Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the November 1, 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 418 Date: November 1, 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, November 1, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Next Generation Data Storage on the Nanometer-Scale" "Innovative Computers of the Future" "To the Liberal Arts, He Adds Computer Science" "Wireless Network Industry Eyes Tighter Security" "Cheats Wreak Havoc on SETI@home: Participants" "Digital Copyright Law on Trial" "FCC Ponders Flexible Use of Airwaves" "CMU Tries Out New Mine-Mapping Robot" "Duke Researchers Report Technique to Make More-Uniform 'Buckytubes'" "Federal Workers Closing IT Skills Gap" "The PC's New Tricks" "Can Computers Read Your Mind?" "Future Funding" "Luck of the Draw" "Securing the Cloud" "Aluminum Shows Strange Behaviors" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Next Generation Data Storage on the Nanometer-Scale" University of Arizona optical researchers are working to develop next-generation, nanometer-scale data storage technology that is cheap, fast, and compact, using $2 million in government and corporate funding. UA Optical Data Storage Center director Dror ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item1 "Innovative Computers of the Future" Researchers in India, Israel, and the United States have announced significant strides in the development of futuristic computers. Four Indian researchers have proposed that a quantum computer's speed and running time limitations are determined by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item2 "To the Liberal Arts, He Adds Computer Science" Princeton University professor and author Brian Kernighan, who co-developed the Unix operating system and the C programming language at Bell Labs in the 1960s and '70s, teaches a course to humanities students that gives them a deeper understanding of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item3 "Wireless Network Industry Eyes Tighter Security" On Oct. 31, the Wireless Fidelity Alliance will release Wi-Fi Protective Access (WPA), a Wi-Fi security upgrade designed to bolster short-range wireless computer networks that are notorious for their vulnerabilities to hackers. Current Wi-Fi technology ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item4 "Cheats Wreak Havoc on SETI@home: Participants" As the race to contribute the most computing power to the SETI@home distributed computing project enters its final two-month stretch, participants are accusing project administrators of ignoring claims of cheating. The sudden gains ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item5 "Digital Copyright Law on Trial" The ACLU is suing on behalf of Harvard Law School researcher and student Ben Edelman for a continuance of a challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which could allow filtering company N2H2 to sue Edelman if he attempts to make and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item6 "FCC Ponders Flexible Use of Airwaves" The FCC is considering ways to free up more wireless spectrum, according to Chairman Michael Powell. He said that new entrants and technologies were being hindered by a 90-year-old methodology of regulating spectrum use, which did not allow them business ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item7 "CMU Tries Out New Mine-Mapping Robot" Carnegie Mellon University researchers tested a mapping robot this month in an abandoned mine, and are set to try again with a live video link allowing academics back at the university to track its progress in the tunnel and see the new map as it is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item8 "Duke Researchers Report Technique to Make More-Uniform 'Buckytubes'" Scientists at Duke University have found a way to create more uniform nanotubes, an ability that is key to that material ever being applied reliably to electronics. By starting off with catalyst molecule clusters of the same size, the team was able to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item9 "Federal Workers Closing IT Skills Gap" The skills gap between government and private sector IT workers is narrowing, suggests a study by Brainbench, a provider of online tests. The study looked at the scores of 4,110 federal and 7,096 private sector employees who had taken Brainbench's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item10 "The PC's New Tricks" Despite advancements in computer chip speed and operating systems, PC sales have fallen across the board, and Hewlett-Packard's Mike Capellas, for one, attributes this stagnation to a lack of interesting applications. Even Dell ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item11 "Can Computers Read Your Mind?" Computers that can read a person's emotional states have many potential applications, but also raise issues about the technology's accuracy and privacy. Teradata of NCR and the University of Southern California's Integrated Media Systems ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item12 "Future Funding" The technology sector's sales slump and increasing selectivity among consumers are impacting vendors' research and development budgets--but for the most part companies are continuing to invest in R&D, trimming expenses in a few cases, but not at the rate at ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item13 "Luck of the Draw" Possessing certain IT skills no longer guarantees high salaries, which nowadays are determined by the company rather than the job. Some 59.7 percent of 9,138 IT workers polled in Computerworld's 16th Annual Salary Survey reported an average salary uptick of 6 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item14 "Securing the Cloud" The importance of implementing reliable digital security is growing as computing becomes a pervasive utility that plays an ever-larger role in business and personal life. A global network composed of millions of interconnected computers is convenient ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item15 "Aluminum Shows Strange Behaviors" Research conducted by Ohio State University professor Ju Li and associates indicates that aluminum exhibits behaviors common to ceramics and semiconductors, in addition to being an electrical conductor. In a paper published in the latest issue of Science, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1030w.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.