Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 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 499 Date: May 23, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FREE ThinkPad Mobile Traveler bundle! Stay powered and connected. Buy select ThinkPadR notebooks and ask for a free ThinkPad Mobile Traveler bundle. Bundle includes ThinkPad nylon carrying case, IBM AC/DC adapter, and Tripp Lite 4-Port USB Mini Hub. A $207.99 value! Hurry! Offer ends June 16, 2003 or while supplies last. Visit http://ibm.com/businesscenter/acm or call 800-426-7235, ext. 3559 Offer available from IBM only in the US through 6/16/03. Not combinable with any other offer. Shipping and handling not included. Limit 10 per customer. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top Stories for Friday, May 23, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Data Collection Is Up Sharply Following 9/11" "Computing's Lost Allure" "The Computer World Could Use More IT Girls" "W3C Makes Patent Ban Final" "Take Tech Threats Seriously, Feds Say" "Bill in Congress Would Curb L-1 Visa Use for Foreign Workers" "ACM Honors Peter Franaszek for Contributions to Data Encoding" "Will Taxing E-Mail Stop Spam?" "Linux and the Law" "At Bell Labs, Hard Times Take Toll on Pure Science" "The Pixel as Shutterbug, Embedded in Your Screen" "Canadian Security Conference Features Weird and Woeful Predictions" "Peer-to-Peer Peering Pondered" "Ethernet Inventor Looks Ahead" "Spinning Around" "The Future of 3D Graphics" "Web Access for All" "Proof of Concept" "Electronics: A Voyage of Discovery" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Data Collection Is Up Sharply Following 9/11" Data collection efforts have expanded in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, but the same commercial and government databases that would ostensibly be used to thwart future terrorist incidents could also be used to gather information on innocent American ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item1 "Computing's Lost Allure" Fewer new university students are entering computer science courses as job prospects in that field continue to diminish. At the University of California, computer science professor Brian Harvey says just 350 students enrolled in his introductory course ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item2 "The Computer World Could Use More IT Girls" UCLA education researcher Jane Margolis writes that future social, economic, and political trends in the United States depend on the type of people attracted to computer technology and the values they carry. She observes that girls are sorely ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item3 "W3C Makes Patent Ban Final" World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) director Tim Berners-Lee announced on Tuesday that his organization had finalized the Royalty-Free Patent Policy, which excludes royalty-bearing patents from Web services standards development except in cases ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item4 "Take Tech Threats Seriously, Feds Say" Charles McQueary of the Homeland Security Department told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Science, and Research and Development on Wednesday that the department's budget for biological and nuclear attack ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item5 "Bill in Congress Would Curb L-1 Visa Use for Foreign Workers" U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has targeted foreign outsourcing firms with new legislation that is designed to protect U.S. high-tech workers from losing jobs to lower-paid workers. Mica has unveiled new legislation that attempts to address criticism ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item6 "ACM Honors Peter Franaszek for Contributions to Data Encoding" ACM will give the Paris 2002 Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award to Dr. Peter Franaszek for his contributions to digital data encoding, which helped usher in revolutionary breakthroughs in digital media's recording density and digital communication systems' transmission ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item7 "Will Taxing E-Mail Stop Spam?" A number of proposals that aim to halt the relentless growth of unsolicited commercial email, or spam, are being debated in Congress. A Wednesday hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee brought several proposals into ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item8 "Linux and the Law" Supporters of the open-source movement are gaining powerful allies as Linux and other open-source products find favor in both U.S. and international governments in response to the increasing use of open-source software. Venezuela, Britain, Germany, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item9 "At Bell Labs, Hard Times Take Toll on Pure Science" Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs operation has become just like any other corporate research laboratory, heralding the end of free-reign "pure" research that is not tied to any specific company product or service. Lucent trimmed Bell Labs' research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item10 "The Pixel as Shutterbug, Embedded in Your Screen" Low-temperature polysilicon thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are being developed by Toshiba and other manufacturers to capture and copy images, and could later be tweaked for more sophisticated functions, such as recharging ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item11 "Canadian Security Conference Features Weird and Woeful Predictions" The 15th annual Canadian IT Security Symposium was characterized by predictions of both positive and negative developments. In the former category, John Heidenreich of IBM Research forecasted that machines built from nanotechnology will start appearing by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item12 "Peer-to-Peer Peering Pondered" The House Committee on Government Reform listened to the privacy dangers surrounding peer-to-peer (P2P) technology in the second of three hearings regarding file-sharing networks; the first hearing focused on pornography trading over networks such as ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item13 "Ethernet Inventor Looks Ahead" Bob Metcalfe says May 22, 1973 was the birth date of Ethernet, the computer interconnect technology that allows PCs to connect in networks. That is the date Metcalfe sent a memo describing his idea to supervisors at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item14 "Spinning Around" Today's knowledge workers are inundated with information--too much to be useful, says Web site content management expert Gerry McGovern. He says society is working under the principals of the physical economy where "more is better," but should in fact ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item15 "The Future of 3D Graphics" The WinHEC conference featured a session in which Nvidia graphics architect David Kirk detailed expected changes in 3D graphics over the next decade. Kirk, who received Siggraph's 2002 Computer Graphics Achievement Award, mused that graphics ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item16 "Web Access for All" Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act mandated that all federal agencies and government contractors make their Web sites accessible to the disabled by June 2001, but many organizations have yet to comply because the requirements are not always easy ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item17 "Proof of Concept" Net Effect columnist Simson Garfinkel suggests that the some of the computer virus outbreaks that have plagued the Internet in recent years are merely proof-of-concept tests for a truly devastating online assault organized by a secret ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item18 "Electronics: A Voyage of Discovery" Breakthroughs in nanotechnology will greatly influence next-generation electronics and data storage, and open up new computing methodologies, according to Clayton Teague of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0523f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0521w.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. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -