House Puts Off Voting Bill, Most Other Business Next
Week
CQPolitics.com (09/07/07) Hunter, Kathleen; Ota, Alan K.
Debate on a House bill that would require all electronic voting machines
to provide a paper record of every vote cast was postponed until September
17th at the earliest due to a short work week for Congress. House
leadership had planned to bring H.R. 811 to the floor for debate on Monday,
but a planned Rules Committee meeting for Friday that was to discuss
amendments to the bill and a debate schedule was canceled. Local election
officials opposed to the bill say the delay is a temporary victory that
could lead to the bill's demise. However, supporters of the bill say the
delay was made to accommodate the House calendar. "There's been concern
about this bill for four years," says an aide to Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.),
the bill's chief sponsor. "But I think it's clear at this point that the
momentum is moving in the right direction." Still, aids say that a recent
Congressional Budget Office review of the bill, which found that it would
cost $8.4 billion over 10 years to implement, will force lawmakers to
rework the bill to cover its costs. Meanwhile, House Rules Chairwoman Rep.
Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said an amendment for the bill was needed to
provide an exception for New York, which the federal government sued for
failing to meet a 2006 deadline to replace lever voting machines. If the
amendment passes, New York would have until 2010 to add a paper ballot
backup system. And Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) may try to add an amendment
that would postpone deadlines if funds are not appropriated to states to
help pay for new requirements.
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F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets
New York Times (09/09/07) P. 1; Lichtblau, Eric
Newly obtained FBI documents show that the bureau's data mining efforts to
find data on terrorism activities was more widespread than originally
thought. The FBI relied on telecommunications companies to analyze
phone-call patterns of the associates of Americans who had come under
suspicion, creating a "community of interest" that could implicate innocent
Americans in investigations. The bureau stopped using this practice early
this year, partially because of broader questions on its aggressive use of
the records demands, known as national security letters. The community of
interest data is important to a data-mining technique known as link
analysis, which uses communications patterns and other data to identify
suspects who may not have any other known links to extremists. Supporters
of the system say it is a vital tool in predicting and preventing attacks,
but privacy advocates, civil rights leaders, and even some counterterrorism
officials say link analysis can be misused to establish links to people who
have no real connection with terrorism. The FBI declined to say exactly
what data was examined, but a government official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, says the data was limited to people and phone
numbers "once removed" from the central target. The FBI's Mike Kortan says
that community of interest data is "no longer being used pending the
development of an appropriate oversight and approval policy," and that the
technique was used infrequently and was never used for email
communications.
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House Approves Comprehensive Patent Overhaul
Washington Post (09/08/07) P. D1; Rampell, Catherine
The House of Representatives on Friday passed the most comprehensive
patent reform legislation in 50 years. The bill is intended to reduce the
number of patent infringement cases by changing how patents are awarded and
challenged. Much of the bill is favorable to defendants in
patent-infringement suits, leading to strong support from technology
companies, which tend to be defendants, and heavy opposition from drug
companies and small inventors, which tend to be the plaintiffs. "This
patent reform will help speed up patent decisions, clear up disputes, and
clarify the jurisprudence behind these lawsuits," says Jonathan Yarowsky,
policy council for the Coalition for Patent Fairness. "This will
streamline innovation." Opponents of the bill say there is room for
compromise as the bill moves forward in the Senate. Labor unions and
universities agreed not to oppose the bill in the House provided their
concerns received consideration before the Senate vote, and drug
manufacturer representatives met with Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), a
co-sponsor of the House bill, and reached an agreement to address their
concerns when the bill is reconciled with the Senate version. Under
secretary of Commerce for intellectual property Jon Dudas says the Bush
administration will also oppose the bill until changes are made. A
controversial aspect of the bill is a major change in how damages are
awarded. Currently, damages can be awarded based on the entire value of a
product even if the patent infringement is over a small component, such as
a chip in a computer. The bill would allow judges to instruct juries to
award damages based on the value of the individual component. The bill
also creates stricter standards for determining if a patent has willfully
been infringed upon, expands the process for challenging patents after they
have been granted, and awards patents to the first to file instead of the
first who claims to have invented the product.
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Techies Ponder Computers Smarter Than Us
Associated Press (09/09/07) Wohlsen, Marcus
The Singularity Summit: AI and the Future of Humanity, organized by the
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, brought together
hundreds of techies, scientists, and futurists to discuss the possibility
of reaching a point where artificial intelligence surpasses human
intelligence, a technological singularity. Artificial intelligence
researchers at the summit warned that now is the time to develop ethical
guidelines to ensure that such technological advances, such as computers
that program themselves and brain implants that allow humans to thing at
speeds similar to modern microprocessors, are used to benefit humanity.
