Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the August 13, 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 532 Date: August 13, 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, August 13, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Internet Worm Targets Windows" "U.S. Report Calls for Balanced Approach to Supercomputer R&D" "With E-Mail, It's Not Easy to Navigate 6 Degrees of Separation" "Tiny Remote Sensors Could Reshape Research" "Sponsor's Surrender Won't End UCITA Battle" "U.S. Tech Workers Training Their Replacements" "Midlife Crisis for the Hard Drive" "Many Bluetooth Gadgets Open to Wireless Snooping" "Ultrawideband Renews High-Speed Wireless Hopes" "Wish You Were Here, Send Brains" "Georgia Tech Researchers Create the World's Fastest Detailed Computer Simulations of the Internet" "Display Is All Smoke and Mirrors" "Wireless Network Attacks Get a Public Airing" "'Spintronics' Could Enable a New Generation of Electronic Devices, Physicists Say" "Test Before You Leap" "Superpower" "Basic Research in the Information Technology Industry" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Internet Worm Targets Windows" Though the Blaster worm that started proliferating on Aug. 11 is not designed to be particularly destructive, it is enough of a headache to cause the shutdown of government agencies and services such as the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item1 "U.S. Report Calls for Balanced Approach to Supercomputer R&D" The continued health of the U.S. supercomputing effort will be determined by a federal strategy that supports the research and development of both custom-built and commercially available supercomputing technologies in equal measure, according to a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item2 "With E-Mail, It's Not Easy to Navigate 6 Degrees of Separation" Columbia University researchers report in the journal Science the confirmation that six degrees of separation do indeed exist between any two people in the world, but contacting far-flung people through this chain of acquaintances is usually a futile ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item3 "Tiny Remote Sensors Could Reshape Research" Wireless sensor networks, also known as smart dust, are expected to revolutionize scientific research. In one smart dust experiment, small sensors linked to batteries, radios, and computers are scattered throughout a redwood forest in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item4 "Sponsor's Surrender Won't End UCITA Battle" Although the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) was pressured by broad opposition to stop campaigning for the state-by-state adoption of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), both opponents and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item5 "U.S. Tech Workers Training Their Replacements" American tech workers are frustrated and disgusted that they are being forced to train replacements from India and other foreign lands brought in on visas such as the L-1. The L-1 classification permits companies with U.S. branches to send ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item6 "Midlife Crisis for the Hard Drive" The growth rate of hard-drive data density appears to be slowing down, and analysts such as Ashok Kumar of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray attribute this slackening to basic technological constraints. Currie Munce of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item7 "Many Bluetooth Gadgets Open to Wireless Snooping" A researcher in the United Kingdom has created an eavesdropping tool to show how vulnerable Bluetooth-enabled laptops, mobile phones, and handheld computers are to someone looking to steal data from the devices. Ollie Whitehouse, who works for the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item8 "Ultrawideband Renews High-Speed Wireless Hopes" Ultrawideband (UWB) will be ready to move from its consumer electronics niche to the enterprise, once a task force of the IEEE's Wireless Personal Area Networking working group settles on UWB standards. The leading candidate for 802.15.3a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item9 "Wish You Were Here, Send Brains" The two Mars Exploration Rovers currently en route to the red planet rely on mostly old hardware and a fragile data connection, but scientists are planning to make the probes carry out far more sophisticated maneuvers and experiments by swapping old software ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item10 "Georgia Tech Researchers Create the World's Fastest Detailed Computer Simulations of the Internet" A Georgia Institute of Technology project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has yielded detailed computer network simulations that can be accomplished almost in real time. "Our team has created a computer simulation that is two to three ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item11 "Display Is All Smoke and Mirrors" University of Finland researchers demonstrated the feasibility of "Fog Screen" technology at ACM SIGGRAPH's recent Emerging Technologies event. The Fog Screen prototype consists of a non-turbulent, laminar airflow within which a thin layer of dry, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item12 "Wireless Network Attacks Get a Public Airing" The USENIX Association's recent Security Symposium in Washington was a showcase for federally funded academic research focusing on security threats to wired and wireless networks. Stanford University researchers demonstrated a timing attack, in which a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item13 "'Spintronics' Could Enable a New Generation of Electronic Devices, Physicists Say" Spintronics could be the key to building smaller and smaller electronic devices by allowing electrical current to pass through conducting materials without any dissipation of energy--and at room temperature. Theoretical physicists from the University of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item14 "Test Before You Leap" Test-driven development (TDD) that takes advantage of "agile" methodologies such as eXtreme Programming and novel approaches to software testing helps improve software significantly. The implementation of TDD does not make quality-assurance (QA) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item15 "Superpower" As computers become essential research tools in both academia and industry, the value of IT experts is rising, although traditional researchers still get the lion's share of the recognition. GlaxoSmithKline's Andrew Davies notes that "The boundary between ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item16 "Basic Research in the Information Technology Industry" IT companies are backing basic research in physics and other fields in order to foster innovations that can help bring smaller and smaller IT components to market faster so that performance gains are accompanied by price reductions. Companies can only be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0813w.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0811m.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