Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the March 21, 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 472 Date: March 21, 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, March 21, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Will War Swap Privacy for Security?" "W3C Unveils Its Patent Plans" "Where Girls and Tech Make a Match" "Cyberspace an Invisible Front in War on Terrorism" "Biology, Robotics and More Inside Intel's Labs" "War Worms Inch Across Internet" "Internet Traffic Cops Could Foil Web Attacks" "Researchers Develop Ultrafast Internet Protocol" "Nanotechnology: Congress Thinks Big About Small Tech" "Whatever Happened to Internet2--And Why You Can't Touch It" "Leading Computer Science Professional Organizations to Present MobiSys '03" "IETF Meets to Tackle Fundamental Problems" "Easing a Skills' Shortage" "Making Mountains Out of Molecules" "New ICANN Head Promises Greater Openness" "Will Open Source Force a Sea Change in IT?" "The Revenge of Geography" "The Sad and Increasingly Deplorable State of Internet Security" "Recent Advances in Computer Vision" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Will War Swap Privacy for Security?" A pair of Washington, D.C., conferences on technology and homeland security held on Thursday focused on how to strike a balance between security and privacy, an issue being reinforced by the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Paul Rosenzweig of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item1 "W3C Unveils Its Patent Plans" For over three years, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been struggling to develop a patent policy that satisfies both open source proponents who want royalty-free standards and proprietary software companies who demand payment for the use of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item2 "Where Girls and Tech Make a Match" Women account for half of the current workforce, yet only 20 percent of technology professionals; in addition, College Board records indicate that the number of female students who took the Advanced Placement exams in computer science fell from 17 percent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item3 "Cyberspace an Invisible Front in War on Terrorism" Despite a tremendous multi-year push by both the public and private sectors to improve their computer security at a cost of billions of dollars, security experts and government officials admit that cyberattack preparation is basically impossible, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item4 "Biology, Robotics and More Inside Intel's Labs" Intel is working to find new growth fields by carrying out research in robotics, biotechnology, and ubiquitous computing. The company's research division is participating in the Robotic Engineering Task Force (RETF), a joint effort between government, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item5 "War Worms Inch Across Internet" At least three email attachments related to the current Iraqi war are circulating on the Internet, and computer security firms report a rash of Web site defacements as well. Messages are both for and against the war, and the most prolific war-related virus ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item6 "Internet Traffic Cops Could Foil Web Attacks" Intel engineers David Putzolu and Todd Anderson claim they have devised a technology that automatically blocks distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by tweaking the routers that channel Internet traffic along the shortest path to respond to alerts ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item7 "Researchers Develop Ultrafast Internet Protocol" Caltech researchers demonstrated an ultrafast Internet protocol that can send an entire DVD movie in less than five seconds by sending the data via 10 paths simultaneously. The Fast Active queue management Scalable Transmission Control Protocol (FAST) ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item8 "Nanotechnology: Congress Thinks Big About Small Tech" Legislation pending in the House and Senate would provide over $2 billion in the next three for nanotechnology research and development. U.S. Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.) expects the House Science Committee to pass H.R. 766 by May. Committee ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item9 "Whatever Happened to Internet2--And Why You Can't Touch It" Internet2 continues to grow and further innovative technologies that filter down to today's commercial Internet and promise to shape the future Internet as well. The network now includes 202 universities and a number of other corporate research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item10 "Leading Computer Science Professional Organizations to Present MobiSys '03" The top mobile system researchers in the world will present their latest work at the First International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys '03) in San Francisco on May 5-8. "MobiSys is a conference about [mobile] ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item11 "IETF Meets to Tackle Fundamental Problems" The basic problems plaguing the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) will be the focus of a "birds of a feather" (BOF) session on Friday that will concentrate on a recently published document that takes issue with the organization's opaque agenda, its ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item12 "Easing a Skills' Shortage" Ann Swain, CEO of the UK-based Association of Technology Staffing Companies, predicts the United Kingdom will face a shortage of skilled IT professionals when the global economy rebounds. She believes the problem is complicated by the low number of women in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item13 "Making Mountains Out of Molecules" Phaedon Avouris, who manages IBM Research's nanoscale science and technology group, coordinates his team's efforts into designing chips, storage devices, and other systems using molecular strands, and contends that the hype surrounding nanotechnology ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item14 "New ICANN Head Promises Greater Openness" New ICANN President Paul Twomey says the organization's three main objectives include being "open and consultative" with stakeholders, and believes that ICANN should now look beyond OECD nations and to the global Internet community. He criticized the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item15 "Will Open Source Force a Sea Change in IT?" Open source, combined with the advent of service-oriented architecture, could seriously impact solutions providers that rely on operating system licensing fees for most of their revenue. As a result, software companies will have to re-orient ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item16 "The Revenge of Geography" The increasing interest that high-tech companies and researchers have for location-finding technology shows that the Internet did not signal the "death of distance." Researchers are looking to develop technologies that link the physical and virtual worlds, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item17 "The Sad and Increasingly Deplorable State of Internet Security" Core Competence President David Piscitello and BBN Technologies' Dr. Stephen Kent write that the current state of Internet security is execrable, and warn that this situation is likely to worsen before it improves. The 2002 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item18 "Recent Advances in Computer Vision" Computer vision technology is being developed to usher in sophisticated, human-centered applications for human-computer interfaces (HCIs), augmented perception, automatic media interpretation, and video surveillance. Computer vision is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.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.