Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 7, 2002 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 4, Number 408 Date: October 7, 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 Monday, October 7, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Debate to Intensify on Copyright Extension Law" "Standards Patent Strife Spreads" "Internet2 Gurus Deploy New Protocol; VoIPv6 is Born" "The Shape of Bots to Come" "Purdue Creates Self-Generating Nanotubes with 'Dial-up' Properties" "Electrifying Duets" "Obscure Show With Small Products" "Ballistic Lighting" "Bill Would Circumvent Foreign Censors" "Scientists in E-Material Breakthrough" "Can Democracy Be Improved Online?" "Scheme Hides Web Access" "The Next Big Thing" "Supercomputer Puts Research on Fast Track" "Cutting-Edge Cell Phones Focus of Intense R&D Push" "Open Source: A False Sense of Security?" "Robotics With a Human Touch" "Optical Computing: The Wave of the Future" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Debate to Intensify on Copyright Extension Law" Striking a balance between consumer rights and those of major media companies lies at the heart of a debate the Supreme Court will hear this week concerning a 1998 law that extends the terms of copyright by 20 years. Advocates such as the MPAA's Jack ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item1 "Standards Patent Strife Spreads" When the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) attempted to herd through an exception to its royalty-free standards policy, a host of engineers and corporate representatives protested, blocking the measure; now anti-royalty advocates in the Internet ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item2 "Internet2 Gurus Deploy New Protocol; VoIPv6 is Born" Academic, government, and industry engineers in charge of Internet2 have deployed Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6, parallel to the older IPv4 on the Abilene network backbone. Abilene connects more than 200 universities and other research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item3 "The Shape of Bots to Come" Self-reconfiguring robots that can adjust their shape to deal with changing environmental conditions could become the next step in robotic evolution. "For tasks in hard-to-reach areas like space or the ocean, where it is impossible to say ahead of time ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item4 "Purdue Creates Self-Generating Nanotubes with 'Dial-up' Properties" Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method of creating batches of nanotubes with customized qualities, a development that could lead to new types of information storage devices and other nanotechnology-based applications. The process ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item5 "Electrifying Duets" The limitations of computers when it comes to accompanying musicians has prompted oboist and mathematician Christopher Raphael of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to devise Music Plus One, a software program that makes computers flexible ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item6 "Obscure Show With Small Products" The advancement of sensors is critical to taking full advantage of supercomputing processing power, increasingly sophisticated software programmers, and more skillful genetics engineers, and the little-known Sensors Expo and Conference is a springboard for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item7 "Ballistic Lighting" Japanese scientists have reworked field emission display technology to produce a low-power, high-quality flat-screen display that can be produced cheaply. Using nanocrystalline porous silicon, the research team led by Yoshiki Nakakima was ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item8 "Bill Would Circumvent Foreign Censors" A bill recently introduced by Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) calls for the establishment of an Office of Global Internet Freedom to fight national Internet firewalls and censorship overseas. The proposed legislation earmarks $100 million to be distributed ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item9 "Scientists in E-Material Breakthrough" Ghassan Jabbour of the University of Arizona is leading a team working on super-thin organic films that can act as transistors, solar cells, or light emitters. His lab has demonstrated that such nanofilms can be printed onto plastic, paper, and other ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item10 "Can Democracy Be Improved Online?" Australian officials are studying whether the Internet could be used to improve the democratic process and impact the way the government creates policy. The Victorian government Web site features a 75-page discussion paper on the issue, and a state ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item11 "Scheme Hides Web Access" MIT researchers have announced a new anonymous way to access information on the Internet and bypass Internet censors, monitors, and firewalls. The solution, called Infranet, involves both client- and server-side software, and the transfer of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item12 "The Next Big Thing" When asked their opinion of the next technological advancement likely to significantly change the business paradigm, six major IT figures offered their own predictions. NASA acting CIO Paul A. Strassmann said that portals are likely to emerge as a major ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item13 "Supercomputer Puts Research on Fast Track" Florida State University (FSU) has installed the new Eclipse supercomputer, which will enable researchers to obtain quicker results and to pursue more complex research projects. The Eclipse is an IBM eServer p690 that can perform 2.5 trillion ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item14 "Cutting-Edge Cell Phones Focus of Intense R&D Push" At the Yokosuka Research Park (YRP) in Japan, engineers are carrying out third-generation (3G) cell phone technology research and development, and are even starting to push into 4G research. These joint R&D projects between industry and universities are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item15 "Open Source: A False Sense of Security?" Advocates' position that open-source software offers more security than proprietary software was called into question when researchers discovered vulnerabilities in the OpenSSL toolkit that were later exploited by a computer worm. Furthermore, the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item16 "Robotics With a Human Touch" Corinna E. Lathan, founder of AnthroTronix in College Park, Md., was named 2002's Top Innovator of the Year by Maryland Daily Record for her work integrating robotics, telecommunications, and virtual reality to create a robotic telerehabilitation tool that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item17 "Optical Computing: The Wave of the Future" Optical technology promises massive upgrades in the efficiency and speed of computers, as well as significant shrinkage in their size and cost. The major challenge is finding materials that can be mass produced yet consume little power; for this reason, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1007m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1004f.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 ---- ACM TechNews is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company.