Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the March 10, 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 467 Date: March 10, 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 Monday, March 10, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Military Now Often Enlists Commercial Technology" "Digital Copyrights Challenged" "Rising Threat" "Bridging the Digital Divide" "HP Tests Mobile Unit as Personal Navigation Tool" "More Powerful, Longer-Lasting Lithium Batteries on the Horizon" "Data Mining Software Digs Up Buzzwords" "Tech to Help Drivers Brake Sooner" "ACM's CHI03 To Offer Element of Persuasion" "Internet Traffic to Keep Doubling" "Tiny Computer Lock Simplifies Security" "Unleashing the Dogs of Cyber-War on Iraq" "Farewell to Floppies?" "A Visa Loophole as Big as a Mainframe" "Hear My Voice" "Day of the Smart Mobs" "Leading By Example" "Complexity: How to Stave Off Chaos" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Military Now Often Enlists Commercial Technology" Whereas 20 years ago most information technologies were developed by the U.S. military and later commercialized for civilian use, today the flow has reversed, with the military adapting commercial products such as wearable computers, global phone ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item1 "Digital Copyrights Challenged" In response to consumers clamoring for exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), more than half of whom are complaining about DVDs bought overseas that will not play on U.S. players, film and recording industry association lawyers ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item2 "Rising Threat" As war draws nearer, government and companies responsible for the nation's critical infrastructure are cooperatively strengthening their cyber-defenses. The recent Sendmail vulnerability that put over 1.5 million email systems around the world at risk is a good ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item3 "Bridging the Digital Divide" University at Buffalo researchers are working on a optical character recognition (OCR) tool that would make a vast library of Sanskrit and other Devanagari-based documents searchable online. The Center of Excellence in Document Analysis and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item4 "HP Tests Mobile Unit as Personal Navigation Tool" Hewlett-Packard's Websign project aims to test the usability of a palmtop that can allow users to locate places, people, and services by wirelessly picking up Web pages or "signs" created by vendors. These virtual signs could include basic information ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item5 "More Powerful, Longer-Lasting Lithium Batteries on the Horizon" Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed silicon/graphite composite anode materials that could significantly boost the power and longevity of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries while reducing their size. Sandia ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item6 "Data Mining Software Digs Up Buzzwords" Predicting trends by studying the frequency of words or phrases that appear online could become easier thanks to the work of innovators such as Cornell University associate professor Jon Kleinberg, who has devised software that can search documents to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item7 "Tech to Help Drivers Brake Sooner" Using a $50,000 grant from MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, professor Eric Feron plans to integrate the Global Positioning System (GPS), in-vehicle wireless communications technology, and advanced traffic-flow models into ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item8 "ACM's CHI03 To Offer Element of Persuasion" The upcoming ACM Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference will spotlight three intertwining themes: persuasion, mass communication and interaction, and the effectiveness of e-learning. The annual conference, to be held April 5-10 in Fort Lauderdale, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item9 "Internet Traffic to Keep Doubling" The amount of information transmitted over the Internet will go on doubling each year for the next five years, reaching 5,175 petabits per day by 2007, up from last year's 180 petabits per day, according to new research from International Data (IDC). ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item10 "Tiny Computer Lock Simplifies Security" Sandia National Laboratories has unveiled the Recodable Locking Device, a combination lock about the size of a dime that uses microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The lock has six tiny gear wheels that resemble the locking system on a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item11 "Unleashing the Dogs of Cyber-War on Iraq" If a U.S.-led war with Iraq is imminent, Iraqi Internet professionals expect the first strike will be against the country's Internet access via hacking, computer viruses, and electromagnetic pulse bombs. However, blocking Iraq's Internet ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item12 "Farewell to Floppies?" There is a movement among the world's leading computer manufacturers to phase out floppy drives in desktops by replacing them with superior alternatives. The elimination of floppies is more important than the replacement technology, according to IT ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item13 "A Visa Loophole as Big as a Mainframe" With Congress prohibiting the replacement of American employees with foreign workers holding H-1B visas in 2001, more cost-conscious companies turned to the less well-known L-1 visas to bring in low-wage labor. "Is my government telling me that if ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item14 "Hear My Voice" People who are physically incapacitated to the point where they cannot perform the slightest communicative gestures, either because of paralysis or degenerative disease, can use a thought-controlled interface called the Thought Translation ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item15 "Day of the Smart Mobs" The White House and Congress learned first hand the power of the smart mob last Wednesday as more than 400,000 antiwar protesters flooded their switchboards with phone calls, faxes, and emails, part of a national virtual demonstration. Smart mobs have also ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item16 "Leading By Example" Although federal agencies have suffered notorious security breaches are often criticized for their weak information security practices, many federal agencies are now taking cybersecurity more seriously, and some are on the cutting-edge of computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item17 "Complexity: How to Stave Off Chaos" IT complexity is increasing: 42 percent of nearly 500 IT executives polled by CIO Insight in January reported that their IT systems were excessively complex, and added that, on average, 29 percent of their IT budgets were spent on maintenance and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0310m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0307f.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.