More E-Voting Concerns Surface With State Primaries
Underway
The NewStandard (05/17/06) Komp, Catherine
State and local officials are increasingly joining voting-rights groups in
questioning the security of e-voting systems, particularly since the recent
discovery of a serious flaw in one of Diebold's touch-screen machines. The
vulnerability comes from a feature that Diebold included to enable the
machines to install software updates with ease, though security experts
warn that the same feature could be exploited by anyone with a basic
knowledge of the system who wanted to install software that could
manipulate votes. Election officials have turned to the security community
for independent analysis when Diebold's responses to their concerns have
been unsatisfactory. "They just don't get it," said Michael Shamos,
professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. "We've had
many, many discussions. In fact, if you look at their public statements
they've made in light of this revelation, it shows that they still don't
get it." Diebold argues that tampering with the machines would require the
involvement of a malicious election official, a possibility which the
company discounts. Only California, Iowa, and Pennsylvania have addressed
the Diebold problem so far, though many state use the systems. In Iowa,
Deputy Secretary of State John Hedgecoth ordered election officials to run
a final software upgrade and seal the machine with a memory card inside
immediately prior to the upcoming election. "So we are controlling both
the software in the field with a final version that is decided upon by our
elections division, and then we're securing the memory card against
tampering on Election Day," Hedgecoth said. As concerns about e-voting
systems in general have reached a fever pitch, voters in Arizona have filed
a lawsuit to block the state from purchasing systems that "are not
trustworthy or transparent," following similar suits filed in California,
New York, and New Mexico. For information on ACM's e-voting activities,
visit
http://www.acm.org/usacm
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Nominee Says N.S.A. Stayed Within Law on Wiretaps
New York Times (05/19/06) P. A20; Lichtblau, Eric
Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President Bush's nominee for CIA director, told a
panel of senators at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that the
National Security Agency (NSA) did not exceed the bounds of the law in
carrying out secret wiretaps on international phone calls and email of
Americans without warrants, as authorized by the president shortly after
9/11. Democratic senators bluntly questioned Hayden about the
surveillance's legality and whether he had deceived Congress and the public
about the program. Hayden referred to the program's legal and
constitutional authority, and the need to keep its operations clandestine
as being paramount to its effectiveness. He also mentioned his discussions
with NSA lawyers about the program's legal viability under the president's
authority as commander in chief under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
According to Hayden, the lawyers "were very comfortable with the Article II
arguments and the president's inherent authorities." However, he confessed
his ignorance of the Justice Department's official opinion establishing the
legal motivation for the program, and admitted his inability to recount any
significant discussion about the congressional authorization in 2001 to
apply all necessary force against Al Qaeda, which the White House now
claims helped legally empower it to authorize the surveillance program.
Hayden acknowledged that there was substantive talk within the Bush
administration, and between the NSA and the White House, about carrying out
the operation.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Free Registration
to the top
Searching for the Soul in the Machine
IST Results (05/18/06)
Five European research groups are collaborating on the NEW TIES project to
develop an immersive computing environment filled with millions of
self-evolving software agents. Research in social learning has lagged
behind individual and machine learning, according to project coordinator
Gusz Eiben. The project will include researchers from various disciplines
who will focus on different aspects of the agents' behavior. "For the
linguists and sociologists, the main motivation is to study existing
processes in societies and languages," Eiben said. "The computer
scientists on the other hand want to develop and study machine
collaboration, with an eye on future applications in robotics...Obviously,
it will be important for them to be able to cooperate with each other."
The project's twin goals are to observe natural processes and to further
the creation of collective artificial intelligence. The NEW TIES engine
will soon run on a grid of 60 computers, supporting about 1,000 agents at
first, though eventually it will support millions. Each agent will have a
unique identity, complete with a gender, life expectancy, metabolism, size,
and fertility. Parents will pass those traits to their offspring, and
agents will be able to learn from each other's experiences. "It's a given
of the NEW TIES project that we are not hardwiring agents," said Eiben,
adding that the research is designed to see how the agents learn and adapt
on their own to various challenges, such as changing seasons and threats
from enemy groups. Beyond a native vocabulary with a few simple words, the
agents will have to develop their own methods of communication. Eiben says
the researchers are almost ready to begin the experiment, though he hopes
to scale up to 5,000 computers before the project concludes in August
2007.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Academia Welcomes New Thinking on Foreign Researchers and
National Security
ResearchResearch (05/17/06)
The academic research community is happy that the Department of Commerce
intends to delay proposed alterations to alleged "deemed export" rules,
regulations that oversee and limit foreign researchers who work with
sensitive items. The department will instead announce in the near future
the establishment of an advisory panel to recommend ways of balancing
national security with research and higher education interests.
Association of American Universities Interim President John Vaughn said
that the initial IG suggestions would have delayed research and would have
sent the message that leading global talent was not welcome. Vaughn
stressed his association's stance that exemption from deemed export
regulations for basic research should stay intact and that the exemption
must also apply to the tools and technologies vital to the conduct of the
research. Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University President Jarod Cohon said
that it is crucial that any limits on fundamental research done in
America's universities by foreign national be carefully reviewed as their
contributions keep promoting the nation's economic well-being. In
addition, the Computer Research Association stated in its blog that the
department's decision is "a nice win for the science community."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Computing, Connecting, Competing: Microsoft Looks
Ahead
Washington Post (05/19/06) P. D1; Goo, Sara Kehaulani
As head of Microsoft's five research labs, senior vice president of
research Richard Rashid is tasked with thinking into the future to come up
with ways computers cans influence society. In this interview, Rashid
points to quickly increasing storage capacities as affording many new
opportunities. At Microsoft's research lab in Cambridge, England, a
researcher has developed a device that Rashid refers to as a "black box for
a human being" that literally just takes pictures. Combined with the vast
storage capacity now available for computers, such a device could be used
by the medical profession to boost the cognizance of someone whose memory
is flagging. Rashid also points to the increasing mobility of computers
made possible by expanding wireless networks that enable cell phones to be
converted into data sources that could one day be used to collect
information on the environment surrounding users. Rashid is an avid fan of
gadgets himself. "When I buy a gadget, whatever function it performs, it
should have all the things I care about," he says. It's "the notion that
your game console, your PC and your cell phone now all can have the same
information. That's not where we are--we're far from it. But that's where
we can go." Summing up, Rashid says computing technology will play an
integral part in the future, as it does now, in man's inherent need for
social contact.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Free Registration
to the top
Gamers Help the Blind Get the Picture
New Scientist (05/16/06) Marks, Paul
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have devised an online game whose
aim is to find ways to make Web sites more accessible to blind people, who
are often unable to learn the contents of images placed online. The game,
"Phetch," seeks to encourage Web users to generate better captions for
online images. Playable online at peekaboom.org/phetch/ by groups of three
to five people, the game assigns the role of "describer" to one person
while the rest become "seekers." The describer is shown a randomly chosen
Web-site image and has to write a short paragraph to describe it, and then
the seekers use search engines to try to find the right image. "We hope to
collect captains for every image on the Web", said Phetch team member Shiry
Ginosar, although she concedes that it may be difficult to get Web
designers around the world to use the better captions. CMU researchers
previously had developed a game called "Peekaboom" designed to improve
image recognition algorithms by having one player try to guess an image
using only the clues given by another user. The game aids computers
identify images because players will focus on the most important part of
images first when describing them.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Some Seeking More Visas for Skilled Foreign
Workers
San Antonio Express-News (TX) (05/18/06) Lorek, L.A.
Technology companies say they will need to hire more foreign workers in
order to meet the demands of the marketplace in the years to come.
According to the Labor Department, 2 million jobs will be available in
computer science, mathematics, engineering, and physical sciences in the
United States by 2012. As a result, the industry is pressing lawmakers on
Capitol Hill to expand the H-1B visa policy, which would allow more highly
skilled tech workers from overseas to stay in the United States. Earlier
in the month, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced the "Securing
Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006" in an effort to raise the
cap on the H-1B visa program to 115,000, and exempt professionals who hold
advanced degrees from U.S. universities. "A crucial part of our growing
economy is our ability to innovate," says Cornyn, chairman of the
Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee. "This bill
would help cultivate a system that ensures these talented people--and their
jobs--remain here." The current cap stands at 65,000, but up to 195,000
skilled foreign workers were able to obtain H-1B visas from 2001 to 2003.
Though SAS Chief Executive Jim Goodnight says tech companies have had to
outsource work to India and China because of the current limit, unemployed
tech workers maintain that employers are using the H-1B visa program to
hire cheaper labor.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Free Registration
to the top
Female Tech Researchers Are No Drop-Outs
Silicon Republic (05/17/06) Larkin, Elaine
Women studying subjects such as science, engineering, and technology are
less likely to drop out than their counterparts in humanities and social
sciences, according to the report on Women in Science and Technology
(WiST)--The Business Perspective. Presented at a conference in Vienna this
week, the report found that women and men have the same drop-out rate in
science and engineering. "This means that the number of women entering
science and technology education is relatively low compared to other areas
but within the academic setting the pipeline does not leak as much in the
hard sciences as it does in the social sciences and the humanities," says
the report. Women are not pursuing studies in science and technology in
larger numbers because they do not want to work in isolation or in
environments that are overly male, the study suggests. They are also
looking for professions that can accommodate their desire to have a life
away from their job. The Austrian EU Presidency and the European
Commission organized the conference, which is aimed at boosting the number
of women in the science and technology industry. "If we don't create a
fairer system where we all can participate equally we lock out a huge pool
of talent and potential that we just can't afford to lose," said Janez
Potocnik, European Science and Research Commissioner. For information on
ACM's Committee on Women and Computing, visit
http://women.acm.org
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
NCWIT/NSF Town Hall: IT Innovation and the Role of
Diversity
Black Engineer (05/17/06) Deen, Lango
U.S. corporations are sabotaging themselves by ignoring a large chunk of
the talent pool, according to the National Center for Women & Information
Technology (NCWIT), a growing coalition of corporations, government
agencies, universities, and nonprofits advocating a more representative
workforce. NCWIT founder and CEO Lucinda Sanders and University of Oregon
computer science professor Jan Cuny shared their thoughts on the
relationship between diversity and competitiveness in a recent interview.
Cuny also heads the NSF's Broadening Participation in Computing Initiative,
which recently partnered with the NCWIT to launch an Innovation Town Hall
meeting at the National Academy of Engineering. NCWIT has formed an
alliance of academic institutions focused on attracting more women to IT
and faculty advancement. Cuny argues that the key to advancing women and
minorities in IT is collaboration, and that the various organizations
promoting participation among women, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other
groups must coordinate their efforts with each other. Women often suffer
from a confidence problem when competing with men in a professional
setting, Sanders says, also noting the conflict between work and family,
though she admits that many corporations are restructuring IT careers to
make them more flexible and conducive to women with families. While the
number of students pursuing degrees in computing has gone down dramatically
in recently, Sanders eschews the myth that computing is an ailing
profession, citing the recent ACM study on offshoring that found that there
are more tech jobs today than at the height of the dot-com boom.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Super High-Def Video: Eyes Open Wide for Tech on the
Way
Seattle Times (05/17/06) Dudley, Brier
Supercomputing researcher Larry Smarr wowed technology investors and
entrepreneurs with a demonstration of an advanced digital theater during
the Future in Review (FiRe) conference this week. Those who attended the
conference were able to look at ultra-high resolution screens and a
wall-size virtual-reality display as part of the tour of the California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology facility, a
joint venture between the San Diego and Irvine campuses of the University
of California. Smarr described the realistic videoconferencing rendered
with superfast Internet connections as "telepresence." The digital theater
features the first "super-high definition" projector system in the country,
which generates images that are four times the resolution of standard
high-definition, and the cameras deliver content at 6 Gbps, compared with
1.5 Gbps for regular high-definition. The theater has access to 100 GB of
bandwidth, and its seats have a gigabit Ethernet connection and power
jacks. Smarr also demonstrated a prototype of a personal computer with a
100 million-pixel display that could be about 10 years away. The powerful
system had a cluster of 28 Linux PCs, with a 29th PC acting as a
controller, powering the stack of 55 flat-panel displays.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Free Registration
to the top
Social Dynamics in MMOGs
DocBug (05/17/2006)
The social dynamics of multiplayer games was the focus of a presentation
delivered at this year's ACM Computer Human Interaction conference.
Researchers from PARC and Stanford University offered another perspective
on the common belief that the opportunity to socialize makes multiplayer
online games more popular than single-player games. In the paper, "Alone
Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Online
Games," the researchers detail some key differences in the social
activities of MMOG players. The researchers installed /who-bots on several
World of Warcraft servers, and in observing play habits learned that gamers
do not often work together, particularly in the early stages of the game.
"WoW's subscribers, instead of playing with other people, rely on them as
an audience for their in-game performances, as an entertaining spectacle,
and as a diffuse and easily accessible source of information and chitchat,"
according to the paper. "For most, playing the game is therefore like
being 'along together'--surrounded by others, but not necessarily actively
interacting with them." The paper also notes that gamers who often play
alone tend to improve more quickly, and that core players of a guild play
regularly together and their skill levels are about the same.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Making Computers Smarter
Red Herring (05/11/06)
Scientists and researchers at IBM's annual Almaden Institute conference
agreed that computers must abandon their existing structure in favor of a
more organic model if they will ever be able to emulate human intelligence.
