|
ACM TechNews is intended as an objective news digest for busy IT professionals. Views expressed are not necessarily those of either HP or ACM.
To send comments, please write to [email protected]. |
|
| October 2002 Archives | |
| Back To Main Archives | |
Terra Lycos CTO Tim Wright suggests that an Emergency Online Broadcast System be organized, either in imitation of or with the cooperation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Wright says that voluntarily running alerts--delivered in XML--on the main ... STMicroelectronics claims that its scientists have boosted the efficiency of light-emitting silicon by a factor of 100 through the patented implantation of ions of rare-earth metals into a special layer on the surface of the silicon substrate. The ... HP Labs quantum science research director Stan Williams believes that computer chips 15 years from now will no longer rely on silicon as their basic component, and that molecular grid technology, which he co-developed, will help usher in this ... The past six months shows that the hacking culture is thriving, computer security consultant Ed Skoudis said recently at a SANS Institute conference, and is continuing to make gains on vendors and companies trying to make their networks secure. He said ... Concerns over distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in which servers are flooded by bogus traffic were reinforced by the Oct. 21 assault on the root domain name system (DNS) servers, and one solution that Steve Bellovin and colleagues at AT&T Labs are ... MIT researchers are working on the next generation in computing, using quantum bits instead of binary digital bits to perform powerful, near-instantaneous computations. Quantum bits have extraordinary powers, such as the ability to be both "true" and ... Despite a wealth of initiatives designed to help give Europe a superior knowledge-based economy within eight years, European commissioners such as Anna Diamantopoulou are concerned that there has been little progress in the push to remedy IT skills ... A proposed bill by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) allowing copyright holders to damage peer-to-peer networks will be modified, said the congressman's aide, Alec French, on Oct. 23. The original bill introduced in July would have allowed copyright ... Although several products debuting today aim to provide visually impaired persons with the means to use computer technology more efficiently, advocates claim that the technological chasm blind people face is widening. National Federation of the Blind ... Yale University professor and Molecular Electronics (MEC) co-founder Mark Reed leverages his industry experience at Texas Instruments (TI) to further his own research and better understand how industry approaches new technologies. The lessons ... ICANN board member and vociferous critic Karl Auerbach will soon leave his ICANN board seat as ICANN prepares to approve a reform proposal that ends all elected seats on the ICANN board. ICANN officials such as Chairman Vint Cert and former Chairwoman Esther ... Only a fifth of computer science graduates in the United Kingdom work in the information technology sector despite a current shortage, says a new report from e-skills UK. Of the 27,648 students in 1998 who began their studies in computer science, ... A new pilot project funded by the European Union is meant to revive investor interest in the mobile communications industry there. The EU and 17 businesses from six European countries are collaborating on the Mobile Tourism Guide project, which will ... It is no surprise that today's most successful technologies are decentralized in nature, because decentralized systems are much better suited to take on the tasks required in an increasingly complex and demanding IT environment, writes technology analyst ... Leading tech executives at the recent Agenda technology conference voiced concerns that the United States may lose its competitive edge against global IT rivals, and attributed this trend to three factors: A severe reduction in national IT ... Network executives believe that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-enabled products could get the most from voice over IP (VoIP), streamline network management, and provide a platform for new applications, but only if they are compatible with each ... The 8-bit microcontroller unit (MCU) has become ubiquitous in the two decades since Intel introduced the 8051; designers of embedded systems often choose it because it is compact, cheap to manufacture, and can encapsulate all primary computer functions. ... Public Web services can be a lucrative business opportunity, if properly deployed: Amazon.com's recently-launched Web service for Amazon.com Associates has proven to be a solid source of revenue, one that ServiceObject CEO Geoff Grow thinks could ... Although the Oct. 21 cyberattack on all 13 of the Internet domain name system (DNS) root servers fizzled, several experts warn that more sophisticated and successful attacks could follow, and are urging the federal government take action to shield the ... Taking a cue from falling dominoes, scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center have built digital logic elements that are 260,000 times smaller than those currently used in today's most sophisticated semiconductor chips. They created the circuits by ... Employers who wish to hire foreign workers for IT jobs must pay a $1,000 application fee for H-1B visas, and the government is channeling the money collected from these fees into training programs for American workers, according to a recent report from ... Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Jim Davis (D-Fla.) urged 74 Democrats in Congress to support a letter that Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) sent to White House cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke, suggesting that his ... Technology and telecommunications companies need to help resolve copyright disputes over digital content in order to make broadband attractive to consumers, according to Bruce P. Mehlman, advisor to the President and assistant secretary of technology ... The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a tactile display designed to enable the visually impaired to feel digital images. The prototype device, which will be tested by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), ... Xerox and University of Rochester researchers have devised a method, known as reversible data hiding, that can be used to encrypt digital images and later retrieve them without causing data loss or distortion. Both partners will share patent rights ... Johns Hopkins University researchers have devised a scheme that would involve the construction of a linear optical quantum computer with a lot less equipment than previously thought. The scheme involves basing the computer on the manipulation of single ... Although the FCC has recently allowed for more technologies to make use of unlicensed swaths of bandwidth, such as Ultra Wideband technology and the spectrum near 2.4 GHz for Wi-Fi connectivity, others envision the creation of a wireless network ... Widespread adoption of wireless technologies is a foregone conclusion, according to those in the emerging location-based Internet industry. A number of companies are working on Internet technologies that draw on location-based information to provide ... Using what professor Hicham Fenniri describes as "a novel dial-in approach," scientists at Purdue University have developed application-specific "rosette nanotubes" that feature unique physical, chemical, and electrical traits. Rosette nanotubes ... Internet pioneer Stephen Crocker, who chairs an ICANN security committee, says that this week's distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on the Internet's 13 Domain Name System (DNS) root servers has both positive and negative aspects, and discusses ... Belgium-based IMEC's M4 is a 10-year initiative that aims to marry several disciplines to facilitate the convergence of semiconductor, software, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology into wireless body-area networks (WBANs) that ... The National Science Foundation (NSF) has approved an additional $35 million grant to the TeraGrid project, extending the infrastructure to five sites and joining it with the TCS-1 supercomputing project at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center ... Lower corporate spending on IT coupled with a drive to squeeze existing servers for efficiency are pushing server vendors to change their sales strategy to emphasize cost savings through more flexible products that offer easy management. Blade servers ... Uses for intelligent sensors and ways to improve them are the goal of several research projects, including one at southern California's James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve, where dozens of devices have been distributed to track animal movements and plant ... Keeping data centers cool so that system failures can be averted is a heavy area of concentration in IT research efforts, and Hewlett-Packard is working on a variety of solutions using a holistic approach, according to HP Labs researcher Chandrakant ... The convergence of biology and computer science into bioinformatics follows the principle that all natural systems adhere to a mathematical model, and life itself can be broken down mathematically through the understanding of DNA, the ... What key online backbone organization officials are calling the largest and most sophisticated attack ever on the Internet's root servers disrupted eight or nine of the 13 computers that control global Internet flow late Monday afternoon for about an hour. ... Nearly one-third of Congress is "tech-friendly," or in favor of the technology sector's program, according to the Information Technology Industry Council's (ITI) high-tech voting guide issued on Monday. Technology bills Congress passed as law were positive ... Japanese liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturer Sharp today disclosed a prototype display with microprocessor circuitry placed directly onto the glass, using the company's continuous grain silicon (CGS) technology. The company says the screen, ... A two-month-old research paper theorizes next-generation computer worms that could overrun the Internet in a matter of minutes; such worms would use "hit lists" of vulnerable systems, rather than scan blindly, and also carry payloads that would facilitate ... The Chinese government wants China to become a global competitor in the semiconductor industry, and is offering a raft of incentives to foreign companies to set up shop in the country and offer expertise to domestic workers. China's semiconductor ... Scientists at Virginia Tech and the University of Southern California have combined state-of-the-art electronics and traditional weaving techniques to develop a fabric that can detect and relay sounds from great distances, which could be ... Gartner Research recently unveiled its 10 predictions for computing in the year 2008, eliciting a number of opinions from IT-savvy readers. Gartner predicted that increased network capacity will allow businesses and consumers to draw their ... The NanoScience Exchange (NSE) founded by software entrepreneur Jim Hurd is a young organization that aims to bridge the communications gap between Washington legislators and Silicon Valley, which suffered a blow to its credibility as a result of ... Recent studies from Challenger, Gray & Christmas and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) report a drop in the number of IT layoffs, but there are indications that hiring has also dropped: ITAA reports that new hires between ... Professor Daniel Bernstein of the University of Illinois is waging a court battle with the U.S. government to make cryptographic software code freely available to the American public. In 1995, he filed suit against the State Department, ... Media companies are estranging consumers, tech companies, and creative artists by pushing for legislation that would increase their control over copyrighted works even further, cutting into fair-use rights in their quest to stamp out digital piracy. Such ... Lotus Development founder and cyber-activist Mitch Kapor and his team have spent more than a year developing Chandler, an open-source Interpersonal Information Manager software program that encrypts data such as personal email, calendars, and ... UCLA researchers are using fractal mathematical models of various topographies in order to design antennas that can function in multiple ways on multiple frequencies for use with new cell phones and other wireless communications devices, according to a ... Three out of the seven highest grants awarded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Information Technology Research (ITR) program went to research projects led by Indian scientists and professors. "This proves the point that ... Bioinformatics is the acquisition, storage, analysis, and visualization of biological information via computational tools, and Jim Golden of 454 Corporation says that this can be accomplished by