Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the January 8, 2003 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 5, Number 443 Date: January 8, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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, January 8, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Boucher Introduces Fair Use Rights Bill" "A Pared-Back Security Initiative" "IT Gender Gap Widening" "Congress to Take on Spam, Copyright" "Defendant Acquitted in DVD Hacking Case" "Broader U.S. Spy Initiative Debated" "System Permits Long-Distance Manipulation of Image Files" "Tech Doctorates Decline 7 Percent" "Hubs Increase Net Risk" "Apple Needs Clear Path to Future" "Data Stored in Multiplying Bacteria" "Phone Calling Over Internet Is Attracting More Interest" "Nanotech Scientists Build Super-Small Circuit" "Software Designers With Vision Map Hard Drives--and Beyond" "The Year Ahead: The Future of Viruses" "Outlook 2003" "Speak Easy" "Back to the Garage" "Since You Asked..." ******************* News Stories *********************** "Boucher Introduces Fair Use Rights Bill" The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act presented to Congress on Tuesday by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) aims to revise the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) so that consumers can exercise their fair use rights when ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item1 "A Pared-Back Security Initiative" A revised internal draft of President Bush's National Plan to Secure Cyberspace cuts the number of security proposals from 86 to 49 and broadens the authority of the Homeland Security Department. The latest version removes a recommendation for the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item2 "IT Gender Gap Widening" Women have been making gradual gains in most professions that were traditionally male-dominated, but information technology appears to be an exception--for instance, the number of computer science degrees awarded to women declined from 35.8 percent to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item3 "Congress to Take on Spam, Copyright" The 108th Congress is liable to pass at least some of last year's major technology-related legislation, including bills that would enforce copyrights and create uniform spam regulation. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) is back with his Digital Media Consumers' Rights ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item4 "Defendant Acquitted in DVD Hacking Case" The trial of John Lech Johansen, the Norwegian teenager accused of copyright infringement for inventing and distributing the DeCSS DVD decryption program, ended in a verdict of not guilty in Oslo City Court. Attorney Halvor Manshaus says the court ruled ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item5 "Broader U.S. Spy Initiative Debated" The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Total Information Awareness (TIA) project will supposedly uncover potential terrorists by mining the "transaction space"--huge databases of personal information--according to Information ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item6 "System Permits Long-Distance Manipulation of Image Files" Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are developing a system dubbed "Be There Now" that supports the online manipulation of image files from remote locations, which can save hours of download time and protect sensitive files. Sandia team ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item7 "Tech Doctorates Decline 7 Percent" The number of science and engineering doctorate degrees awarded in the United States slipped 7 percent between 1998 and 2001, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) survey conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item8 "Hubs Increase Net Risk" Ohio State University researchers have completed a study showing how the Internet's infrastructure is becoming more vulnerable to physical disaster than in its early days. Whereas the Internet was previously built in a mesh-type network, competitive market ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item9 "Apple Needs Clear Path to Future" Apple Computer could maintain its competitiveness by switching from Motorola PowerPC chips, which form the basic architecture of Mac computers, to Intel-compatible microprocessors that are central to Windows machines, writes Dan Gillmor. He notes that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item10 "Data Stored in Multiplying Bacteria" American researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have successfully stored information within bacteria as artificial DNA in an effort to create a new type of memory that could survive a nuclear catastrophe or other disaster. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item11 "Phone Calling Over Internet Is Attracting More Interest" Telephony via the Internet promises to save money, but it is mainly restricted to niche markets; however, there are signs that it has begun to branch out, and widescale adoption will lead to dramatic revisions in the telecommunications sector. Analysts ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item12 "Nanotech Scientists Build Super-Small Circuit" Canadian researchers have created an electronic circuit activated by just one electron. University of Toronto chemist Al-Amin Dhirani says the nanoscale circuit is formed by a sharp metal tip that holds the source of the electric charge. Just one nanometer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item13 "Software Designers With Vision Map Hard Drives--and Beyond" Yale University computer scientist David Gelernter observes that computing revolutions took off with the advent of technologies that can map out data sets visually, such as the spreadsheet and Apple Macintosh's point-and-click graphical user interface. Such ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item14 "The Year Ahead: The Future of Viruses" Security experts predict that cyberattack methods will increase in sophistication this year, including the emergence of faster, more destructive computer viruses. "Really what has happened is that the bar has risen on how fast and how hard viruses can hit," ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item15 "Outlook 2003" InformationWeek Research's Outlook 2003 poll finds more optimism among IT managers this year than last, although their corporate strategies are more cautious and risk-averse. Seventy-two percent of managers expect revenue gains this year, compared to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item16 "Speak Easy" Industries such as medicine, automotives, video games, and telecommunications are using speech recognition technology to save money, increase productivity, and enhance their products. Using speech recognition, mobile workers can access important ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item17 "Back to the Garage" The combination of the tech recession, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the economic downturn was a tremendous blow to Silicon Valley, but it also has, incredibly enough, sparked a new entrepreneurism. More Bay Area professionals--especially the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item18 "Since You Asked..." A survey of over 500 IEEE Fellows on how technology trends will progress in the next five to 10 years was characterized by cautious optimism, and the belief that technology is a key societal component. The Fellows considered the development of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.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.