Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 5, 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 491 Date: May 5, 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 Monday, May 5, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy" "High-Tech Hardships" "Server Makers Tout InfiniBand Sequel" "Finding Solution to Secret World of Spam" "Intel to Release Machine Learning Libraries" "International Backlash" "New Century Will Develop Language Capabilities Critical to Nation's Security" "Technology Now Being Tested Could Integrate Cellular and Wi-Fi Networks" "Chairman Leads Surprisingly Vigilant FTC" "Next-Generation Data Storage Gets Interesting" "Intel Teaches Computers to Lip-Read" "The Grammar of Sound" "Technology Takes to the Road" "The Congressional Corral" "Wanted: More Wi-Fi Waves" "The State of Embedded Speech" "Six Technologies That Will Change the World" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy" The music industry is clandestinely developing a barrage of technical weapons to use against online music pirates, including programs that freeze users' computers, slow their Internet connections, and perform seek-and-destroy searches on their hard ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item1 "High-Tech Hardships" The H-1B program, which Congress expanded three years ago to alleviate a shortage of high-tech workers due to the industry boom, has come under fire since the tech implosion and massive cost-cutting layoffs of domestic employees. "The H-1B program ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item2 "Server Makers Tout InfiniBand Sequel" Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) is a slower, albeit cheaper, alternative to the InfiniBand high-speed networking technology that IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and others are developing so that high-end database servers can be assembled from low-end ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item3 "Finding Solution to Secret World of Spam" Tracking down senders of spam is a difficult proposition, given that most bulk emailers transmit their messages under false names and addresses to thwart authorities. America Online, the Direct Marketing Association, and others claim that some 150 to 200 spam ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item4 "Intel to Release Machine Learning Libraries" Intel plans to release a series of Bayesian network software libraries at the Neural Information Processing Systems 2003 conference on June 6. It is hoped that the release will enable software developers to incorporate improved machine learning ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item5 "International Backlash" Changes may be in store for the way in which IT services and back-end business processes are outsourced as advocates of IT workers in the United States and Europe increase their pressure on government officials to support the local job market. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item6 "New Century Will Develop Language Capabilities Critical to Nation's Security" Human computer interaction and machine (computer) translation will be among the focuses of research at the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL), a new collaborative federal research facility at the University of Maryland's new 130-acre research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item7 "Technology Now Being Tested Could Integrate Cellular and Wi-Fi Networks" Efforts are underway to develop technologies that merge cellular and Wi-Fi networks; integrating the networks would enable users to seamlessly take advantage of both Wi-Fi's small-area networks and cellular's wide-area connectivity. As demand for 2.5G ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item8 "Chairman Leads Surprisingly Vigilant FTC" FTC Chairman Timothy Muris appears to be quelling many critics who thought the vigilance of the commission, under his direction, would take a back seat to business concerns, writes Dan Gillmor. Muris' zealousness is demonstrated by the more proactive strategy ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item9 "Next-Generation Data Storage Gets Interesting" Forthcoming and already available storage technologies boast features that aim to embed intelligence in storage networks so that companies can better comply with regulations and align data management to business goals. International Data (IDC) research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item10 "Intel Teaches Computers to Lip-Read" Intel's Audio Visual Speech Recognition software is an open-source speech recognition program that uses face detection algorithms from the company's OpenCV computer vision library to read lips in an effort to improve the accuracy of speech ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item11 "The Grammar of Sound" Fast-Talk Communications, a spinoff out of Georgia Tech, has developed a new way to search audio files by parsing sound instead of text. While finding a term in audio files usually means text transcription and tagging phrases or words, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item12 "Technology Takes to the Road" Cars and driving are undergoing a metamorphosis thanks to advanced technologies being incorporated into automotive systems, including enhanced navigation, damage avoidance, and entertainment. Audi's drive-by-wire throttle improves engine ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item13 "The Congressional Corral" Legislation not only threatens to restrict the way consumers use technology, but the development of technology itself. The music and movie industries prompted legislation from Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) last year that would have mandated ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item14 "Wanted: More Wi-Fi Waves" Telecommunications analysts say Starbucks, McDonald's, Borders, and many others are making Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) ubiquitous, but they are concerned that a lack of spectrum availability will stunt the growth of the emerging market. The Precursor Group's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item15 "The State of Embedded Speech" The importance of embedded speech technology, in which speech recognition, text-to-voice (TTV), speaker identification, speaker verification, and other tasks can be performed on a single device, is growing thanks to the same computing power ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item16 "Six Technologies That Will Change the World" Of six potentially revolutionary technologies, the most visionary are products of academic research. Cynthia Breazeal of MIT's Robotic Life Group is developing sociable robots that could one day perform tasks that rely on expressive ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0505m.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0502f.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