Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the August 25, 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 537 Date: August 25, 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, August 25, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "The Aftermath of Cyberattacks" "Net Analysis Gets Turbo Boost" "Could Spam One Day End Up Crushed Under Its Own Weight?" "Rugged Computing: The Consumer Trajectory" "Female MIT Grads Make Mark on Field" "A Summer of High-Tech Discontent" "Computer Program That Analyzed Shuttle Damage Was Misused, Engineer Says" "Ground-breaking Research to Develop 'Conscious' Robot" "Rise of the Machines" "Tool Blazes Virtual Trails" "Darpa Head Expresses Skepticism About Quantum Computing" "Open Source Does Not Mean Open Doors" "Robot Spy Can Survive Battlefield Damage" "Is the Internet Dying?" "New Spin for Electronics" "Spam Wars" "State of Speech Standards" ******************* News Stories *********************** "The Aftermath of Cyberattacks" Before the Blaster worm gained widespread notoriety, the Homeland Security Department issued a two-page note advising ISPs to shut off access to three server ports: Cox Communications, AT&T Broadband, and other ISPs heeded the warning and shut down those ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item1 "Net Analysis Gets Turbo Boost" A team of Georgia Institute of Technology researchers has devised a technique to simulate computer networks that is faster than any other simulators currently in use, and plans to boost network security with the tools. "What we hope to provide is an enabling ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item2 "Could Spam One Day End Up Crushed Under Its Own Weight?" Dennis K. Berman offers a ray of hope to people frustrated and demoralized by the spread of spam: Spamming could eventually burn itself out by becoming a victim of its own proliferation, he muses. Thousands of people are becoming spammers because ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item3 "Rugged Computing: The Consumer Trajectory" The ruggedization of electronics equipment is becoming essential as engineers, developers, and designers are being put into fieldwork situations that emphasize remoteness and rough environmental factors. Most rugged-computing devices are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item4 "Female MIT Grads Make Mark on Field" Three female MIT graduates who were profiled in the New York Times 10 years ago as women who might make a significant impact on the computer industry still support the idea that women should have as large a role in technology as men, although they have ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item5 "A Summer of High-Tech Discontent" The summer months have been a busy, often frustrating time for IT staff as wave after wave of computer worms--Sobig.E, Blaster, Welchia, and the latest and most virulent worm, Sobig.F--struck at networks, clogging them with email and slowing down ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item6 "Computer Program That Analyzed Shuttle Damage Was Misused, Engineer Says" The engineer behind the computer program used to estimate damage to the shuttle Columbia's wing said that the analysis tool known as Crater was grossly misused, thus causing it to underestimate the potential damage from a piece of broken foam. While the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item7 "Ground-breaking Research to Develop 'Conscious' Robot" Researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Essex will soon initiate a three-year project that marries computer science and neuropsychology in an effort to devise a "conscious" robot that will advance intelligent machine technology and shed new light on ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item8 "Rise of the Machines" In his book, "The Human Edge," Richard Samson argues that an electronics revolution is on the horizon, one in which machines will supplant humans in knowledge-based jobs. To avoid the mass displacement he sees as the inevitable result, Samson advises ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item9 "Tool Blazes Virtual Trails" A new virtual prototyping tool helps users keep their bearings when navigating the computer aided design (CAD) representation of ships, airplanes, or buildings. Developed at the University of North Carolina, the system uses algorithms and a graph map to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item10 "Darpa Head Expresses Skepticism About Quantum Computing" Robert Leheny, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office, delivered a keynote speech at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto, Calif., that detailed the potential of--and potential barriers to--future ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item11 "Open Source Does Not Mean Open Doors" Open source software is often more secure than proprietary software as evidenced by the Apache Web server and other anecdotal proofs, said advocate Peter Harrison at the IT Security 2003 conference in New Zealand. The Interbase database ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item12 "Robot Spy Can Survive Battlefield Damage" Peter Bentley and Siavash Haroun Mahdavi of University College London have developed a self-healing snake-like robot as a possible military reconnaissance tool. The snakebot consists of modular vertebral units, each containing three independent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item13 "Is the Internet Dying?" Karl Auerbach writes how some evidence suggests the impending death of the Internet in its current form, citing the expanding amount of background packet radiation that the Internet must manage from viruses, spam, and bad code. Auerbach comments, "I ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item14 "New Spin for Electronics" Computing in the future may rely on an electron's spin in addition to its charge. Called giant magneto-resistance by IBM, the spintronic effect has enabled disk storage capacities to increase by a factor of 100 in the last five years. Researchers ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item15 "Spam Wars" The Internet is plagued with over 13 billion spam emails each day, and Ferris Research estimates that spam will add up to $10 billion in lost U.S. productivity this year, while Microsoft Research analyst David Heckerman predicts that spam could account ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item16 "State of Speech Standards" The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are developing standards for speech systems, which consist of a cell phone, telephone, or other user device; a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0825m.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review the Friday, August 22, 2003 issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0822f.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