Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 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 496 Date: May 16, 2003 ************************************************************************** Hurry! Free Palm Zire Handheld! Keep your life in balance. Get organized while increasing your mobility! Buy any IBM NetVista(tm) desktop or IBM ThinkPadR notebook and ask for a Palm(tm) Zire(tm) at no additional cost ($99.99 Value). Or upgrade to the Palm Tungsten(tm) Tand SAVE $100. 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Offer ends 5/19/03.* Visit http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/acm or call 800-426-7235, ext. 3559 ********************************************************************** Top Stories for Friday, May 16, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Judge May Ban Copying Software" "U.S. Moves to Allow Trading of Radio Spectrum Licenses" "U.S. Still Vulnerable to Cyber Attack" "Feds Prime New Antispam Weapon" "To Register Doubts, Press Here" "Dept. of Homeland Security Restructuring to Raise Cyber Profile" "Making Computers Understand" "Giving Robots the Gift of Sight" "New Hacking Tool Sees the Light" "Tera Tech's Final Frontier" "Net Scan Finds Like-Minded Users" "US Hackers Top ICC's Annual Review of Cybercrime" "Security Research Exemption to DMCA Considered" "Physicists Step Toward Quantum Computing" "Power Grid" "EPA Sets Deadline for E-Waste Dilemma" "Modifying Moore's Law" "Computers That Cajole" "Internet2 Becoming a Big Net on Campus" "Mind-Machine Merger" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Judge May Ban Copying Software" In a key case for the technology industry, San Francisco federal judge Susan Illston on Thursday questioned the legality of DVD copying software developed by 321 Studios. Judge Illston indicated that she may ban the distribution of the software, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item1 "U.S. Moves to Allow Trading of Radio Spectrum Licenses" The FCC has changed a 40-year rule to allow radio spectrum owners to lease or trade access, a move that will boost the wireless communications market and foster more efficient use of the radio spectrum. Instead of having to own the license themselves, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item2 "U.S. Still Vulnerable to Cyber Attack" Members of Congress brought in the heads of four key U.S. security agencies to discuss the progress of their cyber-defense research and development efforts on Wednesday, and concluded that the country is still unprepared for a cyberterrorist assault on ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item3 "Feds Prime New Antispam Weapon" Federal and state law enforcement officials demanded the worldwide closure of open relays that spammers exploit at a Thursday event in Dallas. Open relays are mail servers that will forward mail to anyone online; mass emailers use them to send ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item4 "To Register Doubts, Press Here" Electronic voting machines have gotten a boost since the controversial 2000 presidential elections, but the momentum is being countered by a group of technologists who warn that such systems are less secure than paper-based ones. Stanford ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item5 "Dept. of Homeland Security Restructuring to Raise Cyber Profile" Charles McQueary of the Department of Homeland Security told the House Science Committee at a Wednesday hearing that his department is reorganizing in order to make it clear that cybersecurity is a priority. The hearing was characterized by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item6 "Making Computers Understand" Meaningful Machines founder Eli Abir is developing an innovative translation method that could help computers comprehend context in human language. "The man literally has figured out the way the brain learns things," declares Meaningful Machines CEO Steve ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item7 "Giving Robots the Gift of Sight" Patrick Andrews of British e-commerce consultancy Break-Step Productions claims to have developed software that imitates the processing pathway in people's upper visual cortex, thus giving machines the ability to perceive shapes in a wider range than ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item8 "New Hacking Tool Sees the Light" Princeton University graduate student Sudhakar Govindavajhala presented a paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Security and Privacy on Tuesday, detailing a method he devised that exploits security flaws in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item9 "Tera Tech's Final Frontier" University of Delaware researchers say they have built a cell phone-sized device, similar to a laser pointer, that makes it possible to tap into previously unattainable terahertz waves whose frequency exceeds that of microwaves a thousandfold. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item10 "Net Scan Finds Like-Minded Users" Researchers from the University of Chicago have developed a new grouping technique based on users' Web data requests. Although data requests have been analyzed before to gauge Web site popularity or plan caching schemes, this is the first time ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item11 "US Hackers Top ICC's Annual Review of Cybercrime" More than 60 percent of computer-based crimes committed from January 2002 to March 2003 came from the United States, with the majority being hack attacks and scams, according to a report by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). ICC's Cybercrime ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item12 "Security Research Exemption to DMCA Considered" Computer security researchers would be allowed to hack through copy protection schemes in order to look for security holes in the software being protected, under a proposed exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) being debated in official hearings ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item13 "Physicists Step Toward Quantum Computing" Quantum computing enabled by solid state electronic components has come one step closer to reality with a new University of Maryland breakthrough. Researchers at the school's Center for Superconductivity Research used Josephson junctions--macroscopic ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item14 "Power Grid" Grid computing is starting to take root in the commercial world, according to analysts. Companies will not be able to resist the tremendous speed and cost benefits of setting up in-house grid computing networks. Such systems allow IT managers to make ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item15 "EPA Sets Deadline for E-Waste Dilemma" The EPA's Marianne Lamont Horinko told National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) stakeholders at the Electronic Industries Alliance's (EIA) Environmental Issues Council meeting on May 6 that they must devise a voluntary ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item16 "Modifying Moore's Law" Moore's Law, along with the scarcity of a killer application, is ramping up the commoditization of information technology. Commoditization--and a subsequent decline in value--occurs when technology proliferates, becomes easy to understand, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item17 "Computers That Cajole" Captology, a term conceived by B.J. Fogg of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab, focuses on how computers are used to persuasively modify user behavior. Fogg predicts that captology will play an important role in business training, management ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item18 "Internet2 Becoming a Big Net on Campus" The Internet2 project continues to lead the development of new Internet technologies despite its focus on academic research applications. New software, middleware, and network engineering projects at Internet2 project sites provide a glimpse in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item19 "Mind-Machine Merger" The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding a half-dozen brain-machine interface projects for $24 million over two years, and program manager Alan Rudolph says these technologies could both restore and enhance cognitive functions, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item20 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.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. ********************************************************************** * Offer valid from IBM in the US only thru 5/19/03 or while supplies last. 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