"We and our world won't be us anymore," says MIT robotics professor Rodney
Brooks, "Who is us and who is them is going to become a different sort of
question." Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-founder of the Singularity Institute,
says his greatest fear is that a brilliant inventor will create a
self-improving artificial intelligence that lacks a sense of morality and
turns hostile. Critics of singularity have mocked these futurists for
their obsession with "techno-salvation" or "techno-holocaust," and argue
that these predictions are based on science fiction as much as they are on
actual science. However, singularity advocates say such a future is likely
inevitable. "The mere fact that you cannot predict exactly when it will
happen down to the day is no excuse for closing your eyes and refusing to
think about it," Yudkowsky says.
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Tapping the Promise of New RPI Supercomputer
Albany Times Union (NY) (09/08/07) Anderson, Eric
Discussing the uses that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's new $100
million IBM Blue Gene supercomputer could be put to was a theme of a Sept.
7 conference at RPI's Darrin Communications Center. Conferees included RPI
President Shirley Ann Jackson, National Science Foundation director Arden
L. Bement Jr., National Academy of Engineering President Charles M. Vest,
IBM research director John E. Kelly III, and presidential science adviser
John H. Marburger III. Blue Gene is the seventh fastest computer in the
world, capable of processing upwards of 100 trillion arithmetic operations
per second. The machine is currently engaged in simulating the human
body's blood flow so that different blockage treatment approaches can be
explored, to name one project. Blue Gene is also slated to work on
biological process simulation, and possibly the development of a device to
replace the transistor. Vest stated that one area of research where
supercomputers will play an important role is the development of strategies
to sustain environmental health and sustainability over the long term so
that Third World peoples could get a chance at living lives of decent
quality. Bement stressed the importance of smart sensors for sifting out
vital information, while Vest said, "What we think is the noise today could
very well be somebody's gold tomorrow." Jackson debated whether regulatory
structures can keep up with people's broadband expectations. A running
theme of the colloquy was the importance of continued cooperation between
government, business, and universities, which everyone concurred was
vital.
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Google's Director of Research Talks AI
CNet (09/09/07) Olsen, Stefanie
Google director of research Peter Norvig compares Google's influence on
the Web to game theory. Norvig says originally Google was believed to be
an observer of the Web, but it now plays a more active role. "Now we
understand that we're co-evolving," he says. "When we make a change, it
changes, search engine optimizers watch us, and when we make a move, then
they make a move." Norvig's opening keynote address on the second day of
the Singularity conference in San Francisco generally discredited the
concept of being in a stage of rapid advancement for computer hardware and
software that will lead to self-improving machines smarter than humans.
Norvig argues that current data does not show that the world is in a time
of accelerated change brought about by technology, highlighting the fact
that the U.S. GDP has shown constant progress over the last 100 or so years
and shows no great spikes because of space flight or the introduction of
the personal computer. "From any point in time, it can look like things
are happening more rapidly," Norvig says Norvig. He also argues that he
has not seen any significant indication that artificial general
intelligence is about to see a breakthrough. Norvig says that work on
"probabilistic first-order logic," software that can quantify data over
multiple states, is encouraging and will be key to developing artificial
general intelligence, as will software that can create hierarchical
representations and machines that can learn from multiple sources of data
in an efficient way.
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Science Fiction Becoming Science Fact
University at Buffalo Reporter (09/06/07) Vol. 39, No. 2, Fryling, Kevin
University of Buffalo's founding director of the Center for Unified
Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS) Venu Govindaraju says it is entirely possible
to live in a future where cameras automatically recognize passengers in an
airport, touchless sensors scan fingerprints and detect chemicals, smart
cards verify customer signatures at the point of sale, and search engines
find ancient texts just a easily as a new Web page. "A lot of it feels
like it's out of science fiction," Govindaraju says, "but 10 years ago,
didn't you think it would be science fiction if you could watch a TV show
on a cell phone? Today, you can just do it." Govindaraju's interest in
biometrics started as an undergrad working on facial recognition, an area
once considered primarily relevant to artificial intelligence that has
since become a high-demand field due to increased interest in personal and
national security. Now, Govindaraju and CUBS researchers explore different
areas of biometrics, including facial recognition, voice recognition,
fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, gait recognition, odor
detection, hand geometry, and different combinations of these methods.
