Md. House Approves Paper Ballots
Washington Post (03/10/06) P. A1; Marimow, Ann E.; Woodlee, Yolanda
In a unanimous vote, the Maryland House of Delegates endorsed the use of
paper ballots in its next election, scrapping the state's touch-screen
machines in a move supported by Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich that
represents an about-face for a state that had been at the forefront of
touch-screen voting technology in 2001. Under the plan, the state would
lease optical ballot machines for $13 million, while the $90 million
touch-screen machines would be shelved for one year. It remains uncertain
how the plan will fare in the Senate, and there is no money in Ehrlich's
budget earmarked for the new machines. Diebold will demonstrate for
lawmakers an updated version of its touch-screen system that produces a
paper record. The challenges that Maryland has had in selecting a voting
system are typical of the pains that election officials feel nationwide as
computer experts question the reliability and security of touch-screen
systems. Voter verification is now required in more than two dozen states
as advocacy groups have lobbied to ensure that voters can have confidence
in the accuracy of their ballot. Within Maryland, some officials have
argued that optical scan machines are a step in the wrong direction, given
that the hand-marked ballots can produce ambiguous results. "There is no
evidence of anything wrong with Maryland elections," said John Willis, the
former Secretary of State, pointing to the study conducted by the
California Institute of Technology and MIT that identified Maryland as the
state with the lowest voter error in 2004.
ACM's U.S. Public Policy Committee has issued a report on "Statewide
Databases of Registered Voters: A Study of Accuracy, Privacy, Usability,
Security, and Reliability." To read this report, visit
http://www.acm.org/usacm/VRD
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UCLA, UCB, UCSB and Stanford Join to Establish Western
Institute of Nanoelectronics
UCLA News (03/09/06) Abraham, Melissa
The newly announced Western Institute of Nanoelectronics, the product of
the partnership of the University of California, Berkeley; the University
of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Los Angeles;
and Stanford University, will be one of the largest collaborative research
programs to focus on spintronics in the world. Under the direction of UCLA
engineering professor Kang Wang, the institute will include almost 30
prominent researchers and collaborate with sponsors from the semiconductor
industry. Wang notes that the institute, to be headquartered at UCLA, will
provide a world-class environment for advancing semiconductors beyond
existing CMOS processes that are fast approaching their scaling
limitations. "With this new institute, we are talking about an
unprecedented opportunity to help define a technology that can exploit the
idiosyncrasies of the quantum world to provide key improvements over
existing technologies," said Wang. "As rapid progress in the
miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices leads toward chip
features smaller than 65 nanometers in size, researchers have had to begin
exploring new ways to make electronics more efficient." Spintronics, a
major focus of the institute, carries information through the spin of an
electron, which could be used to create low-power next-generation
electronic devices. Traditional electronic devices move electronic charges
around, neglecting the energy contained in their spin. The institute is
launching with the aid of $18.2 million in grants, $2.38 million of which
comes from the Nanoelectronics Research Grant funded by Intel, AMD, IBM,
Texas Instruments, Freescale, and MICRON. Intel is also contributing a
separate $2 million dollar grant and $10 million in equipment.
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Outsourcing of Computer Jobs a Misconception
Daily Kent Stater (03/08/06) Whinnery, Megan
While the perception that computing jobs are migrating overseas dampens
interest in math and science among college students, a recent ACM study has
found that the widespread outsourcing of tech jobs is largely a myth. The
fear that jobs are disappearing could sap the domestic labor supply, warns
Robert Walker, associate professor of computer science at Kent State
University. ACM's task force of computer scientists, economists, and
social scientists found that between 2 percent and 3 percent of
computer-related jobs are being lost to foreign countries, while new,
higher-level domestic jobs are being created in their place. "The
offshoring of jobs in the computer industry isn't a big problem," said C.C.
