Designing for the Virtual
Interactive Classroom
EU Studies Impact of
Software Patents on Open Source
University of Maastricht researchers have been enlisted by
the European Commission to study the economic, technical, and
legal ramifications of software patents on innovation,
although the results of the analysis may ultimately have
little sway on the Commission's plans to introduce ...
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Domain System Creator
Honoured
Nominum chief scientist Dr. Paul Mockapetris has received
the a lifetime Achievement award from ACM's Special Interest
Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) for developing the
Domain Name System (DNS) over 20 years ago. The DNS plays a
critical role in the operation of the Internet ...
[read more]
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Federal ID Act May Be
Flawed
The Real ID Act President Bush signed on May 11 as part of
an omnibus spending bill is supposedly designed to make it
harder for impersonators to acquire driver's licenses, but
critics say the act will allow both authorized and
unauthorized people to access considerably more personal ...
[read more]
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Linux Powers Airborne
Bots
University of Essex researchers are building a fleet of
miniature robotic helicopters that exhibit swarm intelligence
and cooperative function by running the Linux 2.6 kernel and
communicating wirelessly with each another via Bluetooth.
Researcher Owen Holland expects the UltraSwarm project to ...
[read more]
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Camera Sees Behind
Objects
A digital camera that can see from the point of view of a
light source has been developed by Stanford University and
Cornell University researchers. The system includes a digital
projector that beams a series of black and white pixels at a
scene, while the camera captures how the light bounces ...
[read more]
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EU Highlights Grid
Computing as 'Pay-as-You-Use Solution' for
Europe
Grid technology adoption in European commercial and public
sectors will boost that region's competitiveness and quality
of life by the end of the decade, says European Commission
Information Society head Viviane Reding. European researchers
at CERN and other institutions are leading grid ...
[read more]
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Maryland Adopts
Computer-Recycling Fee
Several U.S. states are attempting to deal with the
mounting problem of electronic waste by implementing
computer-recycling programs, and Maryland is the latest
participant with Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.'s (R) recent signing
of a bill requiring computer makers producing over 1,000
computers annually ...
[read more]
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Java Sets Sail for the
Final Frontier
Java creator and Sun Microsystems vice president James
Gosling says the programming language will enable radical new
applications as it becomes more widely deployed on the edge of
the network. Java-coded sensors at the bottom of San Francisco
Bay could be used to build predictive models, or ...
[read more]
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Setting the Stage for
China's Tech Future
Major technology vendors are stepping up research
collaborations with Chinese universities in order to curry
favor with government policymakers, tailor products for the
local market, develop the local technology base, and tap local
talent. IBM China Research Laboratory director James Yeh ...
[read more]
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'Patient Zero' Pinpointed
in PC-Worm Outbreak
University of California, Berkeley, researchers Vern Paxson
and Nicholas Weaver and Georgia Institute of Technology
researcher Abhishek Kumar detail in a paper how they applied a
"telescope analysis" method to reconstruct the propagation
trail of the "Witty worm" epidemic of March 2004 and find ...
[read more]
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LinuxWorld Summit:
Professor Predicts Open Source Revolution
In the final keynote panel at this year's LinuxWorld
Summit, Free Software Foundation general counsel and Columbia
University professor Eben Moglen told attendees that the
SourceForge.net open source software development Web site is
an outstanding resource for free computer-science research and
...
[read more]
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Machines' Way With
Words
Customer support and other services that employ voice
recognition systems are benefiting from research to determine
the most effective kinds of voices that automated agents
should possess. Stanford University professor Clifford Nass of
the Laboratory for Communication Between Humans and ...
[read more]
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AI Draws Stanford
Students
Student test subjects at Stanford University's Virtual
Human Interaction Lab responded favorably to digital avatars
that mimicked the subjects as they pitched a notional
university security policy. Half of the sessions, which were
conducted in a 3D virtual- reality environment, involved
avatars ...
[read more]
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Standardizing Middleware:
More Than Meets the Eye
Standardizing middleware could simplify the creation of
mobile business products for wireless systems developers and
enable business owners to more easily adopt mobile
applications, but not all wireless systems providers agree
that such an approach is viable. Opponents claim a uniform ...
[read more]
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NASA Looks Beyond Wheels
for Rover Locomotion
NASA engineers are working on small robotic vehicles for
planetary exploration whose capabilities should surpass those
of wheeled rovers. Under development is the prototype of a
tetrahedral rover that uses a system of telescoping struts in
a pyramid configuration to shift its ...
[read more]
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Privacy
Matters
Privacy proponents' increased emphasis on enhancing the
collection, storage, and sharing of personal information with
more protective measures has sparked expectations of a
legislative mandate for more rigorous controls over personal
information. However, it remains uncertain as to ...
[read more]
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Embedded-System
Programmers Must Learn the Fundamentals
Software programmers need to start taking code optimization
seriously as Moore's Law produces less performance gains,
writes consultant Randall Hyde, author of "Write Great Code:
Understanding the Machine." Though Moore's Law is likely to
continue increasing transistor density, those ...
[read more]
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Hacker
Hunters
To counter the growing threat of professional,
profit-driven cyber-criminals, enforcement agents or "hacker
hunters" are combining the latest cybercrime deterrents with
traditional tactics such as infiltration and the Internet
equivalent of wire-tapping to topple and successfully ...
[read more]
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Designing for the Virtual
Interactive Classroom
Online learning offers flexibility and convenience, but
synchronous online collaboration tools can support richer and
more spontaneous, natural, and efficient interaction.
Designing for Learning founder Judith Boettcher recommends
that educators choose at least two to three synchronous ...
[read more]
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