U.N. Agency Eyes Curbs on Internet Anonymity
CNet (09/12/08) McCullagh, Declan
Technologists and privacy advocates are very concerned by the United
Nations' (UN's) International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) drafting of
technical standards proposed by the Chinese government to define techniques
of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially
restricting the ability of users to maintain anonymity. "What's
distressing is that it doesn't appear that there's been any real
consideration of how this type of capability could be misused," says
Electronic Privacy Information Center director Marc Rotenberg. One of the
most disturbing aspects of the initiative is that it could institutionalize
a means for governments to suppress their opposition, which conflicts with
the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, notes Columbia University
computer scientist Steve Bellovin in a recent blog post. Countering
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is the most commonly cited
rationale for IP tracebacks, but Bellovin says the method's usefulness in
this regard has waned because few attacks employ spoofed addresses, there
are too many sources in a DDoS attack to be useful, and the source computer
inevitably would turn out to be compromised anyway. Technologist Jacob
Appelbaum warns that a traceback system would offer malevolent hackers the
ability to commit wrongdoing without being caught, thus abusing the very
system that is designed to trace them. The official charter of the ITU's
Q6/17 group states that it will work "in collaboration" with the Internet
Engineering Task Force and the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team
Coordination Center, which could supply a route toward widespread
acceptance. A formal legal mandate to adopt IP traceback would likely be
blocked by the First Amendment in the United States.
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U.S. Research Networks Link Scientists to Large Hadron
Collider
Supercomputing Online (09/10/08)
When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a giant particle accelerator
spanning the French-Swiss border, starts running its experiments in full,
multiple terabytes of data per second will be distributed through
fiber-optic cables to thousands of researchers throughout the world,
including more than 1,700 in the United States. The LHC research will
greatly increase the amount of data the U.S. scientific community must
transport and manage. To handle this massive amount of data, the U.S.
Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Internet2, and
USLHCNet, which provides transatlantic network connectivity from the LHC
facility to the United States, have worked together to deploy networks with
enough bandwidth and capabilities to reliably transport multiple streams of
10 gigabits of information per second, the equivalent of transmitting 500
hours of digital music per second on each 10-gigabit line. The LHC
experiment will be the first to fully utilize the advanced capabilities of
these networks. "As a physicist who has been preparing for the LHC for
nearly 15 years, I am extremely excited about the milestone we have reached
today in circulating the first beams at the LHC," says California Institute
of Technology professor Harvey Newman. "The advanced networking and
cyberinfrastructure resources created through partnerships among ESnet,
Internet2 and USLHCNet make it possible for myself and my colleagues across
the country to participate in the LHC experiments--which we believe will
change scientific history."
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Standards for Accreditation of Labs That Test Voting
Machines Inconsistent
NextGov.com (09/10/08) Aitoro, Jill R.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should have
stronger standards for accrediting laboratories that test voting machines,
concludes a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The report says
NIST continues to use generic international standards to make sure people
testing the voting machines were qualified, rather than following the
requirements of the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Four labs have met NIST's
standards through May 2008. NIST has only recently started to detail what
the labs need to demonstrate to earn accreditation, but still does not
disclose a number of self-imposed steps. GAO says NIST should make sure
testers are qualified and trained properly, and document each laboratory
review. Also, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which receives
recommendations from NIST, should demand full documentation of
accreditation steps, defined qualifications for accreditation reviewers,
maintenance of appropriate records, and create standards for determining
the financial stability of labs. "Opportunities exist for NIST and EAC to
further define and implement their respective programs in ways that promote
greater consistency, repeatability, and transparency--and thus improve the
results achieved," the report says.
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D.C. Election Glitch Blamed on Equipment
Washington Post (09/11/08) P. A1; Stewart, Nikita; Silverman, Elissa;
Flaherty, Mary Pat
D.C. election officials say that a defective computer memory cartridge is
responsible for what appears to be thousands of write-in votes that
officials say should not exist. The malfunction generated inaccurate
results in several contests, including two high-profile council races. In
the Republican at-large race the glitch caused 1,560 write-in votes at 9:50
p.m. to drop to 18 by 12:16 a.m., and thousands of votes were added to
individual candidates, inflating vote totals. At 9:50 p.m., 8,246 ballots
were recorded cast in the at-large Republican primary, but the number of
ballots cast shrank to 3,735 by 12:16 a.m. Board spokesman Dan Murphy says
it was determined that a defective cartridge caused the vote totals to
duplicate into multiple races on the summary report issued by the office;
he says the board immediately caught and addressed the error. However,
University of California, Berkeley professor Henry E. Brady questions the
explanation that a defective cartridge caused errors across multiple races.
