Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the July 16, 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 520 Date: July 16, 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, July 16, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Probing the IT Skills Shortage" "Teaching Computers to Work in Unison" "Researchers "Privacy Appliance" Seeks to Harness Government Snooping" "Cracking Data Hiding: Theory Can Help Disable Terrorists' Messages" "Could Your Computer Be a Criminal?" "The Politics of Open-Source Software" "Attack of the Clones Becomes a Legal Drama" "Computer Simulations: Modeling the Future" "A Quantum Leap in Cryptography" "Pentagon Alters LifeLog Project" "Car Communication" "Big Brother Gets a Brain" "A Better Way to Deal With Vulnerabilities" "Tech Firms Voicing Objections to Legislature's E-Waste Bill" "DNA Makes Nano Barcode" "Smooth Talkers" "Red Alert on the E-War Front" "Big Players Push IPv6, But Masses Still Resist" "Reclaiming the Digital Commons" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Probing the IT Skills Shortage" Many corporate IT departments are riddled with vacancies because of cutbacks, and there appears to be a shortage of qualified IT personnel to fill these positions, even when organizations can afford to hire new staff. Sectors that are experiencing rapid ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item1 "Teaching Computers to Work in Unison" The creation of software that enables distributed or grid computing--the harnessing of multiple computer sources working in tandem to carry out a single function, such as a complex simulation--has been led by Dr. Ian Foster of Argonne National ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item2 "Researchers "Privacy Appliance" Seeks to Harness Government Snooping" Privacy and security researcher Teresa Lunt is building the privacy protection device that would supposedly filter out sensitive information from government investigative queries. Her work at the Palo Alto Research Center is funded by the Defense ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item3 "Cracking Data Hiding: Theory Can Help Disable Terrorists' Messages" A new theory that establishes how much data can be hidden within a system and then supplies criteria on how to archive and decipher data has been developed by Jody O'Sullivan of St. Louis' Washington University and former graduate student Pierre Moulin.... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item4 "Could Your Computer Be a Criminal?" The worlds of virus writers, spam senders, and porn purveyors are converging, according to computer security experts, who cite a recent spate of Trojan horse infiltrations in home PCs. Lurhq senior intrusion analyst Joe Stewart witnessed one of these ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item5 "The Politics of Open-Source Software" Over 70 proposed bills have cropped up both nationally and internationally suggesting that governments favor the procurement of open-source or free software, while the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) was reportedly founded to ensure that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item6 "Attack of the Clones Becomes a Legal Drama" Hollywood and 321 studios are locked in a bitter battle over whether the latter should be permitted to sell software products that allow DVDs to be copied. In the continuing saga of lawsuits and countersuits, the film studios maintain that 321 has violated ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item7 "Computer Simulations: Modeling the Future" State-of-the-art computer simulation technologies are being developed and employed for commercial, medical, and military projects. The University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, in conjunction with Options Technology, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item8 "A Quantum Leap in Cryptography" Quantum cryptography is gaining headway through a number of solutions currently being tested. Government and financial services firms are likely to be the first to adopt quantum cryptography, given the nature of their operations. Basically, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item9 "Pentagon Alters LifeLog Project" The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) LifeLog project seeks to build a database of every possible aspect of a person's life and use the information to trace relationships, incidents, and experiences. The agency argues that LifeLog could ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item10 "Car Communication" Carnegie Mellon University researchers are engineering various context-aware communications solutions for automobiles at the General Motors Collaboration Laboratory, including a gesture interface system that enables drivers to control various in-car ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item11 "Big Brother Gets a Brain" The Pentagon's $12 million Combat Zones That See (CTS) project, on the surface, is designed to enhance military operations and troop safety in urban areas through a combination of video surveillance and computer technology in which all movements in a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item12 "A Better Way to Deal With Vulnerabilities" Shawn Hernan of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) told attendees at a presentation at the Institute for Applied Network Security's recent Southeast Network Security Forum that some 5,500 software vulnerabilities ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item13 "Tech Firms Voicing Objections to Legislature's E-Waste Bill" A number of tech companies spoke out against a California bill that would establish new rules for the disposal of electronic waste, but they were unable to sway the state's Assembly Natural Resources Committee, which ultimately approved the measure on a 7 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item14 "DNA Makes Nano Barcode" Increasing the speed of computers means shrinking circuits, and Duke University computer science professor John Reif expects the threshold of traditional, top-down lithography techniques to be reached within 10 or 20 years. Reif and associates have ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item15 "Smooth Talkers" Speech integration technology is of interest to companies that want to cut costs through the enablement of customer self-service or the automation of internal operations, such as the dissemination of critical information to employees or business ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item16 "Red Alert on the E-War Front" A nightmare scenario in which a dedicated, technology-savvy enemy could knock out the United States' critical infrastructure via cyberattack was one of the salient points of the White House's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, and this argument--along ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item17 "Big Players Push IPv6, But Masses Still Resist" Supporters of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) argue that industry should adopt the standard in order to exploit its advantages, which include better security and a solution to the IP address shortage. This shortage, which may not seem apparent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item18 "Reclaiming the Digital Commons" Certain information professionals are investigating ways to protect the "digital commons" in response to worries about projects that seek to privatize the Internet by imposing restrictions on public access to copyrighted content. Debate has ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0714m.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