Sizzling
Supercomputers
Faster XML
Ahead?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Advisory Committee and
director are set to decide on a committee recommendation for a
binary XML standard, and if the proposal is approved, a vote
on a binary XML standard could occur this summer; if formed
soon after, a working group could take up to three years ...
[read more]
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Supersmart
Security
University of California-Berkeley computer science
professor and ACM President David Patterson describes computer
security problems as "glaring" because security measures
follow an outdated prevention-oriented rather than
repair-oriented model. The ...
[read more]
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Tool Turns English Into
Code
MIT researcher Hugo Liu believes the Metafor program for
translating natural-language descriptions of software into
scaffolding code--a program skeleton"--could be practically
applied to software brainstorming in less than two years;
later applications could include a programming teaching ...
[read more]
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A Tool Box for Building
Real-Time Embedded Systems
IST's OMEGA project has made a stride toward the
development of real-time embedded systems with its integration
of cutting-edge validation techniques and tools into Unified
Modeling Language (UML), which subsequently spurred the
creation of a tool box for simulating and analyzing UML models
and for ...
[read more]
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Computers Gain Power, But
It's Not What You Think
Computers are no match for a four-year-old human when it
comes to intelligence, but they can appear to operate
intelligently thanks to increasing computing power that
enables pattern recognition. Northwestern University professor
Kristian Hammond has rejected the common view of ...
[read more]
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How the Problem of Sight
Could Help Servers
A paper presented by IBM researchers at the International
Conference on Adaptive and Natural Computing Algorithms on
March 22 details their attempt to learn "the fundamental
principles of brain functions...and operate technology to
solve problems in much the same way systems solve them" by ...
[read more]
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IBM Embraces Bold Method to
Trap Spam
Efforts to block spam are getting more aggressive, as the
fight moves from passive spam filters to counterattacking
measures such as "teergrubing," where spammers are trapped by
tying up their servers. Although open-source counterattacking
software has been available for a while, new products from ...
[read more]
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CERN Readies World's
Biggest Science Grid
CERN engineers recently announced that more than 100 sites
in 31 countries have joined a computing grid for storing and
processing the massive volumes of data that will be generated
by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), effectively creating the
largest international science grid in the world. ...
[read more]
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Justices to Weigh Key
Copyright Case
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to revisit the Sony Corp. of
America v. Universal City Studios decision of 1984 in which
technology vendors were deemed not liable for possible
copyright infringement if their products had significant
legitimate uses. The new MGM Studios v. Grokster case has ...
[read more]
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Careers for Women in IT Is
at Risk
MC Press Online editor in chief Thomas Stockwell notes that
women rose in the workplace in general and IT in particular up
to 1996, when 41 percent of IT workers were female and pay
scales between male and female IT professionals were nearing
equivalency. However, the National Science ...
[read more]
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Decrypting the Future of
Security
Lawyer, writer, and IT security expert Mary Kirwan notes
that there was "universal agreement" among speakers and
panelists at the recent RSA Security Conference that
innovation is a fundamental component of IT, that security is
important, and that something must be done to improve
security; ...
[read more]
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What Users
Want
Usability and user interface design is an integral
component to software success and can be achieved through
relatively simple means. User interface design consultants can
usually work out the basic architecture of an application in
three or four days, providing a framework for programmers ...
[read more]
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Let's Focus on the Theft,
Not the Identity
Highly publicized cases of identity theft at database
companies and universities is worrisome, but even more
disturbing is research by Carnegie Mellon University associate
computer science professor Latanya Sweeney, writes Hiawatha
Bray. She created a set of programs that collects Social ...
[read more]
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Behind the Digital
Divide
Establishing rural information and communications
technology (ICT) centers in developing nations, ostensibly to
help bridge the digital divide and improve the standard of
living for impoverished people, has largely been sidelined in
favor of initiatives with more obvious benefits, such as ...
[read more]
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How to Save the
Internet
CIO Magazine has tapped key figures in the information
security community to suggest "Big Ideas" for dramatically
improving the security of the Internet, excluding
technological band-aids and "generic truths" such as user
education. The results are diverse and intriguing: National
Security ...
[read more]
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Artificial Intelligence
Marches Forward
Robot technology development is being increasingly
influenced by physiology and neuroscience, and the time may
come when robots will complement research in those
disciplines. Current artificial intelligence efforts focus on
imbuing robots with anthropomorphism, which is more likely to
make ...
[read more]
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Computing the Right
Pitch
Analyst Curt Monash describes predictive analytics as "a
replacement phrase for 'data mining' [that] roughly equates to
'applications of machine learning and/or statistical analysis
to business decisions.'" Business decisions, as defined in
most current and short-term applications, are ...
[read more]
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Extending the
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Extended Service-Oriented Architecture (xSOA) accounts
for SOA deficiencies in such areas as management, security,
service choreography and orchestration, and service
transaction management and coordination, writes Michael P.
Papazoglou, computer science chair at the University of ...
[read more]
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Sizzling
Supercomputers
Researchers are attempting to overcome supercomputing speed
limits using alternative materials to silicon, which is
expected to reach its speed threshold within a decade. The
three leading candidates to replace silicon-based
supercomputers are DNA computers whose problem-solving ...
[read more]
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