Rather than writing software to mimic human behavior, cognitive computing
researchers should base more of their work on neuroscience and psychology,
and the National Institute of Standards and Technology is urging academia
and industry to spend $4 billion over the next decade developing new
computing theories. "The brain isn't like a [current] computer. It's more
like an evolutionary jungle," said Gerald Edelman, a Nobel Laureate and the
director of the Neurosciences Institute. "They learn by making mistakes,
just like we do." Edelman believes the software approach to artificial
intelligence is too rigid, focusing so much on following rules that the
machines cannot learn from their errors. Meanwhile, researchers at
Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have used IBM
and SGI supercomputers to generate artificial neurons and synapses. Other
research is closer to the market. Robert Hecht-Nielsen, director of the
confabulation laboratory at the University of California, San Diego,
demonstrated Chancellor, a cat food dispenser powered by technology that
enables it to predict language and communicate with pet owners about buying
more food. A more distant project is developing a device that functions as
a form of neural prosthesis for patients whose hippocampus has been damaged
to the point where their cognitive or functional brain capacity are
impaired. "The hippocampus acts like a set of parallel processors," said
Ted Berger of the University of Southern California.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Scientific Publication Honors Purdue Professor for
Research
Purdue Exponent (05/17/06) Israel, Sheryl
Purdue University School of Industrial Engineering professor Gavriel
Salvendy has been honored in the field of ergonomics and human factors by
the scientific publication Ergonomia for his studies of the interactions
between humans and computers and the effective use of new technology.
Salvendy's work has focused on making it simpler for users to search and
retrieve data on computers. "It used to be really difficult to find
information on the computer," says Salvendy. "I develop methods for more
effectively selecting and training personnel, dealing with stress
management at work, enhancing productivity and designing computers for ease
of use." According to the professor, computers should be designed "so that
all of society can get information easily."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Doing Something About the Lack of Women in IT
Network World (05/17/06)
The Students and Technology in Academia, Research and Service Alliance of
10 universities has received a $2 million National Science Foundation grant
to diversify the IT workforce in the United States by encouraging women,
minorities, and the disabled to participate. Florida State University
research associate Anthony Chow says there could be as many as 1.5 million
new IT jobs in six years, while a declining number of available foreign IT
professionals will create a shortfall unless more students are lured into
the IT field. The consortium plans to promote the "coolness" of the
profession using Web and print ads, mentors, and student word of mouth to
increase interest in computer science and boost its diversity.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Politicos Propose New Action on Net Neutrality
CNet (05/18/06) Broache, Anne
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released
a five-page bill that would embed new provisions requiring so-called
network neutrality in current federal antitrust laws. The bill was created
to give Internet users an insurance policy if they are harmed by broadband
network operators who discriminate against content and service providers.
The bill is being endorsed by Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner
(R-Wis.), Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rick
Boucher (D-Va.), and musician Moby. The fact that 98 percent of Americans
only have two choices for broadband service is evidence that an antitrust
solution is needed, according to Sensenbrenner. The bill would make it
illegal under antitrust law for network operators to charge fees or not
provide their services on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms." It
would also stop broadband providers from blocking, impairing, or degrading
sites or services. The net neutrality issue has become a controversial
topic recently. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says if Congress does not
try and protect Net neutrality, a lot of people may not be able to access
the Internet. Some of the world's biggest hardware makers recently sent a
letter to Congress speaking out against new Net neutrality laws.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Cyber Threats to U.S. Business Grow More Dangerous
Reuters (05/14/06) Rothstein, Joel
Scott Borg, director of the Cyber Consequences Unit (CCU), says attacks on
U.S. computer networks are becoming more dangerous and could lead to the
destruction of companies or even death. The CCU, which is funded by the
Homeland Security Department, is trying to figure out how to prevent
attacks in regards to plans to cause power blackouts, plots to tamper with
pharmaceutical products, or schemes to reprogram machinery to build
dangerously defective products. "Up to now, executives and network
professionals have been worrying about what adolescents and petty criminals
have been doing," said Borg. "They need to start worrying about what
grown-ups could do." Some potential attacks may include shutting down
computer systems for several days, changing specifications at automobile
plants that may cause cars to explode, and tampering with medical data.
The CCU uses its resources to figure out how technology can be used to harm
the United States by holding cybersecurity classes for U.S. companies, and
investigating attacks on computer systems. After consulting with banks,
manufacturers, and other industries, the CCU created a security checklist
for companies that identifies 16 potential methods of attack.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
'Mashup' Websites Are a Hacker's Dream Come True
New Scientist (05/13/06) Vol. 190, No. 2551, P. 28; Marks, Paul
The proliferation of mashup sites could present a major security threat,
warned some participants at last month's Computer-Human Interaction
conference in Montreal, Canada. Mashups, or Web applications that combine
information from two or more sites, are often hastily thrown together with
no guarantees of accuracy, and privacy and security concerns are sometimes
just an afterthought. Mashups have become very popular for the local
information they provide--neighborhood crime data overlaid on a Google map,
for instance--but there is nothing to stop people from using them to
collect addresses or other sensitive identifying information. Mashups have
appeared that help commuters monitor traffic and travelers map their
journeys, and new mashup sites are appearing at the rate of 10 a week.
