Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the December 29, 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 Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion magazine, Ubiquity, at ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACM TechNews Volume 5, Number 588 Date: December 29, 2003 Top Stories for Monday, December 29, 2003: "Around the Globe, New 'Silicon Valleys' Emerge" "This Car Can Talk. What It Says May Cause Concern." "The Fantasy and Reality of 2004" "Device Guards Net Against Viruses" "DARPA Evaluates Proposals for Self-Regenerative Systems" "The Year's Lowlights and Highlights in Technology" "We Hate Spam, Congress Says (Except When It's Sent by Us)" "Aust, US Researchers Develop Sonic Authentication Tool" "Online Data Conflict With Desire for Privacy" "Caution Over 'Computerised World'" "'Get Me Rewrite!' 'Hold On, I'll Pass You to the Computer'" "What's In Store for 2004" "Unexpected Twists in Internet Law" "How Do You Save Old E-Mails?" "From High Tech to Mall Tech" "DARPA" "The Anti-Video Game" "The Flexible Factory" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Around the Globe, New 'Silicon Valleys' Emerge" Silicon Valley's offshore migration of research and design operations not only threatens the preeminence of the high-tech hub--and the job security of many employees--but also serves as evidence of the rapid growth of rival tech centers elsewhere in the world.˙ The groundwork for this trend was˙ ... "This Car Can Talk. What It Says May Cause Concern." Privacy proponents say the relationship between American motorists and their cars is changing with the emergence of advanced automotive technologies such as the OnStar system, a location tracking service popular for its promise to thwart carjackers, yet which experts such as Cornell˙ ... "The Fantasy and Reality of 2004" Influential technologists hope for the best in 2004, but largely expect slow progress in terms of privacy policy, open-source adoption, fighting spam, and other issues.˙ Moving forward on the privacy versus security issue is tough because it involves introducing difficult new ideas into a˙ ... "Device Guards Net Against Viruses" The communicability of computer viruses is often related to people's unwillingness to install and regularly maintain virus-filtering software on their systems, and Washington University and Global Velocity researchers have devised a new, hardware-based countermeasure called the Field˙ ... "DARPA Evaluates Proposals for Self-Regenerative Systems" The goal of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Self-Regenerative Systems (SRS) initiative is to develop next-generation security and survivability technologies enhanced with coarse-grained diversity so as to minimize the impact of any given vulnerability, which is˙ ... "The Year's Lowlights and Highlights in Technology" Dan Gillmor notes the ups and downs of 2003 in terms of technology, tech policy, and the economy in general, writing that progress continues to be made even in the face of bad decisions and abuses by malicious parties.˙ He gives low marks to the U.S. Patent and Copyright Office for continuing to˙ ... "We Hate Spam, Congress Says (Except When It's Sent by Us)" The federal spam control law that goes into effect on Jan. 1 does not extend to members of Congress who send out unsolicited messages to constituents in order to attract voluntary subscribers to the legislators' email lists; these messages are not subject to House rules that bar˙ ... "Aust, US Researchers Develop Sonic Authentication Tool" Australian and American researchers have created a "sonic key authentication" tool designed to encode public key authentication as sound bursts so that identity verification can be effectively carried out on phone lines, not just the Internet.˙ Distribution costs are lowered by˙ ... "Online Data Conflict With Desire for Privacy" The Internet makes searching for people much easier and makes personal information such as phone numbers much more important.˙ Though offline tools for finding people have long been available through commercial services or at libraries, the proliferation of personal data on the Web and˙ ... "Caution Over 'Computerized World'" A research team at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) reasons that the purported benefits of pervasive computing, which in terms of the next decade could mean a billion people having access to a trillion electronically connected objects, must be weighed against the˙ ... "'Get Me Rewrite!' 'Hold On, I'll Pass You to the Computer'" Regina Barzilay of MIT and Lillian Lee of Cornell University have developed a computer program that can automatically paraphrase English sentences:˙ The program culls text from online news services on particular topics, determines distinguishing sentence patterns in these clusters, and employs˙ ... "What's In Store for 2004" Dan Farber predicts that in 2004 companies will regret outsourcing their IT services in the hopes of cutting costs, as the schism between IT workers and management widens.˙ Noting that an enterprise's internal business and technical knowledge is an essential advantage, Farber warns that companies˙ ... "Unexpected Twists in Internet Law" The Internet entered into strange legal territory in 2003 with the upset victory of file-sharing services, passage of a nationwide anti-spam law, and entrance of the Supreme Court into Internet law.˙ Congress' Can-Spam Act of 2003 supercedes more than 30 state laws concerning spam but does not˙ ... "How Do You Save Old E-Mails?" Librarians and archivists are pushing for the preservation of electronic data often in paper form, given the fact that computerized recordings deteriorate faster than paper, while rapidly changing technology outdates old data storage systems.˙ Though these developments may prompt computer˙ ... "From High Tech to Mall Tech" What was once cutting-edge research has become shopping-mall gadgetry:˙ Fiber-optic cable, for example, delivered revolutionary telecommunications capabilities and now is showcased in three-foot-high Christmas trees whose needles emit multicolored light.˙ The three-foot version tree is available˙ ... "DARPA" The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) mission is to seek opportunities or "gaps" to solve problems that may be deemed impossible by conventional wisdom, and then bring in experts who are considering such problems and plant them in a brutally competitive atmosphere to get˙ ... "The Anti-Video Game" The brainchild of Corwin Bell and biomedical engineer Kurt Smith is "The Journey to Wild Divine," an interactive CD-ROM that can be used as a biofeedback system by immersing the user in a virtual environment that is explored and manipulated according to physiological cues of stress and˙ ... "The Flexible Factory" Software creation generally falls into one of three development strategies--creating code from scratch, software reuse, and component assembly; the third option offers the most promise by creating, in essence, a software supply chain that improves quality-cost options in keeping with˙ ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Site Sponsored by AutoChoice Advisor ˙˙ Looking for a NEW vehicle?˙ Discover which ones are ˙˙ right for you from over 250 different makes and models. ˙˙ Your unbiased list of vehicles is based on your preferences ˙˙ and years of consumer input. < > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ˙- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- To review Wednesday's issue, (there was no issue on Friday, Dec. 26, due to the extended Christmas holiday), please visit -- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to: -- 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 ˙- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -