U.S. Developers, Students Face Ever-Increasing Global
Competition
eWeek (03/16/07) Taft, Darryl K.
The results of the 2007 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
highlight the trend of increasing competition in software development, and
that the United States is quickly losing its position of global dominance
in the field, according to statistics. Of all U.S. entries, only MIT was
able to crack the contest's top 10. A study conducted by Evans Data shows
that while the global population of software developers is expected to grow
by 5 million between 2007 and 2010 to 19.5 million, North America will
account for just 18 percent of those developers, down from 23 percent
today. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific's share of the developer market will grow
to 45 percent, up from 37 percent today. Europe, the Middle East, and
Africa's combined share will fall 5 percent to 30 percent by 2010, predicts
Evans Data, while Latin America's share will remain 6 percent. ACM's
recently published brochure, "Computing Degrees & Careers," describes job
opportunities for students with computing degrees. The brochure is part of
an effort to provide high school students, educators, and parents with a
better understanding of the types of careers that computer science
education can lead to. For more information on the ACM International
Collegiate Programming Contest, see
http://campus.acm.org/public/pressroom/acm_in_the_news/index.cfm?CFID=122806
9&CFTOKEN=28523840
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Researchers Track Down Plague of Fake Web Sites
New York Times (03/19/07) P. C4; Markoff, John
An in-depth report by Microsoft researchers shows that the majority of
junk Web sites, which attempt to redirect users to advertisements, can be
traced to a small number of sources, most likely taking orders from large
advertisers. The research revealed that those creating false doorway pages
collaborate with Web-based computer operators who make money by redirecting
traffic from search engines in one direction and sending advertisements
from syndicators in the opposite direction. "A small number of rogue
actors who know what they are doing can create an enormous amount of
disruption," says Technorati CEO David L. Sifry. Researchers found that
just two Web hosting companies generated most of the search-engine spam,
while just three advertising syndicators placed 68 percent of the
advertisements. The average spam density, the percentage of Web pages that
contain nothing but advertisements, was found to be 11 percent, although
for search terms such as "drugs" and "ring tone," the density was as high
as 30 percent. "Ultimately, it is advertisers' money that is funding the
search-spam industry, which is increasingly cluttering the Web with
low-quality content and reducing Web users' productivity," according to the
report. "The good guys are part of the problem," says Microsoft researcher
Yi-Min Wang, referring to the group's findings that blog-hosting services
allow the creation of a great deal of false doorway pages. Microsoft is in
the midst of an effort to detect and eliminate such pages, but opinions
vary on whether or not search engine spam can be combated effectively.
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Part I: A Smarter Web
Technology Review (03/19/07) Borland, John
An upgrade in the intelligence of online search will be facilitated by new
technologies that could also lead to a even smarter Web. The basic
technologies of the Semantic Web have been established and are being
integrated with the everyday Web, giving once-inaccessible data sources an
online presence through applications; many people believe a "Web
3.0"--defined by New York Times columnist John Markoff as a series of
technologies that help computers organize and deduce conclusions from
online data more efficiently--will be ushered in by the Semantic Web.
Zepheira founder Eric Miller, a computer scientist affiliated with MIT,
came up with a general-purpose metadata scheme for adding context to online
data, which led to the development of the Resource Description Framework.
The Semantic Web concept put forward by World Wide Web Consortium
researchers was designed to boost the efficiency of computers'
interpretation of Web data by providing the means for classifying
individual bits of online data as well as defining relationships between
classification categories. The next wave of Web technologies might
eventually be a combination of streamlined Semantic Web tools and Web 2.0's
capacity for dynamic connections generated by users, and could incorporate
data mining. An increase in the Web's ease of use will likely be the
result. "There is a clear understanding that there have to be better ways
to connect the mass of data online and interrogate it," says 3i partner
Daniel Waterhouse.
