Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the January 5, 2004 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 6, Number 590 Date: January 5, 2004 Top Stories for Monday, January 5, 2004: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing" "'Offshoring' Trend Casting a Wider Net" "DARPA Ignored Privacy Concerns" "Security Looks to the Future" "Tool Eases Grid Monitoring" "20 Years Ago, World Turned for Tech, Telecom" "Big Intrusions, Tiny Pictures and Patented Problems" "Sure-Fire Skills for IT Success in 2004" "The Return of the Internet" "Security Predictions for 2004" "Tech's Top Trends for 2004" "Asia Looks for Lead on Next-Gen Internet" "Drip, Drip, Zap: Electrical Current From Flowing Water" "Sensor Nets Top R&D List for Homeland Security Agency" "Will Bluetooth Be Bumped?" "2004 Innovators & Influencers" "State of the PC" "The Love Machine" "Tomorrow's Conflicts: Faster, Safer, Casualty-Free" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing" Intel, Matsushita, Nokia, Samsung, and Toshiba have formed a global consortium, Project Hudson, that soon plans to announce a new system for shielding digital music, video, and software from unauthorized file sharing. The consortium seeks the support of the film and music industries ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item1 "'Offshoring' Trend Casting a Wider Net" The prolonged jobless recovery highlights the effect of offshore outsourcing, or offshoring, on white-collar service jobs: Numerous industries and even some government agencies employ educated workers overseas to achieve cost savings, though laws are being passed that would ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item2 "DARPA Ignored Privacy Concerns" A December report from the Defense Department's Inspector General concludes that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ignored privacy concerns raised by the Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program, an initiative to uncover and thwart possible terrorist activity by mining ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item3 "Security Looks to the Future" Biometric security technologies are getting a boost from fears of global terrorism and illegal immigrants, and the next couple of years should see a proliferation of these technologies and their inclusion in identity documents. The introduction of biometric technologies is expected to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item4 "Tool Eases Grid Monitoring" University of Melbourne researchers have created Gridscape, a simple toolkit for quickly developing grid computing testbed portals without programming. Users can plug in data such as a testbed name, logo, information about the computers being employed by the testbed, and a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item5 "20 Years Ago, World Turned for Tech, Telecom" Dan Gillmor writes that two events in January 1984--the launch of Apple's Macintosh PC and the fragmentation of the AT&T monopoly--still resonate today. He recalls that AT&T's major creative strength before the breakup was Bell Labs, which contributed many core technologies that support ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item6 "Big Intrusions, Tiny Pictures and Patented Problems" Rob Pegoraro writes that 2003 saw significant technological advancements in several areas, but the glut of malware and spam generally made the Internet experience less fun for users. He reports that Microsoft's long-term ignorance of security issues finally bore bitter fruit thanks to worms, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item7 "Sure-Fire Skills for IT Success in 2004" Information technology workers will have a better chance of maintaining job security or finding new jobs if they acquire certain skills and/or certifications, according to experts. Foote Partners President David Foote reports that security certifications experienced the highest value increase ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item8 "The Return of the Internet" Among the technology-related highlights of 2003 was the controversy erupting from electronic touch-screen voting machines, whose ease of use, convenience, and purported security belied such drawbacks as the lack of an audit trail; computer experts also declared e-voting software susceptible ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item9 "Security Predictions for 2004" Information technology and security consultant Peter H. Gregory makes a welter of forecasts concerning computer security in 2004, much of them negative. He predicts increased creativity among spammers in circumventing filtering programs through such crafty measures as random punctuation and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item10 "Tech's Top Trends for 2004" Predictions for 2004 include less illicit spam and more spam from large corporations, booming Asian tech markets dictating standards, desktop alternatives to Microsoft hitting the market in stride, and PC technology becoming more functional. Legislative and technical efforts have made many ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item11 "Asia Looks for Lead on Next-Gen Internet" Though the United States still has plenty of Internet Protocol addresses to go around using IP version 4 (IPv4), Asian nations face a greater urgency to update to IP version 6 (IPv6) in order to forestall a shortage of IP addresses due to the proliferation of mobile phones and other devices in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item12 "Drip, Drip, Zap: Electrical Current From Flowing Water" An old concept for electricity generation via water has been given new life by University of Alberta researchers, who devised an "electrokinetic" method in which water dripped through about 450,000 microscopic channels in a ceramic filter causes positive and negative charges to build up, while ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item13 "Sensor Nets Top R&D List for Homeland Security Agency" Next-generation sensor networks will be the primary focus for the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency's (HSARPA) research and development efforts, according to HSARPA director David Bolka. He estimates that his agency will channel approximately $390 million in its ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item14 "Will Bluetooth Be Bumped?" Bluetooth's market penetration through the popularity of mobile phones was a significant achievement this year, but wireless LAN (WLAN) and Ultra Wideband (UWB) could gain on Bluetooth and even push it out of its niche market, according to some experts. Motorola's Omid Tahernia, whose company ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item15 "2004 Innovators & Influencers" Among the people singled out by InformationWeek as significant innovators or influencers for 2004 is FedEx Institute of Technology Chairman Jim Phillips, whose goal is to turn the institute into "the technology epicenter" of the middle southern United States; 250 researchers at the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item16 "State of the PC" Analysts and technology journalists debate whether the personal computer is in its autumn years or has a long and healthy life ahead of it: International Data analyst Roger Kay foresees continued consolidation and a leaning toward phones and other devices, while PC Magazine columnist Bill ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item17 "The Love Machine" Advocates of affective computing believe computers should be designed from the beginning to identify, communicate, and have an impact on emotion in users, a concept that runs counter to the prevailing wisdom of most artificial intelligence experts, who consider unemotional rule-based ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item18 "Tomorrow's Conflicts: Faster, Safer, Casualty-Free" An array of technologies will emerge over the next decade with the purpose of accelerating military deployment and response, increasing battlefield safety, and minimizing casualties and damage at home and abroad. Advances in the areas of sensors, data routing, data mining, high-speed computing, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0105m.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Site Sponsored by AutoChoice Advisor Looking for a NEW vehicle? Discover which ones are right for you from over 250 different makes and models. 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