Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 18, 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 484 Date: April 18, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - POWERFUL SYSTEMS, POWERFUL SAVINGS IBM offers ACM members discounts on hundreds of products for the home and office including desktops, notebooks, servers, monitors, software, hardware and accessories. Also, ask about additional promotional offers! Call 800-426-7235 ext. 3559 to save 10% everyday on purchases. TURN UP THE VOLUME ON IBM AND SAVE The more you buy, the more you save. Ask about Volume Discounts when you buy multiple select IBM ThinkPadR notebooks and NetVistaTM desktops*. Call 800-426-7235 ext. 3559 today. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top Stories for Friday, April 18, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Eluding the Web's Snare" "Debate: Should You Hire a Hacker?" "Wi-Fi Could Let Iraq Skip Steps to Leap Into Broadband" "Women Need Widescreen for Virtual Navigation" "Fiber Loop Makes Quantum Memory" "Glowing Beads Make Tiny Bar Codes" "Battlefield Internet Gets First War Use" "Expert Warns of Cyberthreats" "Feds, Tech Industry Partner to Fight Cyberterrorism" "Making More of a Noise" "Tech Sector Starts to Feel the Effects of SARS Virus" "Uncle Sam: Share Your System Secrets" "Analyst Predicts Next-Generation Super Network" "Study: Techies Could Use Some PR" "H-1B Debate Flares as EE Jobless Rate Hits 7 Percent" "Listening In" "Almost Human" "Teen Technology Goes to Battle" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Eluding the Web's Snare" Results from the Pew Internet and American Life Project's 2002 survey show that 42% of American adults still do not regularly use the Internet despite many of them being able to if they chose to do so. Project director Lee Rainie said the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item1 "Debate: Should You Hire a Hacker?" Reformed hackers make terrific security advisors for corporations, argued onetime hacker Kevin Mitnick during a panel session at the RSA Security Conference today. Taking the opposing view was fellow panelist Christopher Painter, current ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item2 "Wi-Fi Could Let Iraq Skip Steps to Leap Into Broadband" The reconstruction of Iraq following the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime could involve a Wi-Fi deployment that outpaces that of the U.S., because Iraq will not be plagued by traditional phone and cable networks that would otherwise hamper ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item3 "Women Need Widescreen for Virtual Navigation" Computer scientists from Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., research lab and Carnegie Mellon University told attendees at a Florida computer usability conference last week that men are better than women when it comes to navigating through virtual environments ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item4 "Fiber Loop Makes Quantum Memory" New quantum computing research has yielded a short-term memory device that uses an optical fiber loop to store quantum information. Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory has created a simple device that traps photons in an ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item5 "Glowing Beads Make Tiny Bar Codes" Corning scientists have devised a process to synthesize minuscule barcoded beads through the fusion of glass doped with lanthanide metal oxide ions, which glow at certain wavelengths under ultraviolet light. The mixture is drawn into a rectangular ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item6 "Battlefield Internet Gets First War Use" Wednesday's raid by the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division on the Taji air base in Iraq inaugurated the Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2), an advanced networking system that monitors the movement of combat vehicles in a sort of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item7 "Expert Warns of Cyberthreats" Samuel Berger, who served the Clinton administration as national security advisor, told reporters at this week's RSA Conference that the U.S. should increase funding for both physical and cyberspace-related security measures, and warned the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item8 "Feds, Tech Industry Partner to Fight Cyberterrorism" The federal government and leading technology vendors have agreed to develop voluntary computer security standards meant to raise the baseline of Web security and customer trust online; companies that pass the standards, which will not be quickly outmoded ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item9 "Making More of a Noise" While currently inflexible and expensive to deploy, voice technology is making improvements and gaining acceptance in certain areas. Experts say voice commands would be most useful in factory or vehicle settings where users cannot easily use ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item10 "Tech Sector Starts to Feel the Effects of SARS Virus" Arabia.com, based in the British islet of Guernsey, has announced that it plans to sell Iraq.com but will not release its target price. In other Internet and computing news, Intel has cancelled forums to be held in Beijing and Taipei because of the SARS ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item11 "Uncle Sam: Share Your System Secrets" The Homeland Security Department issued a proposal on Tuesday that will supposedly quell industry groups' fears about disclosing infrastructure security data to the government by promising to keep such data confidential. The proposal ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item12 "Analyst Predicts Next-Generation Super Network" Gartner expects all future communications needs to be supported by a hybrid next-generation network (NGN) that melds the Internet with wireless and public switched telephone, and industry experts predict such a network will arrive within two years. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item13 "Study: Techies Could Use Some PR" A Deloitte & Touche/IDG Research Services survey of 200 IT managers finds that two-thirds of respondents have been unable to relate the value of their IT departments' contributions to executives, which has led to a "murky view of technology" among ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item14 "H-1B Debate Flares as EE Jobless Rate Hits 7 Percent" The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) disclosed last week that 7% of U.S. electronic engineers were unemployed in the first quarter of 2003, compared to 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2002. The BLS also reported that unemployment among computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item15 "Listening In" The signals intelligence (Sigint) network of ground-based antennas and orbiting satellites was once considered the most effective electronic surveillance system in the world, but that effectiveness was undercut in recent years by the collapse of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item16 "Almost Human" Human simulation technology has advanced significantly over the past few years, and Maryland-based companies such as SIMmersion, BreakAway Games, and Immersion Medical are cresting the simulation technology wave and refining programs that can be ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item17 "Teen Technology Goes to Battle" Peer-to-peer technology, popular among song-trading teenagers on the Internet, is seeing action in the military and in humanitarian efforts. The U.S. Defense Department is employing off-the-shelf products such as Microsoft NetMeeting, and software ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0418f.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Site Sponsored by: IBM personal computers and software Purchase discounted IBM personal computers, servers, and hundreds of additional products and services as an ACM member. *Discount is available directly from IBM on selected products. Savings referenced off regular IBM Web price. Offers cannot be combined with other discounts, rebates or special offers. Offer valid in US only and subject to availability. IBM, NetVista and ThinkPad are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -