Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the October 27, 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 563 Date: October 27, 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, October 27, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "U.S. May Ease Entry for High-Tech Workers" "Antispam Methods Aim to Merge" "Smart Dust Collecting in the Enterprise" "Iowa State University Ready to Hit Hackers Head-On" "Issue of Human Writes: Putting All World Languages in Computer Text" "Drive Safely in a Car With the Gift of the Gab" "Apple's Latest 0.1 Adds a Lot" "Write Once, Publish Often" "Congress Turns Attention to International Piracy" "New Typeface to Help Dyslexics" "Google Researcher Lectures on Internet Growth" "Why Do We Care About Names and Numbers?" "But What About SCSI?" "Computing the Gains" "Issues in Critical Infrastructure Protection" "Watching the Watchers" "Open Source in Embedded Products" "Where Are All the Women IT Leaders?" ******************* News Stories *********************** "U.S. May Ease Entry for High-Tech Workers" Spurred by worries among American multinationals and high-tech firms that the current H-1B visa cap of 65,000 will prevent thousands of skilled foreign professionals from entering the country in 2004, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item1 "Antispam Methods Aim to Merge" A new subcommittee established in October by the Internet Research Task Force's Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) seeks to reconcile and merge competing email sender verification protocols. Proposed measures include Reverse Mail Exchange, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item2 "Smart Dust Collecting in the Enterprise" Intel and the University of California, Berkeley, are developing wireless sensor technology intended to make ubiquitous sensor networks widespread in the enterprise. Intel-backed researchers at the Crossbow startup are developing a new operating system for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item3 "Iowa State University Ready to Hit Hackers Head-On" Iowa State University researchers plan to build a virtual Internet to serve as a cyber-defense testbed through a Justice Department grant of almost $500,000. ISU researcher Doug Jacobson explains that with the Internet-Scale Event and Attack ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item4 "Issue of Human Writes: Putting All World Languages in Computer Text" Computerizing all languages in the world is the goal of Unicode 4.0, a massive database of 50 key writing systems established by the nonprofit Unicode Consortium. Almost 100 alphabets or "scripts" needed to write obscure languages remain to be encoded, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item5 "Drive Safely in a Car With the Gift of the Gab" Edinburgh University researchers aim to make motorists capable of operating their vehicles by vocal commands, and enable cars to offer advice and even warn drivers when they are driving recklessly. Dr. Oliver Lemon of the university's Human ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item6 "Apple's Latest 0.1 Adds a Lot" Apple's latest Mac OS X version, 10.3, adds many features that make the ultra-secure operating system more useful. Mac users have taken refuge in the security of the Panther OS in the past year as Windows users continue to struggle with viruses, spam, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item7 "Write Once, Publish Often" Researchers at Hewlett-Packard's Bristol, UK, lab are developing new publishing software that automatically converts a master document into formats suitable for the Web, print, personal digital assistants (PDA), or other channels. Called ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item8 "Congress Turns Attention to International Piracy" Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who says digital piracy has caused enormous losses for the movie and recording industries, is the co-chair of the newly formed Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, a bipartisan group of House and Senate ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item9 "New Typeface to Help Dyslexics" A Dutch designer has developed a new typeface that will make it easier for dyslexics to read words on the Web. Created by Natascha Frensch, Read Regular makes each letter considerably unique so that dyslexics will not confuse one character with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item10 "Google Researcher Lectures on Internet Growth" Google.com senior research scientist Mehran Sahami discussed the progress of Web browsers and future challenges for the technology with an audience of computer science and engineering students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Oct. 23. UNL assistant ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item11 "Why Do We Care About Names and Numbers?" In a CircleID article, Joe McNamee reflects on the findings of a report McNamee and Tiina Satuli authored for the European Commission entitled, "Policy Implications of Convergence in the Field of Naming, Numbering, and Addressing." McNamee describes ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item12 "But What About SCSI?" Although storage technologies serial ATA and Fibre Channel have garnered much of the limelight in recent months, the upcoming serial attached SCSI (SAS) standard will probably prove the most important for enterprise systems. SAS provides a perfect middle ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item13 "Computing the Gains" Using internationally comparable data and a new technique of studying sources of productivity growth, Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson has concluded that Japan and Europe, not just the United States, have made productivity gains through IT ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item14 "Issues in Critical Infrastructure Protection" The U.S. telecommunications infrastructure has been strengthened in order to make the country's communications backbone more resilient and secure against natural, accidental, and deliberate disruptions, but many formidable challenges remain. There is no ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item15 "Watching the Watchers" MIT graduate student Ryan McKinley predicated his Government Information Awareness Web site on the supposition that if the government uses information technology to monitor Americans through programs such as Terrorism Information Awareness, then ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item16 "Open Source in Embedded Products" Although more attention has been paid to the growing use of Linux and related open source offerings in server products, there has also been comparative penetration of such products in the embedded market, where they are showing up in telephone switches, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item17 "Where Are All the Women IT Leaders?" An October survey from CIO Insight reveals a significant shortage of women in IT leadership positions--in fact, the number of female IT executives under 40 is less than 50 percent lower than the number of female IT executives over 40. Some analysts call ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1027m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review the Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1024f.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