Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the May 30, 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 501 Date: May 30, 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 30, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Special Visa's Use for Tech Workers Is Challenged" "Search-Rescue Robots Test Their Mettle in Tournaments" "Making It on Their Merits" "PGP Encryption Proves Powerful" "Enlisting the Young as White-Hat Hackers" "File Swapping Shifts Up a Gear" "Innovation on Hold" "Falling Off of the Cutting Edge" "Study: CIA Behind the Times in IT" "Blazing the Trail for Tech" "Disease-Causing Proteins May Create Nanotech Circuits" "Working Remotely, Robots in Place" "Simulated Evolution Gets Complex" "Can ICANN Meet the Needs of "Less Developed" Countries?" "Putting IT on the Map" "Trends in the Evolution of the Public Web: 1998-2002" "Never Too Thin" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Special Visa's Use for Tech Workers Is Challenged" With IT employment numbers weak, U.S. technology workers are upset over the use of L-1 visas, which allow companies to transfer foreign employees to U.S. offices. Far fewer foreign workers are being issued H-1B visas and Congress will likely let ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item1 "Search-Rescue Robots Test Their Mettle in Tournaments" As former chief of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Tactical Mobile Robotics program, John G. Blitch, dissatisfied with the performance of robots at the site of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, made it a federal priority to see if more versatile ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item2 "Making It on Their Merits" The U.S. high-tech sector is still predominantly male, but women have made significant progress in attaining prominence in tech companies thanks to a merit-driven corporate culture fostered by Silicon Valley. Up-and-coming women are filling the executive ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item3 "PGP Encryption Proves Powerful" In March, Italian authorities captured several Psion PDAs from terrorists in a shoot-out, but have been unable to glean valuable information from the devices because of the powerful encryption used to mask the data. The PDAs, seized from the Red Brigades ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item4 "Enlisting the Young as White-Hat Hackers" Tiger Team, a free after-school class that teaches ethical hacking to teenagers, is the pilot program of Andrew Robinson's nonprofit Internet Security Foundation. Tiger Team students are arranged into opposing groups that attempt to hack into each ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item5 "File Swapping Shifts Up a Gear" Popular file-swapping tools such as Sharman Networks' Kazaa and Streamcast Networks' Morpheus are finding competition in next-generation products such as BitTorrent and eDonkey, which aim to boost efficiency and transfer speed for movies and other ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item6 "Innovation on Hold" The rollout of promising technologies is being impeded by a sluggish economy, which could cause employee productivity to stagnate and lead to the demise of promising technologies. Business spending on IT in 2003 is likely to remain the same or ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item7 "Falling Off of the Cutting Edge" Information technology is no longer a strategic advantage for businesses, wrote Harvard Business Review Editor at Large Nicholas Carr recently. His thesis elicited an excited response from people in the IT sector, but the main premise also has ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item8 "Study: CIA Behind the Times in IT" An unclassified report furnished by Bruce Berkowitz of the CIA's Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis finds that the CIA's reliance on outdated technology has put Directorate of Intelligence (DI) analysts about five years behind their ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item9 "Blazing the Trail for Tech" The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has pursued new technology frontiers since its establishment in 1958 as a response to the Soviet Sputnik launch. Today, the group funds academic and corporate research projects ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item10 "Disease-Causing Proteins May Create Nanotech Circuits" Researchers from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the University of Chicago have demonstrated that prions, the distorted proteins responsible for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, could be used to help build nanoscale ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item11 "Working Remotely, Robots in Place" Hewlett-Packard researchers have built with available technology a prototype robot designed to act as a surrogate for people who cannot physically attend meetings. "You control [the machine] the same way you would your car, only remotely," explains HP ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item12 "Simulated Evolution Gets Complex" Michigan State University researchers have employed self-replicating digital organisms to simulate evolution and validate Charles Darwin's theory that complex functions can evolve from small mutations over thousands of generations, a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item13 "Can ICANN Meet the Needs of "Less Developed" Countries?" ICANN has come under criticism for not actively encouraging representatives of less developed countries to participate in ICANN's development of global domain name and Internet policy. "ICANN, through its actions and inactions, has succeeded in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item14 "Putting IT on the Map" The increasing refinement and affordability of geographic information systems (GIS) is driving the technology's penetration into the business and government sectors. Roto-Rooter employs Gearworks' eTrace to better manage its mobile workforce; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item15 "Trends in the Evolution of the Public Web: 1998-2002" Analyzing major trends in the public Web's development over the last five years not only provides insight on the current state of affairs, but also helps anticipate future progress. The most recent survey conducted by the OCLC Office of Research Web ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item16 "Never Too Thin" Flat panel displays are gaining ground thanks to improved image quality and falling prices, coupled with already established advantages such as low power consumption and small size. Although liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are the flat panel ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0530f.html#item17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.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. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -