Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the January 14, 2004 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 6, Number 594 Date: January 14, 2004 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Site Sponsored by AutoChoice Advisor Looking for a NEW vehicle? Discover which ones are right for you from over 250 different makes and models. Your unbiased list of vehicles is based on your preferences and years of consumer input. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Top Stories for Wednesday, January 14, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Patents Out of Control?" "To P2P or Not to P2P?" "No Safety Net for Programmers" "Bugs Taking Over Robot Guidance" "You Are What You Watch" "Making the Grid Transparent to Users" "Growing Up With Lucy" "Is That Customer Service Rep Real or Virtual?" "Random Acts of Spamness" "The Roots of Failure in Software Development Management" "Is the Tide Turning in Battle Against Hackers?" "Carnegie Mellon University Technology Will Help Prepare Students for High-Stakes Tests" "The Next Big Thing for Wireless?" "Displays Go For Sharper Image" "Ultra Wideband's Destiny Up in the Air" "Get Mean, Go Green" "Why Machines Should Fear" "Back to the Future" "The Web's New Currency" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Patents Out of Control?" Industry and government officials agree that the clearest sign of a patent system running amuck is surging numbers of patent lawsuits, which are becoming problematic for companies large and small and are threatening to stifle technological innovation. Critics charge that many patents at the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item1 "To P2P or Not to P2P?" Hewlett-Packard principal research scientist Mary Baker argues that companies could use peer-to-peer (P2P) systems for useful and beneficial applications beyond the file-sharing or song-swapping that most P2P services are notorious for; Intel researcher Petros Maniatis lists data ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item2 "No Safety Net for Programmers" U.S. software programmers may not be eligible for wage insurance and other assistance that is summarily granted to workers in the manufacturing sector. The Trade Adjusted Assistance Reform Act of 2002 was meant to offset the financial loss to workers whose jobs producing "articles" was ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item3 "Bugs Taking Over Robot Guidance" Insect vision is the inspiration for a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being developed by scientists under the Controlled Biological and Biomimetic Systems program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The sensor-based navigation systems employed by large-scale, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item4 "You Are What You Watch" A recent story in Communications of the ACM indicates that new data mining software that can build profiles of TV watchers and deliver targeted advertising to them through digital personal video recorders such as TiVo is being tested. These systems would be a boon to a TV industry ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item5 "Making the Grid Transparent to Users" The IST GridLab project, which consists of 11 collaborating institutions led by Poland's Poznan Supercomputer and Networking Center, aims to supply EU Grid users with a simple yet powerful environment for developing Grid applications by producing a set of Grid services that include dynamic ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item6 "Growing Up With Lucy" The goal of researcher Steve Grand is to build an android that can develop a mammal-like intelligence, and his pursuit of this objective thus far is detailed in his book, "Growing Up With Lucy," in which he discusses, among other things, the neurological principles that went into the construction ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item7 "Is That Customer Service Rep Real or Virtual?" Virtual humans (V-humans), which are currently employed as Web site and call-center customer service reps, are computer programs with a human-like presence, either visually (with a face and body) or simply audibly (a disembodied voice). The catch is that most V-humans are boring, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item8 "Random Acts of Spamness" Inserting gibberish in junk email in an attempt to thwart antispam filters--especially those that employ Bayesian analysis--has become more and more commonplace among spammers, though many experts agree that this technique is more likely to backfire. Bayesian filters determine whether ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item9 "The Roots of Failure in Software Development Management" Software development has been compared to many things because managers cannot adequately explain why they use their current approach without relying on some abstract analog, writes consultant Bill Walton. In the mid 1950s, SAGE air-defense system software developer Herbert Benington said ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item10 "Is the Tide Turning in Battle Against Hackers?" Despite the Internet and computer systems appearing to be under constant assault by ever craftier hackers, security safeguards are progressing faster, as demonstrated by a documented slowdown in exponential damage increases in 2003, compared to previous years. According to a joint ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item11 "Carnegie Mellon University Technology Will Help Prepare Students for High-Stakes Tests" The U.S. Department of Education has granted $1.4 million to Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Learning, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute to test a Web-based computer tutor Assistment system designed to help middle-school students prep for rigorous standardized mathematics tests ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item12 "The Next Big Thing for Wireless?" IT vendors and network service providers are backing a new wireless technology that can transmit data at up to 70 Mbps for as far as 30 miles. IEEE 802.16 or WiMax products are under development at Intel, Nokia, Alcatel, and a host of other firms that see tremendous opportunity in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item13 "Displays Go For Sharper Image" Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and 3D display technology offer improved images, but these new technologies are no threat to the dominance of CRT and liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens, at least for now. OLEDs, which have just begun to show up in small electronic devices and are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item14 "Ultra Wideband's Destiny Up in the Air" Progress on a high-speed, physical-layer standard for wireless multimedia transfer has stalled in a IEEE task group; the technology will allow for high-speed wireless connections akin to wired USB links. Participants are in an approximately 60-40 deadlock over two competing proposals, with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item15 "Get Mean, Go Green" A team led by Michael Frank at the University of Florida's College of Engineering is using a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) grant to develop a reversible computing power supply as a step toward an adiabatic computer system. In its basic form, reversible computing is computing that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item16 "Why Machines Should Fear" Northwestern University cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman, author of "Emotional Design," sees value in investing computers and software with emotional or affective systems so that the machines can be more reliable and effective. He notes that people who cannot display emotions due to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item17 "Back to the Future" Future domestic appliances will be networked to provide more efficient and convenient service to owners, as well as cost savings and better information for manufacturers, according to appliance designer James Dyson. Political trends will lead to more congested urban areas where living ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item18 "The Web's New Currency" Firms such as Peppercoin are expecting to hit it big by offering consumers secure, reliable electronic micropayment systems for low-cost Web content. MIT computer scientists and Peppercoin founders Ron Rivest and Silvio Micali have devised an innovative, highly efficient micropayment scheme ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0114w.html#item19 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0112m.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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (c) 2004 INFORMATION, INC. 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