Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the September 5, 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 541 Date: September 5, 2003 Top Stories for Friday, September 5, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Cybersecurity Legislation May Go to Congress" "Computer Antivirus Strategies in Crisis" "Valley Minds Take on Grand Challenge" "It's Tricky, Grafting Brando's Sneer to Bogart's Shrug" "Many More Worms Will Wriggle Into Our Future" "New Software May Enliven Digital Images" "Colleges Crack Down on Viruses" "DNA Forms Building Block for Next Breed of Computer" "Virginia Tech Building Power Mac G5 Supercomputer" "Microsoft's Patent Loss Rattles Tech Community" "Campaigning for Computerized Voting" "Email Updates Six Degrees Theory" "Mice Sign on the Dotted Line" "Machine-to-Machine Talk Not Stuff of Fiction" "Networking the Net Lobby" "Mind-Expanding Machines" "Outsmarting Spam" "A Vote for the Future" "Does IM Have Business Value?" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Cybersecurity Legislation May Go to Congress" Among the legislation on Congress' slate is a cybersecurity proposal from Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item1 "Computer Antivirus Strategies in Crisis" Malware such as viruses and worms has overtaken antivirus software, according to a study that Hewlett-Packard researcher Matthew Williamson will present at a Toronto conference in September. Although most antivirus software that identifies ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item2 "Valley Minds Take on Grand Challenge" The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Grand Challenge will award $1 million to the engineering team that builds an autonomous vehicle that successfully travels a 250-mile off-road course between Barstow, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev., ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item3 "It's Tricky, Grafting Brando's Sneer to Bogart's Shrug" Researchers at the University of Southern California are attempting to dissect human movement and speech in order to produce software that can generate virtual humans that are utterly authentic both in appearance and action. Such a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item4 "Many More Worms Will Wriggle Into Our Future" Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory chief cybersecurity officer Mark Graff posits that a lack of incentive for software companies to design secure products means that software and the Internet will suffer worse virus and worm attacks in the near ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item5 "New Software May Enliven Digital Images" Online shopping and other digital image-viewing experiences could be significantly augmented by TensorTextures, texture mapping software that faithfully renders the true appearance of any surface from all perspectives and under any lighting conditions. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item6 "Colleges Crack Down on Viruses" Many universities are scrambling to bolster their computer networks as the school year begins, in the wake of virus infections that plagued the Internet in August. High-speed college networks are kept open on purpose to better facilitate ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item7 "DNA Forms Building Block for Next Breed of Computer" Scripps Research Institute chemist Ehud Keinan says DNA computers cannot be compared to today's silicon-based machines in terms of speed because they work differently. He hopes that DNA computing will be able to solve problems that traditional computers cannot ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item8 "Virginia Tech Building Power Mac G5 Supercomputer" Virginia Tech University will combine 1,100 dual-processor 2 GHz Power Mac G5 computers, 64-bit Infiniband semiconductor technology from Mellanox, Gigabit Ethernet switches from Cisco, a high-density rack-mounted cooling system from Liebert, and a beta ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item9 "Microsoft's Patent Loss Rattles Tech Community" Microsoft's recent court loss to Eolas Technologies and the University of California could mean significant disruption for companies that incorporate Web browser technology in their products or services. Firms such as Apple, Real Networks, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item10 "Campaigning for Computerized Voting" Many people are opposed to the computerization of voting, arguing that it will erode the foundations of democracy that accurately counted free elections have come to represent. Direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines are being criticized by most ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item11 "Email Updates Six Degrees Theory" Columbia University researchers have validated the small-world phenomenon first discovered by Stanley Milgram's famous 1967 sociology study, but have shown some of the associated hypotheses to be wrong. Rather than starting letter chains aimed at finding ... "Mice Sign on the Dotted Line" A computer scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, has created a security system that allows people to sign their name online with a mouse. Dr. Peter McOwan says the software, which serves as another biometric layer, allows the mouse to act as a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item13 "Machine-to-Machine Talk Not Stuff of Fiction" John Pazol's nPhase company develops software that enables machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, a trend stemming from pervasive computing. The Forrester Group predicts that there could be as many machines talking to each other on wireless ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item14 "Networking the Net Lobby" In an interview with Australian IT, new ICANN chief Dr. Paul Twomey says his background in government as the head of the National Office for the Information Economy and as a businessman in the incubator Argo Pacific has convinced him that a move to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item15 "Mind-Expanding Machines" The University of West Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) is a center for development of cognitive prostheses designed to augment or expand human perceptions and intellectual capabilities; such a concept is a core component of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item16 "Outsmarting Spam" Growing animosity toward unsolicited commercial email and the productivity losses associated with it is making the battle against spam a priority for many businesses, although most respondents to a recent InformationWeek survey report that their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item17 "A Vote for the Future" Lessons learned from new voting machine technologies tested by over 200 U.S. counties in last year's elections include the need for infallibility, and particularly successful was a Fairfax County, Va., tryout of Advanced Voting Solutions' (AVS) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item18 "Does IM Have Business Value?" Instant messaging is valued among enterprises for its presence, which allows users to know ahead of time who is available and unavailable to chat; near-real-time message delivery, which offers a higher level of interaction than email; and multiple ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0905f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0903w.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