Lu, computer science professor at Kent State. "No matter how offshore it's
going, we still need a lot of software engineers here." The ACM study also
found that Canada is the most popular destination for outsourced positions,
followed by Ireland. India ranks third, though much of the work there is
in low-level call center jobs. Call center work is considered a career in
India, and Walker contends that the country lacks the infrastructure to
establish the research required for advanced computer jobs. "I hope the
guidance counselors and teachers don't give students wrong information,"
Walker said. "Things aren't bad now, there are plenty of good-paying
jobs." Walker cautions, however, that fears of outsourcing could become a
self-fulfilling prophecy if they discourage students from studying math and
science, forcing U.S. companies to look overseas for skilled workers. The
NSF has found that computer science graduates earn the highest median
income among all science graduates.
To view "Globalization and Offshoring of Software--A Report of the ACM Job
Migration Task Force," visit
http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport
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Breaking a Supercomputing Speed Record
Technology Review (03/10/06) Greene, Kate
IBM claims to have broken its own speed record for sharing data over a
network, reporting that its ASC Purple supercomputer transferred data at a
rate of 102 Gbps using IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS) software,
shattering the previous record of 15 Gbps, which IBM also held. ASC Purple
is a massive cluster of thousands of systems that store and process 1.6 PB
of information, and is frequently used to model nuclear reactions or
analyze the safety of weapons caches. "What this does is enable a new
class of applications to become possible," said IBM's Rama Govindaraju, who
worked on the data-sharing initiative, nicknamed "Project Fastball." The
technology could be used to access or process any large body of data over a
distributed area, with potential benefits for health care, homeland
security, or video-on-demand providers. The open-source GPFS system, which
IBM has made available since 2001, is at the center of the breakthrough,
efficiently managing the numerous storage devices and executing multiple
tasks simultaneously. Directing the flow of traffic is one of the central
challenges for large supercomputer systems, which GPFS handles by
compartmentalizing files into chunks of a manageable size and storing them
on disks throughout the file system. When accessing a file, the system
runs several pathways in parallel, unlike distributed systems, which
transfer data through just one path. Dispersing the flow of information
enables the system to heal itself, instantly redirecting data if one
pathway fails. IBM manages each element of the ASC Purple system at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, enabling it to refine and tinker
with the hardware to integrate it with GPFS. IBM is also working with the
University of Pennsylvania to use GPFS to develop a universally accessible
repository for digital images of mammograms, enabling doctors to compare
past and present images if a patient has moved.
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Computing With Light?
HPC Wire (03/10/06) Vol. 15, No. 10,Stuart, Anne
Hewlett-Packard Labs' Quantum Information Processing Group is seeking to
unlock the mysteries of optical quantum computing that would process
information with photons, instead of electrons, to produce faster, more
secure systems. "Quantum processing can attack problems we can't attack
with conventional computers," said Hewlett-Packard's Tim Spiller, who is
heading the research. "Even a small quantum computer has the potential to
enhance communications and information processing." While scientists have
long agreed that light has the best potential for shuttling quantum
information, they have yet to devise an efficient, practical technique to
do so. Light's ability to transmit data over long distances with minimal
interference makes it ideal for relaying telephone calls and other
communication applications, but that same property undercuts light's
ability to process information. To resolve this problem, Spiller and his
team began exploring photon detection, and devised a technique to detect
photons without destroying them in the process, while a probe light signal
enables the photons to communicate with each other. The researchers see no
limit to the extent of the interaction among photons, which could
potentially serve as a scalable platform for optical quantum computing. If
it reaches maturity, quantum computing could reinvent information
technology by revolutionizing optical communications, sensing devices, and
measuring technologies with small quantum devices. Larger quantum
processors could be used in research settings, factor extremely large
numbers, and potentially lead to quantum code-breaking.
