Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the February 21, 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 460 Date: February 21, 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 Friday, February 21, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "FCC Delivers Mixed Vote on Competition" "Summit: DMCA Blocks Tech Progress" "Study Lauds Open-Source Code Quality" "Trial Near in Patent Case on Key Internet Technology" "Russia Is Ripe for a Tech Boom, Officials Say" "Lawyers: Hackers Sentenced Too Harshly" "Innovations That Reinvent The Wheel" "Consortium Releases Common Embedded Linux Spec" "Congress Preps Tech Agenda" "Has Your Computer Talked Back to You Lately?" "Butterflies Offer Lessons for Robots" "Old School" "Digital Demise" "Radio Tags, Nanotubes and a Video Cyclops" "Key Technology Predictions: 2003 to 2012" "Tech Tools Alter Battlefield Tactics" "Net Talk Gets Real" "Evolving Inventions" ******************* News Stories *********************** "FCC Delivers Mixed Vote on Competition" Former Bell telephone companies scored a victory yesterday when the FCC voted 3 to 2 against requiring them to lease new or upgraded broadband networks to rivals at regulated rates. Therefore, consumers who wish to get Internet service delivered ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item1 "Summit: DMCA Blocks Tech Progress" Speakers at the Digital Rights Summit on Wednesday warned that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is hanging over Silicon Valley like a cloud, endangering tech innovation and, by extension, business. "The DMCA's blatant restriction on ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item2 "Study Lauds Open-Source Code Quality" The networking component in Linux is written with better code than in five other proprietary operating systems, according to a study by Reasoning, a consulting group selling automated software inspection services. The TCP/IP technology in Linux version ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item3 "Trial Near in Patent Case on Key Internet Technology" The case of a retired electronics engineer suing VeriSign, RSA Security, and four other companies for allegedly infringing on his patented techniques for online customer authentication and secure communications will have its day in court starting next ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item4 "Russia Is Ripe for a Tech Boom, Officials Say" Speakers at the second U.S.-Russia Information and Communication Technology Roundtable declared yesterday that the former Soviet Union is poised to become the next major technology hot spot, thanks to several years of economic growth, elevated consumer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item5 "Lawyers: Hackers Sentenced Too Harshly" The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the nonprofit Sentencing Project, has signed a paper that finds fault with current sentencing guidelines, claiming that felons convicted of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item6 "Innovations That Reinvent The Wheel" This week's Demo high-tech forum revolved around new ways of making old technologies work, according to speakers such as Intel Capital President Leslie Vadasz, whose argument was echoed by many of the prototype products on display. Heavy concentrations ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item7 "Consortium Releases Common Embedded Linux Spec" The Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) has released its long-awaited common software platform, which will provide a consistent standard for embedded application developers. Large device and component makers such as IBM, Intel, Motorola, Panasonic, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item8 "Congress Preps Tech Agenda" The technology agenda of the 108th Congress includes deploying cybersecurity, limiting spam, expanding broadband, and shielding citizens from identity theft, while industry groups are lobbying against many mandates Congress is currently debating, including ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item9 "Has Your Computer Talked Back to You Lately?" Israeli professor Dov Dori at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has created a software translation program that allows users to make programming changes through speech and graphic diagrams. Though Dori, who is also a research affiliate at MIT, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item10 "Butterflies Offer Lessons for Robots" Although the fluttering of butterflies may appear to be random, researchers at the University of Oxford have determined through experimentation that the insects actually utilize a dizzying array of aerodynamic mechanisms, and such analysis could prove ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item11 "Old School" A diversity of computer applications and technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and data searching, are using probability theory outlined by 18th-century clergyman Thomas Bayes. Bayesian theory dictates that the probability of future ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item12 "Digital Demise" The high-tech industry has been devoting a great deal of time and effort to the advancement of digital chips, but analog chips are expected to move to the forefront over the next decade. Computers' interaction with the digital world--the coding of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item13 "Radio Tags, Nanotubes and a Video Cyclops" The high-tech sector does not want for innovative ideas, despite the financial turbulence it has weathered recently; nor has it stifled tech visionaries' search for the "next big thing." One developing technology of interest is radio frequency ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item14 "Key Technology Predictions: 2003 to 2012" Gartner believes that IT will be transformed over the next decade thanks to five disruptive technologies, including wireless networks, which will cause platforms to evolve; the incorporation of networked chips into everyday objects due to falling costs for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item15 "Tech Tools Alter Battlefield Tactics" Since the Persian Gulf War ended, the U.S. military has adopted information technology to improve its targeting efficiency and reduce the risk of "friendly fire" incidents. The new battlefield will be largely digital, thanks to advances in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item16 "Net Talk Gets Real" Analysts as well as hardware and software providers are banking on the breakout of voice-over-IP (VoIP), although conventional telephony still boasts high call quality and reliability standards, while VoIP can strain the underlying network and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item17 "Evolving Inventions" Computer programs that use Darwinian evolution through a method known as genetic programming are designing new inventions that can be patented. Genetic programming starts with thousands of randomly generated test "organisms" and a high-level description ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0221f.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0219w.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.