Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
New York Times (12/17/07) P. C1; Markoff, John
Microsoft executives are betting that the arrival of many-core
chips--processors with more than eight cores, which may be possible as soon
as 2010--will transform the world of personal computing, and the company is
making a major move to improve parallel computing capabilities in software.
"Microsoft is doing the right thing in trying to develop parallel
software," says veteran software designer Andrew Singer, co-founder of
parallel computing company Rapport. "They could be road kill if somebody
else figures out how to do this first." Microsoft executives believe that
finding a solution to parallel programming could end the keyboard and mouse
era of computing and allow even handheld devices to see, listen, speak, and
make complex real-world decisions, transforming computers from tools to
companions. Microsoft's Craig Mundie says parallel software will allow
computers to increasingly act as intelligent personal assistants. "My
machine overnight could process my inbox, analyze which ones were probably
the most important, but it could go a step further," Mundie says. "It
could interpret some of them, it could look at whether I've ever
corresponded with these people, it could determine the semantic context, it
could draft three possible replies." However, existing software has a ways
to go before accomplishing such tasks, and experts caution that no easy
solutions have been found yet for programming chips with multiple
processors. "Industry has basically thrown a Hail Mary," says University
of California, Berkeley computer scientist David Patterson, former ACM
president. "The whole industry is betting on parallel computing. They've
thrown it, but the big problem is catching it."
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ACM Group Honors Computer Security Experts for Innovation
and Service
AScribe Newswire (12/14/07)
ACM's Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC) has
award its top honors to the University of California, Santa Cruz's Dr.
Martin Abadi and George Mason University's Dr. Sushil Jajodia for their
work in computer security technologies. Abadi received the SIGSAC
Outstanding Innovation Award for his fundamental contributions to the
application of logic and probability to information security, while Jajodia
received the SIGSAC Outstanding Contributions Award for his research and
teaching contributions to the information security field and his service to
ACM SIGSAC and the computing community. Abadi, a Principle Researcher at
Microsoft Research, contributed to authentication in distributed computer
systems as well as the design and analysis of security protocols for
authentication. Jajodia, a former SIGSAC chair and founding
co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Computer Security, made fundamental
contributions to access control, information flow, multilevel security, and
critical infrastructure protection.
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Vote of No Confidence
Columbus Dispatch (OH) (12/15/07) Niquette, Mark
A nearly $2 million review of Ohio's voting systems found "critical
security failures" across the board, prompting Democratic Secretary of
State Jennifer Brunner to propose a sweeping replacement of electronic
touch-screens and optical-scan systems with a system that uses a paper
ballot scanned at a central site. Her proposal also involves the
elimination of voting in neighborhood precincts in favor of large "vote
centers" where voters from five to 10 precincts would cast their ballots,
with voting beginning 15 days prior to an election. The review determined
that vote results could be compromised with "fairly simple techniques,"
while county elections officials chosen to review the part of the study by
a group of academic experts reported that the findings are "generally based
on pure supposition and bias." Brunner counters that the systems fail to
meet minimum industry standards for computer security, and admits that
making significant changes before Ohio's March 4 primary in all but one
county is unlikely. However, she wants the statewide revamping complete by
the next presidential election, and Peg Rosenfeld with the League of Women
Voters of Ohio agrees that the state must make an overhaul. The
voting-system vendors whose products are used in Ohio released statements
insisting that their devices are reliable and accurate. Brunner's proposal
faces the scrutiny of a Republican-led legislature, while Ohio State
University law professor Dan Tokaji argues that her plan will create more
problems than it solves.
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WSU Student Puts People in Touch With Virtual
Reality
Columbian (WA) (12/17/07) Andersen, Michael
Washington State University Vancouver graduate student Randy Bullion has
developed a $4,000 metal glove that can give virtual reality users the
sensation of touching and manipulating real-world objects. The glove could
potentially be used to teach new, difficult, and sensitive procedures to
medical students, astronauts, engineers, and other highly-skilled
professionals without risking damage to actual people or equipment. "When
you reach out in the virtual environment and grab the virtual object, you
feel like it is actually in your hand," says Hakan Gurocak, chair of the
school's engineering and computer science department. The glove uses
magnetoreaolgical fluid, a gray semi-liquid used in race cars that is
packed with microscopic shards of iron that allows the substance to change
its consistency in the presence of a magnetic field. Gurocak says the
glove could eliminate the need for expensive prototyping. He says the
world is desperate for new ways to merge human bodies and electronics. "We
are surrounded by computers in every place we go, in everything we do,"
Gurocak says. "If we had a better way of interacting with computers, I
think that would open up many, many possibilities."