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Tech Firms Say H-1B Visa Caps Create Shortage of Skilled
Staff
Investor's Business Daily (03/09/06) P. A1; Mandaro, Laura
U.S. technology companies report difficulty filling their swelling number
of positions, citing the limitations on H-1B visas as a constricting force
on the high-tech labor supply that threatens to erode the United States'
competitive edge. "The way our immigration system is acting, it's almost
becoming a disincentive for these best and brightest individuals to come to
the U.S.," said Hewlett-Packard's Leslie Nicolett. Since 2003, the yearly
cap for H-1B visas has fallen from 195,000 to 65,000, which the industry is
feeling all-the-more acutely now that hiring freezes have ended and skilled
tech workers are in demand again. Immigrants are an essential component of
the technology workforce, companies say, particularly in positions
requiring specialized skills and advanced degrees. The Senate is
considering a sweeping immigration bill that would increase the H-1B visa
cap to 115,000 and exempt immigrants with advance degrees in technology,
science, and engineering. President Bush reiterated his support for
raising the cap in his visit to India, where the domestic software industry
has called for the United States to relax its visa policy. Should the bill
clear the Senate, it is likely to face staunch opposition in the House,
where it will meet the objections of worker advocacy groups that claim that
immigration takes jobs away from U.S. citizens and reduces pay, though
studies to verify that claim are mixed. While the Center for Immigration
Studies claims that H-1B visa holders are not as well compensated as their
U.S. counterparts, the rate of increase in median pay for scientists and
mathematicians has outpaced the pay rate for white-collar workers at large.
Immigration restrictions can mean that companies have to settle for a
less-than-ideal candidate if their first choice cannot obtain a visa, or
lead businesses to move individual jobs or entire divisions overseas.
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EU Backs 'Invisible Computing' Research
silicon.com (03/07/06) McCue, Andy
Because the European Union views embedded systems as being key to the
industrial competitiveness of the region, it wants its member states to do
their part in helping to fund the Advanced Research & Technology for
Embedded Intelligence and Systems (Artemis) program, which is trying to
raise $3.24 billion so more research can be conducted on technology that
has had an impact on household appliances, consumer gadgets, and
automobiles. The EU and industry will also help fund the embedded
computing systems research over the next 10 years through Artemis, which is
backed by 20 technology and automotive companies. "It should be open to
all players, and it is crucial that it accelerates the pace of innovation,"
says Viviane Reding, European commissioner for Information Society and
Media. Embedded systems are found in everything from wireless telephones,
DVDs, airplanes, and cars; a focus on embedded systems could add 600,000
new jobs to this sector, says Artemis. "The tools and design methods to be
jointly developed as part of Artemis will enable us to increase the
functionality of mobile devices to meet future customer needs without
sacrificing usability or operating times," says Yrjo Nuevo, Artemis
chairman and senior technology advisor at Nokia.
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UTD Professor a Step Ahead With Research Into
Anticipation
Dallas Morning News (03/09/06) Hughes, Kristine
Mihai Nadin, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, is
pioneering the discipline of anticipation through his studies of how human
actions are motivated in an attempt to develop machines that consider the
future as they make decisions. Software could help devices overcome the
limitations of poor reaction time and vision by weighing the consequences
of actions and changing their behavior accordingly. Nadin created an
eight-legged robot with built-in sensors and dispatched it to negotiate a
pile of rocks by anticipating the outcomes of its actions. The robot used
its sensors to create a map of the ground from its topology. The first
time, it struggled to walk over the rocks. The second time was easier, but
the third time the robot avoided the rocks altogether by walking around
them. Nadin says anticipation software could lead to robots capable of
helping humans in more complex settings, such as managed health care,
though practical applications could still be several years away. Nadin's
work is based on his theory of pre-understanding--that humans can
physically act before their brain receives a stimulus. By quantifying the
anticipation process, Nadin plans to distil its essence into a model for
the software that powers adaptive control mechanisms. Nadin is recording
the movement of test subjects in milliseconds with motion capture devices,
while physiological sensors and brain imaging measure anticipation. Nadin
wants to determine if a physical or mental reaction comes first when his
subjects have to respond to a condition, such as having a ball thrown at
them.
