Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the July 18, 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 521 Date: July 18, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Site Sponsored by IBM () Purchase a select ThinkPadR notebook and receive free double memory. Simply request this special offer or select it online when customizing your system. Offer ends July 21, 2003 or while supplies last. Call 1-800-426-7235, ext. 4098 or visit us online at http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/acm Offer valid from IBM in the US only from 7/1/2003 through 7/21/2003; while supplies last. Limit 10 per customer. Cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions. Shipping and handling not included. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top Stories for Friday, July 18, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Congress Questions U.S. Supercomputing Efforts" "Router Bug Threatens 'Internet Backbone'" "Why Some Big Spammers Are Backing Spam-Control Laws" "Bill Aims to Curb Net Censorship" "Purdue Software Promises Better Animation for Movies, Games" "Upload a File, Go to Prison" "Exploding Universe of Web Addresses" "Feature: In Sensors Smaller May Be Smarter" "Researchers Delve Into the Human Factor" "Ralph Etienne-Cummings: Envisioning the Future of Robotics" "Interview: Torvalds Gets Down to the Kernel" "Back Together Again" "Searching for the Kilowatt of Computing" "Software Is Patently Not to Be Patented" "The Organizational Model for Open Source" "DARPA Awards Pacts to Juice Computing" "The Apple Is Ripening" "Are You Ready for MAID Technology?" "Casting the Wireless Sensor Net" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Congress Questions U.S. Supercomputing Efforts" Witnesses testifying before the House Science Committee on July 16 warned that the United States' supercomputing initiative is lagging behind that of Japan, which launched the world's fastest supercomputer, the Earth Simulator, in March 2002. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item1 "Router Bug Threatens 'Internet Backbone'" Computer experts warn that a major software glitch can affect Internet routers that run the Cisco IOS operating system. Such routers essentially comprise the Internet backbone, according to Internet Security Systems consultant Gunter Ollman. If specially ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item2 "Why Some Big Spammers Are Backing Spam-Control Laws" In an unusual paradox, bulk commercial emailers such as AOL Time Warner, Yahoo!, EarthLink, and eBay have come out in support of antispam legislation, while consumer groups are attempting to block the passage of such bills. "When you see some of the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item3 "Bill Aims to Curb Net Censorship" The Global Internet Freedom Act passed by the House of Representatives on July 16 includes $16 million over two years to establish the Office of Global Internet Freedom, which would be responsible for developing technical methods for preventing ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item4 "Purdue Software Promises Better Animation for Movies, Games" The Swell software program designed by Purdue University engineering student Joshua Schpok is a tool that artists can use to more realistically animate volumetric cloud formations, smoke, steam, fog, explosions, and other gaseous phenomena for movies ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item5 "Upload a File, Go to Prison" Legislation introduced by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.) aims to penalize users for peer-to-peer file trading, in the interest of protecting copyrights, and also would make it possible to file federal charges against those who ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item6 "Exploding Universe of Web Addresses" Some experts predict that the supply of available Internet Protocol addresses--the unique numerical combinations used to represent every device connected to the Net--will be exhausted in two years. Alex Lightman, who chaired a June conference that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item7 "Feature: In Sensors Smaller May Be Smarter" Spec, a low-cost, low-powered sensor technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRUS), is a fourth-generation wireless mote crowning six years of research ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item8 "Researchers Delve Into the Human Factor" This year's New Paradigms in User Computing conference at IBM's Almaden Research Center emphasized ways people can better understand how humans interact with computers rather than focusing exclusively on new user interface technologies. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item9 "Ralph Etienne-Cummings: Envisioning the Future of Robotics" "Neuromorphic engineering" is Ralph Etienne-Cummings' domain at The Johns Hopkins University, where he is associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Etienne-Cummings is studying the ways in which living organisms solve engineering ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item10 "Interview: Torvalds Gets Down to the Kernel" Linus Torvalds says Linux version 2.6 will probably be finished up even faster than 2.4, although more parties are involved and there are challenges related to synchronization. Version 2.6 is important to corporate users especially, because it deals with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item11 "Back Together Again" Recent corporate scandals have raised the profile of paper-shredding and the technologies that reconstitute destroyed documents. Such reassembling technology is similar to digital encryption and hacking in that each side is continually upping ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item12 "Searching for the Kilowatt of Computing" Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and other tech giants are seeking a unit of measurement for computing consumption equivalent to the kilowatt used to gauge electricity consumption or the cubic foot used to measure natural-gas usage. This ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item13 "Software Is Patently Not to Be Patented" Software can be copyrighted but not patented under European law, but critics contend that a proposed European Union directive allows underhanded software patenting that would place a chokehold on competition and innovation. Software and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item14 "The Organizational Model for Open Source" Harvard Business School professor Siobhan O'Mahony has made some interesting conclusions about the open-source organizational model by studying nonprofit foundations that have coalesced around a trio of open-source software projects--the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item15 "DARPA Awards Pacts to Juice Computing" Cray, IBM, and Sun Microsystems have each been awarded tens of millions of dollars to develop next-generation computing architectures for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). With the distribution of over $146 million, the High ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item16 "The Apple Is Ripening" Apple Computer has a wide range of application development options that dovetail with the company's merchandising strategy to hunt niche markets for its products, which include design and CAD, according to Apple's Richard Kerris. He suggests that if an ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item17 "Are You Ready for MAID Technology?" The development of new disk-based backup and archival storage options is proceeding apace, with lower-priced Serial Advanced Technology Architecture (SATA) disks taking a vanguard position between online disk storage and Nearline or automated tape ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item18 "Casting the Wireless Sensor Net" The development of wireless sensor nets--intelligent, self-organizing networks that act cooperatively to present users with usable information--is expected to progress to the point where the technology will be embedded practically everywhere by ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0718f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0716w.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