Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the April 23, 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 486 Date: April 23, 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 23, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Internet Is Losing Ground in Battle Against Spam" "Is Open Source Apple's Salvation?" "Facing Up to the Threat From Cyber Terrorism" "Report: College Grads Will Suffer From High-Tech Job Slowdown" "Tech Forum Tackles Big Ideas" "Machine-to-Machine Integration: The Next Big Thing?" "Snaky Tape May Enliven Computer Interactions" "Will Code for Food" "Military Academies Face Off in Blunting Cyberattacks" "Planning for the Next Cyberwar" "Next Mac OS X Puts User at the Center" "Artificial Intelligence Scopes Out Spam" "The Web's Next Leap" "September 11 Information Failures: A Semiotic Approach" "Writing Software Right" "Recycling Not Easy for PC Makers" "The Grid: Computing Without Bounds" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Internet Is Losing Ground in Battle Against Spam" Despite the push to eradicate unsolicited commercial email, spammers still have the upper hand, and are battling automated filters and other antispam measures using various methods, ranging from as simple a method as rewording spam messages to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item1 "Is Open Source Apple's Salvation?" Although Apple's OS X operating system is based on the open-source Darwin OS from BSD, and the core of its Safari Web browser is the KHTML rendering engine, this does not mean that Apple is wholly embracing open source. Only certain components ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item2 "Facing Up to the Threat From Cyber Terrorism" Internet Security Systems CEO Tom Noonan says the United States' unparalleled reliance on computer automation has not only made it the most productive country in the world, but also the most vulnerable to cyberattacks. It is reasonable to assume that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item3 "Report: College Grads Will Suffer From High-Tech Job Slowdown" Companies are devoting less money to technology investments, so hiring large numbers of high-tech college graduates is less of a priority, concludes a new Challenger, Gray & Christmas report. "Because of major cost-cutting, companies are not updating their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item4 "Tech Forum Tackles Big Ideas" Sci-fi author Cory Doctorow, one of the organizers of this week's O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, describes the event as "a three-day jam session for geeks," with its overarching theme being the future of technology. Attendees will be able to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item5 "Machine-to-Machine Integration: The Next Big Thing?" The potential advantages of machine-to-machine integration for conventional IT organizations include lower costs, better responsiveness, improved efficiency, a tighter supply chain, and even new business models, writes Forrester Research analyst Carl ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item6 "Snaky Tape May Enliven Computer Interactions" A research team led by Ravin Balakrishnan of the University of Toronto has developed "ShapeTape," a flexible tool that can be used with specialized software to build computer-generated shapes. Calling ShapeTape a revolutionary form of computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item7 "Will Code for Food" The current hiring atmosphere for technology professionals is bleak, if Silicon Valley tech job fairs are any indication. Whereas most attendees of such events were gainfully employed at the height of the tech boom, today the majority are unemployed; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item8 "Military Academies Face Off in Blunting Cyberattacks" Computer experts in the top three U.S. military academies as well as the Coast Guard and other agencies participated in the third annual Cyber Defense Exercise last week in order to evaluate the military's ability to wage "network-centric warfare" as well as ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item9 "Planning for the Next Cyberwar" The U.S. victory in Iraq validates the concept of network-centric or digital warfare, which is poised to grow in scope and sophistication in anticipation of future conflicts. Part of the Pentagon's $500 billion budget for 2004 will be allocated for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item10 "Next Mac OS X Puts User at the Center" Apple is readying its new Mac OS X 10.3, or "Panther," expected to ship in September; the system is reported to include many personalization features Apple is calling User at the Center that promise to be competitive with those in development at ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item11 "Artificial Intelligence Scopes Out Spam" Spammers currently have the upper hand because they are always probing email filtering solutions for vulnerabilities, but artificial intelligence mail-filtering software that uses natural-language processors could outpace their rate of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item12 "The Web's Next Leap" Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and leader of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), believes the Semantic Web is the next step in Web technology; he describes it as "webbing" the traditional relational database so that companies' back-end ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item13 "September 11 Information Failures: A Semiotic Approach" The useful exploitation of collected data will depend on the integration of information-gathering systems and associative applications, write Kevin C. Desouza of the University of Illinois and Tobin Hensgen of Loyola University, who believe a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item14 "Writing Software Right" Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and IBM are trying to retool software engineering and eliminate "laissez-faire" attitudes toward software design that can lead to potentially major bugs slipping through the testing process, while also saving time, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item15 "Recycling Not Easy for PC Makers" PC manufacturers have started to study product recycling processes in detail, and are finding both pluses and minuses: They are learning how difficult it is to remove and dispose of certain materials, such as mercury filaments in scanners, but they are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item16 "The Grid: Computing Without Bounds" Grid computing is expected to "virtualize" general computational services and make processing, storage, data, and software so ubiquitous that computing will seem like just another utility. An extension of the Internet, grid computing melds computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0423w.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.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