Govindaraju says traditional safeguards such as keycards, passwords, and
badges can be lost, stolen, or forgotten. "You can lose your keys or
forget your PINs," says Govindaraju, "but you can't forget yourself." One
of Govindaraju's projects is working to train computers to detect lies by
recognizing micro-expressions in the face. Govindaraju is also working on
developing algorithms that can comprehend handwritten Arabic, English, and
Sanskrit, a project that has received funding from both private and federal
sources, including the National Science Foundation.
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SDSC Launches User-Settable Supercomputer
Reservations
University of California, San Diego (09/05/07) Tooby, Paul
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California,
San Diego has released the first version of User Portal, a user-settable
reservation system for the center's DataStar and TeraGrid Cluster
supercomputers that allows researchers to have greater control over when
their jobs will be processed. "We've had a lot of feedback in user surveys
asking for faster turnaround time," says SDSC's director of user services
Anke Kamrath. "While we couldn't eliminate the queue, especially on
popular machines like DataStar, we realized that a service that lets users
themselves schedule 'windows' of reserved time would let them complete jobs
more reliably and get more done." The reservation system lets researchers
reserve blocks of time and makes computing more efficient for multiple
situations. For example, if a researcher running a large job that will
require a full machine for a whole day encounters a minor problem that
forces the calculations to stop, instead of having to go to the end of the
queue and wait hours or days for the job to run again, the problem can be
fixed and the program restarted immediately. The reservation system also
works well for research groups trying to debug new code that need to run
multiple short jobs in succession and work as a team to troubleshoot and
retest the results. Although it was always possible to make reservations
manually, the process was often slow and cumbersome.
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Social Networking Software Tracks Zebras and
Consumers
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) (09/06/07) Francuch, Paul
Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the
University of New Mexico have developed computational tools that will allow
ecologists to closely monitor the social interactions of zebras. The
computational tools, which make use of research into social network
analysis, Internet computing, data mining, and machine learning, were
funded by a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Working
with Daniel Rubenstein, an ecologist at Princeton University, Tanya
Berger-Wolf and Jared Saia have developed GPS tracking collars for zebras
living in the Mpala conservancy in Kenya, which will enable researchers to
learn much more about life in the herd, including how zebras interact and
evade predators. The project will provide a more realistic and dynamic
look into the social habits of zebras, as data collected every eight to 15
minutes will be forwarded by cell phone to the researchers' computers. The
data will then be mapped and analyzed by new computational and analytical
software that was also developed by Berger-Wolf and Saia. Such
computational tools are needed because of how quickly zebras form groups
and then break up, says Berger-Wolf. The researcher's approach to social
networking also could be used to study consumers, disease, or the formation
of covert groups.
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Storm Worm Botnet More Powerful Than Top
Supercomputers
InformationWeek (09/06/07) Gaudin, Sharon
The Storm worm botnet that has been pummeling the Internet continuously
for the last three months has grown so extensive that it could easily
overwhelm the world's top supercomputers, according to security
researchers. Estimates of the botnet's size vary, but most researchers
concur that it is one of the biggest zombie grids ever observed.
MessageLabs researchers spot roughly 2 million discrete computers in the
botnet dispatching spam on a daily basis and, after witnessing large spikes
in activity, researchers believe the botnet typically runs at roughly 10
percent of capacity. Matt Sergeant of MessageLabs thinks the botnet could
involve as many as 50 million computers, but Adam Swidler of Postini thinks
the botnet is much smaller, though he agrees that it is capable of
inflicting great damage. This means that cyber criminals in control of the
botnet possess much destructive power and could hurt companies, government
agencies, financial centers, or utilities through a denial-of-service (DoS)
attack similar to what struck Estonia earlier in 2007. Moreover, the Storm
worm botnet has been programmed to launch a distributed DoS attack against
computers scanning for malware or vulnerabilities, anti-spam organizations,
and even individual researchers attempting to study the botnet. The botnet
authors are making money through pump-and-dump scams and are expanding the
botnet with fake news and e-cards spam. Lawrence Baldwin of
MyNetWatchman.com calls the situation "scary," noting that the botnet
cumulatively sends out billions of messages daily.
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Perfect Projections on Surfaces of Any Shape
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (08/07) Kaplow, Mirjam
Fraunhofer research scientists have developed Showplayer, a new software
system that automatically calibrates projectors to project sharp images
onto curved surfaces, once considered an elaborate and expensive process.