He also wonders why so many write-in votes were released even as an
unofficial count on election night because any experienced election
official should know that write-in votes are never that frequent. "It is
strange that a single cartridge would cause results to double across the
District, and it also would be strange to have that show up in one race,"
says Election Data Services president Kimball Brace. "Why wouldn't it have
duplicated other contests in that precinct or more than one race?"
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Barbara Ryder Elected Association for Computing
Machinery's Secretary-Treasurer and Presidential Award Recipient
Virginia Tech News (09/11/08) Daniilidi, Christina
ACM has elected Virginia Institute of Technology professor Barbara Ryder
as Secretary-Treasurer for 2008-2010. Ryder, head of the Computer Science
Department in the university's College of Engineering, has been an active
leader in the association. In June, she received ACM's Presidential Award
for her involvement with the Federated Computing Research Conference, in
which she served as 2003 FERC chair and 2007 FERC steering committee chair,
and the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN) History
of Programming Languages conferences, where she served as general and
program co-chair of the third HOPL conference in 2007. Ryder also served
from 1989 to 1999 on SIGPLAN's executive committee, and as its chair from
1995 to 1997. She was an elected member at large of the ACM Council from
2000 to 2008. Ryder also has served on the Athena Lecturer Award
Committee, and became an ACM Fellow in 1998. "The leadership of ACM faces
many challenges including expanding ACM into a truly international
association, providing better services to our practitioner members,
continuing good support of the special interest groups, encouraging
students to become active ACM members, and remediating the lack of
diversity in the computing workforce," Ryder says. "I look forward to
working on the achievement of these goals."
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Computational Biochemist Uncovers a Molecular Clue to
Evolution
Florida State University (09/10/08) Ray, Barry
Florida State University (FSU) professor Wei Yang is using high-powered
computers to provide scientists with a better understanding of how
evolution occurs at the molecular level. Working with colleagues from FSU,
Duke University, and Brandeis University, Yang has produced computer models
of an enzyme called inosine monophosphate dehrydrogenase (IMPDH). Yang's
IMPDH simulations enabled researchers to observe something that had never
been seen before. "Previously, enzymes were believed to have a single
'pathway' through which they deliver catalytic agents to biological cells
in order to bring about metabolic changes," Yang says. "But with IMPDH, we
determined that there was a second pathway that also was used to cause
these chemical transformations." Yang says the finding is important
because it offers a rare glimpse of the evolutionary process at work on the
molecular level, and also represents a significant advancement in the use
of computational simulations of biological processes. "In this case, we
first made a prediction of the enzyme structure via computer and later
verified it through direct observation in a laboratory, rather than the
other way around," Yang says. "This is a most unusual accomplishment, and
one that indicates we are becoming more advanced in our ability to answer
questions relating to biological functions at the molecular level."
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The A-Z of Programming Languages: Lua
Computerworld Australia (09/11/08) Hamilton, Naomi
Professor Roberto Ierusalimschy in the Pontifical Catholic University of
Rio de Janeiro's Informatics Department says in an interview that the Lua
programming language was born out of a desire for a configuration language
that offered ease of use. Lua eventually found its way into unexpected
applications, such as games like World of Warcraft. "I guess more people
have learned about Lua through games than through any other channel," says
Ierusalimschy, who sees games playing an important role in people's
introduction to programming. He acknowledges that Lua's design entails
lots of compromises, such as excessively verbose syntax for programmers,
and says these compromises were made so the language would be good at
scripting and controlling applications. Ierusalimschy says the growth of
open source has had "a huge impact" on Lua, noting Lua's strong quality,
popularity, and community as a testament to its open source status. He
insists that corporate sponsorship, a recent phenomenon, has not affected
the language's development in any way. Ierusalimschy says the future of
Lua lies in scripting, and is particularly proud of Lua being a language
that has achieved considerable popularity even though it was not created in
a developed country.
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Pervasive Games Promise to Spice Up Daily Life
ICT Results (09/11/08)
The European Union-funded IPerG project is working to advance research
into pervasive gaming, games that combine virtual experiences with the real
world, and create the software tools needed for new games. IPerG project
manager Jussi Holopainen says there is a great deal of confusion over what
constitutes a pervasive game, mostly because of the enormous diversity of
games and methods of game play. IPerG researchers' experimental pervasive
games range from Insectopia, a treasure hunt in which participants roam
around an area collecting virtual insects from Bluetooth devices, to
Epidemic Menace, a whodunit in which players try to stop a scientist from
spreading a virtual virus in a real-world setting. One of the most
developed games is RiderSpoke, in which participants are given a bike with
a Wi-Fi-enabled computer and instructed to ride around the city at will,
being prompted to perform certain tasks and record their thoughts on
different locations. Another game, Mythical: The Mobile Awakening, has
players assume the role of high-tech wizards who perform context-aware
rituals, such as entering the time of day or phase of the moon, to collect
spells that can be used in virtual battles with human and
computer-controlled opponents. IPerG researchers say that such
experimental games will likely form the basis for commercial pervasive
games in the future.
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U.S. Sees Six 'Disruptive Technologies' By 2025
Computerworld (09/11/08) Thibodeau, Patrick
The Global Trends 2025 report, prepared by U.S. intelligence agencies and
expected in December, will likely include a list of six disruptive
technologies expected to have a major impact on the world. The report
defines a disruptive technology "as a technology with the potential to
cause a noticeable--even if temporary--degradation or enhancement in one of
the elements of U.S. national power." Six technologies were identified to
have that potential. Biogerontechnology involves technologies that improve
lifespan, which will challenge the economy and social policy as people live
longer. Energy storage systems, such as fuel cells and ultracapacitors,
could replace fossil fuels. Crop-based biofuels and chemicals will reduce
gasoline dependence. Clean coal technologies can improve electrical
generation efficiency and reduce pollutants. Robots have the potential to
replace humans in a variety of professions, ranging from the military to
health care. Lastly, Internet pervasiveness will expand to everyday
objects, such as food packages, furniture, and paper documents,
streamlining supply chains, lowering costs, and reducing dependence on
human labor.
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Easier-to-Hit 'Targets' Could Help Older People Make the
Most of Computers
Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (09/09/08)
A new University of Reading study found that icons, menu headings, and
links that automatically grow bigger when the cursor moves toward them,
dubbed expanding targets, make it significantly easier for older people to
use computers. The study found that targets that grow to twice their
original size, providing a larger area to click on, reduced by at least 50
percent the number of mistakes older people made when using a computer
mouse, and a 13 percent reduction in the time it took older users to select
a target. The study, part of the Strategic Promotion of Aging Research
Capacity initiative, will be discussed at this year's BA Festival of
Science in Liverpool. Researchers say that many older people find it
extremely challenging to position a cursor accurately enough to use a
mouse, to the point that some people may avoid using computers completely.
Automatically expanding targets could be added through simple changes to
software products. Expanding targets also could encourage a wider use of
computers among older people in general, researchers say, and greater
access to computers could boost their quality of life and enable continued
independent living. "The introduction of expanding targets could lead to
substantial benefits because older people would feel more confident in
their ability to control a mouse and cursor," says study leader Faustina
Hwang. "A computer can be a real lifeline for an older person,
particularly if they’re living alone, and expanding targets could
help them harness that potential."
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Pedal-Powered PCs Link Villages to the Web
Christian Science Monitor (09/11/08) P. 13; Telis, Gisela Angela
The Jhai PC is designed to withstand heavy rains and extreme temperatures
and provide members of remote villages with reliable access to weather
reports, current prices for village products, and contact with relatives in
other villages or countries. Developed by the Jhai Foundation, a San
Francisco-based nonprofit, the Jhai PC comes with a communications suite
that both literate and illiterate villagers can use, and will eventually
contain a videoconferencing kit for checkups with doctors. The PC contains
a miniature motherboard and off-the-shelf parts contained in an
industrial-steel case that is sealed with caulk and gaskets to keep
floodwaters and humidity out. The PC uses flash drives to store
information, and features small LCD panels instead of monitors to lower
power consumption. It runs on one-tenth of the power of a typical PC and
is built to last for 10 years. The $200 PC is powered by a battery
connected to a stationary-bike generator. Jhai Foundation founder Lee
Thorn says the computer has already gathered interest from 65 countries,
but before a Jhai PC is distributed, the foundation requires a 10-year plan
from each community it works with. A local entrepreneur must develop a
business plan that will employ villagers, maintain the computers, and pay
for Internet access and electricity. The Jhai Foundation provides business
training and support, including classes on how teachers can integrate
computers into local school curricula.
