Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 30, 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 489 Date: April 30, 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, April 30, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Scientists Protest EU Software Patents" "Sending of Spam With Fraud Is Now Felony in Virginia" "DARPA Funds TIA Privacy Study" "Are Internet Ballots a Vote-Fixer's Dream?" "The War Against Spam" "As Privacy vs. Security Debate Heats Up, NSF Primes Sensor Pump" "Licensed to War Drive in N.H." "Speech Recognition Programs Still on ABCs" "A New Way to Catch a Hacker" "Geek Debate Gains National Prominence" "Middleware Initiative Contributes Third Software Release" "Suppliers Spar as Fast USB Nears" "Borg Aimed for Achievement" "Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device" "Halting Nanotech Research 'Illogical', Says Pioneer" "Digital Cells" "Sliver of the Pie" "Leveraging a Global Advantage" "Who Loves Ya, Baby?" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Scientists Protest EU Software Patents" A cadre of 31 European scientists has signed a petition submitted to the European Parliament opposing a proposal that they fear could establish a U.S.-style patent system in the European Union that allows software ideas and algorithms to be patented. They ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item1 "Sending of Spam With Fraud Is Now Felony in Virginia" Growing public anger toward unsolicited commercial email and the deceptive methods that spammers use is causing Congress and U.S. states to consider tough solutions, and one of the harshest anti-spam measures was passed into law by the state of Virginia ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item2 "DARPA Funds TIA Privacy Study" The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate has awarded a $3.5 million contract to the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to study the individual privacy protections of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. The TIA is being ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item3 "Are Internet Ballots a Vote-Fixer's Dream?" A number of computer experts are worried about government elections being electronically tabulated, with some even collecting votes via the Internet. The United Kingdom is conducting 17 such electronic elections this week in different ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item4 "The War Against Spam" Jupiter Research estimates that the number of unsolicited commercial emails users receive annually has skyrocketed from 140 billion in 2001 to 319 billion in 2003, while the average email recipient is expected to have to wade through more than 3,900 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item5 "As Privacy vs. Security Debate Heats Up, NSF Primes Sensor Pump" The National Science Foundation (NSF) is set to fuel standards-setting and new products in the nascent wireless sensor sector. John Cozzens, program director for the NSF's Signal Processing Sensor Program, said at a recent Palo Alto Research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item6 "Licensed to War Drive in N.H." New Hampshire is considering legislation that could make it legal to exploit open wireless networks in the state, a first that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) calls "enlightened." "It seems like a fairly clean way of accommodating the geek-culture ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item7 "Speech Recognition Programs Still on ABCs" The adoption of speech recognition technology has proceeded at a slow pace due to computers' general inability to understand the many nuances of human speech. Speech software and embedded speech devices are doing well, but they specialize in niche ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item8 "A New Way to Catch a Hacker" The nonprofit Honeynet Project, the brainchild of computer security expert Lance Spitzner, has spent the last four years studying hackers and the intrusion methods they use by allowing them to break into honeypots--systems intentionally designed to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item9 "Geek Debate Gains National Prominence" Major American institutions have begun to work on balancing out the public and private ownership of ideas--a topic formerly limited to computer enthusiasts--in a way that spurs innovation without hindering follow-on innovation. This debate stems from ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item10 "Middleware Initiative Contributes Third Software Release" The National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative (NMI) has made the third release of its software toolset available to the public. NMI seeks to create the middleware and other software components necessary for wider online scientific collaboration ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item11 "Suppliers Spar as Fast USB Nears" A 480 Mbps "high-speed" version of the USB 2.0 connectivity standard is expected to come out before 2004, and most vendors are mating it to the "On The Go" (OTG) specification. USB On-The-Go products are already being offered by several ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item12 "Borg Aimed for Achievement" Computer scientist and pioneer Anita Borg, who passed away on April 7 at the age of 54, dedicated much of her professional life to encouraging women to pursue careers in the high-tech and science fields. "The industry owes Anita, the woman, the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item13 "Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device" A research team at Georgia Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Neuroengineering aims to build computing systems whose performance mirrors that of the human brain. Their latest innovation is the Hybrot, a robotic device that is controlled by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item14 "Halting Nanotech Research 'Illogical', Says Pioneer" Foresight Institute Chairman Eric Drexler, who coined the term "nanotechnology," argues that a ban on nanotech research, as suggested by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto's Joint Center for Bioethics, makes little sense. Although he ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item15 "Digital Cells" Researchers are working to implant computer programs into human cells so they can fulfill a wide array of functions, including pollutant cleanup, detection of cancer cells, and the manufacture of antibiotics or molecule-sized electronics. Cells have their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item16 "Sliver of the Pie" IT salaries appear to have more or less flattened, while job satisfaction has declined 10 percent over the past two years, according to InformationWeek's 2003 National IT Salary Survey; to succeed in the current market, IT workers must focus on ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item17 "Leveraging a Global Advantage" Dynamic, just-in-time software development is being driven by increases in freelance programmers, open-source skills, and offshore outsourcing. The gap between dispersed workers is being bridged by emerging frameworks and the application of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item18 "Who Loves Ya, Baby?" Social-network software that visualizes the interactions and relationships within groups of people promises to radically transform large organizations. Mapping social interactions has become easier thanks to the advent of email, chat rooms, Web ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0430w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0428m.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