Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the November 12, 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 570 Date: November 12, 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, November 12, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Caught By the Act" "Yet Another Rendition of Linux" "System Halts Computer Viruses, Worms, Before End-User Stage" "It's a Vision Thing" "Life After Batteries: What's Next for Notebooks" "Wireless Mesh Networking Gathers Momentum" "Can Robots Become Conscious?" "Agenda Lacking as U.N. Info Society Summit Looms" "Virtual TV Studio Gets Real" "Scientists Seek to Plug Gaps in Computer Security" "100,000 Ballots to Be Cast Online" "Bad Journalism, IPv6, and the BBC" "Rage Against the (Chess) Machine" "The Science of 'He Shoots, He Scores!'" "Awareness of Computer-Security Threats Is Still Inadequate, Report Warns" "FrankenPatch" "Securing Teleworker Networks" "Everyone's a Programmer" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Caught By the Act" The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a source of frustration for companies and individuals targeted by copyright holders for allegedly breaking the law--specifically, the provision that bans people from bypassing anti-copying measures ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item1 "Yet Another Rendition of Linux" Acting executive director of the Desktop Linux Consortium Bruce Perens told attendees at the organization's first meeting in Tyngsboro, Mass., that some of the biggest companies in the world are backing a new version of Linux designed to counter Red Hat's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item2 "System Halts Computer Viruses, Worms, Before End-User Stage" Washington University computer scientist John Lockwood led research on a hardware-based network protection system that guards against computer viruses and worms by scanning all incoming traffic. The Field-programmable Port Extender (FPX) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item3 "It's a Vision Thing" Information visualization is being heralded as a solution to data overload faced by workers and consumers, and many companies are developing tools such as heat maps, expanding family trees, and animations that render information in less confusing, more ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item4 "Life After Batteries: What's Next for Notebooks" Battery limitations have been a sore point for notebook computer users, who face the catch-22 of settling for bare-bones notebooks to maximize battery life or contending with shorter battery life in order to enjoy more notebook features. Notebook manufacturers ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item5 "Wireless Mesh Networking Gathers Momentum" Wireless mesh networking was bolstered by two developments this month, one with the launch of a new startup called PacketHop, and the other being Intel's new business partnership with Zensys for wireless home networking automation. Wireless mesh networking in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item6 "Can Robots Become Conscious?" Whether robots can truly become conscious is a matter of debate, given the profound lack of elemental understanding about consciousness itself. The basic measurement of machine intelligence, the Turing test, has yet to be passed, although ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item7 "Agenda Lacking as U.N. Info Society Summit Looms" Though more than 50 heads of state are set to take part in the upcoming WSIS, the issues for discussion are not yet finalized pending further review at meetings this week. Interests involved have indicated that establishing basic governance standards will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item8 "Virtual TV Studio Gets Real" German and Italian researchers have spent the past two years developing the Origami virtual TV studio with the BBC, which has established such a facility in Surrey, England, and is planning to debut the system at the First European Conference on Visual ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item9 "Scientists Seek to Plug Gaps in Computer Security" The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is setting up a new computer security center that will focus on developing more firewalls, detection systems, and cryptography. Students doing research at the new Zurich Information Security Center (ZISC) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item10 "100,000 Ballots to Be Cast Online" CanVote President Joe Church calls the Internet-based voting in the Ontario municipal elections by residents in the easternmost areas of the province a success. "I believe we're the first to do a real full Internet election in North America," says Church, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item11 "Bad Journalism, IPv6, and the BBC" Andrew McLaughlin asserts that as a former Democratic lawyer in the U.S. House of Representatives he saw that much of the information published as truth by the press was actually not accurate. McLaughlin contends that reporting on the Internet seems ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item12 "Rage Against the (Chess) Machine" Chess champion Garry Kasparov is set to do battle with the world's preeminent chess program this month in New York in what has become an annual test of man versus machine. The Fritz chess program has been outfitted this time with a 3D interface so that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item13 "The Science of 'He Shoots, He Scores!'" The Acquisition, Querying, and Prediction of Motion Trajectories is a project at the University of British Columbia to develop a computer system that can track the movement of National Hockey League players so that coaches can see how players respond and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item14 "Awareness of Computer-Security Threats Is Still Inadequate, Report Warns" Education-technology consortium Educause has released a new study that provides recommendations that colleges could use to secure their computer networks. Titled "Information Technology Security: Governance, Strategy, and Practice in Higher ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item15 "FrankenPatch" Shoddy patching is often blamed for outbreaks of Slammer and similar worms, when in fact patching's inherent complexity and fragility is responsible. Experts such as Cigital CTO Gary McGraw say the disclosure of software vulnerabilities is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item16 "Securing Teleworker Networks" Teleworking offers convenience for employees and more productivity and less costs for employers, but it also constitutes a security risk: The cost-cutting measures of getting teleworkers to use personal PCs instead of leased laptops ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item17 "Everyone's a Programmer" Intentional Software co-founder and billionaire Charles Simonyi proposes a radical rethinking of software, which has become too complex to understand--a disadvantage that has led to unfixable software failures, abandoned projects, and tens of billions of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1112w.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.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