Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the March 24, 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 473 Date: March 24, 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 Monday, March 24, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Warfare Enters the Digital Age" "IT Burnout at Critical Level" "War Images Give New Purpose to High-Speed Web" "Military's Use of GPS, A Civilian Mainstay, Is at Core of Its Might" "Rebuilding Plans for Postwar Iraq Depend on IT" "Making Senders Pay the Price for Spam" "On the Backs of Ants" "U.S. Offers Better Prospects for European PhDs" "Spider Silk Delivers Finest Optical Fibres" "Dell Sounds the Death Knell for the Venerable Floppy Disk" "Why We Should Lose the Back Button" "Memories as Heirlooms Logged Into a Database" "Study Suggests Spam-Stopping Tricks" "The Worldwide Code Rebellion" "Open Secret" "Knowledge Managing" "Taming Traffic" "The Meaning of Computers and Chess" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Warfare Enters the Digital Age" The U.S. military is vastly changed from the force it was in 1991, when commanders had comparatively little visibility into the battlefield and ability to coordinate strikes on small, moving targets. Today, however, the armed forces tout a style of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item1 "IT Burnout at Critical Level" Employee burnout stemming from disenchantment, overwork, and the like, is on the rise in the IT sector, according to analysts. A Meta Group report authored by Maria Schafer finds that most surveyed IT managers regard burnout as a major issue, enough so ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item2 "War Images Give New Purpose to High-Speed Web" Broadband Internet usage is getting a big boost from war coverage, just as the CNN cable news network did during the first Persian Gulf war in 1991. Online news organizations such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNN.com, ABCNews.com, and RealNetworks have ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item3 "Military's Use of GPS, A Civilian Mainstay, Is at Core of Its Might" The Global Positioning System (GPS), a network of 27 satellites often dedicated to civilian applications such as location services, is also a military tool, and a critical component of the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Thanks to GPS, bombs can hit ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item4 "Rebuilding Plans for Postwar Iraq Depend on IT" Assuming that the war against Iraq has a successful outcome and Saddam Hussein's regime is toppled, reconstruction of the country's infrastructure will follow a plan currently under development by the Pentagon, the State Department, and the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item5 "Making Senders Pay the Price for Spam" Scott Fahlman of IBM's Watson Research Center has come up with a spam solution that he believes will be more effective than current anti-spam technology and legislative efforts: Making spammers pay for the right to send unsolicited commercial email. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item6 "On the Backs of Ants" Taking a cue from communal organisms such as ants, bacteria, and slime molds, researchers at Germany's Humboldt University have developed a system in which electronic agents can assemble themselves into networks without a centralized communications ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item7 "U.S. Offers Better Prospects for European PhDs" More and more European science and technology (S&T) graduates are choosing to live and work in the United States, mainly due to attractive career and hiring prospects, says EU commissioner of research Philippe Busquin. The data, from a new European ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item8 "Spider Silk Delivers Finest Optical Fibres" A team of engineers at the University of California at Riverside are using spider silk to make finer optical fibers that could be used to carry light in nanoscale optical circuits. The fibers are made by first coating the thread with tetraethyl ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item9 "Dell Sounds the Death Knell for the Venerable Floppy Disk" Dell Computer's announcement last month that it would exclude 3.5-inch floppy disk drives as a standard feature on its desktop PCs signaled the end of the line for the technology, analysts say. Eliminating floppy drives can cut approximately $10 to $15 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item10 "Why We Should Lose the Back Button" Zanzara owner Richard Mander counsels vendors and user groups on user interface design. He says Web designers should stop being dependent on the Web browser's back button and instead incorporate more obvious navigation links and indicators on Web ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item11 "Memories as Heirlooms Logged Into a Database" Researchers at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center are developing software that would allow users to search out information on everyday events, keepsakes, and other personal details archived in a single database, and project originator ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item12 "Study Suggests Spam-Stopping Tricks" The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) concluded in a recent study that masking or hiding email addresses is the most effective tactic for avoiding the deluge of junk email, or spam, that accounts for up to 50 percent of all messages in a given ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item13 "The Worldwide Code Rebellion" Open-source software has gone from a short-term phenomenon to a worldwide movement as an increasing number of governments turn to the technology. Governments in Europe, Singapore, Taiwan, and China are among those that are encouraging IT managers to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item14 "Open Secret" Carbon nanotubes' anticipated revolution has been much quieter than advertised by the hype: They are incorporated in automobiles as conductive fuel lines insulated against sparking, as well as protective coating that reduces pollution and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item15 "Knowledge Managing" The economic downturn has cleared a path for the rethinking of knowledge management (KM) and how it can be incorporated into the enterprise. Now companies face the daunting challenge of investing in KM and reorganizing their workflow and processes in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item16 "Taming Traffic" Researchers at the University of Singapore are working on a computerized traffic management system to facilitate efficient traffic flow in the event of a car accident or traffic jam. The system uses enhanced algorithms and data-mining technology to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item17 "The Meaning of Computers and Chess" The last three major human vs. computer chess matches ended in a draw, thus demonstrating the continued refinement of software and human players' inability to modify their strategies against such programs; it also signifies that either computer intelligence is ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0321f.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.