Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 23, 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 414 Date: October 23, 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 Wednesday, October 23, 2002: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Attack on Internet Called Largest Ever" "Is Your Congress Member Tech-Friendly?" "Sharp Unveils 'Computer-On-Glass' Display" "Researchers Predict Worm that Eats the Internet in 15 Minutes" "China's Next Challenge: Mastering the Microchip" "Smart Fatigues Hear Enemy Coming" "IT Circa 2008: Spin Your Crystal Balls" "Nano Organization Tries to Put the Valley Back on Washington's Map" "Where Are All the IT Jobs?" "Professor's Case: Unlock Crypto" "Fighting Back" "Dan Gillmor: Software Idea May Be Crazy Enough to Work" "Fractals Help UCLA Researchers Design Antennas for New Wireless Devices" "Indian Scientists Draw Top Dollar in US IT Research" "Bioinformatics: Bringing It All Together" "The PC Changes Shape" "A Better Ballot Box?" "Grid Iron" "Pocket Pictures" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Attack on Internet Called Largest Ever" What key online backbone organization officials are calling the largest and most sophisticated attack ever on the Internet's root servers disrupted eight or nine of the 13 computers that control global Internet flow late Monday afternoon for about an hour. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item1 "Is Your Congress Member Tech-Friendly?" Nearly one-third of Congress is "tech-friendly," or in favor of the technology sector's program, according to the Information Technology Industry Council's (ITI) high-tech voting guide issued on Monday. Technology bills Congress passed as law were positive ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item2 "Sharp Unveils 'Computer-On-Glass' Display" Japanese liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturer Sharp today disclosed a prototype display with microprocessor circuitry placed directly onto the glass, using the company's continuous grain silicon (CGS) technology. The company says the screen, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item3 "Researchers Predict Worm that Eats the Internet in 15 Minutes" A two-month-old research paper theorizes next-generation computer worms that could overrun the Internet in a matter of minutes; such worms would use "hit lists" of vulnerable systems, rather than scan blindly, and also carry payloads that would facilitate ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item4 "China's Next Challenge: Mastering the Microchip" The Chinese government wants China to become a global competitor in the semiconductor industry, and is offering a raft of incentives to foreign companies to set up shop in the country and offer expertise to domestic workers. China's semiconductor ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item5 "Smart Fatigues Hear Enemy Coming" Scientists at Virginia Tech and the University of Southern California have combined state-of-the-art electronics and traditional weaving techniques to develop a fabric that can detect and relay sounds from great distances, which could be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item6 "IT Circa 2008: Spin Your Crystal Balls" Gartner Research recently unveiled its 10 predictions for computing in the year 2008, eliciting a number of opinions from IT-savvy readers. Gartner predicted that increased network capacity will allow businesses and consumers to draw their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item7 "Nano Organization Tries to Put the Valley Back on Washington's Map" The NanoScience Exchange (NSE) founded by software entrepreneur Jim Hurd is a young organization that aims to bridge the communications gap between Washington legislators and Silicon Valley, which suffered a blow to its credibility as a result of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item8 "Where Are All the IT Jobs?" Recent studies from Challenger, Gray & Christmas and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) report a drop in the number of IT layoffs, but there are indications that hiring has also dropped: ITAA reports that new hires between ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item9 "Professor's Case: Unlock Crypto" Professor Daniel Bernstein of the University of Illinois is waging a court battle with the U.S. government to make cryptographic software code freely available to the American public. In 1995, he filed suit against the State Department, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item10 "Fighting Back" Media companies are estranging consumers, tech companies, and creative artists by pushing for legislation that would increase their control over copyrighted works even further, cutting into fair-use rights in their quest to stamp out digital piracy. Such ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item11 "Dan Gillmor: Software Idea May Be Crazy Enough to Work" Lotus Development founder and cyber-activist Mitch Kapor and his team have spent more than a year developing Chandler, an open-source Interpersonal Information Manager software program that encrypts data such as personal email, calendars, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item12 "Fractals Help UCLA Researchers Design Antennas for New Wireless Devices" UCLA researchers are using fractal mathematical models of various topographies in order to design antennas that can function in multiple ways on multiple frequencies for use with new cell phones and other wireless communications devices, according to a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item13 "Indian Scientists Draw Top Dollar in US IT Research" Three out of the seven highest grants awarded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Information Technology Research (ITR) program went to research projects led by Indian scientists and professors. "This proves the point that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item14 "Bioinformatics: Bringing It All Together" Bioinformatics is the acquisition, storage, analysis, and visualization of biological information via computational tools, and Jim Golden of 454 Corporation says that this can be accomplished by integrating data across myriad databases, a task ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item15 "The PC Changes Shape" PCs have not changed much in the last seven years, but manufacturers and vendors looking to jump-start the tepid PC market will be rolling out PCs will new technologies in the near future. Dell, IBM, and HP are all developing "transformer" PCs ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item16 "A Better Ballot Box?" The debacle of the November 2000 presidential election in Florida has prompted election officials around the world to consider alternative technologies, such as electronic voting, that promise to eliminate mistakes and improve reliability and count accuracy. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item17 "Grid Iron" Distributed or grid computing is designed to harness the idle computing power of machines spread out over a decentralized network, enabling customers to solve complex problems without running up costs for new equipment. IBM's Irving ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item18 "Pocket Pictures" Telecommunications companies such as NTT DoCoMo and AT&T and manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Fujitsu are working--often in collaboration--to develop embedded devices and applications that support wireless 3D graphics. 3D-enabled ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1021m.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.