Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the January 10, 2003 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 5, Number 444 Date: January 10, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 Friday, January 10, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Graduate Study in Sciences, Engineering Fell During Decade" "White House to Fill Cybersecurity Posts" "E-Waste: Dark Side of Digital Age" "Gentlemen, Start Hacking Your Engines" "High Tech's Latest Bright Idea: Shared Computing" "Keeping Ahead of DNS Attacks" "Cheap Chips Seen Driving Next Tech Wave" "Palo Alto Scientist May Fend Off Big Brother" "W3C Releases Scripting Standard, Caveat" "Wi-Fi: Still Room for Improvement" "Macworld's Look at the Year Ahead in Macs" "Aligned Fields Could Speed Storage" "Computer Linguists Mix Language, Science" "Cybersecurity Plan May Pose Privacy Problems" "Studios Using Digital Armor to Fight Piracy" "Disruptive Technologies" "L1s Slip Past H-1B Curbs" "The Next Plastic Revolution" "Panel Finds that R&D Relationships Need to be Remodeled" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Graduate Study in Sciences, Engineering Fell During Decade" A recent study by the University of Washington found that the number of college seniors intending to enter mathematics graduate programs declined 19 percent between 1992 and 2000, while those who planned to become engineering graduates slipped 25 percent. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item1 "White House to Fill Cybersecurity Posts" Government and industry technology sources say the White House intends to nominate former Defense Intelligence Agency director James Clapper as head of the Department of Homeland Security's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item2 "E-Waste: Dark Side of Digital Age" In its third annual computer company report card, the Computer TakeBack Campaign (CTC) found that U.S. computer firms trail their counterparts in Japan in terms of worker health and safety, recycling programs, and hazardous materials, using research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item3 "Gentlemen, Start Hacking Your Engines" Tech-savvy car enthusiasts who love to race are taking advantage of their automobiles' onboard computer systems to boost engine performance, and this in turn has created a market for high-tech software, gadgetry, and other vehicle add-ons. One supplier is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item4 "High Tech's Latest Bright Idea: Shared Computing" Experts predict that shared computing technology, which allows companies or researchers to tap into and combine the processing power in all machines so they can carry out major computing chores rather than relying on expensive supercomputers, will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item5 "Keeping Ahead of DNS Attacks" The domain name system (DNS) mapping Internet addresses requires a coordinated defense against attacks, such as the denial-of-service attack last Oct. 21. Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the DNS, writes that the attack on the 13 root ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item6 "Cheap Chips Seen Driving Next Tech Wave" Pervasive computing will drive technological innovation in the coming years, predicted Institute for the Future director Paul Saffo, speaking at the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International Industry Strategy Symposium on Tuesday. Saffo also ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item7 "Palo Alto Scientist May Fend Off Big Brother" Along with its controversial Total Information Awareness project, the U.S. government is also spending money to develop sophisticated privacy safeguards. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded established ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item8 "W3C Releases Scripting Standard, Caveat" The Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML scripting specification the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released on Thursday will simplify the creation of Web pages with more dynamic and functional elements, such as spur-of-the moment style ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item9 "Wi-Fi: Still Room for Improvement" Wi-Fi technology, despite its fast rise to dominance in the wireless LAN space, is still undergoing significant changes as new flavors emerge and are improved upon. Although the original 802.11b standard will remain the dominant specification for about ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item10 "Macworld's Look at the Year Ahead in Macs" A panel of a dozen experts expressed their thoughts on notable Apple products and developments that will emerge or unfold in 2003. Macworld UK editor-in-chief Simon Jary does not expect a spectacular rise in Apple's market share, and foresees problems ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item11 "Aligned Fields Could Speed Storage" A team of German and Russian scientists has made a discovery that could link magnetic and electronic data storage and increase the flexibility of both techniques. The breakthrough involves the simultaneous imaging of a material's electric and magnetic ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item12 "Computer Linguists Mix Language, Science" The job of computer linguists involves teaching computers to comprehend spoken language, speak, and translate text, according to Dr. Gary F. Simons of SIL International, formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics. The Internet has spurred interest in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item13 "Cybersecurity Plan May Pose Privacy Problems" A White House internal draft of the National Plan to Secure Cyberspace obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday reportedly cuts most private-sector recommendations, reduces the number of proposals from 86 to 49, and makes the Homeland Security ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item14 "Studios Using Digital Armor to Fight Piracy" Hollywood and the music industry are fighting digital piracy with digital means--content controls that regulate how people consume and use media. Industry executives worry that, as they release their movies and television shows in digital form, it will be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item15 "Disruptive Technologies" A series of disruptive technologies that will increase people's access to information and trigger beneficial change that will dramatically impact business and economic evolution are starting to take root; their proliferation will translate into increased ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item16 "L1s Slip Past H-1B Curbs" The H-1B visa program that allows companies to import foreign workers for IT jobs has attracted intense scrutiny, regulation, and criticism from American professionals arguing that they are losing jobs to people willing to work for less money. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item17 "The Next Plastic Revolution" Scientists are developing the next generation of display technology that uses electrically charged organic polymers to emit light. While the special plastics lack the superconductive qualities of the best silicon and other non-organic materials, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item18 "Panel Finds that R&D Relationships Need to be Remodeled" At R&D Magazine's 4th Annual Independent R&D Organization (IRDO) CEO Roundtable, panelists discussed how developments in the past year and a half--the terrorist attacks, the economic recession, and so on--have affected commercial research and development, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0110f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0108w.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.