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You Have to Spend Money to Make Money
Computing (03/09/06) Flood, Sally
The European Commission has found that Europe's research and development
spending has been in steady decline since 2000, having dropped to 1.9
percent of GDP, or around half of China's proportional investment. Many
European companies are cutting their investment in IT in an effort to rein
in costs, while BoozAllen found in a recent survey that there is no
definitive link between corporate performance and research and development
spending, calling into question the value of research spending for many
companies. Research spending is akin to a black hole for many in the
business community, says Forrester's Navu Radjou, given that many projects
are poorly managed and fail to align with business goals. Research
facilities such as Accenture's in southern France are forming closer
partnerships with the business and academic communities. Oracle has
partnered with Icon Ventures, a corporate financier, to identify startup
companies that look promising, bringing the experience and skills of Oracle
consultants to work with developers at the startup. Successful research
and development programs must align their efforts with the business' larger
strategic goals, merge short- and long-term projects together, and
advertise the value of their work. "Every company has the power to be
innovative," says NVP's Harry Berry. "The secret is in creating a culture
in which engineers are valued, and their contribution to the business is
tracked and supported." Google has recently decided to open a research and
development facility in London to develop new wireless and mobile
platforms, as well as other applications. Google wants to tap into
Europe's vibrant academic community and the mobile and wireless expertise
of its research community. Philips, which spends 10 percent of its
revenues on research and development, has invested heavily in its HomeLab
in the Netherlands, where researchers are exploring ambient intelligence
and other cutting-edge technologies.
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Can Computers Be Aware of Their Surroundings?
University of Ulster (03/08/06)
Researchers in Europe hope to bring sensory perception to intelligent
computer systems, but a better understanding of biological sensory fusion
and how to incorporate it into artificial systems is needed, according to
Martin McGinnity, director of the Intelligent Systems Engineering
Laboratory (ISEL) at the University of Ulster's Magee campus. McGinnity
coordinated the SENSEMAKER project, which brought electronics and computing
engineers, neuroscientists, physicists, and biologists together to create a
silicon-based version of the way in which the brain picks up data from the
various senses, and combines the information to gain a comprehensive view
of its surroundings. "The ultimate aim is to create machines which can
capture information through sensory perception, process it in a way similar
to the brain and then act intelligently on that information," says
McGinnity. The researchers were able to create a theoretical model for
certain processes, and demonstrate a system that brought vision and touch
together. "This type of research teaches us a lot about how we can
translate the principles of living biological systems into artificial
computer systems; while the primary focus is to create intelligent
computational systems, this field of research may also lead to new ways of
treating people with sensory-related disabilities with more advanced
prosthetics," says McGinnity. The FACETS project is involved in similar
research involving machine perception and vision. And the creation of a
Center for Excellence in Intelligent Systems would allow the Magee campus
to focus more on research in this area.
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Web Tools Employ the Human Factor
Washington Post (03/09/06) P. D1; Walker, Leslie
Presenters at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, held this week
in San Diego, echoed the refrain that as humans and computers converge,
social computing will become increasingly important, noting the raft of new
social networking and social media sites that have emerged in recent years.
Participants pointed to sites such as Memeorandum and Netvibes that
provide content-filtering and group-editing services. The major Internet
players were on hand to pitch new applications to software developers, such
as AOL's revamped Instant Messaging service, which will allow companies to
customize the application and integrate it into their own operations.
