Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the November 10, 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 569 Date: November 10, 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, November 10, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing" "Caught in Pull of Globalization" "Survey: Biggest Databases Approach 30 Terabytes" "The Push for Aspect-Oriented Programming" "I Link, Therefore I Am" "Ethics Center a Small Obstacle as Senate Nears Nano Bill Passage" "No Place to Hide From Hunters of the Voice Print" "Web Game Reveals Market Sense" "Spammers Can Run But They Can't Hide" "War Driving No Game to IT Managers" "Let Reverse-Engineering Go Forward" "From the Data Center to the Desktop: Linux Grows Up" "NU Program 'Watson' Could Speed Searches" "Pitt Research Delves Into Amazing Shrinking Computer Chips" "Search Gets Serious" "Ethernet: Every Little Gigabit Helps" "No One Understands Me as Well as My PC" "An Army of Small Robots" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing" European grid computing efforts have surpassed those of the United States to gain a competitive advantage, according to Peter A. Freeman of the National Science Foundation; in fact, European companies such as the Novartis pharmaceutical firm have adapted ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item1 "Caught in Pull of Globalization" The outsourcing of white-collar technology jobs to cheaper overseas workforces has become a flashpoint for grass-roots activists in the United States, while many academics, economists, and business executives take a contrarian position, arguing that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item2 "Survey: Biggest Databases Approach 30 Terabytes" The Winter database consulting company's fifth survey of the world's 10 biggest decision-support and transaction-processing databases indicates that data analysis is of growing importance for enterprises as they seek to outline trends and patterns ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item3 "The Push for Aspect-Oriented Programming" Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) was developed to handle cross-cutting concerns and furnish a level of flexibility not found in today's complex programs by allowing programmers to devise aspects of an object so single-point rather than ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item4 "I Link, Therefore I Am" MIT Media Lab media arts and sciences head William Mitchell says society will increasingly take on the characteristics of a network, where each individual is considered a node linked to other information. In his latest book, "Me++," Mitchell argues ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item5 "Ethics Center a Small Obstacle as Senate Nears Nano Bill Passage" The U.S. Senate is on the verge of passing the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which would allocate over $2 billion to a three-year nanotech R&D initiative and establish a center to focus on the technology's societal and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item6 "No Place to Hide From Hunters of the Voice Print" Students at Monash University are building on their research into pervasive computing to deliver computing access on the fly. The researchers have developed a project called SoundHunters, which uses software agents to lock in on the voice of a user, and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item7 "Web Game Reveals Market Sense" Swiss researchers are using the Internet to study how humans make decisions in market situations, such as in financial markets. Using a Web-based game, the researchers studied how humans interact with 94 computer-controlled players in a simple game ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item8 "Spammers Can Run But They Can't Hide" The Spamhaus Project, based in England, is a nexus in the battle against spam: Founded by activist Steve Linford in 1998, Spamhaus.org compiles the most reputable nonprofit list of known spammers and is used by many second-tier and smaller U.S. ISPs to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item9 "War Driving No Game to IT Managers" Wayne Slavin has given computer users access to software that can be used to determine whether companies have secure Wi-Fi wireless networks. There have been 5 million downloads of the NetStumbler wireless LAN discovery tool at Slavin's NetStumbler.com Web site, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item10 "Let Reverse-Engineering Go Forward" Interoperability will likely be one form of permissible reverse-engineering under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The U.S. Copyright Office ruled on Oct. 27 that Static Control Components has the right to break down the chip ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item11 "From the Data Center to the Desktop: Linux Grows Up" Linux's suitability for the enterprise is no longer in question, and companies need to begin seriously considering how they can best utilize the technology. Despite its pervasiveness, Linux does not meet every need but performs well under certain ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item12 "NU Program 'Watson' Could Speed Searches" The "Watson" software tool developed by Northwestern University professors and students is designed to narrow the search for information online by continuously scanning the Internet for data related to text documents and other files on the user's PC. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item13 "Pitt Research Delves Into Amazing Shrinking Computer Chips" As computer chip transistors shrink in size, their functionality will be determined by quantum physics rather than classical physical laws. Hrovje Petek of the University of Pittsburgh is conducting research into this phenomenon--his latest project, as ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item14 "Search Gets Serious" A growing number of enterprises are exploiting more and more sophisticated search technology to manage the rising tide of corporate information, a trend that analysts such as Jupiter Research's Matthew Berk say is extending search's range into the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item15 "Ethernet: Every Little Gigabit Helps" The penetration of Gigabit Ethernet into the mainstream and enterprises will be driven by cost trends rather than application requirements. Steven Shalita of Cisco Systems expects bandwidth needs to rise as software trends such as automatic updates and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item16 "No One Understands Me as Well as My PC" The goal of IBM's "superhuman" speech recognition initiative is to develop superior speech recognition in which computers can easily accommodate natural language by the end of the decade, although reaching this objective will require an enormous effort. ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item17 "An Army of Small Robots" A challenge set forth by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for roboticists to develop diminutive reconnaissance machines has led to a focus away from bulky multi-sensor platforms and toward small fleets of simple robots that can ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1110m.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review the Friday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1107f.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