ACM TechNews - Friday, February 9, 2001

[technews <technews@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the February 9, 2001 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week.  For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.

Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion
magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 3, Number 163
Date: February 9, 2001
Site Sponsored by Gateway (http://www.gateway.com)

Top Stories for Friday, February 9, 2001:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Internet Board Defends Name Choices"
"Young Tech Workers Face Crippling Injuries"
"Web Layoffs Galore, But Many Find a Net"
"Hackers Said to Cost U.S. Billions"
"An Early Test for Bush on Encryption"
"Patently Ridiculous Claims"
"The Wizard of IT"
"Europe Shines Brighter for Indian Software Exports"
"Bell Labs Cryptologist Sees Digital Signature Flaw, Fix"
"Internet Age Becomes the Dark Age"
"Program Targets Girls for Tech Careers"
"Teams Benefit From Virtual Workspaces"
"Europeans Move Closer to Internet Copyright Law"
"In Defense of Copyleft"
"A Year Later, DDoS Attacks Still a Major Web Threat"
"Small Business Staring at Digital Divide"
"Looking Ahead at the High-Tech Year"
"The Interface Revolutionary"
"Space Babies"

******************* News Stories ***********************

"Internet Board Defends Name Choices"
ICANN Chairman Vinton Cerf supports the seven new domain names
the agency approved last November, but acknowledges that ICANN
may have rejected qualified proposals in doing so.  The House
Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications conducted . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item1

"Young Tech Workers Face Crippling Injuries"
Thousands of 20- and 30-something tech workers are suffering from
debilitating repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel
syndrome and tendinitis.  Because the injuries validate an
employee's hard work, Microsoft business development manager . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item2

"Web Layoffs Galore, But Many Find a Net"
New York's Silicon Alley seems to be landing relatively softly in
the dot-com crash, some area experts report.  The second week of
February saw Barnesandnoble.com cut 350 jobs and Razorfish
announce a 400-person layoff.  Then RCN downsized the . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item3

"Hackers Said to Cost U.S. Billions"
Internet security lapses cost U.S. corporations 5.7 percent of
their annual revenue, University of California at Davis tech
economist Frank Bernhard reports.  Bernhard studied 3,000 U.S.
firms and found that they lose 6 cents of each $1 of revenue
because of hackers, which adds up to billions of dollars each . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item4

"An Early Test for Bush on Encryption"
A recent USA Today report that terrorist Osama bin Laden is using
the Internet to scramble messages for his network of operatives
may actually be the first step in a propaganda effort by the
nation's top law-enforcement officers, speculates columnist Dan . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item5

"Patently Ridiculous Claims"
British Telecom recently filed suit against Prodigy Internet for
patent fees on the World Wide Web, which the phone company says
it owns.  BT points to a patent applied for in 1976 and granted
in 1989 that specifies a network connecting computers through one . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item6

"The Wizard of IT"
Dean Kamen does not want to talk about his new invention,
known as IT, or Ginger, even though it is already generating buzz
on Wall Street, in newsrooms, and in executive offices.  The
49-year-old Kamen, who first made a name--and a small . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item7

"Europe Shines Brighter for Indian Software Exports"
Officials at several Indian software firms say Europe is growing
in importance as an export market.  From April 1999 to March
2000, North America, dominated by the United States, was the
destination for 62 percent of Indian software exports.  In the . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item8

"Bell Labs Cryptologist Sees Digital Signature Flaw, Fix"
Daniel Bleichenbacher at Bell Labs unearthed a flaw in the
Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) that could hamper the integrity
of secure online transactions and harm virtual private networks,
online shopping, and online financial transactions.  . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item9

"Internet Age Becomes the Dark Age"
Since officials in California resorted to rolling blackouts to
curb the energy crisis in that state, individuals have had to
confront the negative effects that blackouts can have on their
computer equipment.  Energy disruption can cause valuable work to . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item10

"Program Targets Girls for Tech Careers"
A new program sponsored by IBM and the National Society of
Professional Engineers will aim to generate interest in
engineering among young girls.  "Introduce a Girl to Engineering
Day" will be inaugurated on Feb. 22, the first of what will be an . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item11

"Teams Benefit From Virtual Workspaces"
Online collaborative tools are helping to develop a "third tier"
to the Internet in which professionals work together on private
extranets.  Just as email proved superior to fax machines for
one-to-one document management, new collaborative Web-based . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item12

"Europeans Move Closer to Internet Copyright Law"
The European Commission's Legal Affairs Committee has decided to
include only 4 of 197 amendments to its electronic copyright
legislation, a bill that is similar in ways to the U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act.  The committee's actions pave the way  . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item13

"In Defense of Copyleft"
Free Software Foundation founder and principal GNU Not Unix
developer Richard Stallman argued the merits of copyleft at a
legal seminar in Dublin.  Software retained under the aegis of
copyleft and the General Public License (GPL) can be run, . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item14

"A Year Later, DDoS Attacks Still a Major Web Threat"
One year after a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack
struck Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com, and several other popular Web
sites, Internet security analysts say few sites are prepared to
withstand another round of attacks.  DDoS attacks cripple Web . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item15

"Small Business Staring at Digital Divide"
Intel Chairman Andy Grove warned of a growing digital divide
between large and small U.S businesses at a recent World Affairs
Council dinner.  He said corporations with more than 100
employees have invested a significantly higher percentage of . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item16

"Looking Ahead at the High-Tech Year"
The high-tech industry should have a good year in 2001, even
though the anti-trust case against Microsoft is likely to be
dismissed, predicts columnist David Silverberg.  The software
giant is expected to return to its old ways under the Bush . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item17

"The Interface Revolutionary"
Today's computer interfaces, both Mac and Windows, are far from
what everyday users actually want, argues Jef Raskin, who created
Apple's Macintosh interface and has now written a book, "The
Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item18

"Space Babies"
Electronics engineers are designing new hardware and software
that can evolve, letting scientists push the limits of space and
deep sea exploration.  The new self-configuring machines would
mimic many of the processes found in natural organisms, but on a . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0209f.html#item19


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- To review Wednesday's issue, please visit
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0207w.html

-- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to:
http://www.acm.org/technews/

-- To unsubscribe from the ACM TechNews Early Alert Service:
Please send a separate email to listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the line

signoff technews

in the body of your message.

-- Please note that replying directly to this message does not
automatically unsubscribe you from the TechNews list.

-- To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact:
technews@xxxxxxxxxx

-- ACM may have a different email address on file for you,
so if you're unable to "unsubscribe" yourself, please direct
your request to: technews-request@xxxxxxx

We will remove your name from the TechNews list on
your behalf.

-- For help with technical problems, including problems with
leaving the list, please write to:  technews-request@xxxxxxx

----
ACM TechNews is sponsored by Gateway