Yahoo! announced that it would open its photo, calendar, shopping, and
bookmark services to developers, after already having provided access to
its travel, music, mapping, and Web-search applications. Root Markets
presented its new Root site, a mix-and-match service that allows users to
pull their Web history from selected sites, detailing online activity in an
"electronic dashboard." Root compiles a log of the time spent at each Web
site, and allows users to compare their online activity with that of their
friends. Root Markets is still fleshing out its business model, though it
plans initially to market the service as a lead generator for insurance
companies and mortgage brokers. Amazon and eBay, which have long shared
their data with other sites to attract new customers, were both on hand to
present their latest Web services to developers. Tim O'Reilly, the host of
the conference and CEO of O'Reilly Media, noted that human intelligence
powers all of these new applications, such as Flickr, Yahoo!'s
photo-sharing and tagging service, and even Google's search algorithms,
which evaluate the choices that people make in choosing links on the Web.
"The idea of people inside the machine is something we are going to have to
get used to," said O'Reilly.
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Intel Developer Forum Panel: Hurdles Remain on Road to
Faster Wi-Fi
IDG News Service (03/08/06) Lawson, Stephen
The upcoming IEEE 802.11n standard, which has been promoted as the key to
wirelessly sharing high-quality multimedia content throughout a home, must
overcome a number of obstacles if it is to make that vision a reality. The
standard, still under discussion, can be used in both the 2.4 GHz radio
band currently used for 802.11b/g and the 5 GHz band currently in use for
802.11a. In addition, the 802.11n standard is intended to be backward
compatible with those existing specifications while delivering greater
range and real throughput of 100 Mbps, twice or more the speeds of the
current technologies. However, it remains to be seen whether 802.11n
networks will use the two frequency bands, according to vendor executives
who participated in a panel discussion Wednesday at the Intel Developer
Forum in San Francisco. Motorola's Miguel Pellon says the standard could
mandate that every product have radios for both bands or allow companies to
sell 802.11n products that work in just one band. In addition, the 2.4 GHz
band faces more interference from existing WLANs as well as microwave ovens
and Bluetooth short-wave wireless connections, said Sanyo Electric's
Yoshiharu Doi. For that reason, Japanese companies have decided that the
standard is not ideal for entertainment applications such as
high-definition video streams, Doi said. The new standard also cannot
support high-quality video streams by itself, a feat which will also
require several other pieces such as the 802.11i standard for security and
802.11e for guaranteed quality of service, as well as the Wi-Fi Alliance's
quality-of-service specification, WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia), according to
Intel's Mark Grodzinsky. However, all those will be available when 802.11n
products hit the market, he said.
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Microsoft Research: How to Help Illiterate People Use
Computers
Associated Press (03/01/06) Linn, Allison
A Microsoft research and development lab in India is exploring ways to
bring technology to that country's illiterate domestic workers. Microsoft
is gearing the technology, presented at the company's Research Techfest, to
illiterate women in search of work by connecting them with families in need
of domestic help. Creating the system, which relies heavily on pictures,
voice commands, and video, challenged Microsoft's development team to shed
their preconceived notions of what technology should do and how it should
operate. Test subjects helped the researchers refine the system,
introducing a level of abstraction into images that the domestic workers
had interpreted too literally, and adjusting interactive maps to rely more
on landmarks than actual addresses. To convince the women that technology
was a more efficient way to find work than word-of-mouth, the researchers
created a video depicting a scene where a woman complains to her husband
that she needs a new job, and then finds one by using a computer. Carnegie
Mellon professor Raj Reddy, who is advising Microsoft in its work in India,
notes that companies are often out of touch with the computing needs of
people in rural areas with poor literacy skills, and that the most
effective uses of technology will be in applications that have a familiar
feel, such as videoconferencing with family members or watching videos on
the PC. Microsoft is also considering a public kiosk in a community center
as it struggles with the logistics of deploying technology in areas where
most people do not own computers.
Raj Reddy is co-recipient of ACM's 1994 A.M. Turing Award
http://www.acm.org/awards/citations/reddy.html
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FCC Brief on Electronic Surveillance Calms Colleges'
Fears About Costs
Chronicle of Higher Education (03/10/06) Vol. 52, No. 27, P. A30; Foster,
Andrea L.