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A Peek Into the Future
CNet (03/19/07) Ogg, Erica
Fujitsu Labs showcased many of its innovative technologies at last week's
North American Technology Forum, including e-paper, a waterproof RFID tag,
and new ways of embedding numerical data in an image. The color e-paper is
basically a thin liquid-crystal display that uses only a minute amount of
power to change the image displayed and no power to show an image, meaning
that signage would not require batteries to be changed. Images appearing
on the screen of a mobile device can be transmitted to the e-paper, which
comes in eight- and 12-inch sizes. Fujitsu will work on getting e-paper on
the market by next year. The RFID chip on display uses ferroelectrics
random access memory (FRAM) to carry additional information and can be
ironed onto uniforms and go through the wash, although the price will need
to come down before making it to the market. Another Fujitsu project aims
to allow mobile phone users to search for information on an item simply by
taking a picture using their phone using a technique known as
steganography, which hide numerical information in images. This
information does not alter the image's appearance and can be read by
Fujitsu software. The technology is currently in use in Japan, although it
is unavailable in America. Finally, the company displayed a technique for
securing private information that reads the unique vein pattern in a
person's hand. To ensure protection, the hardware sensor and Fujitsu
software can tell if blood in the hand is warm and the person connected to
the hand is alive.
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Turing Award Winner Sees New Day for Women Scientists,
Engineers
USInfo.state.gov (03/16/07) Thomas, Jeffrey
Frances Allen is confident that technological advances will help more
women enter the computing industry. A recent report from the National
Academies of Science & Engineering, entitled "Beyond Bias and Barriers"
found that the requirements of the academic world inhibit the ability of
women to enter and excel in it. Allen, the first-ever female ACM A.M.
Turing Award winner, says the career path for those seeking academic tenure
leaves little time for starting a family, and that such "outmoded
institutions can't survive." She notes that the business world already
allows employees to work from home, thanks to "advances in computing,
networks and information infrastructures [that] have led to a globally
connected capability whose power is just beginning to be used and
understood." Allen says, "These new capabilities will, I believe, lead to
new opportunities for women." She cites the ability of scientists around
the world to access data and collaborate on projects as evidence of "the
fundamental changes that companies are making to leverage advances in
technologies." As an outspoken advocate for mentoring, Allen believes the
Internet can expand the influence of mentors on young women interested in a
career in computing. "Internet-based mentoring programs ... can enable
networks of people to share learning experiences and technical resources
that greatly increase opportunities for success." She describes her own
mentoring technique as mostly listening and helping her proteges arrive at
a plan of action. For more information on the ACM A.M. Turing Award, see
http://campus.acm.org/public/pressroom/acm_in_the_news/index.cfm?CFID=122806
9&CFTOKEN=28523840
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DIM 2007 Workshop: Usability Issues for Identity
Management
Johannes Ernst's Blog (03/15/07) Ernst, Johannes
The ACM CCS2007 Workshop on Digital Identity Management will give
researchers, vendors, and users an opportunity to come together to discuss
the usability, security, and privacy of identity management technologies,
and provide some suggestions for the continued improvement of the solutions
in these areas. User interaction design for identity management,
expressing trustworthiness of identity management to users, novel user
interface technologies for identity management, identity theft prevention,
and privacy-enhancing identity management will be among the topics of
discussion. The control of identities has become more of a concern with
the emergence of more advanced personal services for Internet users, but
management and privacy issues continue to pose a threat to an improved user
experience. Papers will be accepted until June 15, 2007, and authors will
be notified by July 20. The CCS Conference is scheduled for Oct. 29-Nov.
2, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and the DIM Workshop will
take place on the last day of the gathering. Atsuhiro Goto of NTT in Japan
will chair the event.
