Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 12, 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 494 Date: May 12, 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 12, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Open Source Lobby Struggles in EU Patent Debate" "Feds Seek Broader Surveillance Power" "Pumps, Not Fans, May Cool Tomorrow's Computers" "PCs Have Become Just Like Appliances: Both Are Too Complex" "Etch a Site as Easy as Pie" "Social Climbers" "Light Show Makes 3D Camera" "Digital Maps Tell the Time" "Chinese Lab Hopes to Commercialize Sign-Language Recognition Platform" "Cobol Enters the 21st Century" "The State of OS X" "Computer Systems Going on the Road" "Is That a Computer Chip in Your Carpet?" "Product Activation Gains Ground" "On the Tube" "Sleuthing Out Data" "Tech: Where the Action Is" "Scale-Free Networks" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Open Source Lobby Struggles in EU Patent Debate" Open-source and free software advocates held a conference in Brussels on May 8 to protest against a Europe-wide software patent protection directive drafted by the European Commission that the European Parliament will vote on in early June ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item1 "Feds Seek Broader Surveillance Power" The U.S. Senate voted 98-4 to approve the lone-wolf bill, also known as the "Moussaoui Fix," on May 8. Under the bill, which was introduced by Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item2 "Pumps, Not Fans, May Cool Tomorrow's Computers" Analysts expect the amount of heat produced by computer chips in PCs to quadruple within three years, and one possible solution is a "pump-less" fluid-cooling system devised by Issam Mudawar and Swaraj Mukherjee of Purdue University. The chip is attached to a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item3 "PCs Have Become Just Like Appliances: Both Are Too Complex" Consumers are complaining about how complex PCs are, and wishing that the devices were as easy to use as home appliances, writes Lee Gomes. Unfortunately, Gomes observes that appliances are becoming harder to use, while PC difficulty has not decreased ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item4 "Etch a Site as Easy as Pie" A research team at the University of California at Berkeley last month released Denim, a software sketching tool that enables designers to build interactive Web sites. "We're trying to replicate the way designers have traditionally worked in the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item5 "Social Climbers" Social software was a hot topic at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference (ETCon) in April; presenters discussed the increasing importance and usability of social software, which allows many-to-many communication in addition to one-to-one ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item6 "Light Show Makes 3D Camera" University of Kentucky researchers say they have a new technique that can capture 3D video data with just one camera. While existing 3D camera setups require arrays of cameras, the new system uses patterns of light to gauge the depth of recorded http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item7 "Digital Maps Tell the Time" Scientists at MIT's Media Labs Europe in Dublin, Ireland, are trying to incorporate a feature into digital maps that gauges time. Users could know whether they have enough time to walk to the park during lunch, for instance. Based on walking speed and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item8 "Chinese Lab Hopes to Commercialize Sign-Language Recognition Platform" The Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) in China has developed a software platform that can translate spoken and written Chinese and other languages into sign language via a virtual character that hearing-impaired users would read ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item9 "Cobol Enters the 21st Century" Cobol has been modified with new object-oriented features that will make it easier for companies to integrate Cobol-based applications with other systems. Although some observers believe it will take some time for Cobol programmers to learn the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item10 "The State of OS X" Apple is winning over Macintosh fans with each new release of the OS X operating system. Little changes have made a huge difference in improving the speed of the OS X operating system in three major releases since its introduction in 2001. Apple's OS ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item11 "Computer Systems Going on the Road" Telematics startup Truman Mobile says the hardware is now available for a reliable on-board PC that can sync with a home wireless network, play people's MP3 collections, and read email, news, and driving directions aloud. So far only three customers ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item12 "Is That a Computer Chip in Your Carpet?" Infineon Technologies has developed a chip sensor network that is woven into industrial fabrics. The technology is useful for monitoring movement or structural integrity in buildings when embedded in the carpet or in textiles wrapped around support ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item13 "Product Activation Gains Ground" Product activation technology for fighting piracy is now being used in more and more software, including Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2003 program. Symantec is currently testing the technology in downloadable editions of the application, and could ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item14 "On the Tube" Nantero has developed a prototype memory chip based on carbon nanotubes that could allow manufacturers to reach the Holy Grail of fast "non-volatile" memories that retain information even in the absence of a power source. The chip consists of billions of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item15 "Sleuthing Out Data" Companies can increase worker productivity and lower costs through categorization software that makes it easier for users to find necessary information. The software automatically assigns data into categories and subcategories that are arranged in a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item16 "Tech: Where the Action Is" The tech downturn has not stifled innovation, and companies reaping profits despite the slump are those that offer software and services that chiefly benefit end users rather than investors. Declining hardware sales and prices are good news for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item17 "Scale-Free Networks" A wide array of complex systems--cellular metabolism, social networks, and the World Wide Web, to name a few--have a shared network architecture featuring a small number of nodes connected to a vast number of other nodes; some nodes can support a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0509f.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