The FCC has filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. that
could be good news for colleges in the United States who feared thy would
have to spend an average of $9 million to $15 million each to comply with
an FCC post-9/11 mandate that broadened the Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act to allow federal monitoring of broadband networks and
Internet-based telephone services. Originally, colleges thought they would
have to overhaul their entire networks, replacing every router and switch
so emails originating from within and without campuses and those moving
between students and staff could be intercepted. But the FCC, in its
brief, says only those emails flowing in and out of campuses, and not those
moving within, would be monitored, necessitating modification or
replacement only of equipment that connects college networks to the
Internet, according to one school of thought. The FCC's original mandate
was challenged in court by the American Council on Education, eight
post-secondary education groups, and two academic library groups, as well
as others.
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Promoting Python
eWeek (03/06/06) Vol. 23, No. 10, P. D1; Coffee, Peter
In a recent interview, Python creator Guido van Rossum described his views
on the current state of the language and its development prospects. Van
Rossum recently joined Google's technical staff, where he devotes roughly
half his time to Python, which enjoys extensive use in Google's operating
system, particularly in the maintenance and support of its advertising and
other back-office applications. Van Rossum describes Python as Google's
primary scripting language, improving the efficiency of its Java and C++
applications by dispensing with redundant bookkeeping through a more
concise and expressive notation. In retrospect, van Rossum says Python has
suffered from some choices that he made concerning the semantics of
integers that interfered with programmers' codes in applications such as
bitwise operations. Van Rossum's team is currently developing Python 2.5,
which is slated for a final release in September or October, and will
contain a conditional expression and a "with" statement, which van Rossum
views to be the more important of the two new features. Van Rossum notes
that the "with" feature has been in development for a long time, but that
balancing the goal of a universal application with security has been
challenging. In the longer run, van Rossum has found the time at Google to
begin developing Python 3000, which will provide a final solution to the
integer problem, as well as resolving issues arising from division. Van
Rossum expects to have an executable version of Python 3000 within the next
three years, and he believes that as its popularity grows, Python will draw
on compilers to execute programs significantly faster than it can today.
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Interfacing Electronics to People
EDN Magazine (03/02/06) Vol. 51, No. 5, P. 55; Cravotta, Robert
Electronic subsystems are more closely interfacing with medical systems,
which is enabling advances for both intrusive systems with implantable
elements and less intrusive systems. Such developments face technical and
regulatory challenges: For instance, regulators require end-product
integrators to answer for electronic medical systems' compliance or
noncompliance with standards such as low power consumption.
Life-sustaining systems are subject to more stringent regulations in
comparison to diagnostic and monitoring systems. A number of methods are
being investigated to meet the low-power-consumption requirement, including
systems powered by body heat or movement. A crucial component for
life-sustaining systems is closed-loop control, an example being prosthetic
limbs that receive input from nerves and muscle movements detected by
myoelectrode sensors. The increased penetration of medical devices into
the home calls for lower medical care costs through remote diagnosis, which
is prompting investigation into various commercially available
communications technologies, such as USB and Bluetooth. Solutions to the
problems of technological obsolescence and upgrading are also being
explored by designers of electronic medical systems; possible answers to
the upgrading problem include software-programmable control systems and
wireless communication between the implanted components and an external
controller. The cell phone could emerge as the principal form factor for
master controllers of semiautonomous implanted systems.
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Just-in Time-Information: Is It in Your Future?
Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology
(03/06) Vol. 32, No. 3, P. 14; Travis, Irene
Speaking at the second plenary session at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting last
November in Charlotte, MIT Media Lab's Pattie Maes discussed just-in-time
information and the related projects that she has worked on for 10 years at
the Media Lab. The goal of just-in-time information is to create and
enhance interpersonal connections without disrupting the user's experience.
