Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the December 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 440 Date: December 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 Monday, December 30, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Could Diamond Chips Supplant Silicon?" "Hired Hackers Expose Flaws" "Removable Hard Disk Group to Show New Device" "2002 Marked by Sophisticated Attacks" "2002: The Year in Technology" "Hi-Tech Ghosts of Christmas Future" "10 Gig Ethernet: Speed Demon" "InfiniBand: What's Next?" "Mind Games" "Robust Speech Recognition at KAIST" "The Biggest Hole in the Net" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Could Diamond Chips Supplant Silicon?" Under the aegis of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, the Japanese government has earmarked $6 million for fiscal year 2003 for research into diamond semiconductors. Japanese electronics companies ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item1 "Hired Hackers Expose Flaws" Just about any computer system can be broken into given unlimited time and resources, says Fred Rica, the leader of a 130-member team for PricewaterhouseCoopers that performs threat and vulnerability assessments for companies. He compares the hacking ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item2 "Removable Hard Disk Group to Show New Device" A prototype 1.8-inch Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage (iVDR) hard disk will be unveiled at next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the first time the new removable hard disk system will be displayed outside Japan. The technology uses ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item3 "2002 Marked by Sophisticated Attacks" A report from F-Secure finds that the number of computer virus outbreaks this year was lower than that of last year, but the sophistication of the attacks appears to have increased. A spokesman for the security company says that the rate of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item4 "2002: The Year in Technology" The Year 2002 saw more efforts on the part of the music and movie industries to control the distribution and use of their content. New copy-protection technologies angered users, and even pioneering digital storage companies such as Philips, which ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item5 "Hi-Tech Ghosts of Christmas Future" In 2050, the Christmas meal will probably include synthetic turkey put together using molecular raw materials. Christmas will be different in many other ways as well, according to British Telecom futurologist Ian Pearson, due to advances in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item6 "10 Gig Ethernet: Speed Demon" The10 Gigabit Ethernet technology, which the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved in June, has a lot of potential: It could provide high-bandwidth remote data center replication over greater distances than single-mode fiber; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item7 "InfiniBand: What's Next?" Vendors and customers alike are taking a wait-and-see approach to InfiniBand, although smaller companies have begun releasing some components needed for an InfiniBand environment. Rather than migrating data center architectures, companies are considering ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item8 "Mind Games" Video games are taking advantage of artificial intelligence in order to become smarter and more entertaining; GameAI.com editor Steven M. Woodcock explains that such qualities will help game companies be more competitive as 3D graphics and features that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item9 "Robust Speech Recognition at KAIST" The Brain Neuroinformatics Research Program at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a multidisciplinary effort to understand how biological brains process information and to develop intelligent machines whose ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item10 "The Biggest Hole in the Net" Newsweek columnist Steven Brill writes that civil libertarians have been so appalled at the idea of a standard national ID card that they do not even discuss it, even though debate is critical to the development of a system that both shields civil liberties ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1230m.html#item11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1227f.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.