Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the December 20, 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 437 Date: December 20, 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, December 20, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Bush Administration to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of Internet" "Terrorists on the Net? Who Cares?" "Study Seeks Technology Safeguards For Privacy" "Radio Free Software" "Engineering Group Aims to Expand Web Character Set" "Free Speech--Virtually" "Quantum Dots to Form Basis of Next-Generation Computer Displays?" "InfiniBand Group Sharply, Evenly Divided" "W3C Finalizes Disability Guidelines" "Bush Signs NSF Reauthorization Bill" "Center for Nanoscale Innovation Transfers Knowledge to Industry" "IBM Stacks 3-D Storage Blocks" "Rat-Brained Robot" "Wireless Visionary: The Future of Wireless Chat" "ICANN to Add Three New Domains" "The Next Chapter" "The Race to Computerise Biology" "2007 or Sooner" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Bush Administration to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of Internet" The final version of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace is expected to include a proposal requiring ISPs to construct a centralized system for Internet monitoring, supposedly as an "early-warning center" designed to offer antivirus safeguards and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item1 "Terrorists on the Net? Who Cares?" A new report compiled by Jim Lewis of the U.S. State and Commerce Department for the Center for Strategic and International Studies discounts the theory that terrorists or malicious hackers could bring down the nation's infrastructure by launching an attack ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item2 "Study Seeks Technology Safeguards For Privacy" In response to a request from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Pentagon yesterday disclosed a report from the Information Sciences and Technologies Study Group (ISAT) listing specific technologies that the government should invest in to prevent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item3 "Radio Free Software" Electrical engineer Eric Blossom's GNU Radio project represents a significant step toward the creation of a universal computer that can operate like any other device, a development that has content providers up in arms and pursuing legislation that could severely ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item4 "Engineering Group Aims to Expand Web Character Set" The ASCII standard that most Internet addresses are written in is based on the notion that most alphabets have about two dozen characters, but vastly larger alphabets in Asian regions mean that Web sites in those areas are inaccessible in North America, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item5 "Free Speech--Virtually" Over the past several years, thousands of people have become bloggers, or publishers of online journals--Web logs or "blogs"--that chronicle or discuss a diversity of topics. However, legal experts warn that many bloggers are unaware that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item6 "Quantum Dots to Form Basis of Next-Generation Computer Displays?" MIT scientists report in the Dec. 19 issue of Nature that they have synthesized a new quantum dot-organic light-emitting device (QD-OLED) that merges organic materials with high-performing inorganic nanocrystals. It has the potential to become the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item7 "InfiniBand Group Sharply, Evenly Divided" The six founding members of the InfiniBand Trade Association are evenly split on whether or not to push forward with the I/O technology at this time. For the past two years, InfiniBand has promised a new way to tie together storage, network, server, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item8 "W3C Finalizes Disability Guidelines" The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0 recommend how designers should make user agents--browsers, media players, and the like--more accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines, which were finalized ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item9 "Bush Signs NSF Reauthorization Bill" President Bush signed the National Science Foundation (NSF) Authorization Act of 2002 on Thursday, which aims to double the NSF's budget to over $37 billion over the next five years. More than $1.5 billion would be funneled into actual research programs ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item10 "Center for Nanoscale Innovation Transfers Knowledge to Industry" The Center for Nanoscale Innovation and Defense (CNID) is a collaborative effort between the California universities of Santa Barbara (UCSB), Riverside (UCR), and Los Angeles (UCLA) to accelerate the transfer of nanotechnology research and expertise ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item11 "IBM Stacks 3-D Storage Blocks" IBM scientists are aiming to build a prototype 3D storage grid of cubic modules by the first quarter of 2003, under the aegis of the Collective Intelligent Brick project (formerly IceCube). The stacked modules are equipped with a dozen hard drives and six ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item12 "Rat-Brained Robot" Researcher Steve Potter has created a robot that is directed by thousands of embryonic rat neurons on a silicon chip. The so-called hybrot is a cylindrical, coffee mug-sized machine programmed to move throughout a playpen in response to neuronal ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item13 "Wireless Visionary: The Future of Wireless Chat" Technology entrepreneur Yossi Vardi says that Internet messaging will become even more significant in the future, as more devices go online and wireless technology improves. Eventually, each device will adapt messaging technology in the way that is suited ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item14 "ICANN to Add Three New Domains" Dot-kids, .web, .sex, and .xxx are among the potential new TLDs that could be chosen by ICANN, Web experts and observers say. Afilias CTO Ram Mohan believes that the domain name market is suffering from "TLD fatigue," and as a result, he says that ICANN ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item15 "The Next Chapter" On the topic of the future of wireless technology, wireless analyst Amy Francetic believes a large technology company will come to the aid of 802.11, and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's John Jordan expects a U.S. carrier by 2005 to support both 802.11 and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item16 "The Race to Computerise Biology" Central to the biotech industry's progress has been the advancement of bioinformatics, in which biology and computing merge through the acquisition, storage, and analysis of biological data. Bioinformatics leverages the power of computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item17 "2007 or Sooner" Over a dozen disruptive technologies are expected to hit the telecommunications sector in the next five years. The integration of dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical Ethernet will facilitate the development of transparent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1218w.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.