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Wikipedia Competitor Being Tested By Google
New York Times (12/15/07) P. B3; Helft, Miguel
Google is testing Knol, a new Web service that would be a repository of
knowledge from experts on various topics, potentially competing with
Wikipedia and other sites as Google attempts to transform from simply a
search engine to a company that helps create and publish Web content.
However, critics say the transformation could compromise Google's
objectivity in presenting search engine results. Knol would allow people
to create Web pages on any topic, and is designed to include features to
allow readers to submit comments, rate pages, and suggest changes. Unlike
Wikipedia, which allows anyone to edit a page, only the page's original
author would be allowed to make changes to Knol pages, and different
authors could have competing pages on the same topic. Google says the
purpose of Knol is to bring attention to authors who have expertise on a
particular topic. "Somehow the Web evolved without a strong standard to
keep authors' names highlighted," says Google's Udi Manber. "We believe
that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use
of Web content." Manber says Google believes that many people with
extensive knowledge on certain topics do not publish on the Web because the
process is not simple enough. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says that Knol
would not be a competitor for Wikipedia as it would create multiple,
opinionated articles that encourage open debate on a subject, whereas
Wikipedia is intended to be objective and offer a single article for each
topic. Wikipedia is also a non-profit organization, while Knol sites could
have ads and authors might receive revenue from their pages. Google notes
that Knol is currently only an experiment and may never become open to the
public.
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Expandable Silicon
Technology Review (12/14/07) Bullis, Kevin
More affordable solar panels, sensor networks, and flat-screen TVs could
be created with new, expandable silicon-based chips developed by Stanford
University researchers. The chips are comprised of free-floating islands
of silicon enclosed by coils of silicon wire, which unwind and spread the
islands out when the corners of the chips are pulled. The research is
"taking the integrated circuit concept that has been so successful in
microelectronics and adapting it to large-area applications," notes MIT
professor Marc Baldo. The chips could be fabricated to expand thousands or
even tens of thousands of times, according to Stanford electrical
engineering professor Peter Peumans. This would significantly reduce the
cost of flat-screen TVs, to name one example, because entire displays would
not have to be coated with high-grade silicon. Instead, just a small
amount of silicon would be necessary with the expandable chips, and the
transistors are already wired together. The biggest challenge in Peumans'
project was showing that the coils surrounding the silicon islands were
strong enough to maintain their connection as they unwind, and Peumans
demonstrated a treatment that bolstered the coils' strength. Peumans is
collaborating with Boeing to create sensor networks for aircraft in which
high-performance, silicon-based transistors are distributed between layers
of composite materials in order to monitor the materials' integrity so that
problems could be spotted earlier and downtime for inspections could be
reduced.
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Brain-Computer Link Systems on the Brink of Breakthrough,
Study Finds
University of Southern California (12/12/07) Mankin, Eric
Systems that directly connect silicon circuits to brains are under
development all over the world, and some are nearly ready for commercial
applications, reveals a new report from the World Technology Evaluation
Center. The report, "International Assessment of Research and Development
in Brain-Computer Interfaces," was compiled by an eight-member committee
led by University of Southern California neurobiologist Theodore W. Berger.
The report says that brain-computer interface (BCI) research is extensive
and rapidly expanding, as is research in the interfaces between multiple
key scientific areas, such as biomedical engineering, neuroscience,
computer science, electrical and computer engineering, materials science
and nanotechnology, and neurology and neurosurgery. The report also found
that BCI research is quickly approaching first-generation medical practice,
including clinical trials of invasive BCI technology and widespread home
use of noninvasive, electroencephalography BCIs. The committee believes
that BCIs will soon have significant impact in the medical device industry
and additional BCI research will rapidly accelerate in non-medical areas,
particularly in the gaming, automotive, and robotics industries. Lastly,
the report says the focus of BCI research is uneven throughout the world,
with invasive BCI research taking place almost exclusively in North America
and noninvasive research primarily being done in Europe and Asia. The
committee found that BCI research in Europe and Japan is much more closely
tied to industry compared to the United States.
