Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 11, 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 481 Date: April 11, 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, April 11, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Standards Group Beats Back Patent Foes" "Senate Introduces Bill to Can Spam" "Patriot Act Extension Considered" "Databases Ripe for Attacks" "After Three Years of Wi-Fi, Hurdles Still Remain" "Focus on Software Piracy Problem" "Designing New Handhelds to Improve Human-Computer Interaction" "India Builds Tflops Computing Cluster" "A Self-Powered DNA Computer Redefines Small" "Supply Chain Reaction" "The Lowdown Download Blues" "Benefits of Future Displays Debated" "War on Electronic Privacy" "Tech Giants Put Chips on Security Alliance" "Painted LEDs Make Screen" "The Ins and Outs of IT" "Continuing the Fight Against Worms" "The PC Factor" "Rogue IT" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Standards Group Beats Back Patent Foes" The Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) intellectual property rights working group has concluded there is no immediate need to recharter rules allowing patented technologies in IETF standards. Rules currently on IETF books allow for reasonable ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item1 "Senate Introduces Bill to Can Spam" Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced a bill on Thursday that aims to reduce the amount of spam clogging Internet users' in-boxes by requiring online marketers to include valid return addresses in the messages, giving consumers the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item2 "Patriot Act Extension Considered" Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) reportedly wants to permanently extend the Patriot Act beyond its 2005 sunset provision, a development that is opposed by civil liberty proponents and others. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse director Beth Givens says a permanent ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item3 "Databases Ripe for Attacks" Reported online security incidents and confirmed attacks climbed 37 percent from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2003, according to a report from Internet Security Systems (ISS). ISS' Pete Allor says the Slammer worm outbreak in late ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item4 "After Three Years of Wi-Fi, Hurdles Still Remain" Many of Wi-Fi technology's promised advantages have yet to be realized, and the nonprofit Wi-Fi Alliance acknowledges that security shortcomings, differing standards, product incompatibilities, and a lack of Wi-Fi "hot spots" need to be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item5 "Focus on Software Piracy Problem" Hollywood's battle against digital piracy may have grabbed most of the attention, but that does not make software piracy any less significant, asserts Business Software Alliance (BSA) VP of enforcement Bob Kruger. He is concerned that college students ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item6 "Designing New Handhelds to Improve Human-Computer Interaction" Professionals in the field of human-computer interaction gathered in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., this week to discuss the latest research projects involving handheld devices. The annual ACM conference on human-computer interaction, CHI 2003, gave the world a glimpse of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item7 "India Builds Tflops Computing Cluster" India has entered the international supercomputing arena with last week's announcement of the Param Padma, a 1-teraflop computing cluster developed by the Center for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The cluster incorporates up to 248 1 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item8 "A Self-Powered DNA Computer Redefines Small" DNA computers combine the advantages of minuscule size and potentially massive storage capacity, and now researchers at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science have tweaked that model with a device that uses data as a power source. An earlier DNA ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item9 "Supply Chain Reaction" Pervasive computing was first promoted as a technology that would create hyper-networks of interconnected devices, but a lack of practical applications indicated that the idea was ahead of its time. However, some companies now plan to give the concept a new ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item10 "The Lowdown Download Blues" The fall of online song-swapping service Napster, which helped fuel the current battles copyright holders are waging against technology companies and consumers, was predicated on a lack of common sense and a cohesive business plan. Shawn Fanning's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item11 "Benefits of Future Displays Debated" Proponents and backers of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have claimed that the technology will lead to display screens that are thinner, lighter, and more power-efficient than liquid crystal displays (LCDs), but the current crop of commercial and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item12 "War on Electronic Privacy" Nearly 300 people from around the world--lawyers, activists, technology enthusiasts, and others--gathered in New York City to attend ACM's 13th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) Conference, whose underlying theme was the protection of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item13 "Tech Giants Put Chips on Security Alliance" Members of the Trusted Computer Platform Alliance (TCPA) declared on April 8 that they have retooled their organization and renamed it the Trusted Computing Group, which will license and commercialize security hardware and software to be embedded into ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item14 "Painted LEDs Make Screen" A Munich University research team led by Klaus Meerholz has devised a process to fabricate full-color flat-screen displays by covering a surface with light-emitting polymers and exposing them to 125-micron spots of ultraviolet light, thus generating sharply ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item15 "The Ins and Outs of IT" Enterprise technology is shifting like the sands of the desert, says Cap Gemini Ernst & Young chief technologist John Parkinson. He says one of the most distinctive and important shifts will be toward a pervasive utility architecture, where approximately 100 ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item16 "Continuing the Fight Against Worms" The sophistication and speed of computer worms, as demonstrated by recent outbreaks such as Slammer/Sapphire, is growing, as is their potential for inflicting damage. Detailed analysis of worm behavior, both expected and established, is key to understanding ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item17 "The PC Factor" Computer chip and PC manufacturers are investing astronomical sums in the redesign of their products' form factor and functionality. But a cool-looking device is no guarantee of marketability, especially in a climate characterized by frugal IT ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item18 "Rogue IT" Corporate executives are taking a dim view of "ghost IT" projects--technology ventures carried out independently by business units without the CIO knowing about it and often without company approval--in order to avoid the burden of cleaning up ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0411f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.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.