Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 16, 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 483 Date: April 16, 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 16, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop Offline" "Will Patents Kill IT Innovation?" "Cutting the Cord" "Cyberattacks With Offline Damage" "Quest for Power, Speed Drive the Latest Technologies" "Research Shows Hazards in Tiny Particles" "Tiny Bubbles Are Key to Liquid-Cooled System for Future Computers" "Apple Patches Flaws in Mac OS X" "Are Privacy Expectations Changing?" "Homeland Security Needs More Tech Funds" "Honeypots Get Stickier for Hackers" "Military Fashioning High-Tech Combat Suits" "Open-Source Team Fights Buffer Overflows" "'Please Step to the Side, Sir'" "Indian Software Industry Worried by Arrests, Protectionism" "Holographic Data Storage: The Light Fantastic" "ISOnews Co-Founder Does Time for DMCA Violation" "Open Source Versus Open Standards" "The Next Material World" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop Offline" Although minorities, the elderly, the handicapped, and persons in low income brackets account for most of the people who are not online, a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project estimates that 17 percent of Americans are Internet ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item1 "Will Patents Kill IT Innovation?" One of the most vocal critics of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is open-source consultant Bruce Perens, who says that allowances to patent "anything under the sun that is made by man," as decreed by the Supreme Court in 1980, could become a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item2 "Cutting the Cord" An increasing number of American homes have multiple PCs connected by wireless networks as users seek to share broadband Internet connections and files between machines. International Data (IDC) says the number of such homes has doubled in the last ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item3 "Cyberattacks With Offline Damage" Aviel D. Rubin of Johns Hopkins University's Information Security Institute recently presented a paper suggesting that a cyberspace-based attack can have real-world ramifications, and is relatively simple to carry out. All that is needed are tools ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item4 "Quest for Power, Speed Drive the Latest Technologies" Wireless technologies will soon allow people to be almost completely free of copper strands. Bandwidth barriers have prevented technologists from using wireless technology to transfer information such as live video, but those obstacles are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item5 "Research Shows Hazards in Tiny Particles" A new study by Dr. Vyvyan Howard of the University of Liverpool concludes that nanoscale materials are likely to constitute a health risk--especially to laborers manufacturing such materials--because their small size makes them easy to inhale, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item6 "Tiny Bubbles Are Key to Liquid-Cooled System for Future Computers" The heat output of microprocessor chips is expected to increase by a factor of four within three years, necessitating the development of new cooling systems that are far more efficient than fan and heat-sink technology currently in use, according to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item7 "Apple Patches Flaws in Mac OS X" Apple Computer has issued an updated version of its Mac OS X operating system in order to address seven major security flaws that @Stake alerted the company to. Accompanying Apple's advice that users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.2.5 was a notification that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item8 "Are Privacy Expectations Changing?" Scarlet Pruitt writes that the prevailing mood at ACM's annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference appeared to be one of calm resignation rather than enthusiastic opposition to proposed and enacted legislation and initiatives that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item9 "Homeland Security Needs More Tech Funds" Charles McQueary of the Department of Homeland Security presented a request for a 43 percent annual budget increase to cover various technology initiatives to Congress on April 10. The projects that the department aims to fund through the expanded ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item10 "Honeypots Get Stickier for Hackers" Speaking at the CanSecWest security show, Honeynet Project founder Lance Spitzner announced changes to his group's open-source honeypot technology that will hopefully make it more palatable to security companies and other businesses. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item11 "Military Fashioning High-Tech Combat Suits" The Army's Soldier Systems Center is the focus of research to build more sophisticated yet comfortable uniforms, body armor, and other protective systems for troops to wear on the battlefield, and the center's Maurice N. Larrivee attributes much ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item12 "Open-Source Team Fights Buffer Overflows" The OpenBSD project will release new security features next month that virtually eliminate the threat of "buffer overflow" attacks, which have been the bane of computer security professionals for decades. Speaking at the recent CanSecWest conference, OpenBSD ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item13 "'Please Step to the Side, Sir'" In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released documents last month confirming that there is indeed a federal "no-fly" list of people ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item14 "Indian Software Industry Worried by Arrests, Protectionism" Recent international arrests and U.S. legislation are cause for concern throughout the Indian software industry, which is interpreting such incidents as a sign of fear among other nations that Indian engineers are encroaching on their job markets. In ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item15 "Holographic Data Storage: The Light Fantastic" The promised advantages of holographic data storage include greater storage capacity, faster data retrieval, and new search methodologies; but it is only now that practical applications have begun to appear on the market, partly because of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item16 "ISOnews Co-Founder Does Time for DMCA Violation" ISOnews.com co-founder David Rocci has been sentenced to five months in prison for selling microchips that enabled Xbox computers to play bootlegs, back-up copies, and other unauthorized games. Rocci was sentenced as part of a plea deal ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item17 "Open Source Versus Open Standards" Open standards, open source, developer communities, and licensing models have all used the term "open," but users need to know exactly what the moniker means in each instance, according to Sun Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz. Of the four groupings, open ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item18 "The Next Material World" Materials and society's mastery over them determines the path a civilization follows, and most experts agree that nanotechnology is shepherding civilization toward a design age marked by radical shifts in materials and manufacturing processes. "As we continue ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.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