Maes notes that just-in-time information applications must be able to
detect the user's mood, model his interest and preferences, and run
recommendation algorithms. The first desktop systems included features
such as recommendation, remembering, and mentoring, while subsequent
systems triggered information through location or embedded electronic
information. The 2005 RichMedia project investigated mobile interaction
with enhanced objects by equipping the user with an RFID-enabled wristband.
Each time the user touched an object with an RFID tag, information
appeared on a smart phone, which then relayed the message that the object
had been moved to a server. A hands-free option enables users to transmit
information in auditory form. Maes identified user profiling, user
context, and recommendation algorithms as the central challenges facing
just-in-time information. She added that to be useful, the system must be
easy to access through unobtrusive interfaces. Unlike in the desktop
environment, detecting context in the physical world requires sensors, and
may need background information to infer the meaning behind the subtleties
of human interaction and behavior. Recommendation algorithms can be
implemented with the aid of cases or prototypes, content patterns, and
collaborative filtering. Maes emphasized that transparency is critical for
any just-in-time information system. She also stressed that the purpose of
just-in-time information systems should be to help people retrieve
information, rather than to find it for them.
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P2P for Communications: Beyond File Sharing
Business Communications Review (02/06) Vol. 36, No. 2, P. 36; Jennings,
Cullen; Bryan, David A.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) for communications has applications beyond mere file
sharing and free telephony, according to Cisco Systems distinguished
engineer Cullen Jennings and SIPeerior Technologies founder and CTO David
A. Bryan, who acknowledge that illegal file swapping and other forms of
misuse could give P2P a bad reputation that will be hard to shake off.
Examples of P2P use outside of file sharing include the Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for the exchange of email between servers; the
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) processes used between routers to bring
routing information up to date; the IETF's service location protocol for
announcing and uncovering new network services; and the Rendezvous
protocol, Apple's enhanced, open-sourced version of TCP/IP. P2P technology
can also be employed for distributed registration and resource location,
for shared storage, for extending the coverage area of wireless
communications devices, and for building ad hoc networks. In a distributed
storage application, peers could securely store encrypted backup versions
of critical files for each other, and easily switch between devices without
manually updating configuration files, relocating address books, etc. The
wide implementation and adoption of Internet standards will significantly
improve these technologies' chances for success, write Jennings and Bryan.
Bringing both security and scalability into the mix, unresolved emergency
call issues, and the difficulty of applying centralized policy challenge
the realization of highly useful P2P systems.
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Let There Be Wi-Fi
Washington Monthly (02/06) McChesney, Robert; Podesta, John
The United States is falling behind other countries in terms of the
deployment of high-speed Internet access or broadband; in a recent issue of
Foreign Affairs, Thomas Bleha called U.S. broadband "the slowest, most
expensive and least reliable in the developed world." In contrast to
broadband heavy-hitters such as Japan, the U.S. government has allowed
political issues to muzzle the encouragement of competition and the
construction of municipal broadband networks or "community Internets." The
authors write that competition from the public sector virtually guarantees
the maintenance of quality service and reasonable prices from private
companies supplying important public services, and many policymakers
already realize that access to advanced high-speed telecommunications
services is essential to U.S. communities' future. The city of
Philadelphia has launched the construction of a city-wide wireless mesh
network to provide universal and affordable Internet access. The project
will be underwritten by $10 million to $15 million in bonds and private
investment, but such access will be blocked from the rest of the state as
part of a sweeping telecommunications bill rushed through by industry
lobbyists. The major cable and phone companies are trying to discourage
and outlaw municipal broadband by promoting basic untruths: That
municipalities do not belong in the "free market;" that municipalities are
too "lazy" or inefficient to maintain complex systems and adjust to
changing technologies; and that municipalities will muscle out more
efficient private enterprises. The FCC must reinstate broadband
competition, while opening up more "unlicensed spectrum" would make
community Internet systems less costly to implement and much faster. And
the federal government must set up checks and balances to prevent the
suppression of community Internet projects by private industry.
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