Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the September 26, 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 550 Date: September 26, 2003 Top Stories for Friday, September 26, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "European Parliament Votes to Limit Scope of Software Patents" "Maryland: E-Voting Passes Muster" "The Grand Challenges for Computer Science" "Patent Politics" "Davis to Sign E-Waste Bill" "Congress Questions Database Protection Proposal" "Want PC Security? Diversify" "Pentagon Spy Office to Close" "Evolving Web Could Turn Into the Everynet" "An Open Invitation to Election Fraud" "'Smart Sofa' Aimed at Couch Potatoes" "Researchers Develop a 'Smart' Payment Card That Can Easily Be Programmed to Restrict Spending" "An Open-Source Search Engine Takes Shape" "Revenge of the Coders" "Ultra-Wideband: Multimedia Unplugged" "5 Technologies That Will Change the World" ******************* News Stories *********************** "European Parliament Votes to Limit Scope of Software Patents" Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Sept. 24 voted overwhelmingly in favor of amendments to the European Commission's software patent directive. Changes that were approved include prohibitions on the patenting of algorithms and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item1 "Maryland: E-Voting Passes Muster" A Sept. 24 report from Maryland election officials concluded that despite a "high risk of compromise," the state has enough confidence in Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen voting machines to go ahead with a deal to purchase the machines. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item2 "The Grand Challenges for Computer Science" The U.K. Computing Research Committee, in conjunction with the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing, has embarked on seven new projects in the hope that one or more will become 15-year, international Grand Challenges that significantly ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item3 "Patent Politics" Microsoft and its industry rivals are siding together against Eolas, a single-man firm that won a patent claim against Microsoft for its ActiveX technology, which allows application plug-ins to run in Internet Explorer. The 1999 patent claim, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item4 "Davis to Sign E-Waste Bill" California Gov. Gray Davis will sign a bill on Sept. 25 requiring consumers to pay an additional $6 to $10 for every new computer monitor or television they purchase to fund the recycling of electronic waste. Californians Against Waste executive director ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item5 "Congress Questions Database Protection Proposal" A draft bill designed to boost protection for the content of commercial databases has sparked debate in Congress as both supporters and opponents expressed their views at a Sept. 23 hearing. Proponents such as Keith Kupferschmid of the Software ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item6 "Want PC Security? Diversify" Seven computer security company executives, writers, and academics presented a report at a Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) meeting on Sept. 24 arguing that network instability has been worsened by Microsoft's ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item7 "Pentagon Spy Office to Close" A joint congressional panel has elected to shutter the Information Awareness Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which was developing the controversial Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program. TIA was a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item8 "Evolving Web Could Turn Into the Everynet" The adoption of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard promises to ease networking by allowing any object to be set up as an online service, according to Wind River Systems' Joerg Bertholdt. This is just one of several developments that should ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item9 "An Open Invitation to Election Fraud" Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting," has made it a priority to uncover the flaws of electronic voting systems, and she recently published several critical vulnerabilities in Diebold touch-screen machines that were verified by internal Diebold ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item10 "'Smart Sofa' Aimed at Couch Potatoes" Researchers at Dublin's Trinity College are working on a "smart sofa" that can so far only deliver personalized greetings to users via microchip sensors that identify whoever sits down by weight; however, scientist Mads Haahr believes the device will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item11 "Researchers Develop a 'Smart' Payment Card That Can Easily Be Programmed to Restrict Spending" Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed technology that would turn credit cards into "smart" payment cards. The technology makes use of microchips built into credit cards, an on-card verification system, open application ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item12 "An Open-Source Search Engine Takes Shape" The Nutch open-source search engine uses a nonproprietary ranking formula to give users clear, unbiased query results, according to Nutch Organization President Doug Cutting, who believes that a transparent offering such as Nutch could benefit commercial ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item13 "Revenge of the Coders" There is a movement among programmers away from sluggish, feature-heavy IDEs and toward flexible code editors as enterprises focus intensely on productivity. The rationale behind this transition is developers' desire to not be locked ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item14 "Ultra-Wideband: Multimedia Unplugged" Ultrawideband (UWB) technology has the potential to transform home media networking and facilitate the seamless interlinking of numerous devices, even though the FCC placed frequency limitations on UWB to quell concerns that it would interfere with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item15 "5 Technologies That Will Change the World" The Internet meltdown has not halted technological development, and five technologies--radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, 3D printing, biosimulation, self-aware computers, and distributed power generation--have the potential to dramatically ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0926f.html#item16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0924w.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 ... 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