Grid Computing's Promises and
Perils
Scattered Glitches as
E-Voting Gets Biggest Test
Ten U.S. states used electronic voting systems in the March
2 primary, representing the biggest test of the technology in
the country to date. Although machines suffered from technical
malfunctions in California, Maryland, and Georgia, most of
these glitches were attributed to human ...
[read more]
to the top
'Smart' Cars Are Learning
to Avoid Collisions
Smart crash-avoidance systems are being developed by
researchers and car manufacturers at universities and
transportation authorities under the aegis of the
Transportation Department's Intelligent Vehicle Initiative
(IVI), which aims to correct driving habits that could lead to
potentially ...
[read more]
to the top
IETF Conference Debates
Antispam Proposals
Various proposals to bring spam under control--which are
gaining momentum as spam proliferates to epidemic levels--are
being discussed at this week's Internet Engineering Task Force
conference in Seoul. "The spam issue has created enough
urgency and even desperation, so rather than following ...
[read more]
to the top
PARC Eases Communications
Between Devices
Researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
have developed software that reportedly enables all consumer
electronics devices to talk to each other, boosting the
ease-of-use of networked home devices that is so critical for
content and device providers seeking to make the playback ...
[read more]
to the top
ICANN Fleshes Out Global
Ambitions
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) is set to further expand its international
operations at the tri-annual meeting in Rome this week. ICANN
is easing out of its role as subcontractor to the U.S.
Department of Commerce and into a new role as a non-profit
entity ...
[read more]
to the top
Discarded Cell Phones,
Printers, Keyboards May Be Hazardous
Waste
An EPA-funded draft report prepared by University of
Florida environmental engineers concluded that a wide variety
of electronic devices fulfill EPA criteria for constituting
hazardous waste; UF environmental engineering associate
professor Tim Townsend says that such findings could spur
federal ...
[read more]
to the top
Did Your Vote Count? New
Coded Ballots May Prove It Did
A truly trustworthy voting system must furnish a
voter-verifiable audit trail and maintain the secrecy of
ballots, and various systems have been proposed. The "frog"
voting system suggested in a working paper from the
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project in 2001 and modified for
an ...
[read more]
to the top
Spontaneous Networks Will
Speed Net Access
Hewlett-Packard software engineers believe laptop, smart
phone, and PDA users who employ cell-phone networks to link
these devices to the Internet could accelerate access speeds
tremendously by engaging in "collaborative mobile networking."
Each device would be equipped with self-organizing ...
[read more]
to the top
Passing Packets Under Ever
More Scrutiny
Internet protocol was conceived as a payload-independent
method of routing so that intermediary infrastructure did not
care about the packet's content; today, floods of spam,
viruses, and worms have to be stopped from entering a network,
while trade secrets and other information that violates ...
[read more]
to the top
Artificial
Emotion
Sherry Turkle, founder of the MIT Initiative on Technology
and Self, will host a March 5 confab on "Evocative Objects"
that has a direct bearing on her views that human beings'
growing attraction to advanced machines is based on emotional
attachment rather than machine intelligence. She ...
[read more]
to the top
Tools of
Success
The IT sector in California will lead in job growth by the
end of the decade, according to the state Employment
Development Department (EDD), but technology jobs at that time
will hardly resemble those in the 1990s. Instead of operating
separately from business, IT is integrating into ...
[read more]
to the top
New Web Tools Aim to
Customize Searches
Engineers are developing next-generation Web search
technology that tailors searches to an individual's surfing
habits and demographic data: In this way, search engines would
be able to infer whether a user who inquires about, say, a
jaguar is looking for the cat rather than the automobile. ...
[read more]
to the top
Oulu-Based Game-Professor
Forecasts Boom for Network Games
University of Oulu professor Tony Manninen in Finland says
his city is a nucleus for future networked game development,
especially on the mobile platform: In his recent doctoral
dissertation, Manninen argued that games are a tremendously
untapped field and that much could be added in terms of ...
[read more]
to the top
Simple Optics Make Quantum
Relay
Prototype quantum cryptography systems could be able to
transmit data across long distances using a quantum repeater
built out of available optical gear by researchers at the
NASA-Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); quantum networks
could likewise be enabled by the devices, which are ...
[read more]
to the top
Two Desktops, Twice the
Health Risk?
Peter Buckle at the Robens Institute for Health Ergonomics,
whose department is a component of the European Institute of
Health and Medical Sciences, reports that IT professionals'
susceptibility to Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is not only
determined by the hardware they use, but by ...
[read more]
to the top
Intel's Crystal
Ball
Intel chiefly remains a research and development firm
seeking to provide the building blocks for new silicon-based
technologies that benefit both businesses and consumers. CEO
Craig Barrett thinks his company's business may migrate from
the Internet to the health sciences, as its transistors ...
[read more]
to the top
Robot, Make
Thyself
Engineers are researching self-assembly as a tool for
achieving the viable mass production of micromachines, whose
potential applications include smart dust" surveillance
devices and nanoscale drug delivery systems. Some research has
focused on adapting origami to chipmaking, in which 2D ...
[read more]
to the top
Wicked (Good)
Wikis
A Working Model managing director Stowe Boyd is very
impressed with Wikis as a collaborative tool that enables
socialization and produces social capital. Wikis are comprised
of a series of hyperlinked documents that can be edited en
masse with a browser; they allow all authors to edit each ...
[read more]
to the top
Grid Computing's Promises
and Perils
Grid computing does indeed carry major benefits, provided
the organization fulfills certain parameters: Businesses best
suited to grid computing are those already using
high-performance computing, such as pharmaceutical companies
and financial services firms; Gartner VP Carl Clauch maintains
...
[read more]
to the top
To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact: