Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 9, 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 480 Date: April 9, 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, April 9, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Ex-Officials Urge U.S. to Boost Cybersecurity" "Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?" "Military Battling Junk E-Mail" "Digging Through Data for Omens" "Wireless Rivals Emerge" "Companies Seeking Software Are Finding a Buyer's Market" "Studios Take Piracy Battle to the States" "Larry Ellison's Sober Vision" "Survey: Blue Moods in IT Shops" "Sans Takes Team Approach to Computer Security" "Visas and the West's 'Hidden Agenda'" "Reinventing the Media Lab" "Afghan Women Hope Computer Will Bring New Dawn" "Frontier of Military Technology Is the Size of a Molecule" "SETI@home Flaw Could Let Invaders In" "Dream Code" "Some Rights Reserved" "Quantum Dots For Sale" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Ex-Officials Urge U.S. to Boost Cybersecurity" Former White House cybersecurity advisor Richard A. Clarke told a House Government Reform subcommittee yesterday that the Homeland Security Department is ill-equipped to effectively implement the White House's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which he ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item1 "Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?" The lean economic times provide Silicon Valley workers, many now laid-off, a chance for reflection on their industry, especially the frenetic pace at which it has been driven. Observers note that even in sectors not immediately dealing with semiconductors, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item2 "Military Battling Junk E-Mail" U.S. military email inboxes are being hit with spam even though military systems are installed with anti-spam filters. The Defense Department Information Systems Agency has established general standards for having anti-spam filtering, and the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item3 "Digging Through Data for Omens" Although the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun using data mining technology to verify the identity of travelers, privacy fears hinder the government from extensively mining personal information in order to nab terrorists. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item4 "Wireless Rivals Emerge" Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will soon face challenges in wireless connectivity and networking with the emergence of WirelessUSB and ZigBee, respectively. Millions of consumers experienced Bluetooth for the first time last year, using the technology to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item5 "Companies Seeking Software Are Finding a Buyer's Market" The grim economy is forcing companies to maximize their budgets for computer software, a market that has retrenched for the first time in 40 years. Companies are carefully scrutinizing the way they use software; they are using fewer programs, switching to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item6 "Studios Take Piracy Battle to the States" Movie studios are trying to convince state legislators to widen the scope of laws governing theft of cable and phone services to include new digital devices and Internet-based products, thus giving the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) "an ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item7 "Larry Ellison's Sober Vision" Oracle CEO Larry Ellison believes the computer industry has reached the limits of its growth, and predicts the failure of 1,000 tech companies thanks to consolidation and increasing standardization of products. He expects the biotechnology sector ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item8 "Survey: Blue Moods in IT Shops" A recent Meta Group survey of North American IT managers indicates sinking morale among IT workers despite salary raises. Maria Schafer, author of Meta Group's annual IT Staffing and Compensation Guide says 71% of respondents consider IT ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item9 "Sans Takes Team Approach to Computer Security" Sans Institute research director Allan Paller believes computer security problems can be solved more effectively through teamwork, and has made it his job to build security projects that rely on consensus. He reports that demand for Sans courses ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item10 "Visas and the West's 'Hidden Agenda'" The Indian software and IT services industry is facing a toughened global environment as other nations raise non-tariff barriers to limit competitiveness. Even in liberal countries such as the Netherlands, one Indian software company, I-Flex, has ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item11 "Reinventing the Media Lab" MIT has named School of Architecture and Planning Dean William Mitchell, 57, as the new head of its Program in Media Arts and Sciences, which is responsible for the school's Media Lab. In his new leadership position, Mitchell will be charged with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item12 "Afghan Women Hope Computer Will Bring New Dawn" The recent certification of 17 domestically-trained Afghans as computer networking specialists is a watershed for Afghanistan, a country that is a decades-long laggard in information technology, and whose recently-ousted Taliban government virtually eliminated ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item13 "Frontier of Military Technology Is the Size of a Molecule" The U.S. Department of Defense has been a major supporter of nanotechnology research for over 20 years, and this year will spend $243 million on nanotech R&D; the total federal budget for nanotech this year is $774 million. The technology promises to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item14 "SETI@home Flaw Could Let Invaders In" The SETI@home project released a new version of its distributed client software on April 4 in order to close a buffer overflow flaw that could allow hackers to commandeer the computer systems of SETI@home volunteers. SETI@home is a distributed computing ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item15 "Dream Code" The European Physical Journal recently accepted a paper by Stefano Bettelli of Paul Sabatier University detailing his and his colleagues' efforts in creating a programming language for a quantum computer. A quantum computer's bits, or qubits, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item16 "Some Rights Reserved" Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has given scholars, scientists, artists, photographers, and writers an opportunity to share their works more easily on the Internet via the Creative Commons. Last December, Lessig and several other cyber-activists ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item17 "Quantum Dots For Sale" Several startups are readying products that use semiconductor quantum dots, first for the biotechnology industry and later for tunable lasers, telecommunications, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs); this commercialization is fueling basic research in the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0407m.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.