The software system, developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute
for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST), automatically
calibrates the projectors and superimposes the images with pixel-precise
accuracy, creating perfectly synchronized projections on any surface shape.
"The calibration software is firstly provided with data on the geometry of
the screen and the number, position and approximate alignment of the
projectors," says FIRST researcher Ivo Haulsen. Digital cameras record the
position of the images on the screen while image recognition algorithms
calculate the proper amount of distortion needed to create a
high-resolution, seamless picture on a curved screen. Showplayer can be
used to control any type of projector and makes it possible to combine
different types of media such as movies, stills, banners, and live action
to create a unique experience, and can even integrate devices such as fog
machines.
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Debate Rages Over German Government Spyware Plan
IDG News Service (09/05/07) Blau, John
After passing anti-hacking legislation earlier this year, members of the
German government want to permit the development and use of spyware to
monitor suspected terrorists. German interior minister Wolfgang Schauble
has been seeking support for a new security law that would permit federal
authorities to secretly investigate suspects' Internet use and stored data
by allowing authorities to install Trojans carrying remote forensic
software on suspects' hard drives. In February, the German Federal Court
of Justice ruled that hacking of computers by police is not permitted under
Germany's strict phone-tapping laws and that special legislations would be
needed. Schauble says the new security law would only be used in a handful
of exceptional cases and on those suspected of planning a terrorist attack,
but the proposal has still generated heated debate. Kaspersky Lab virus
specialist Magnus Kalkuhl says the plan undermines the very purpose of
security software and that the idea of allowing officials in a country to
spy is disturbing. "What's going to prevent police in Germany from
breaking into computers in Italy?" Kalkuhl asks. The use of spyware by law
enforcement in not new. In the United States, the FBI uses a tool called
CIPAV that can record IP addresses and send the information to government
computers. Meanwhile, Switzerland and Austria are both reportedly
considering enacting laws that would allow police to monitor computers
online, though neither country has released any official information on
their spyware plans.
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Zeno Could Be Next Robot Boy Wonder
PC Magazine (09/05/07) Ulanoff, Lance
David Hanson, the developer of a robotic Albert Einstein head, recently
introduced a prototype of a "conversational robot" known as Zeno. Zeno,
which is 17 inches tall and weighs 4.5 pounds, will be unveiled at the
Wired Nextfest in California in September. Despite the fact that it is at
least two years away from commercial availability, analysts say it could
become the next must-have personal robot. Zeno can walk, talk, end express
emotions. While Hanson's robotic Einstein head was realistic, Zeno is more
cartoonish and toy-like with a smooth skin texture. Twelve motors control
facial expressions while another 18 motors control body movements. Behind
one of Zeno's eyes is a camera that is used to recognize faces, which Zeno
does better than people do, according to Hanson. Zeno differs from most
other robots in that the majority of its intelligence resides outside its
body. The Zeno prototype is connected to two PCs. One computer controls
its movements while the other holds Zeno's character engine. The final
version will connect wirelessly to a network-attached Windows PC. Hanson
says Zeno's software acts as a physical brain and gives it the ability to
control body motion and reflexes with a special awareness, including the
ability to track a person's position in a room and turn and make eye
contact when Zeno wants to address them. "We're combining the best
artificial intelligence with this theater for fiction so that the way that
it's crafted the artistry makes the robot seem like it's more intelligent.
It turns robotics into an art medium," says Hanson.
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Personal Data: Up Close and Impersonal
Federal Computer Week (08/27/07) Joch, Alan
Debate persists between the United States and the European Union regarding
how much data to divulge when comparing terrorist watch lists and
trans-Atlantic flight manifests. The underlying issue involves balancing
the protection of privacy rights with the fight against terrorism, which
requires the retrieval of key information. Some computer science experts
say that an improved balance might be achieved through data anonymization,
a method by which software combs through scrambled data and marks any
suspicious patterns. At that point, a government could request a subpoena
for records in compliance with the Fourth Amendment. IBM's Anonymous
Resolution Technology is used by the United States, though not as widely as
some experts had anticipated, considering the technology's promise. One
key element of IBM's software is one-way encryption, a method for
scrambling data without decrypting it, thereby guarding the information
from human eyes. However, some security experts caution that anonymization
is not a full solution, but rather a first step that must be complemented
by a complete security system. As well, some anonymization methods keep
encrypted indexes of sensitive data in a central repository, which is a
vulnerability, according to computer science professor Latanya Sweeney,
director of the Laboratory for International Data Privacy at Carnegie
Mellon University. Sweeney's lab has developed PrivaMix, anonymization
algorithms and techniques that have been used for compliance with the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as well as by the
Department of Housing and Urban Development to protect identities. The
software assigns numeric codes to client data and those codes are used when
sharing data between networks and over secure Internet connections.