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Vehicle Warning System Trialled
BBC News (03/17/07) Ward, Mark
German researchers have developed a peer-to-peer network that vehicles
could use to pass along information concerning road conditions. Cars would
be fitted with sensors, and information concerning anything from traffic
jams to objects in the road would travel from a car to another behind them
and be displayed on a dashboard screen, a mobile device, or played over
headphones. If a car knew its tires were slipping, it could alert the
vehicles around it to the presence of a slippery substance on a digital
map. "When [another vehicle] comes after to the point of danger,
information has been spread out by wireless network and the danger will be
propagated to the driver in [the other vehicle]," explains the German
Research Center for Artificial Intelligence's Dr. Anselm Blocher. The
system could even take into account the "cognitive load" a driver is
experiencing, in order to alert them in an appropriate way. The SmartWeb
system could also allow drivers to access information about parking
availability, speed traps, or other problems in natural language. A user
could conduct a Web search that would request information from nearby
vehicles.
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A Quiet Death for Bold Project to Map the Mind
New Jersey Star-Ledger (03/15/07) Coughlin, Kevin
DARPA has decided not to begin phase two of an ambitious project that
aimed to "reverse-engineer" the human brain. The project, known as
Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA), brought together
scientists from many disciplines to recreate the workings of many parts of
the brain using tools ranging from imaging to brain activity pinpointing.
"It was all very exciting. ... It's hard to know at the outset if it was
too ambitious," said contributing neuroscientist Mark Gluck. "All we know
is it's dead." After the conclusion of the $9.5 million planning period,
DARPA announced that the $50 million to $100 million stage of designing and
testing brain-replicating software would not be launched. The BICA project
was part of a larger DARPA plan to develop automated administrative and
support capabilities that would allow for the deployment of fewer troops.
The agency will cut $300,000 from cognitive programs in fiscal 2008, but
will ask Congress for more money in the future. One program that will not
be scrapped is the Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL), which could
help personalize information in command centers by helping computers adapt
to user's individual behavior. "We really hoped this would be an important
project and would lead to some real breakthroughs," said University of
Michigan computer scientist John Laird. "What was very ambitious was
looking at ... what computations could be done for the whole brain, not
just a specific area." Although a complete brain-like system is now out of
reach, Gluck plans to continue his work with memory circuits of the
brain.
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Politicians Press for Antispyware Law Yet Again
CNet (03/16/07) Broache, Anne
House members from both parties have expressed their support for
antispyware legislation, although some companies question the need for it.
The House passed antispyware bills that later died in the Senate in both
2004 and 2005, but new legislation has been proposed that would impose
limits on the actions software can execute, make it illegal to "take
control" of a user's computer in order to collect personal information or
modify a computer's settings, and allow the FTC to impose greater fines on
violators. Web cookies and activities and software designed to prevent and
punish fraud would be exempt. Industry concerns include the fact that the
FTC is already able to bring cases against purveyors of spyware, and that
the legislation, which would have consumers opt in if they wanted to have
their information collected, could harm Web sites that rely on cookies and
other techniques to target ads and provide free content to users. "As all
media advertising increasingly migrates to interactive platforms, we are
concerned that this bill may unnecessarily limit business interaction with
consumers," says online advertising executive Dave Morgan. The Antispyware
Coalition has released the final versions of "best practices" documents for
makers of antispyware, intended to help identify malware and work with each
other more effectively. The Internet Spyware Prevention Act, another piece
of antispyware legislation, has also been introduced; it would prohibit the
copying of code onto a machine without authorization, if doing so
compromises personal information or "impairs" the computer's security. The
bill is intended to fight spyware without hurting software development.
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U.K. Researchers Target Atom Chip Devices
EE Times Europe (03/15/07) Walko, John
Thanks to a grant from Britain's Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council, researchers at the University of Southampton and Imperial
College will begin constructing atom chip devices that could be used in
quantum computers. The team aims to integrate atom chip building blocks
they have created in the past into a single chip that could be developed
into a system capable of useful functions. These atom chips could be
applied to incredibly accurate and sensitive sensors and atom
interferometers, as well as quantum computers. Further research will focus
on the use of the chips in atomic clocks, magnetometers, single photon
sources, and quantum information processors. "Over the past four years, we
have done the fundamental research into atom chips," says the University of
Southampton's Dr. Michael Kraft, who is leading the team. "Now it is time
to make application-orientated devices." Although other groups have done
work with atom chips, no one has developed them into devices. "There is a
growing need for unprecedented accuracy in accelerometers and gyroscopes,"
says Kraft. "Quantum information processors are potentially leading to
quantum computers and atom chip devices will facilitate this process."