integrating data across myriad databases, a task ... PCs have not changed much in the last seven years, but manufacturers and vendors looking to jump-start the tepid PC market will be rolling out PCs will new technologies in the near future. Dell, IBM, and HP are all developing "transformer" PCs ... The debacle of the November 2000 presidential election in Florida has prompted election officials around the world to consider alternative technologies, such as electronic voting, that promise to eliminate mistakes and improve reliability and count accuracy. ... Distributed or grid computing is designed to harness the idle computing power of machines spread out over a decentralized network, enabling customers to solve complex problems without running up costs for new equipment. IBM's Irving ... Telecommunications companies such as NTT DoCoMo and AT&T and manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Fujitsu are working--often in collaboration--to develop embedded devices and applications that support wireless 3D graphics. 3D-enabled ... The Global Early Warning Information System (GEWIS) that the U.S. National Communications System (NCS) plans to create will be designed to monitor the Internet's performance and alert federal and industrial users of any threats. Such a system "will provide ... Last week at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organizational conference, ITU member representatives voted for a resolution calling on the ITU to take an active role in all "discussions and initiatives" involving domain names and the ... The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office logged only 350,000 new patent applications for fiscal year 2002, which ended in September, compared to the 345,000 patent applications submitted the year before. Some say this relatively anemic growth in ... Experts note that more technology jobs are being shifted overseas as a result of the economic slump. Giga Information Group's Stephanie Moore reports that roughly two-fifths of Fortune 500 companies ship software operations overseas, and reckons that ... U.S. researchers believe the next three to five years will witness nanotechnology breakthroughs that will revolutionize medicine, environmental controls, and manufacturing. However, such advancements can only be achieved by thoroughly ... So that users can upgrade computer password security without making it more difficult to access computing resources, Bell Labs researchers are developing cryptographic keys by merging passwords and voiceprint technology. Prototype software ... Speaking at a meeting of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) investigators, Amil Lal and Hui Li of Cornell University described a prototype microscopic battery that taps energy from a radioactive isotope that could last for decades and ... The European Parliament and the European Council reached agreements on Oct. 11 regarding two environmental directives--the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). Under ... Although major software companies have been smarting from the technology downturn, especially in Silicon Valley, they can still maintain visibility and keep their products widely distributed by donating them to nonprofits. Microsoft, for example, contributed ... Washington, D.C., attorney Joel Wolfson and Carnegie Mellon University professor Stephen Cross have different opinions on the effect of the proposed Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), which seeks to amend the rules regarding the ... Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London say they have created an online search engine for musical pieces that could one day be as popular as the Google search engine. Users may soon be able to locate songs just by singing tunes into their PCs, the ... Architects of the Semantic Web are now occupied with developing an XML-based computing environment even though XML is still an emerging business tool. Developers have largely accepted XML as the lowest-level language for recognizing such concepts as cost ... The National Academies conference in November is designed as a forum where electronics industry organizations, academia, and professional associations can talk about critical American science and technology workforce issues and recommend government ... ICANNWatch.org editor and University of Miami Professor Michael Froomkin believes that Afilias will do a good job of making the .org domain work, but he says that ICANN's process for selecting the .org registry to succeed VeriSign was "a lost opportunity to ... Technology futurist Esther Dyson says the hallmark of long-lasting technologies is that they change society in some way. In contrast to many dot-com technologies, which simply glossed over existing business processes or products, ... The gaming industry is rapidly rolling out advancements in data speed, graphics, and interactive computing that have attracted the attention of corporate computer users. Video cards that game developers use to deliver 3D graphics have been adopted by ... Dartmouth College's campus-wide wireless network, which consists of over 500 Wi-Fi antennas distributed over about 200 acres, is significantly influencing education, study habits, social interaction, and security. The importance of knowledge sharing ... The U.S. military is investing $50 million in a project that seeks to enhance the performance and capabilities of soldiers through nanotechnology. MIT earned this contract after demonstrating actual products, such as an "artificial muscle" ... The technology industry is likely to reinvigorate itself, even if it takes some time, and if history proves to be an accurate guide. Since the introduction of the first personal computer in 1975, the technology industry has experienced several periods of ... The White House is soliciting feedback to its National Plan to Secure Cyberspace by holding a series of town hall-style conferences across the nation. One of them recently took place at MIT, where presidential cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke ... The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, which authorizes a five-year cybersecurity research budget of approximately $978 million. The bill would apportion funding to initiatives ... The chief subject at the annual PopTech conference is technology's effects on society and culture, as well as the reverse, notes conference co-founder Anthony Citrano. Roughly 400 CEOs, academic figures, entrepreneurs, and innovators will ... The emerging technology of microfluidics involves circuits that feature rubberized channels instead of silicon pathways along which pressurized fluids, rather than electrons, flow; Dr. Stephen R. Quake of the California Institute of Technology ... XML version 1.1 was approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) this week despite accusations from critics that IBM has unfairly influenced the new XML specification to fit its own purposes, adding backward-compatibility for an IBM-specific ... Experiments indicating that the structure of amorphous materials may not be as disordered as previously thought, especially at the nanoscale level, could pave the way for new engineered materials with diverse industrial applications, according to University of ... Ministers, academics, IT sector representatives, and public sector organizations have gathered for a two-day eSkills summit this week to address a IT skills shortage among European Union member states and the threat it represents to their position in ... Self-assembling electronic components, or nanoelectronics, will supposedly revolutionize the industry by offering a cheap way to manufacture devices in mass quantities, but unfortunately, self-organizing materials are not very conductive. However, ... Lucent's nanotechnology research at its Bell Labs facilities will likely be spared from funding cuts, says Nanotechnology Research Director John A. Rogers, because the group is already applying ground-breaking research to Lucent products. He adds that much ... Laptops may be bulkier and less power-efficient than PDAs, which continue to become more popular and sophisticated, yet they remain the most oft-used tool of mobile users. The size of laptop displays, for example, is optimal for tasks that require a ... This week marks the launch of MIT's new Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, which is designed to address what MIT professor Charles Cooney describes as "a gap between early-stage ideas and a point at which small companies and venture ... As today's computer scientists pioneer quantum computing, the landmark digital computing work of Claude E. Shannon still lingers. Shannon was the first, in 1948, to describe information passed over a variety of channels in mathematical terms, either ... Former lawyer Eileen Ellsworth decided to create a program to teach computer skills to middle-school girls after seeing national statistics on female students' lack of interest in technology. Also contributing to her decision was the fact that ... Government control over the exploitation of personal information by business is a source of controversy, but a group of computer scientists has been trying to solve the problem of data privacy by developing software that maintains the secrecy of personal ... The problem of maintaining the performance of computer chips as they shrink is one reason why scientists are investigating smaller-scale solutions such as carbon nanotubes, but difficulties in controlling their composition to yield precise ... When WorldCom's UUNet backbone experienced system software problems on Oct. 2, the effects on the Internet were widespread. Critics link the problems to poor network maintenance and the incident has intensified concerns that the federal government is ... SMGlobal President Sanjay Murthi writes that he finds agile development methods to be very useful; he discovered that employing eXtreme programming (XP) in a large project encouraged more enthusiasm among staff and resulted in early problem ... Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has become a leading figure of cyberlaw and the Internet copyright debate, thanks to his groundbreaking work through such books as "The Future of Ideas" and the Creative Commons project. He ... Pessimism has replaced optimism in Silicon Valley, as reflected by the prevailing mood at this year's Agenda conference; speakers foresaw little economic growth in the technology sector, and a few leading technologists implied that the United States' global ... Scientists hope that a predictive model developed by MIT researchers could be used to anticipate the earliest manifestation of defects in materials that range from the sub-microscopic to the super-macroscopic. Subra Suresh, head of ... Speaking at an Associated Press conference, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann protested legislation from Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) that would require consumer electronics manufacturers to install "copyright chips" that would ... Boston Globe technology columnist Hiawatha Bray agrees with critics of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace that the policy does not appear to take the issue of cybersecurity as seriously as it should, given the many critical systems that ... Shahid Yusuf, co-author of the World Bank report "Can East Asia Compete?," says the region has made progress in the technology arena: Some countries such as Japan, Korea, and China are doing well, while Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines, ... Batteries used in portable electronics could be improved while power packs for microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices could become a reality thanks to research being conducted by University of Florida scientists. A team led by chemistry professor Charles ... Digital memory development has managed to keep pace with the evolution of computation, despite predictions that its growth would be severely limited 20 years ago--in fact, it has outpaced Moore's Law. For example, there are few major differences ... The SETI@home project needs more funding if it is to continue, and chief scientist Dan Werthimer told SETI Australia Chairman Dr. Frank Stootman that the installation of radio data recording gear at the Parkes telescope observatory would be postponed until ... AT&T Laboratories' "Hubbub" instant messaging experiment shows how presence technology makes co-workers more effective through collaboration. The study compared collaboration enabled by Hubbub with the way office workers would normally communicate at ... Students from MIT and Georgia Tech attending last week's Sixth Annual International Wearable Computer Symposium tried out new technologies at the University of Washington campus. One technology, augmented reality (AR), involves a see-through ... ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf addresses how the Internet is changing during an online question-and-answer session. In his opinion, anonymity is an important topic for discussion, because it carries both good and bad uses; he is also concerned about ... Data storage requirements have grown at a compound annual rate of 90 percent for the last two years, leaving companies struggling to figure out what to do with all their information, according to a recent Meta Group survey of 328 IT executives in the U.S. The � A number of new Internet-enabled technologies for phone conversation are making deaf and hard-of-hearing people more effective and mobile in the workplace and enabling them to more easily communicate with the hearing world. Whereas previously, ... The University of Texas at Austin is working on commercializing its nanotechnology research, and Renee A. Mallett of The Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property says both the local community and investors have an interest in nanotech. The ... The Internet Society (ISOC), despite promising to manage the .org domain for the public benefit, can be viewed as an organization representing major technology companies, because top ISOC members include WorldCom, IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and the ... Northwestern University computer science professor and author Donald Norman, who wrote "The Design of Everyday Things," believes it is taking designers too long to create more usable computing products, which he attributes to a lack of business ... A slight increase is expected for government spending on information technology research and development in the next fiscal year. The Networking and IT research and development (NITRD) program's proposed budget for fiscal 2003 is $1.9 ... Search engines are very limited when it comes to sifting through a mountain of data that is increasing steadily, but the Semantic Web could make finding information easier; such a development would make employees more productive and companies easier for ... Researchers are hard at work developing technology that could enable people to control machines by thought; potential applications include more responsive prosthetics for paralysis victims, while further advancements carry the promise of ... Supreme Court justices on Wednesday heard challenges to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which opponents say violates the Constitution. Leading the opposition is online archivist Eric Eldred, who argues that the mandate is unfair to ... Researchers say that single-photon communications via fiber-optic cable could keep sensitive data hacker-proof, as indicated by experimentation. Because such single-photon pulses cannot be reliably produced by conventional light sources, scientists are ... Indian software engineers looking to get employment overseas usually try to find jobs in the United States, with England being their second choice. However, new British work permit rules in effect since September could limit their options. The rules do ... A number of grass-roots groups are emerging to battle repressive government Internet filtering in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. These "hacktivists," or hackers with political motivations, want to enable Web users in those countries to be ... Research has shown that carbon molecules and carbon-based polymers have unique electronic properties that could outclass silicon and lead to better displays, batteries, and computer memory once certain technical challenges have been resolved. ... Various projects are underway to develop wearable computing devices that could be beneficial for both ordinary and not-so-ordinary users. Georgia Institute of Technology researcher Thad Starner says that wearable computers would be ... Japanese telecoms firm NTT and its subsidiary NTT DoCoMo have developed a system that allows two PDA-equipped people to transfer electronic data by shaking hands, according to the Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The system relies on the ... An optical clock developed by Peter J. Delfyett Jr. of the University of Central Florida could allow computer chip manufacturers to build future generations of products that do not suffer from potential timing problems. In his research, Delfyett ... The iGesture device developed by University of Delaware researchers John Elias and Wayne Westerman allows users to control computers and execute commands by finger gestures. Elias explains that the system offers "thousands of times" more ... Jaron Lanier, lead scientist for the Internet2 project's National Tele-immersion Initiative, is planning a presentation at this month's PopTech! technology conference in Camden, Maine. Lanier incorporates music and other creative functions with virtual ... In an effort to produce better-quality educational software for K-12 students, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has allocated $3.2 million for nonprofit SRI International to develop such software with the help of University of Colorado and ... German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, in conjunction with American scientists, have successfully developed clusters of fluorine-containing dendritic polymers, which combine conductive polymers and organic molecules ... This year's European Technology Roundtable showed the situation in the European IT sector is similarly grim, with many venture capitalists saying their portfolio companies were falling short of business plans. Hermann Hauser, the Briton who started ... IRobot's chief customers are the military and industry, but the company plans to penetrate the consumer market with a slew of robots it has developed, such as the Roomba automated vacuum cleaner, designed to lift the burden of menial chores. CEO Colin ... A group of CIOs, IT workforce specialists, and educators discussed the origin of the current IT market slump, strategies that employers and IT workers can follow to deal with the current situation, and predictions about when the downturn will end. ... Legislators contend that the doubling of the National Institutes of Health's budget has created a funding imbalance between the physical and the life sciences, and they are hoping to resolve it by doubling the National Science Foundation's (NSF) budget over ... Three major areas of the Internet's infrastructure have been labeled as highly vulnerable to cyberattack, according to the White House's cybersecurity strategy: Internet Protocol (IP), DNS, and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), all of which lack ... Segway transporter inventor Dean Kamen has spent more than $10 million to turn an old textile mill into a complete inventor's workshop for his company, Deka Research and Development. He follows an unconventional philosophy--rather than focusing on ... The world's nanotechnology effort is led by the United States, the