyze data, and build a decentralized IT network in order to collaborate with local and state officials, according to the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item1 "More Students High-Tail it Out of High-Tech Classes" U.S. colleges say fewer and fewer students are registering for computer science and engineering classes, and experts say the trend could lead to a severe shortage of workers once the economy revitalizes. Enrollment in a key computer science course at Ohio ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item2 "Cutting-Edge Tech Grabs Federal Grants" The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded $92 million in federal grants to 40 advanced-technology initiatives on Tuesday. Over $12 million went toward nanotechnology projects, including a proposal from General Motors ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item3 "Better PCs with Plastic Magnets" Ohio State University researchers are designing a computer that could boast crash-proof data, high-speed processing, and instant boot-ups by exploiting electron spin using magnets. Electrons normally spin randomly, but the application of a magnetic field ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item4 "Are Tech Jobs Paying Less?" There has been a noticeable decline in both the number of technology jobs available as well as salary growth since the tech boom ended. Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John A. Challenger says that employers "are in no rush to hire, and apparently they ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item5 "Quantum Leaps May Solve Impossible Problems" Australian mathematician Tien Kieu is challenging long-cherished notions of mathematics and computability as outlined by Alan Turing and Alonzo Church, whose Turing-Church Thesis states that problems are insoluble if a computer is unable to solve them, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item6 "Beware of the Internet Toll Booth" The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently rejected patented software for use in open standards in what is likely the first in a series of battles to keep software fees away from open technology standards. Had patented software been allowed into ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item7 "CMU Taking a Leading Role in War Against Cyberterror" Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and CERT Coordination Center staff have been working for two years to set up CMU's new Center for Computer and Communications Security, and a five-year, $35.5 million grant from the Department of Defense could further their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item8 "IT Advances to Drive Lots of Job Cuts, Gartner Predicts" Gartner released a top 10 list of IT forecasts at its Symposium/ITxpo 2002 conference on Monday, and among them was a prediction that continued technology advances will lead to millions of layoffs starting within the next two years. Such ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item9 "Chicago Researchers Move Toward Molecular Transistor" University of Chicago chemists have created a diode from a single molecule, and report their findings in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Oct. 2 issue of Angewandte Chemie. "Essentially, [chemistry professor Lupin Yu] ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item10 "Computer-Human Conversation Closer to Reality" A truly intelligent computer can carry out conversations with people without them realizing they are talking to a machine, according to the Turing Test. Brainhat has developed a natural language operating system that can technically pass the Turing ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item11 "InfiniBand Finds Favor in Testing" The emerging InfiniBand standard promises to speed data transfer and ease input/output burdens on CPUs and could eventually replace the PC's ubiquitous PCI bus, although its first use likely will be to boost data center performance. In ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item12 "Most IT Not Ready for Cars, Says GM" Tony Scott, GM's CTO of information systems and services, says the IT industry has not succeeded in providing the software and hardware necessary for in-car systems. The IT industry is "not ready yet," he said at Internet World Fall 2002 in New York. He ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item13 "Studying Evolution with Digital Organisms" Researchers at Caltech's Digital Life Laboratory and Michigan State University's Center for Biological Modeling believe that observing self-replicating digital organisms will shed new light on Darwinian evolution. Using such organisms, Caltech's Chris ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item14 "ACM Conference to Spotlight the Strengthens, Apps of Object Technology" An upcoming conference on object-oriented technology will focus on the latest practices of reuse, enterprise components, programming challenges, Web services, new computing models, and much more. The 17th Annual ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item15 "Stolen Code" Europe appears to be taking a cue from the United States to make software patents allowable, a move that has split the European software community into supporters who claim it will spur innovation, and opponents who argue it will have the opposite ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item16 "PCAST Aims to Expand Offerings to Stir Broadband Growth" The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) last week issued a draft of a report to be released later this month that argues that more pervasive broadband adoption will help rejuvenate the economy. The council said direct ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item17 "What Does the Internet Look Like?" The Internet's structure has been the source of much argument: Understanding it is difficult, given its unplanned expansion, but simultaneously vital, because comprehending the interconnection of its hundreds of thousands of routing computers is necessary ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item18 "Nowhere to Run" The American, British, and Australian governments are bringing in less foreign technology help to shore up their domestic IT workforce, but Canada is taking the opposite approach. Although there was a 4.3 percent increase in professional, scientific, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item19 "Being Wireless" MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte predicts wireless 802.11 systems will transform telecommunications from a centralized, proprietary mesh of networks to one that is open and free to most users. Although phone companies are pursuing 3G ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1009w.html#item20 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.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.