Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the February 5, 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 454 Date: February 5, 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, February 5, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says" "Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input" "Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say" "Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System" "Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will 'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community" "Investigation to Include Onboard Computers" "Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk" "Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records" "Why We Need H-1B Professionals" "Growth: Cities Try to Cash In" "Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark" "What Python Can Do for the Enterprise" "When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma" "PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee" "Women in IT (For a While)" "DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal" "Information Highway Needs Women Drivers" "Right Data, Right Now" "Can't We All Just Get Along?" ******************* News Stories *********************** "The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says" In its latest Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec notes a 6 percent decline in the number of weekly cyberattacks on corporate networks between the first half and second half of 2002, as well as a decrease in the number of severe events. However, the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item1 "Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input" The final version of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace will be issued in the next couple of weeks, and one of its priorities is a national cyberspace security response system that will have a heavy reliance on information contributed by the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item2 "Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say" Representatives of entertainment and technology concerns agreed at a Precursor Group investor conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that there is little chance of Congress enacting any significant copyright legislation this year. Both sides have ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item3 "Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System" Programmer Michael Phipps and his team of 20 other volunteers are attempting to create OpenBeOS, an open-source version of the BeOS operating system, which was the flagship product of now-bankrupt Be Inc. Palm stopped development on BeOS after it purchased Be's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item4 "Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will 'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community" The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure believes scientific and engineering research will be able to gain significantly from upcoming progress and confluences in computing technology. In a report released today, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item5 "Investigation to Include Onboard Computers" Although inquiries into the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia during reentry are currently focused on its heat-resistant tiles, investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the computerized onboard flight controls could ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item6 "Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk" A team of Washington University researchers led by experimental physics professor Stuart Solin report that they have created a prototype disk drive with at least 40 times the storage capacity of conventional models, a breakthrough that could pave the way ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item7 "Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records" The rapidity with which the Sapphire or Slammer worm proliferated over the Internet 11 days ago beat all previous speed records, according to report from a team of California-based network security experts. "The...worm represents a major new threat in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item8 "Why We Need H-1B Professionals" Ireland-based software engineer and Turtleneck Software founder John Carroll argues that the H-1B visa program's current cap of 195,000 workers should be maintained in 2003 and perhaps extended beyond that. He writes that the fear of foreign IT workers from ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item9 "Growth: Cities Try to Cash In" Cities such as Athens, Ga., and Long Beach, Calif., are among a growing number of communities that expect to boost revenues by offering Wi-Fi networking and related services--a considerable challenge, given that Wi-Fi is still largely a protean ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item10 "Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark" A team of University of Illinois graduate students led by electrical and computer engineering professor Milton Feng has developed the world's fastest transistor, which can achieve transmission speeds of 382 GHz. Feng expects this breakthrough ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item11 "What Python Can Do for the Enterprise" The open-source, object-oriented programming language Python is ideal for companies that need flexible code for use on a variety of platforms, but do not have a lot of programming resources. Python was created in 1991, the same year as Linux, and named ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item12 "When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma" Security experts face a difficult moral choice when they discover new software flaws--whether to disclose them and risk their being used for malicious ends, or hold back. Such was the dilemma British software engineers Mark and David Litchfield faced when ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item13 "PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee" VG Wort, a German reprography rights society, wants German PC maker Fujitsu Siemens Computers to pay copyright owners a fee for every new item it sells as compensation for the private digital copying of their works. A mediator from the German Patent Office ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item14 "Women in IT (For a While)" Last week's "Women in IT: Engaging and retaining for success" conference highlighted the problem of employee retention, which was raised by keynote speaker Patricia Hewitt, Australia's secretary of state for trade and industry. "[Women are] coming ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item15 "DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal" Two court challenges to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is supposed to curb digital piracy by prohibiting certain efforts to bypass copyright protections, alleged that it violated the Constitution on a number of counts, all of which the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item16 "Information Highway Needs Women Drivers" The belief that girls are more inclined to social interaction and that to have an interest in computers makes one a geek is curbing girls' interest in technology, says Eileen Ellsworth, co-chairwoman of Girls in Technology (GIT). "These are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item17 "Right Data, Right Now" The year 2003 will be marked by advanced storage-management software that allows business-technology managers to better control data in order to make critical decisions while lowering IT department costs. More companies are upgrading their storage ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item18 "Can't We All Just Get Along?" Software companies feeling the pinch from the collapse of the dot-com bubble could achieve significant growth from businesses seeking to squeeze the most efficiency out of existing enterprise software; to aid them is an industry-wide push to make software ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0203m.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.