Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 22, 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 561 Date: October 22, 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, October 22, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Congress Looks for Ways to Slow Offshore Hiring" "Balancing Utility With Privacy" "The Web: Search Engines Still Evolving" "Open-Source Audio in a Proprietary World" "Are IT Salaries Stuck in Neutral?" "Students Network at Computer Conference" "A New Tech Battle Brews in D.C." "China's Technological Ambitions Take Flight" "Low-Cost Supercomputer Put Together From 1,100 PC's" "A Tech Veteran's Security Warning" "The Stuff of Dreams" "German Chatty Bot Is 'Most Human'" "Task Force Deploys IPv6 Pilot Network" "Experts Say New Biotech Age Looms" "Beyond the VeriSign vs. ICANN Battle" "CMU Team Tackles the Nuances of Building a Robot That 'Understands' It Is in a Race Over Rough Country" "Save a Packet With Internet Telephony" "Submerging Technologies: Five That Are Sinking Fast" "TR100: Computing" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Congress Looks for Ways to Slow Offshore Hiring" Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Small Business Committee, argued at a Oct. 20 congressional hearing that the U.S. government's continued purchase of foreign products will only perpetuate the offshoring of American jobs. "If the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item1 "Balancing Utility With Privacy" Privacy proponents are concerned that technologies that are being more and more deeply embedded in people's everyday lives--ostensibly to improve the quality of life--could be employed by governments and enterprises as tools to monitor ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item2 "The Web: Search Engines Still Evolving" The biggest problem with search engines is that they are not context-aware, which is why sometimes a search for a relatively simple subject can yield a massive volume of information on many unrelated topics. Solving this problem is the focus of computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item3 "Open-Source Audio in a Proprietary World" Open-source audio standards face a list of entrenched standards such as MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA); new standards continue to emerge as well, such as the MPEG-4 standard, which is used by Apple's iTunes music store and includes Dolby-developed Advanced ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item4 "Are IT Salaries Stuck in Neutral?" The soft economy has discouraged many IT professionals looking forward to an early retirement or higher salaries to leave or pursue other work, as job security currently has greater priority than more compensation; Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitus ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item5 "Students Network at ACM Conference" The University of Illinois hosted the ninth annual Reflections/Projections Student Computing Conference last weekend. Sponsored by the ACM, the computer conference featured guest lectures, a job fair for computer science students, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item6 "A New Tech Battle Brews in D.C." Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Howard Berman (D-Calif.), and John Conyers (D-Mich.) have drafted legislation that would impose harsh criminal penalties on companies or individuals who offer software for download that fails to include a warning that such ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item7 "China's Technological Ambitions Take Flight" China is fast becoming a world leader in technology, not just in low-cost manufacturing: As evidence, experts point to a rapidly growing economy, strengthened political will, and growing numbers of skilled workers in China. Milken Institute scholar Rob Koepp ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item8 "Low-Cost Supercomputer Put Together From 1,100 PC's" Virginia Polytechnic Institute has constructed a supercomputer from 1,100 dual-processor Apple Macintosh PCs in under a month at a cost of approximately $5 million. This achievement is all the more impressive in light of the fact that the machine is poised ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item9 "A Tech Veteran's Security Warning" At the 2003 meeting of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) warned in a keynote speech that the security of the United States could be severely compromised because less attention is being ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item10 "The Stuff of Dreams" Carbon nanotubes, whose advantages include superior strength and conductivity, promise to revolutionize many industries, including medicine, automobile production, and defense. But before that promise can be fulfilled, cost and manufacturing issues must be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item11 "German Chatty Bot Is 'Most Human'" The Jabberwock chatbot earned German programmer Juergen Pirner first place in the Loebner Prize competition when judges ranked it "most human." The Loebner competition pitted eight international finalists against each other to see which program ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item12 "Task Force Deploys IPv6 Pilot Network" The North American Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Task Force (NAv6TF) officially launched a collaborative IPv6 network pilot for the North American market, Moonv6, on Oct. 20. IPv6 is designed to improve on its predecessor, IPv4, through the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item13 "Experts Say New Biotech Age Looms" Biotechnology and its technological and bioethical ramifications was the running theme at the recent PoP!Tech conference in Maine, where about 500 experts convened. A new era of biotech is expected to debut with the convergence of nanotechnology, IT, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item14 "Beyond the VeriSign vs. ICANN Battle" Alex Salkever articulates frustration with VeriSign's SiteFinder service, given the company's obligation to oversee the .com and .net databases, and wonders about VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos' characterization of the Internet. Salkever says Sclavos and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item15 "CMU Team Tackles the Nuances of Building a Robot That 'Understands' It Is in a Race Over Rough Country" Among the research teams approved by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build robotic vehicles designed to race roughly 200 miles across the Mohave Desert for a $1 million prize is a team from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item16 "Save a Packet With Internet Telephony" Wireless Internet telephony has the potential to significantly cut costs for telecoms companies, but the technology, if made widely available, could also take a hefty bite out of phone companies' business. Conventional telephony establishes a direct ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item17 "Submerging Technologies: Five That Are Sinking Fast" Cap Gemini Ernst & Young technologist John Parkinson claims that few companies regularly review their technology to determine the best time to replace obsolete systems, while a Computerworld survey of corporate IT managers and analysts has uncovered five ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item18 "TR100: Computing" Among 2003's 100 most brilliant young innovators selected by Technology Review are computing researchers whose work often demonstrates the increasing convergence of infomatics and biology: Examples include genome-deciphering software developed ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1022w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1020m.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