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! have all made the application programming
interface (API) of their mapping sites freely available, recognizing that
mashup sites help broaden the footprint of their service. But mashup
creators do not take the precautions to address concerns such as data
integrity, system security, and privacy, according to Hart Rossman of
Science Applications International. "How do you know the data is real?"
Rossman asks. The owners of the sites from which mashup creators pull
their data neither know nor care that their information is being used, and
the absence of encrypted ID certificates in the exchange between the mashup
creator and the source invites the possibility that the data could be
coming from a spoofed site, Rossman warns. Mashup sites also do not have
rules governing how people's personal information can be used, and viruses
could be specifically written to attack mashup sites. A mashup worm could
follow the data back to its origin and corrupt its contents, says Rossman.
The mounting security concerns come as some mashups, particularly in the
travel sector, are growing into huge, multi-million-dollar ventures that
play an increasingly important role in people's daily lives.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
The Givers and Takers of Open Source
InformationWeek (05/15/06)No. 1089, P. 44; Babcock, Charles
The bulk of the work that goes into developing open-source software is
left to uncompensated, mostly anonymous volunteer coders, while large
companies to whom the software often plays a critical role could pull more
weight by getting their own programmers to contribute. Apache Web Server
project co-founder Brian Behlendorf partly attributes the comparatively low
levels of corporate participation in open-source development to a cultural
disparity: He says that whereas business programmers usually focus on the
bottom line to the exclusion of all else, open-source developers have a
"willingness to challenge authority, the passion to work on an interesting
problem well past the end of the workday, and the time and space to be able
to build the right solution to a problem rather than just the most
expedient." Another factor discouraging big companies from contributing to
open source is their reluctance to cede the rights to the software they
develop, as dictated by the General Public License. Open-source
hard-liners may actually welcome the large companies' overall policy of
non-involvement, as it alleviates fears that too much involvement could
degrade the quality of open-source software. Open-source coders are often
generalized into two categories: Core contributors who undertake big
projects and tend to hail from small companies, universities, government
agencies, and consulting firms; and large-company employees who are more
proficient at spotting glitches, testing code, and suggesting patches and
improvements. Many corporate open-source users obtain their software from
commercial open-source vendors, which can chill the impulse for altruism.
The blunt criticism open-source enthusiasts apply to each other's work,
which is so critical to the software's quality, is a rarity in large
companies. The potential for hobbyists to make money from their efforts is
also growing, which will complicate matters unless the profit-driven
open-source development model and the purist model can find a way to live
together.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
What's the Matter With the Information Technology
Workforce?
First Monday (05/06) Vol. 11, No. 5,Subramaniam, Manimegalai M.; Burnett,
Kathleen
The continued economic competitiveness of the United States depends on a
viable, diverse, and proficient information technology workforce (ITWF),
and ensuring the existence of such a workforce requires having IT
stakeholders agree to a common operational definition of IT work before the
workforce is classified and educational programs are developed, write
Florida State University College of Information associate professor
Kathleen Burnett and FSU doctoral candidate Manimegalai M Subramaniam.
There is currently no consensus on the definition of an IT worker, and this
is attributable to the continuously shifting parameters of the IT field due
to the constant injection of new knowledge. "A definition based solely on
job titles is problematic because it may not fully capture all IT workers
of interest and those it does capture may be performing work that is only
tangentially related to the job title itself," the authors write.
Definitions based on job descriptions, though more comprehensive, overlook
key questions, such as whether trainers of IT workers also fall under the
IT worker category. A standardized classification system will allow
assorted studies about the ITWF to be more consistent and comparable across
data systems, leading to a more accurate count of IT workers, which is
essential to developing proper intervention strategies for addressing
workforce shortages. Using an agreed upon definition of IT as the basis
for classifying the ITWF can enable the prevention of future shortages by
tapping a largely underused pool of professionals, including women,
minorities, and the disabled. "Without agreed upon operational
definitions, common language, or well-defined parameters to map the scope
of the workforce, research findings on the ITWF are practically inadequate
in supporting appropriate curricular design," the authors contend. They
propose organizing a wide-ranging convention of IT stakeholders to work out
a common definition, using wiki database software and ontology to
circumvent time and distance limitations.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