European Union, and Japan, but while the United States is currently maintaining its leadership position, its two chief rivals are adopting new strategies to improve their standing. ... Federal officials need to think more critically about how to share and analyze data, and build a decentralized IT network in order to collaborate with local and state officials, according to the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the ... U.S. colleges say fewer and fewer students are registering for computer science and engineering classes, and experts say the trend could lead to a severe shortage of workers once the economy revitalizes. Enrollment in a key computer science course at Ohio ... The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded $92 million in federal grants to 40 advanced-technology initiatives on Tuesday. Over $12 million went toward nanotechnology projects, including a proposal from General Motors ... Ohio State University researchers are designing a computer that could boast crash-proof data, high-speed processing, and instant boot-ups by exploiting electron spin using magnets. Electrons normally spin randomly, but the application of a magnetic field ... There has been a noticeable decline in both the number of technology jobs available as well as salary growth since the tech boom ended. Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John A. Challenger says that employers "are in no rush to hire, and apparently they ... Australian mathematician Tien Kieu is challenging long-cherished notions of mathematics and computability as outlined by Alan Turing and Alonzo Church, whose Turing-Church Thesis states that problems are insoluble if a computer is unable to solve them, and ... The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently rejected patented software for use in open standards in what is likely the first in a series of battles to keep software fees away from open technology standards. Had patented software been allowed into ... Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and CERT Coordination Center staff have been working for two years to set up CMU's new Center for Computer and Communications Security, and a five-year, $35.5 million grant from the Department of Defense could further their ... Gartner released a top 10 list of IT forecasts at its Symposium/ITxpo 2002 conference on Monday, and among them was a prediction that continued technology advances will lead to millions of layoffs starting within the next two years. Such ... University of Chicago chemists have created a diode from a single molecule, and report their findings in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Oct. 2 issue of Angewandte Chemie. "Essentially, [chemistry professor Lupin Yu] ... A truly intelligent computer can carry out conversations with people without them realizing they are talking to a machine, according to the Turing Test. Brainhat has developed a natural language operating system that can technically pass the Turing ... The emerging InfiniBand standard promises to speed data transfer and ease input/output burdens on CPUs and could eventually replace the PC's ubiquitous PCI bus, although its first use likely will be to boost data center performance. In ... Tony Scott, GM's CTO of information systems and services, says the IT industry has not succeeded in providing the software and hardware necessary for in-car systems. The IT industry is "not ready yet," he said at Internet World Fall 2002 in New York. He ... Researchers at Caltech's Digital Life Laboratory and Michigan State University's Center for Biological Modeling believe that observing self-replicating digital organisms will shed new light on Darwinian evolution. Using such organisms, Caltech's Chris ... An upcoming conference on object-oriented technology will focus on the latest practices of reuse, enterprise components, programming challenges, Web services, new computing models, and much more. The 17th Annual ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, ... Europe appears to be taking a cue from the United States to make software patents allowable, a move that has split the European software community into supporters who claim it will spur innovation, and opponents who argue it will have the opposite ... The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) last week issued a draft of a report to be released later this month that argues that more pervasive broadband adoption will help rejuvenate the economy. The council said direct ... The Internet's structure has been the source of much argument: Understanding it is difficult, given its unplanned expansion, but simultaneously vital, because comprehending the interconnection of its hundreds of thousands of routing computers is necessary ... The American, British, and Australian governments are bringing in less foreign technology help to shore up their domestic IT workforce, but Canada is taking the opposite approach. Although there was a 4.3 percent increase in professional, scientific, and ... MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte predicts wireless 802.11 systems will transform telecommunications from a centralized, proprietary mesh of networks to one that is open and free to most users. Although phone companies are pursuing 3G ... Striking a balance between consumer rights and those of major media companies lies at the heart of a debate the Supreme Court will hear this week concerning a 1998 law that extends the terms of copyright by 20 years. Advocates such as the MPAA's Jack ... When the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) attempted to herd through an exception to its royalty-free standards policy, a host of engineers and corporate representatives protested, blocking the measure; now anti-royalty advocates in the Internet ... Academic, government, and industry engineers in charge of Internet2 have deployed Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6, parallel to the older IPv4 on the Abilene network backbone. Abilene connects more than 200 universities and other research ... Self-reconfiguring robots that can adjust their shape to deal with changing environmental conditions could become the next step in robotic evolution. "For tasks in hard-to-reach areas like space or the ocean, where it is impossible to say ahead of time � Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method of creating batches of nanotubes with customized qualities, a development that could lead to new types of information storage devices and other nanotechnology-based applications. The process ... The limitations of computers