Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the March 26, 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 474 Date: March 26, 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 Wednesday, March 26, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Privacy Groups Fight Government Data Mining" "Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor" "Data Expert Is Cautious About Misuse of Information" "Coming of the Green Computers" "Can IT Still Attract the Best and Brightest?" "Peer-to-Peer Networks Can't Be Unplugged" "Web Hacking Is Up as Tensions Rise" "Antispam Crusaders Call for New Laws" "DNS Expert: More Sophisticated Internet Attacks Coming" "E-Mail Patterns Map Corporate Structure" "Are Wireless Networks Secure Yet?" "Making Computers Talk" "Bio-Battery Runs on Shots of Vodka" "SALT Sets the Standard for Web-Based Voice Applications" "Seeking Additional Security After a Big Theft, JSTOR Tests Internet2's Shibboleth" "Iraq Still Online" "E-Mail For Everyone" "Seizing the Moment" "The Relentless Storm" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Privacy Groups Fight Government Data Mining" An alliance of privacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center fired off a letter to Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), advising Congress ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item1 "Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor" Oregon State University engineers have built the world's first transparent transistor out of zinc oxide, and OSU electrical and computer engineering professor John Wager characterizes the breakthrough as "a significant new advance in basic electronics ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item2 "Data Expert Is Cautious About Misuse of Information" In-Q-Tel CEO Gilman Louie told PC Forum attendees on Monday that a proposal favored by some technology executives--one calling for a large database on citizens' activities that government officials would have unrestricted access to--is "very dangerous." ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item3 "Coming of the Green Computers" Spurred by the enactment of the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directives last month, the U.S. computer industry is giving serious consideration to designing more ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item4 "Can IT Still Attract the Best and Brightest?" The IT industry's salad days may be over, which raises the question of whether it can continue to bring in top talent. Exacerbating the situation are morale-dampening mass layoffs and salary declines plaguing the IT sector. "I think a lot of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item5 "Peer-to-Peer Networks Can't Be Unplugged" Despite legal and technological assaults against them, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks are not going to be shut down any time soon, according to industry experts. Late last year, a team of four Microsoft researchers, working ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item6 "Web Hacking Is Up as Tensions Rise" As the war with Iraq continues, defacement of Web sites is increasing in frequency, and many security experts claim that greater damages could be perpetrated in the near future. Currently, hackers are focusing on replacing original Web ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item7 "Antispam Crusaders Call for New Laws" Outspoken critics of unsolicited commercial email are urging Congress to enact a federal ban against spam, arguing their case with a March 21 appeals court ruling that supports a federal regulation against "junk" faxes. Electronic Privacy Information ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item8 "DNS Expert: More Sophisticated Internet Attacks Coming" Domain Name System (DNS) designer Paul Mockapetris argues that the denial-of-service attacks launched against the DNS last October were but a foretaste of more advanced assaults in the future. He contends that future attacks will target DNS ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item9 "E-Mail Patterns Map Corporate Structure" Graphing the flow of email exchanges within an enterprise could yield a blueprint of the company's corporate framework, according to a study from Hewlett-Packard researchers Joshua Tyler, Dennis Wilkinson, and Bernardo Huberman. The scientists note that their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item10 "Are Wireless Networks Secure Yet?" The wired equivalent privacy (WEP) security standard--seen by many as the reason wireless local area networks (WLANs) are so insecure--will be replaced by the Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) protocol when it is rolled out in April by the Wi-Fi Alliance, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item11 "Making Computers Talk" Synthetic-speech systems are increasing in sophistication thanks to the emergence of faster computers and cheap data storage, and one of the most advanced systems is IBM's Supervoices, which boasts natural-sounding speech and unlimited vocabulary--elements ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item12 "Bio-Battery Runs on Shots of Alcohol" St. Louis University researcher Shelley Minteer and colleagues revealed at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting on Monday that they have created an enzyme-catalyzed ethanol fuel cell that could eventually be used to power laptop computers and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item13 "SALT Sets the Standard for Web-Based Voice Applications" The Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) standard, a new voice interface technology under consideration by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is a Web technology designed to enable voice interfaces on embedded devices such as those used for telematics ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item14 "Seeking Additional Security After a Big Theft, JSTOR Tests Internet2's Shibboleth" In the wake of a raid on JSTOR's online subscription databases last fall, in which roughly 50,000 digitized articles were stolen before the intrusion was detected and halted, the nonprofit scholarly journal licenser has equipped its Web servers with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item15 "Iraq Still Online" As of March 21, Iraq's major Web sites were still operating despite the continuing war, including Uruklink.net, the government's official site. The site featured the current date and also displayed links to video streams of the recent interview ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item16 "E-Mail For Everyone" Some companies are trying out streamlined email access so that all members of the workforce--not just the higher-ups--are better informed, and have a closer connection to employers that fuels productivity growth; other hoped-for benefits of such a tool ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item17 "Seizing the Moment" The Justice Department's Domestic Security Enhancement Act (DSEA), a follow-up to the USA Patriot Act, calls for a dramatic expansion of domestic law enforcement powers that threatens to further undermine civil liberties, critics charge. As currently ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item18 "The Relentless Storm" The question of whether Bell Labs Research could survive being shorn of parent company AT&T has been tested over the last several years, when economic fallout led to the shutdown of its ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0326w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0324m.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.