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New Centre Could Make Independent Living a Reality for
the Elderly
Electronics and Computer Science (03/15/07) Lewis, Joyce
Researchers at the University of Southampton hope to ease the graying
transition in the United Kingdom by developing a low-cost sensor network
for the home that will be able to monitor the health of the elderly. This
month the university will launch the Pervasive Systems Center, which plans
to make a wireless sensor network (WSN) available in the next 18 months
that will provide support for the elderly who want to continue to live
independently in their homes. The researchers envision a network comprised
of weight sensors to detect movement at night, sensors in the bathroom to
monitor toilet facilities for signs of digestive problems, and body imaging
and temperature sensors to provide clues for areas of the body that are
giving the elderly problems. "If we image the body and then attach
temperature sensors, say, to a chair, the parts of the body that are in
pain will radiate infra-red and will be picked up by the sensor," explains
David De Roure, a professor in the School of Electronics & Computer Science
who will co-chair the new center. The university is taking a
multidisciplinary approach to the center, which will draw sensor, wireless
communications, computer science, and other specialists as researchers.
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After Breaking Off Talks, 2 High-Speed Networking
Consortia Now Say They Will Merge
Chronicle of Higher Education (03/19/07) Read, Brock
Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to complete a merger of
their operations by April 20, 2007, and form a single corporation by the
end of June. The new consortium will be called "Internet2-National
LambdaRail." Differences over a number of organizational issues led the
groups to break off talks last April. Changes to the governance structure
of Internet2, such as creating new advisory councils and diversifying its
Board of Directors, helped the two consortia to continue their talks, which
ultimately led to the agreement. Internet2 manages the Abilene high-speed
network, and National LambdaRail owns a fiber-optic network. The
organizations see the tie-up as ideal because they serve many of the same
academic research institutions and due to the potential effectiveness of
developing next-generation technology over a single research network. "I
think this is spectacular for any stakeholders in these two organizations,"
says Internet2 Chair Jeffrey S. Lehman. "The opportunities that will come
from realizing this merger, both as a matter of technology and as a matter
of structural collaboration, are very exciting."
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Scientists Show Thought-Controlled Computer at
Cebit
IDG News Service (03/15/07) Niccolai, James
G.tec of Austria demonstrated a brain-computer interface (BCI) at the
Cebit trade show that allows the user to control a computer--albeit in a
limited capacity--by measuring the electrical voltage fluctuations in the
user's brain via a cap studded with electrodes. The electrodes rest on the
scalp and are linked via cables to a "biosignal amplifier," which sends the
signals from the brain to a computer. The BCI uses software that must be
painstakingly trained to interpret the brain signals so that they can be
translated into the proper actions. Functions the g.tec BCI can perform
include writing letters, operating prosthetic limbs, and steering a
wheelchair. Such technology could become very useful for people who are
movement- or speech-impaired. "Ultimately you could have wireless contacts
embedded in the brain, and communicate with others just by thinking," said
g.tec CEO Christoph Guger. He explained that BCI research is currently a
focus of 300 laboratories.
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IT Industry Is Losing the Feminine Touch
IT Week (03/14/07) Bennett, Madeline
More women need to be attracted to the IT sector in order to counter a
shortfall of 300,000 qualified IT professionals across Europe by 2010, says
the European Commission. Females made up only 22 percent of European IT
graduates in 2006, a 3 percent drop from 1998; the proportion in the United
States was 28 percent. "We have concerns that there have been numerous
programs and pieces of legislation to encourage more women and people in
general into computer science but at the moment they don't seem to be
making a difference," says Intellect's Carrie Hartnell. She blames this
difficulty on both the "geek" stigma associated with the field and concerns
that the field does not have a stable future given rising competition from
offshoring. IT requires professionals with many different skills sets.
