Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 9, 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 493 Date: May 9, 2003 ************************************************************************** Hurry! Free Palm Zire Handheld! Keep your life in balance. Get organized while increasing your mobility! Buy any IBM NetVista(tm) desktop or IBM ThinkPadR notebook and ask for a Palm(tm) Zire(tm) at no additional cost ($99.99 Value). Or upgrade to the Palm Tungsten(tm) Tand SAVE $100. 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Offer ends 5/19/03.* Visit http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/acm or call 800-426-7235, ext. 3559 ********************************************************************** Top Stories for Friday, May 9, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Balancing Data Needs and Privacy" "House Earmarks Billions for Nanotech" "Spam Thrives Despite Effort to Screen It Out" "Scientists Create Twistable, Ultra-Thin Computer Screen" "Voting Machine Leaves Paper Trail" "W3C Blesses, Proposes SOAP 1.2" "Screen Arcs Widen View" "Darwin Proved Right by Experiment With 'Alien' Life" "Beyond Wi-Fi: The Future of Wireless Networks" "Mobile Robots as Gateways Into Wireless Sensor Networks" "Report: New Battle for WLAN Security" "Serial ATA II Approaches--Slowly" "IBM Details Blue Gene Supercomputer" "Reeling Chipmakers Debate Moore's Law" "'Smart' Hospital to Improve Care" "2.6 Kernel to Push the Envelope" "Let's Talk" "Star Search" "The Lab that Fell to Earth" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Balancing Data Needs and Privacy" The federal Total Information Awareness (TIA) program raises privacy and civil liberties alerts across the country, but even critics of the program see some benefits in the corresponding "privacy appliance" being devised by Teresa Lunt of the Palo Alto ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item1 "House Earmarks Billions for Nanotech" The House of Representatives voted 405 to 19 on Wednesday to approve a boost to the national nanotechnology research and development budget, and allocate $2.36 billion over three years to academic and private-sector nanotech projects. The budget ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item2 "Spam Thrives Despite Effort to Screen It Out" Although the spread of spam, is under attack on several fronts, It continues to flourish: It is estimated that over 2 trillion pieces of spam will be distributed online in 2003 alone. There are a variety of anti-spam solutions ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item3 "Scientists Create Twistable, Ultra-Thin Computer Screen" Scientists led by Yu Chen at E Ink have created a three-inch-wide flexible electronic display that can be bent, twisted, or rolled up into a cylinder while retaining image quality. The screen consists of a stainless steel foil covered with a thin circuit ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item4 "Voting Machine Leaves Paper Trail" Computing experts argue that direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines should print paper ballots in order to provide an audit trail to ensure accurate vote counts, and Election Systems & Software (ES&S) has developed a prototype that incorporates ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item5 "W3C Blesses, Proposes SOAP 1.2" Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Version 1.2 is ready for final review by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The basic Web services language is key to enterprise development because it ensures interoperability among diverse platforms. Last year, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item6 "Screen Arcs Widen View" Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) researchers have developed Halo, software designed to ease small-screen navigation through the display of arcs on the edge of the screen to represent offscreen locations and objects. "Halo is a visualization technique that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item7 "Darwin Proved Right by Experiment With 'Alien' Life" An experiment by Michigan State University researchers using artificial lifeforms created in a computer proves that evolution follows a Darwinian pattern, in which the strongest entities prevail. Participant Christoph Adami of the California Institute ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item8 "Beyond Wi-Fi: The Future of Wireless Networks" IT types are still effusive about Wi-Fi technology, but there are already technologies ready to supplant 802.11b, the open wireless standard that has opened up wireless access in and around many homes and businesses. Although 802.11b is fast enough for most ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item9 "Mobile Robots as Gateways Into Wireless Sensor Networks" Intel is developing hardware and software that will allow researchers to incorporate advanced intelligence into mobile robots that can be used as access points for wireless sensor networks. Such machines could perform duties such as automatic ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item10 "Report: New Battle for WLAN Security" Enterprises wanting to deploy wireless network access through technologies such as Wi-Fi have been discouraged by wireless LANs' vulnerability to hackers, though the Wi-Fi Alliance did assuage some fears with the development of Wi-Fi protected access ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item11 "Serial ATA II Approaches--Slowly" The Serial ATA Working Group unveiled the specification for the Serial ATA Port Multiplier II at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in New Orleans. Future ports will be able to support as many as 15 drives thanks to the technology, which is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item12 "IBM Details Blue Gene Supercomputer" IBM has embarked on an ambitious goal to develop a supercomputer that can perform 1 trillion calculations per second (1 petaflop) with the creation of the Blue Gene/L system. The machine will consist of 65,536 compute nodes, each of which will boast a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item13 "Reeling Chipmakers Debate Moore's Law" The chip industry has long regarded Moore's Law--the axiom that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months or so--as gospel, but several chip manufacturers are questioning its legitimacy, especially in the face of the industry downturn. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item14 "'Smart' Hospital to Improve Care" Scientists at Aarhus University's Center for Pervasive Computing in Denmark are working on several ways to enhance medical care for patients. For example, an "intelligent bed" features built-in computers with sensors that track the patient's position ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item15 "2.6 Kernel to Push the Envelope" The projected June release of the Linux 2.6 production kernel will help the open-source operating system penetrate even further into the enterprise, according to Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) lab director Tim Witham, who adds that the kernel will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item16 "Let's Talk" The latest generation voice-dictation software requires an up-to-date computer to run well and may be too laborious for experienced users to enjoy, but indications are that the software is catching on among users under the age of 20. Speech ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item17 "Star Search" John Parkinson of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young concludes that, as far back as the late 1970s, the most sophisticated and reliable software applications were chiefly the work of a small portion of programmers who were labeled 10X or Power Programmers, but these ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item18 "The Lab that Fell to Earth" The MIT Media Lab was once a technology touchstone for popular culture and Corporate America, one that boasted an annual budget of $40 million and enjoyed a steady stream of venture capital. Now the institution is in danger of falling into obscurity: ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0507w.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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Site Sponsored by: IBM personal computers and software Purchase discounted IBM personal computers, servers, and hundreds of additional products and services as an ACM member. ********************************************************************** * Offer valid from IBM in the US only thru 5/19/03 or while supplies last. 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