Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 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 417 Date: October 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 Wednesday, October 30, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "MIT, London Team Reports First Transatlantic Touch" "Is Linux the Key to Securing Cyberspace?" "A Lack of Money Forces Computer Initiative to Close" "Promise of P3P Stalls as Backers Regroup" "Firm Says Law Stifles Fair Use" "ICANN Critics May Create Rival Internet Administration Group" "Math Proves Tetris Is Tough" "Trio Teams Up for Bendable Screens" "Tools Coming for Connecting Information" "Data Mining Life on Earth" "Stamp Corrals Tiny Bits" "TACC Awarded $2 Million by Department of Energy for Grid Web Services" "Stepping Away From Sugar and Textiles, an Island Sets Hopes on Technology" "Mother Knows Best: From Deep Sea to Deep Space" "Machine Intelligence and the Turing Test" "The Future of Wearable Computers" ******************* News Stories *********************** "MIT, London Team Reports First Transatlantic Touch" Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University College London have managed to transmit haptic signals over the Atlantic using the Internet. In the future, the researchers say the technology could be used in a variety of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item1 "Is Linux the Key to Securing Cyberspace?" A Washington, D.C., security summit held yesterday focused on how open source technologies can more effectively protect networks and computer systems than proprietary technologies, but the federal government is still refusing to take sides, according to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item2 "A Lack of Money Forces Computer Initiative to Close" The PowerUP initiative, which helped set up 957 technology centers tasked with bridging the digital divide between rich and poor in local communities in the U.S. will cease operations tomorrow and leave the centers to seek funding on ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item3 "Promise of P3P Stalls as Backers Regroup" Supporters of the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) protocol are scheduled to meet again in November in order to discuss how to forward the standard, which has languished as Web sites and other online businesses struggle in the down economy. Introduced ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item4 "Firm Says Law Stifles Fair Use" A company named 321 Studios is leading another battle between copyright holders and fair-use advocates. The company makes a DVD Copy Plus product that enables people to make copies of DVDs with copy-proof technology, but the Motion Picture Association ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item5 "ICANN Critics May Create Rival Internet Administration Group" A group of unhappy top-level domain (TLD) holders may seek to take away some of ICANN's administrative functions next year when the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority's (IANA) contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce comes up for renewal in March ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item6 "Math Proves Tetris Is Tough" Tetris, the simple computer game with falling blocks that must be aligned according to color, is difficult to play because it is a NP-complete problem, which requires the exhaustion of all possibilities in order to find the optimal solution. Such ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item7 "Trio Teams Up for Bendable Screens" Lucent Technologies, DuPont, and Sarnoff today announced a three-year partnership to participate in an Advanced Technology Program (ATP) initiative to develop thin, bendable displays using polymer-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in order to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item8 "Tools Coming for Connecting Information" The Digital Age has made more information than ever accessible to people, and storage hardware is rapidly increasing in capacity to keep pace. The tools needed to manage that influx are also making progress, albeit more slowly, writes Dan Gillmor. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item9 "Data Mining Life on Earth" University of Arizona entomologist David Maddison specializes in studying beetles, a specialty that covers 30,000 species, and according to federal botanist Gary Waggoner, science today has only encountered "maybe 10% of what's out there." Modern ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item10 "Stamp Corrals Tiny Bits" Although disk drive makers have been able to double the capacity of their drives each year for the past five years, the laws of physics will soon put a cap on the amount of data current technology can store, thus firms are busy researching new ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item11 "TACC Awarded $2 Million by Department of Energy for Grid Web Services" The Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded $2.1 million to the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to develop Web portal technologies for accessing grid computing services. Several government research agencies already have developed Web portals ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item12 "Stepping Away From Sugar and Textiles, an Island Sets Hopes on Technology" The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius wants to turn the densely populated country into a cyber-island, and recently connected to an undersea fiber-optic cable to India, increasing bandwidth by 40,000%. Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth plans to equip ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item13 "Mother Knows Best: From Deep Sea to Deep Space" Researchers are working on a micro-electrical mechanical (MEMS) system that mimics the lateral line sensory system in fish and some amphibious creatures. In fish, the lateral line is composed of a long string of hair-cell filaments running the length of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item14 "Machine Intelligence and the Turing Test" Using the Turing test as an evaluative tool, six technologies have been identified that could boost the practical value of computers. Natural language understanding (NLU) would enable computers to derive meaning from text, but their interpretation ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item15 "The Future of Wearable Computers" Wearable computing is poised to expand into many diverse applications. Thad Starner of the Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Computing reports that users can access information much faster and more efficiently with wearable ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.html#item16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1028m.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.