Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the November 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 576 Date: November 26, 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 Wednesday, November 26, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Blackouts Highlight Network Vulnerabilities" "Novel Processor Stirs Petascale Controversy" "Taking Cues From Mother Nature to Foil Cyberattacks" "Will December Make or Break the Internet?" "The Rise of the Machines" "Java Toolmakers Work for Peace" "Senate Approves Antispam Bill" "Q&A: Improved Security Requires IT Diversity" "ORNL to Design High-Speed Experimental Network Called UltraNet" "OSDL to Detail Development Process of Linux Kernel" "802.16a Links the Last Mile" "IETF Ponders Internationalized E-Mail" "When Free Isn't Really Free" "Why Tech Is Still the Future" "Baffling the Bots" "What's Wrong Here?" "The Technology of the Year: Social Network Applications" "Salary Survey 2003: What Are U.S. Developers Worth?" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Blackouts Highlight Network Vulnerabilities" A report from the Renesys data analysis firm recently concluded that the summer-time power outages that plagued North America and Europe had a much greater impact on the Internet than previously thought, and cast infrastructure vulnerabilities into sharp ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item1 "Novel Processor Stirs Petascale Controversy" Stanford University computer science professor William Dally stirred controversy at the SC2003 conference for his idea of a custom supercomputing chip that would enable a 2 Pflops system for just $20 million: The Merrimac CPU would utilize rewritten ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item2 "Taking Cues From Mother Nature to Foil Cyberattacks" A National Science Foundation-supported cyberdefense project operates on the premise that many computer systems are vulnerable to viruses, worms, and other forms of malware because they use identical software that has the same vulnerabilities, in much the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item3 "Will December Make or Break the Internet?" The future of the Internet could depend on the outcome of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society in December, where government leaders from over 60 nations are expected to convene. The chief topic of debate will likely be who exactly ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item4 "The Rise of the Machines" Japan's interest in robotics extends across many commercial products and research efforts, ranging from Sony's Aibo robot dog to humanoid machines such as Qrio and Asimo to Sakura Sanae, a wholly computer-generated character currently employed as a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item5 "Java Toolmakers Work for Peace" A new group of software firms that use Java heavily are calling for a unified application framework that would allow Java tool extensions to be written once for all standards-based Java integrated development environments (IDEs). Third-party and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item6 "Senate Approves Antispam Bill" After more than six years of congressional sparring, a national antispam bill is poised to be approved by Capitol Hill and later the White House once the legislation is submitted to President Bush next month. The current version of the Controlling the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item7 "Q&A: Improved Security Requires IT Diversity" Security guru and author Bruce Schneier contends that physical security is not a function of technology but a function of people: Technology by itself cannot make people safer because that is not its purpose; safety comes from how people implement ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item8 "ORNL to Design High-Speed Experimental Network Called UltraNet" Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been awarded a $4.5 million grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Science to develop the Science UltraNet, a prototype dedicated high-speed network that will facilitate the design of high-performance ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item9 "OSDL to Detail Development Process of Linux Kernel" The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) plans to detail the development process of the Linux kernel to any Linux customer as well as anyone considering Linux through a new initiative to be announced on Nov. 26. The goal of the effort is to boost the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item10 "802.16a Links the Last Mile" The emergence of the IEEE 802.16a standard for wireless metro-area networks could give broadband adoption a much-needed boost, especially among the millions of users who lack access to cable- or DSL-based Internet. The standard, also known as WiMAX, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item11 "IETF Ponders Internationalized E-Mail" Several proposals for establishing internationalized email standards have been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which met earlier this month to discuss the issue. "We need to decide if we want a multi-lingual Internet with ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item12 "When Free Isn't Really Free" The share-and-share-alike attitude that characterized the early days of the Internet and subsequent dot-com frenzy has been replaced with an environment where free movies, music, and software often come with many strings attached. The Center for ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item13 "Why Tech Is Still the Future" Information technology and its transformative effects on the economy will spur the creation of new industries and productivity growth, writes Santa Fe University Citibank professor W. Brian Arthur. He argues that the digital revolution cycle is the same ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item14 "Baffling the Bots" A great many spam emails are attributed to bots, rogue software programs that masquerade as people in order to set up email accounts and automatically launch junk messages. To thwart such programs, researchers such as Carnegie Mellon University's Manuel ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item15 "What's Wrong Here?" Fifty-six percent of 936 professionals polled in Computerworld's 2003 Job Satisfaction Survey report being less satisfied with their companies this year than they were last year, while 55 percent say their advancement opportunities are unsatisfactory; ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item16 "The Technology of the Year: Social Network Applications" It started with the Oracle of Bacon, a Web site set up by a group of university students showing how actor Kevin Bacon had links throughout the Hollywood universe. Since then, the concept of social networking and the Internet have joined to become a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item17 "Salary Survey 2003: What Are U.S. Developers Worth?" On the supply side, IT talent is healthy but is about to undergo significant changes, according to the 2003 Software Development salary survey, which estimates that 4 percent of this year's nearly 6,000 respondents lost their jobs in the last 12 months ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1126w.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Monday's issue, please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1124m.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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