when it comes to accompanying musicians has prompted oboist and mathematician Christopher Raphael of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to devise Music Plus One, a software program that makes computers flexible ... The advancement of sensors is critical to taking full advantage of supercomputing processing power, increasingly sophisticated software programmers, and more skillful genetics engineers, and the little-known Sensors Expo and Conference is a springboard for ... Japanese scientists have reworked field emission display technology to produce a low-power, high-quality flat-screen display that can be produced cheaply. Using nanocrystalline porous silicon, the research team led by Yoshiki Nakakima was ... A bill recently introduced by Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) calls for the establishment of an Office of Global Internet Freedom to fight national Internet firewalls and censorship overseas. The proposed legislation earmarks $100 million to be distributed ... Ghassan Jabbour of the University of Arizona is leading a team working on super-thin organic films that can act as transistors, solar cells, or light emitters. His lab has demonstrated that such nanofilms can be printed onto plastic, paper, and other ... Australian officials are studying whether the Internet could be used to improve the democratic process and impact the way the government creates policy. The Victorian government Web site features a 75-page discussion paper on the issue, and a state ... MIT researchers have announced a new anonymous way to access information on the Internet and bypass Internet censors, monitors, and firewalls. The solution, called Infranet, involves both client- and server-side software, and the transfer of ... When asked their opinion of the next technological advancement likely to significantly change the business paradigm, six major IT figures offered their own predictions. NASA acting CIO Paul A. Strassmann said that portals are likely to emerge as a major ... Florida State University (FSU) has installed the new Eclipse supercomputer, which will enable researchers to obtain quicker results and to pursue more complex research projects. The Eclipse is an IBM eServer p690 that can perform 2.5 trillion ... At the Yokosuka Research Park (YRP) in Japan, engineers are carrying out third-generation (3G) cell phone technology research and development, and are even starting to push into 4G research. These joint R&D projects between industry and universities are ... Advocates' position that open-source software offers more security than proprietary software was called into question when researchers discovered vulnerabilities in the OpenSSL toolkit that were later exploited by a computer worm. Furthermore, the ... Corinna E. Lathan, founder of AnthroTronix in College Park, Md., was named 2002's Top Innovator of the Year by Maryland Daily Record for her work integrating robotics, telecommunications, and virtual reality to create a robotic telerehabilitation tool that ... Optical technology promises massive upgrades in the efficiency and speed of computers, as well as significant shrinkage in their size and cost. The major challenge is finding materials that can be mass produced yet consume little power; for this reason, ... The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) on Wednesday issued its third annual target list of the top 20 Internet security flaws, which was compiled by the SANS Institute and the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC). This ... Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and John Doolittle (D-Calif.) introduced legislation on Thursday calling for amendments to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would allow consumers to circumvent anti-copying technology measures for ... Technology companies are pushing their staffs to produce more patents, which can boost the bottom line with licensing fees and strengthen their competitive edge; many firms are trying to encourage patent generation by offering engineers incentives such ... Engineers at Caltech and the University of Southern California (USC) are investigating a form of robotic vision known as selective-attention modeling, which is based on neuroscientific research that suggests the human brain's recognition of salient ... British scientists report in this week's issue of Nature that they successfully transmitted encryption keys on a weak beam of light between two mountaintops in Germany across a distance of 14 miles--the longest distance yet for a transmission of this type, ... Apple Computer has reversed its tact of letting individual users make changes to the Macintosh operating system with the new OS X. Although the company published the application program interfaces of previous operating systems, CEO Steve Jobs has stopped the ... The U.N. Economic Commission for Europe's World 2002 Robotics Report issued on Thursday suggests that robots could soon ease the burden of housework from homeowners, thanks to falling prices, rising labor costs, and technological advancements. The ... Scientists in Japan have discovered a transparent material that acts as an electric conductor when exposed to ultraviolet light, paving the way for invisible computer chips. Such chips could be unnoticeably integrated into LCDs and other optical devices. ... SETI@home, the grid computing effort that recruits home users to help search for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life, will be upgraded with new software and switch to a telescope that can scan a greater area of sky. The first software release will be ... MR fluid is liquid material that stiffens into a more clay-like consistency when it is subjected to a magnetic force, and researchers are studying potential applications in robotics and building stability, among other things. The substance is already ... The image and purpose of IT has changed significantly since the late 1990s, when insatiable demand for high tech and IT professionals made it cool to be a tech enthusiast and for companies to invest heavily in new technology, observes ... MIT researchers say a new anti-glare coating could lead to innovation in optic technologies. Although traditional anti-glare coatings allow for the near-complete transmission of light--which is important in solar cell panels and optical ... The lithium cobalt oxide most rechargeable batteries use is relatively expensive, and this has prompted research into cheaper alternatives. Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang of MIT reports in the October issue of Nature Materials that his team has successfully raised ... For over 10 years, educators have tried to get girls interested in pursuing computers, math, and science as a course of study and a possible career using a broad range of programs, and now researchers at North Carolina State University are studying ... People who earn bachelor's degrees in technology fields this year will have an even tougher time finding jobs. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says companies are planning to hire fewer college graduates this year compared to last year. ... Parham Aarabi of the University of Toronto says he is incorporating sound navigation into electronic devices, and he predicts that it will be five to 10 years before such communications devices are offered to consumers. Aarabi claims ... A feedback loop--a closed system in which the results of an event send back data that helps shape the event in the future--is being applied to practically every aspect of life. Feedback, in its most basic form, is either negative--progressing toward balance ... Harvard University professor Lewis M. Branscomb says that industry and government must work together so that an effective IT counterterrorism strategy can be implemented. He co-chaired the National Academies' Committee on Science and Technology for ... The built-in obsolescence of digital technologies threatens the preservation of data--photos, documents, video, etc.--especially since decoding programs are rendered out-of-date by evolving computer languages and operating systems. Migration is one of ... Several bills designed to fortify the technology industry's stance on the controversial issue of digital copyrights will be introduced this week. On Tuesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) will propose the Digital Choice and Freedom Act, which would ... A handful of major technology experts reflected on the best and worst predictions they made, and their forecasts on the next big breakthroughs, at International Data's (IDC) annual IT conference in Monte Carlo. MIT Media Lab director Nicholas Negroponte and ... A number of open-source developers are working on new user interface capabilities incorporating mouse movement. So-called "mouse gestures" functions register specific movements, such as left-up-right or a wide back movement while holding a mouse ... Molecular electronics research continues apace, despite the recent scandal in which an independent panel found former Bell Labs researcher Dr. J. Hendrik Schon guilty of fabricating data. Harvard and Cornell researchers recently reported in Nature that ... On Wednesday, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will release a list of the 20 most pressing Internet security vulnerabilities at a conference of government CIOs and IT professionals. This year's gathering will include ... Gov. Gray Davis' (D-Calif.) veto of a law that would have imposed a $10 recycling fee on every electronic product sold to California residents is seen as a blow to environmentalists and local government officials and a triumph for Silicon Valley's ... Despite the progress China has made toward becoming a global leader in science and technology, there are still stumbling blocks to overcome, such as low levels of industrial production, even with the injection of foreign technology; most high-tech ... Industry and government officials are declaring that cybersecurity regulations will be implemented even though most participants in the debate are against them. This is partly because of the high-tech industry's reluctance to invest in ... Astronaut Sally Ride's participation in the ToyChallenge competition is designed to give middle-school students the opportunity to explore their interest in engineering and encourage girls to pursue science careers. Ride notes that women ... A plethora of open source programs has been developed and distributed since the open source movement began, but analysts are hesitant to predict that upcoming products could change or dominate the market, as did early applications such as Apache and ... Siliconvalley.com columnist Dan Gillmor writes that MPAA President Jack Valenti's assertion that movie studios are willing to compromise over the distribution of their intellectual property is not supported by their actions. "Instead of ... A team of international researchers has succeeded in welding together nanotubes in a way that could form the key junctions needed in future nanoscale circuitry. The technique involves using a transmission electron microscope to knock out atoms at ... The Japanese government is moving to create new growth industries through regulatory revision, increased research and development spending, and boosting cooperation between academia and the private sector. Although manufacturing has largely been farmed ... The National Science Foundation has allocated $12 million so that researchers from five U.S. institutions can develop the Infrastructure for Resilient Internet Systems (IRIS) over the next five years. IRIS is a peer-to-peer (P2P) network designed ... Open source software's increasing popularity has made it a target for virus writers, who exploit the software's weaknesses to wreak havoc. Network Associate's Avert (Antivirus Emergency Response Team) laboratory has identified more that 170 viruses and Trojans ... Intel and Hewlett-Packard have a lot riding on the adoption of their Itanium chip technology, which promises high-speed 64-bit processing. The development and commercialization of Itanium has taken 10 years and cost an estimated $5 billion; its failure ... Evolution Robotics founder Bill Gross says that interest in robots is growing now that PC development has plateaued, and various projects are underway to develop and sell robots that are more than just highly sophisticated toys. For instance, ... The open-source Linux operating system has made inroads into businesses, often sneaking in through the back door; this trend demonstrates that companies are incapable of selling Linux to executives directly. Linux distributors are focusing on selling ... As circuits approach the nanoscale realm in order to uphold Moore's Law, they will become increasingly susceptible to electrostatic discharge (ESD) to the point where traditional ESD safeguards will no longer work. Such a danger is inevitable, as ... |
|
 [ Current Issue ] [ Archives ] [ Home ] |
 |
|
|
|
| HOME || ABOUT ACM || MEMBERSHIP || PUBLICATIONS || SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGs) || EDUCATION || EVENTS & CONFERENCES || AWARDS || CHAPTERS || COMPUTING & PUBLIC POLICY || PRESSROOM |