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Virtual Reality Will Enhance Real-World
Experiences
New Scientist (09/08/07)No. 2620, P. 30; Newitz, Annalee
Scientists such as UCLA's Amy Jo Kim envision a future in which virtual
reality technology augments real-life experiences, an example being special
networked eyewear that can digitally map objects, instructions, or data
onto the wearer's field of view. "You can do all of this with technology
that's available now," notes Kim. U.K. programmer Mikel Maron is working
to increase the portability of map data through the geoRSS project, and he
conceives of a time when people can tap into sensor readings of pollution
levels, crowding, and many other things to enhance their reality
experience. "You could overlay weather data onto the virtual world to plan
your route home," Maron says. People who like interacting in virtual
environments such as Second Life will also be able to avail themselves of
software that allows them to build their own virtual worlds, where the
level of security can be customized. Security is also a priority for
potential users of MPK320, a virtual office being developed by Nicole
Yankelovich of Sun Microsystems Laboratories that is designed to permit
scattered employees to convene and collaborate without worrying that
intruders from a rival company will penetrate their meeting and make off
with their ideas.
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The Trouble With Computers
Economist Technology Quarterly (09/07) Vol. 384, No. 8545, P. 21
One area where computers could undergo significant improvement is ease of
use, and some companies are hoping to realize such enhancements through
innovative interface design. Easier-to-use computer interfaces comprise an
area where technology companies can gain a competitive edge, while
Microsoft's Andrew Herbert said at the HCI 2020 conference that interface
simplification is critical if new consumers such as children, the elderly,
and people with little computer experience are to be brought into the
computing fold. One example of an advanced interface is New York
University researcher Jeff Han's multi-touch interface, which is based on a
large touch screen capable of sensing more than one touch at a time; this
can enable two-handed gesture commands. The Microsoft Surface is a
keyboard- and mouse-free touch-screen computer that can not only be
directed by gestures, but can also recognize and automatically download
data from other devices placed on top of it. The promise of easier-to-use
computers cannot be delivered without smarter software, and a lot of work
is being devoted to "context aware" systems that conceal unneeded clutter
and offer options that have the most likely relevance to the user's current
activity. University Paris VI researcher Patrick Brezillon says computers
must be taught the trick of gauging users' moods in order to present the
most relevant functions, and this can be done via analysis of keystroke and
typo frequency, work-break duration, Internet-search terms, background
noise, and other factors. MIT scientist Henry Holtzman says a considerable
amount of trust is vital to the acceptance of context-aware computers,
especially in environments such as automobiles. Many computer experts
believe computing will fade into the background as a result of the
emergence and convergence of these various technologies.
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Career Watch: Back-to-School Edition
Computerworld (09/03/07) Vol. 41, No. 36, P. 48; Hoffman, Thomas
Computer Science Teachers Association executive director Chris Stephenson
says students and parents have numerous misconceptions about the IT field
and she says it is important to inform them that there are good,
interesting, and important jobs available that relate to what they care
about in the real world. A major problem is that the high school
curriculum does not reflect the true richness of computing and there is a
critical shortage of qualified teachers. High school courses tend to focus
on how to use a specific program or how to program. A comprehensive
computing curriculum is needed, including age-appropriate courses that
teach the underlying scientific concepts of computing while helping
students understand there are many areas of computing, including artificial
intelligence, bioinformatics, and robotics. The teacher shortage is
largely due to the fact that teacher certification requirements in most
states are a complete disaster. Usually states require computer science
teachers to be certified in a different area, and because computing is not
a core course, even the best computer science teachers are not considered
"highly qualified" by No Child Left Behind. Additionally, there are very
few programs available to train potential computer science teachers. The
CSTA works in partnership with colleges and universities to create
professional development opportunities to help teachers develop their
technical and teaching skills. However, Stephenson says perhaps the most
important role the CSTA plays is to teach administrators and policymakers
that there is a direct link between supporting computer science education
at the K-12 level and maintaining a innovative and competitive edge in the
global market. For more information about CSTA activities, visit
http://www.acm.org/education/panel?pageIndex=4
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