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Reversible Data Transfers From Light to Sound
Duke University News & Communications (12/14/07) Basgall, Monte
Duke University researchers have demonstrated how to transfer encoded
information from a laser beam to sound waves and back into light waves
again, a major step toward designing super-fast optical communications
networks. The ability to change data between media would allow information
to be captured and retained for very brief intervals. "The real gist of
the work is how to create a memory for optical pulses," says Duke physics
professor Daniel Gauthier. So far, the use of light for transferring
information has been hindered by an inability to store data. "We don't
have random access memories for light the way electronic computers do,"
says Gauthier. A new method, proposed by Gauthier's postdoctoral research
associate Zhaoming Zhu, uses a phenomenon called "stimulated Brillouin
scattering" in which two opposing laser beams pass through each other along
an optical fiber, creating acoustic vibrations known as phonons within the
glass. If one of the lasers is encoded with information the data can be
imprinted on newly-created phonons. The phonons are too high pitched for
humans to hear and are capable of retaining the data for as long as 12
billionths of a second. "While short by human standards, 12 billionths of
a second is long in comparison of the time scales used in optical data
transmission," says study co-author and University of Rochester professor
Robert Boyd. The information can then be re-transferred from sound to
light by shining a third laser through the fiber. The researchers suggest
that other kinds of fiber-optic materials might yield more long-lasting
results.
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C++ Inventor on Factors That Make for Great Technology
Innovation
SYS-CON (12/14/07) Zaciri, Roberto V.
Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ programming language, says the type
of research you do is affected by the area you live in. Stroustrup says he
left Denmark to pursue fields that interested him as the opportunity for
such study was not available. "For me as a young researcher, the quality
of my colleagues dominated my choices. Denmark is one of the very best
places in the world to live, but it did not have people like Maurice
Wilkes, David Wheeler, and Roger Needham with an established organization
complete with great students," Stroustrup says. "Importantly, all the
people I listed and the many more that I couldn't mention without becoming
tedious, are not just great technical people, but also real
three-dimensional people with a wide variety of non-technical interests."
Stroustrup says the people he could work with trumped the location of the
work. "Every great place I have visited had--at least during the early
years--a nucleus of really exceptional people. You need someone completely
off the scale to get started," he says. "Later, merely good people can
sustain an institution until the next great people come along.
Organizations that foster innovation seem to have people who inspire and to
leave ample time and space for younger talent to thrive and explore
unexpected areas."
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Enlisting Computers to Help Fight Wildfires
New York Times (12/15/07) P. A14; Johnson, Kirk
United States Geological Survey scientist Michael E. Hutt is running a
one-of-a-kind computer modeling project to help land managers, community
leaders, and the public analyze wild-fire risk and assess options. The
computer modeling is helping answer such questions as what if a fire breaks
out on a certain slope, how many homes are within one mile? What is the
expected chemical signature of the ash and smoke, and what evacuation
routes should be taken, or ruled out, based on predictions of the fire's
movement, weather, and other variables? The research is being conducted in
Grand County, Colo., a prime location to see what fire science can achieve
before a fire occurs. Grand County is home to an increasing number of
residents, much of the forest is dead due to mountain pine beetles, and
about three million people in the Denver area depend on a Grand County
reservoir, with millions more depending on the Colorado River. The forest
in Grand County is due to catch fire as some places have not burned for 500
years or more. Computer modeling of fires could help firefighters deploy
resources, particularly if fires are burning in several states. Decision
makers could rank fires in importance according to the drift of smoke and
potential impact on homes, businesses, water, and wildlife. This year
wildfires burned more than 8.9 million acres, including more than 1 million
in California and almost 2 million in Idaho, the second-highest year for
total acres burned since the current system of measurement began in 1960.
With more people building homes closer to national forests and parks,
making fire models open to the public is important as clearing brush and
building homes with metal roofs are often the best defense.
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Green Technology Revolution, Part 1: Gaining
Momentum
TechNewsWorld (12/12/07) Burger, Andrew K.
A growing number of IT companies in all areas of the industry are working
to go "green." The long-term reliance on toxic materials offers
significant potential for the IT industry to make a huge difference in the
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. For
example, chip fabricators and high-tech corporate parks are now using
electricity from photovoltaic cells, hydrogen fuel cells, and biogas
generators, and data centers are deploying virtualization and new heating
and cooling systems to reduce electricity usage, reduce emissions, and save
space. E-waste recycling efforts have also taken off through equipment
take-back campaigns, while reuse recycling programs are helping to reduce
the massive amount of e-waste that can contribute to toxic hotspots. Often
economic competition and environmental concerns are in direct opposition to
each other, but a combination of factors, including new, better technology
and rising fuel costs, has made energy efficiency an economic priority.
"Green technologies are becoming very hot, especially in the West and
migrating to the East as well," says Mareca Hatler, director of research at
ON World. "Many global companies view green initiatives as necessary to
stay competitive today, which is quite a change from the philosophical
viewpoints from a decade ago."