"If you only have one type of employee, you can't innovate as effectively,"
Hartnell says. The Training Camp, an IT training provider, has found that
women are more likely to enroll in management courses, while men gravitate
toward technical courses. Telecom giant BT has introduced a program that
will use female engineers to attract females to the industry; the goal is
to raise the portion of apprenticeships held by women from 8 percent to 25
percent.
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How to Stop the Dilbertization of IT
eWeek (03/16/07) Perelman, Deborah
In order to reinvigorate IT and end the shortage of qualified
professionals, the industry must make itself less of a commodity, allow
workers to be more creative, and show students the real-world applications
of what they are learning. ACM A.M. Turing Award winner Frances Allen
says, "I believe that there was great excitement [in 1960] ... We worked
through wonderful problems with wonderful people. There was always the
sense that there was so much more to do, more than we ever had time for."
Now IT professionals are used more to fix problems that arise than to come
up with new ideas, and such commoditization has allowed IT jobs to be
outsourced. "Outsourcing is a symptom, not the problem," says consultant
Bruce Skaistis. "Outsourcing has become such an important factor because
when you turn IT into a commodity, it becomes about where you can get it at
the lowest cost. It's what we've done to IT that is the problem, which is
taking away its chance to influence business." University computer science
departments are blamed for focusing on specific kinds of technology and
failing to show students the relevant ways in which their work can be used.
"When you think of the flow of students into the IT workplace, if they're
not excited about the work, they probably weren't excited about it in
school," says Georgia Tech College of Computing Dean Rich DeMillo. As
with all professions, IT employees work best when they are aware of what is
expected of them and how their work will be judged and when they have some
flexibility and the chance to leave their footprint on the company's
work.
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Northeastern University Junior Shatters the Computer
Science Glass Ceiling for Her 'CISters'
Northeastern University News (03/08/07)
Northeastern University computer science prodigy Tanya Cashorali does not
want to hear that computers are not for girls. In her three years at the
university, she has held three co-op jobs with top cancer scientists,
worked on a grant-funded study on tumor development, and has given a number
of presentations to world-renowned doctors. "We need to go after young
women and show them they can relate computer science to almost any field
they are passionate about," says Cashorali, who is also president of
CISters, the all-female computer and information science club at the
university. In this role, Cashorali seeks to spark an interest in
technology majors and careers among young girls through mentorship,
education, and interaction with successful women in industry and academia.
Similarly, her specialty, bioinformatics, which involves the transformation
of raw data of the human genome into useful information for treating
diseases, is also about breaking boundaries. "Biology and computer science
may seem like two disjointed fields, but in reality they are converging
quickly, and for a very important cause," Cashorali explains.
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The Rise and Fall of Corporate R&D: Out of the Dusty
Labs
Economist (03/01/07)
The line between research and development in industry is eroding because
of a number of changes, including a shift in the nature of innovation, the
increasing importance of time to market, the advent of inexpensive
computing, and a movement away from vertically integrated technology firms.
Microsoft Research researcher Steven Drucker contends that academics face
a constant struggle for funding, and as a result are working on projects
with a much shorter window for implementation than industry, giving
corporate research the opportunity to pursue longer-term research goals.
Arranging existing technologies in new ways rather than coming up with new
technologies is considered to be the real thrust of innovation today. The
fusion of research and development owes a lot more to software being a
central driver of innovation, while the very low cost of computing and
accelerated development times are also factors. The use of the Internet in
the third capacity explains why Web-based companies are experiencing the
deepest integration of these once separate activities. The earlier model
for research and development was based on the presumption that computing
machines were very costly and development cycle times very long.
Furthermore, companies have a wider selection of where to shop for ideas,
which is also fueling the changes in research and development.
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