Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the June 9, 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 505 Date: June 9, 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, June 9, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Homeland Security to Oversee Cybersecurity" "Supercomputer Center Pushes the Storage Envelope" "For Linux's Torvalds Software Is Improved With Little Fanfare" "Pick a Language, Any Language" "Fighting for a New Net Copyright Deal" "Math Wiz Claims Piracy Solution" "New Tool for Big Brother or Terrorist Spotter?" "Artful Displays Track Data" "Recycling Law Boosts High-Tech Transfer" "Jobs Squeeze for Indian Workers" "Quantum Cryptography Stretches 100 Kilometres" "Security Officials Urge More Research Into Supercomputing" "Antiterrorism Measures Under Scrutiny" "IT Losing Steam?" "Cyber Corps' Failing Grades" "Cyber Alert: Portrait of an Ex-Hacker" "Uncharted Territory" "Computers That Speak Your Language" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Homeland Security to Oversee Cybersecurity" The task of boosting the defenses of the U.S. government's computer networks has been transferred from the White House to the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Cyber Security Division, a branch of the DHS Information Analysis and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item1 "Supercomputer Center Pushes the Storage Envelope" Computer researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are building out a huge storage area network (SAN) that will link a 256-machine Linux cluster to 110 TB in virtual hard disk storage. National Center for Supercomputing ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item2 "For Linux's Torvalds Software Is Improved With Little Fanfare" When Linux developers roll out an upgrade, such as the forthcoming Linux 2.6, there is little hype, which is in keeping with the open-source software community's credo of releasing the software freely to the public and letting the added features ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item3 "Pick a Language, Any Language" Teams of researchers at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and elsewhere have been given a month to devise an information system that can translate between English and another language selected at random, as part of a Defense Advanced ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item4 "Fighting for a New Net Copyright Deal" Privacy and intellectual property advocate Lawrence Lessig says a new legislative effort has been launched after the Supreme Court refused to change a critical copyright policy. Lessig says established copyright holders such as the movie and music ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item5 "Math Wiz Claims Piracy Solution" Millionaire mathematician and musician Hank Risan struck back when Internet users started illegally copying songs off his Museum of Musical Instruments Web site by forming a research venture, Music Public Broadcasting, that claims to have developed ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item6 "New Tool for Big Brother or Terrorist Spotter?" The federal counterterrorism Technical Support Working Group has awarded University of California, San Diego, researchers $600,000 to work on automated video systems that can identify possible terrorist activity in crowds. The camera array system would scan ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item7 "Artful Displays Track Data" Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed an aesthetically pleasing data display designed to minimize distraction. The InfoCanvas system displays data as moveable, abstract components within an electronic painting of a desert, a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item8 "Recycling Law Boosts High-Tech Transfer" The United Kingdom will enact the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive in 2008, making electronics manufacturers responsible for recycling 70 percent of their discarded products as well as designing more ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item9 "Jobs Squeeze for Indian Workers" India is currently the offshore tech support outsourcer of choice for U.S. companies, but Forrester Research speculates that preeminence could shift over the next 10 years as American firms look to nations where IT labor is even cheaper. IBM, Boeing, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item10 "Quantum Cryptography Stretches 100 Kilometres" Up to now, it has been impractical to transmit quantum-encrypted data over a conventional fiber-optic line 100 kilometers long because the random noise picked up by a photon detector on either end is too high, giving rise to frequent failures in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item11 "Security Officials Urge More Research Into Supercomputing" George Cotter of the National Security Agency's Office of Corporate Assessments told people gathered at an Army High-Performance Computing Research Center luncheon on Wednesday that a larger supercomputing investment is necessary if the U.S. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item12 "Antiterrorism Measures Under Scrutiny" Two congressional hearings were recently held relating to two reports, one on the Justice Department's handling of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the other on the Total Information Awareness program, now ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item13 "IT Losing Steam?" Technology has lost its luster with many corporate buyers because it no longer yields strategic advantages, argues Harvard Business Review editor-at-large Nicholas Carr. His article compares IT to the railroad industry in the late 1800s, which eventually ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item14 "Cyber Corps' Failing Grades" Government officials are revamping Cyber Corps, a program designed to recruit information security graduates into federal agencies. The government pays tuition and a stipend for Cyber Corps students, who in return participate in a summer internship ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item15 "Cyber Alert: Portrait of an Ex-Hacker" Convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick, now head of his own computer security consultancy, provides a view into the motivations and methods of hackers. "Condor," as Mitnick was known in hacker circles, says he was not out to steal money or destroy property, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item16 "Uncharted Territory" A truly autonomous robot must be capable of extracting a picture of its surroundings and using the map as a tool to navigate, a methodology known as simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM). Today the majority of autonomous vehicles use dead reckoning, in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item17 "Computers That Speak Your Language" Firms such as Nuance Communications and SpeechWorks are making a splash with interactive voice response software that allows automated call centers to more smoothly interact with customers, but this is only the first step in the rollout of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0609m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0606f.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