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Cyber Security Should Be Personal Priority for All
Leaders
Government Technology (12/13/07)
Cyber security must become a top concern for CEOs, according to a new
report from the British-North American Committee and the Atlantic Council
of the United States. CEOs who fail to prioritize cyber security leave
their companies vulnerable to industrial espionage, as illustrated by the
recent cyber attacks on Royal Dutch Shell, Rolls-Royce, and other large
companies. "As enterprise on the Internet has become more sophisticated,
so have cyber criminals," says ICANN President Paul Twomey, one of the
report's authors. "The message of this report is clear--senior government
figures and leaders of corporations need to make cyber security a personal
priority." The report, "Cyber Attack: A Risk Management Primer for CEOs
and Directors," describes information security threats and common data
security mistakes. The report also offers suggestions for controlling
cyber security risks, such as developing a wide-ranging information
security policy to be carried out by senior management. Conducting an
enterprise-wide security audit, regularly testing security measures, and
staying current on security best practices are other recommendations
advanced in the report. "Much work is needed to increase the security of
the Internet and its connected computers and to make the environment more
reliable for everyone," warned former ICANN president Vint Cerf in the
report. "Security is a mesh of actions and features and mechanisms. No
one thing makes you secure."
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Tinkering 2.0
Chronicle of Higher Education (12/14/07) Vol. 54, No. 16, P. A26; Young,
Jeffrey R.
Higher education stands to benefit from the return of tinkering in the Web
2.0 age, University of Southern California visiting scholar John Seely
Brown said during a recent event commemorating the creation of NSFNet, a
precursor of the Internet. In an interview, the former chief at the Xerox
PARC research laboratory said tinkering is key to the learning process
because it helps build an intuition of how things will turn out when
playing under the hood. Tinkering disappeared after about 1980 as devices
became cognitively impenetrable, but it returned by 1995 in the form of the
remix, mash-ups, media, and imagery. Brown said the Internet enables
access to all kinds of tools to take tinkering to a new level. He said
tinkering has the potential to invert the process of learning, since people
can now find communities online where they can learn the sensibilities and
practices that are key to their particular interest. He cited MIT's
OpenCourseWare as an example of what some colleges are doing to encourage
tinkering.
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Social Networking and the Medici Effect
Government Computer News (12/10/07) Vol. 26, No. 30, Niemann, Brand
Project 10x's Mills Davis believes the popular social networking sites of
today will pale in comparison to the way in which users connect knowledge
via Web 3.0 and connect intelligence via Web 4.0 in the next 25 years,
writes Brand Niemann, co-chairman of the Semantic Interoperability
Community of Practice. Niemann says the best minds will continue to
collaborate to push innovation to new heights, while government computing
will make the transition from a vertical hierarchy to a horizontal service
system that allows employees to find their own work similar to the way
employees are being encouraged at leading companies. At the Mid-Atlantic
Regional Planning Roundtable in November, participants assessed smart
growth for Web 2.0 and offered plans for the future. The Internet and the
adoption of World Wide Web standards, protocols, and activities have been
the key technological developments involving the government over the past
25 years. Government workers will rely even more on the Internet and Web
technologies to serve citizens in the years to come, Niemann says.
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Getting Serious
Economist Technology Quarterly (12/07) Vol. 385, No. 8558, P. 3
The application of computer-game technologies and virtual environments to
real-world business challenges was the subject of a September conference at
England's Coventry University, and businesses, the military, academics, and
health care providers are considering the use of virtual worlds as
training, management, and collaboration tools. Director of Coventry's
Serious Games Institute David Wortley says these applications differ from
video games in one critical respect--their outcomes are serious and
concrete. PIXELearning, for instance, has devised a role-playing simulator
that can train fresh university graduates who are interning at a major
international accounting firm by facilitating learning via interaction with
simulated clients. Virtual environments' rise in popularity has been
accompanied by an increase in the risk of litigation, as virtual goods and
services can be bought and sold for actual currency, encouraging the
establishment of dedicated trading platforms. The U.S., Australian, and
British governments have said they are considering a new tax on real-world
profits from virtual trade, which has provoked outrage from virtual world
enthusiasts and experts. There are also concerns that bad behavior in
virtual worlds can encourage bad behavior in real life, especially when
participants enjoy "anonymity along with a lack of social recourse" in such
environments, according to Trinity Ventures venture capitalist Gus Tai.
Some companies that operate virtual worlds are attempting to regulate them
to control deviant or undesirable behavior.
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