Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the September 29, 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 551 Date: September 29, 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, September 29, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Europe Shows Little Patience Over Patents" "Guarding Privacy vs. Enforcing Copyrights" "IM Worms Pose Growing Threat" "U.S. Readies Program to Track Visas" "A Sense of Wonder at MIT Emerging Technologies Conference" "Circuit Boards are Here to Stay" "Borg Honored for Breaking Tech Gender Molds" "Radio Tags Give Guidance" "In the Wild West of the Internet, There are Good Guys and Bad Guys" "We Are All Paparazzi Now" "Samba 3.0 to Be Released Thursday" "A Vote Against the Computerized Ballot" "Workers Embrace IT That Fosters Coordination; Reject IT That Controls" "Feds Should Boost IT Research, Report Says" "Electronic Paper Reaches Video Speed" "Privacy, Security on Aust Single-Identifier Group's List" "The Next Small Thing: Paul Saffo Discusses Microscopic Technologies and the Local Economy" "Molecular Memory: Carbon-Nanotube Device Stores Data in Molecules" "Reinventing the Transistor" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Europe Shows Little Patience Over Patents" The European Parliament recently issued a new software copyright directive that neither side says clarifies the issue, and many expect the new directive to be just a middle point in a long battle over software patents. Unlike Japan and the United ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item1 "Guarding Privacy vs. Enforcing Copyrights" Clashing ideologies are making it difficult to balance the need to uphold online privacy with protecting copyrights. Both of these issues were highlighted in several coinciding incidents: The wave of anger engendered by the recording industry's lawsuit ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item2 "IM Worms Pose Growing Threat" Symantec Security Response researchers Eric Chien and Neal Hindocha reported at the Virus Bulletin conference Sept. 26 that the fast adoption of instant messaging technology and increasing numbers of IM security vulnerabilities could give rise to worms ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item3 "U.S. Readies Program to Track Visas" The Homeland Security Department in November intends to release plans for the U.S. Visitor and Status Indication Technology (U.S. VISIT) project, a system that seeks to keep track of every foreign visa-holder in the United States. The program, which ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item4 "A Sense of Wonder at MIT Emerging Technologies Conference" Speakers at this week's MIT Emerging Technologies Conference imparted their predictions on future technological advances and the strategies companies can follow to maximize innovation and profitability. Intel's David Tennenhouse led a discussion about ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item5 "Circuit Boards are Here to Stay" Sun Microsystems' John Gustafson claims his company's chip-to-chip "Proximity Communication" technology could eliminate the need for circuit boards, but some industry observers are doubtful. Proximity Communication involves positioning the chips ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item6 "Borg Honored for Breaking Tech Gender Molds" Computer scientist and Institute for Women and Technology (IWT) founder Anita Borg staunchly fought to have equal gender representation in the technology industry by 2020, a goal that people are still working toward despite her death in April. Her ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item7 "Radio Tags Give Guidance" University of Rochester researchers have developed a navigational aid for the visually handicapped that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in a unique way. Most of the current buzz surrounding RFID tags revolves around how the technology is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item8 "In the Wild West of the Internet, There are Good Guys and Bad Guys" Dan Gillmor comments that the community spirit of the Internet endures, despite the medium's commercialization and the proliferation of exploiters and malicious types who seem determined to undermine that spirit in the hopes of making money, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item9 "We Are All Paparazzi Now" Publicly accessible webcams are proliferating throughout the world, with more than 10,000 webcams found by a Carnegie Mellon University survey in early September. Paul Lancaster, the Arizona businessman who operates a publicly accessible webcam ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item10 "Samba 3.0 to Be Released Thursday" The Samba team is ready to release a new version of Samba, the Unix and Linux file server software. The worldwide group of volunteer programmers refers to the Samba 3.0 source code as a "gold" version, which it stands behind as a sign of its ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item11 "A Vote Against the Computerized Ballot" Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg writes that it would be folly at this point to hand over the vote counting process to electronic systems, in view of their lack of an audit trail and all the security vulnerabilities ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item12 "Workers Embrace IT That Fosters Coordination; Reject IT That Controls" The adoption and overall effectiveness of new IT systems is dependent on the flexibility those technologies offer workers. A study by Pennsylvania State University assistant IT professors shows that IT that imposes strict controls is not as readily ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item13 "Feds Should Boost IT Research, Report Says" The federal government needs to assume a larger role in supporting information technology research, according to a new report by the National Academies' Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Researchers are facing new challenges, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item14 "Electronic Paper Reaches Video Speed" Researchers Robert Hayes and Johan Feenstra at the Netherlands-based Philips Research laboratory have developed electronic paper with a switching time fast enough to support moving video, and have also worked out a method to create ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item15 "Privacy, Security on Aust Single-Identifier Group's List" The new Australian Communications Authority (ACA)-backed Australian ENUM Discussion Group is considering privacy, security, and other aspects of a plan to test ENUM in Australia in 2004. ENUM would map telephone numbers to e164.arpa IP ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item16 "The Next Small Thing: Paul Saffo Discusses Microscopic Technologies and the Local Economy" Institute for the Future director Paul Saffo says Silicon Valley is well-positioned for the next wave of technological advancement, which will not be in IT as we know it, but rather in biotech and nanotechnology. He predicts that the importance of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item17 "Molecular Memory: Carbon-Nanotube Device Stores Data in Molecules" Chemists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created a molecular memory device with carbon nanotubes as an electrode, an example of the latest research to develop organic molecules as replacements for silicon to power the electronic ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item18 "Reinventing the Transistor" Hewlett-Packard's Palo Alto facility is a beehive of blue-sky research, much of it focusing on molecular electronics and led by intuitive scientist R. Stanley Williams. Concepts that Williams' team has worked on or is working on include nano imprint ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0929m.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review the Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.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 ... 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