Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 25, 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 415 Date: October 25, 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, October 25, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Net Attack Could be First of Many, Experts Warn" "Tomorrow's Tech: The Domino Effect" "GAO: Visa Fees Boost IT Industry" "Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S." "Copyright Fights Slowing Broadband Growth" "Tech Helps Blind 'See' Computer Images" "Encryption Method Getting the Picture" "Thinking of Radio as Smart Enough to Live Without Rules" "Physicists Flip a Qubit" "X Marks the Spot" "Purdue Researchers Build Made-to-Order Nanotubes" "Q&A: Internet Pioneer Stephen Crocker on This Week's DDOS Attack" "Brave New World" "TeraGrid Receives $35 Million From National Science Foundation" "Toward a More Flexible Future" "Sensors Gone Wild" "Hot Research" "Life By the Numbers" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Net Attack Could be First of Many, Experts Warn" Although the Oct. 21 cyberattack on all 13 of the Internet domain name system (DNS) root servers fizzled, several experts warn that more sophisticated and successful attacks could follow, and are urging the federal government take action to shield the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item1 "Tomorrow's Tech: The Domino Effect" Taking a cue from falling dominoes, scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center have built digital logic elements that are 260,000 times smaller than those currently used in today's most sophisticated semiconductor chips. They created the circuits by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item2 "GAO: Visa Fees Boost IT Industry" Employers who wish to hire foreign workers for IT jobs must pay a $1,000 application fee for H-1B visas, and the government is channeling the money collected from these fees into training programs for American workers, according to a recent report from ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item3 "Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S." Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Jim Davis (D-Fla.) urged 74 Democrats in Congress to support a letter that Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) sent to White House cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke, suggesting that his ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item4 "Copyright Fights Slowing Broadband Growth" Technology and telecommunications companies need to help resolve copyright disputes over digital content in order to make broadband attractive to consumers, according to Bruce P. Mehlman, advisor to the President and assistant secretary of technology ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item5 "Tech Helps Blind 'See' Computer Images" The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a tactile display designed to enable the visually impaired to feel digital images. The prototype device, which will be tested by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item6 "Encryption Method Getting the Picture" Xerox and University of Rochester researchers have devised a method, known as reversible data hiding, that can be used to encrypt digital images and later retrieve them without causing data loss or distortion. Both partners will share patent rights ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item7 "Quantum Scheme Lightens Load" Johns Hopkins University researchers have devised a scheme that would involve the construction of a linear optical quantum computer with a lot less equipment than previously thought. The scheme involves basing the computer on the manipulation of single ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item8 "Thinking of Radio as Smart Enough to Live Without Rules" Although the FCC has recently allowed for more technologies to make use of unlicensed swaths of bandwidth, such as Ultra Wideband technology and the spectrum near 2.4 GHz for Wi-Fi connectivity, others envision the creation of a wireless network ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item9 "X Marks the Spot" Widespread adoption of wireless technologies is a foregone conclusion, according to those in the emerging location-based Internet industry. A number of companies are working on Internet technologies that draw on location-based information to provide ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item10 "Purdue Researchers Build Made-to-Order Nanotubes" Using what professor Hicham Fenniri describes as "a novel dial-in approach," scientists at Purdue University have developed application-specific "rosette nanotubes" that feature unique physical, chemical, and electrical traits. Rosette nanotubes ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item11 "Q&A: Internet Pioneer Stephen Crocker on This Week's DDOS Attack" Internet pioneer Stephen Crocker, who chairs an ICANN security committee, says that this week's distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on the Internet's 13 Domain Name System (DNS) root servers has both positive and negative aspects, and discusses ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item12 "Brave New World" Belgium-based IMEC's M4 is a 10-year initiative that aims to marry several disciplines to facilitate the convergence of semiconductor, software, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology into wireless body-area networks (WBANs) that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item13 "TeraGrid Receives $35 Million From National Science Foundation" The National Science Foundation (NSF) has approved an additional $35 million grant to the TeraGrid project, extending the infrastructure to five sites and joining it with the TCS-1 supercomputing project at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item14 "Toward a More Flexible Future" Lower corporate spending on IT coupled with a drive to squeeze existing servers for efficiency are pushing server vendors to change their sales strategy to emphasize cost savings through more flexible products that offer easy management. Blade servers ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item15 "Sensors Gone Wild" Uses for intelligent sensors and ways to improve them are the goal of several research projects, including one at southern California's James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve, where dozens of devices have been distributed to track animal movements and plant ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item16 "Hot Research" Keeping data centers cool so that system failures can be averted is a heavy area of concentration in IT research efforts, and Hewlett-Packard is working on a variety of solutions using a holistic approach, according to HP Labs researcher Chandrakant ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item17 "Life By the Numbers" The convergence of biology and computer science into bioinformatics follows the principle that all natural systems adhere to a mathematical model, and life itself can be broken down mathematically through the understanding of DNA, the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.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.