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UC Santa Cruz Team Developing a High-Tech Dictionary for
the Classroom
UC Santa Cruz (09/03/08)
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) researchers are developing
Teach with Computers: Word Annotation for Vocabulary Education (tecWAVE),
new dictionary software designed to help children build their vocabularies.
"Students will be reading along, and when they encounter a word they don't
know, they'll be able to click on the word and get the meaning right away,"
says UCSC professor Judith Scott. "It's a high-tech version of a
dictionary, but it will be easier to use and better, because it won't
interrupt the flow of their reading." The tecWAVE project has received a
$1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Scott says the
program will be particularly helpful to students that struggle with reading
and those learning English. Definitions will be tailored to different
reading levels, will be appropriate for the context the word is used in,
and will include pictures to make meanings more accessible. The tecWAVE
software will use artificial intelligence to automatically generate
definitions that are appropriate for the context. UCSC professor Yi Zhang
will work with a team of graduate students to develop tecWAVE over the next
18 months. The program then will be tested in seventh-grade classrooms in
Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.
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Xerox Develops 3-D Visualization Software for
Printing
InformationWeek (09/03/08) Gonsalves, Antone
Xerox researchers are developing software that will enable print shops to
render three-dimensional (3D) visualizations of customers' brochures,
flyers, and other jobs before they are printed. The technology will give
printers the ability to show customers exactly what their document will
look like, including texture, gloss, folds, and binding, before a physical
product is produced. In a typical scenario, a marketing department would
create a brochure using a document creation tool, which would then be
exported as a PDF file that supports the Job Definition Format, a technical
standard under development by the graphic arts industry for describing a
project's attributes. The JDF-supported PDF file could then be delivered
to print shops, which would use the Xerox technology to render 3D
visualizations to send back to the customer. The 3D file can be opened in
any Web browser with a standard plug-in for showing 3D pictures. Xerox
prefers JDF because it is an emerging industry standard, but support for
other formats is possible. The Xerox technology is still in the concept
stage, and issues with performance, image quality, and platform support are
still being resolved.
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Local Software to Reduce Hospital Bottlenecks
CIO Australia (09/02/08) Gedda, Rodney
The Australian e-Health Research Center says the Patient Admission
Prediction Tool (PAPT), its prototype software for forecasting the demand
for hospital emergency services, has helped improve the prediction of
patient presentation and admission at two hospitals. PAPT is designed to
determine the likely patient load in an hour, for that day, next week, or
for holidays that fall on different dates. Bed management, staffing, and
scheduling for elective surgery all stand to benefit from the use of PAPT.
"Emergency departments already know there's a pattern to presentations and
admissions, but existing models are very simplistic," says David Hansen,
research director at the center. "PAPT uses historical data to provide an
accurate prediction of the expected load on any day." The center developed
PAPT with experts at Gold Coast and Toowoomba Hospitals, Griffith
University, and the Queensland University of Technology.
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Quantum Computing With Ions
Scientific American (08/08) Vol. 299, No. 2, P. 64; Monroe, Christopher
R.; Wineland, David J.
Quantum computers may one day be capable of executing computing feats once
thought to be impossible--factoring a large number produced by two primes,
for instance--through their ability to store and process data using atoms,
photons, or fabricated microstructures. At the forefront of the quantum
computing effort is the manipulation of captured ions, and researchers see
no basic hindrances to the creation of trapped-ion computers. One
technique for assembling a trapped-ion computer is to link the ions through
their common motions, electrically levitating the particles between a pair
of electrode arrays. The positively charged ions repel one another, so any
oscillatory motions imparted to one ion will cause the whole string to
move; the ion strings could encode and process data by focusing laser beams
on them. The application of a specific laser force to the ions for a
carefully adjusted duration results in the creation of a logic gate. It is
a formidable challenge to scale such a system up to larger numbers of ions
because of control issues with longer ion strings, since their collective
modes of common motion would interfere with each other. Researchers are
working on grid-like traps that allow short chains of ions to be shuttled
from place to place on the quantum computer chip to perform calculations.
An alternative area of research involves the linkage of trapped ions using
the photons they emit.
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