ACM TechNews - Friday, July 27, 2001

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ACM TechNews
Volume 3, Number 232
Date: July 27, 2001
Site Sponsored by Gateway (http://www.gateway.com)

Top Stories for Friday, July 27, 2001:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Technology Downturn Becomes Threat to U.S. Innovation"
"Microsoft, Red Hat Argue Open Source"
"E-Workers Hanker for Old Economy"
"31,000 Tech Jobs Slashed Globally"
"Tech Giants Targeting SEC Stock Option Rule"
"Giving Away Dot-US in an Unseemly Hurry"
"PC Groups Fail to Reboot Demand"
"Intel Expected to Unveil Tualatin Next Week"
"Call for Tougher Laws for Cyber Crime in India"
"Tech Talent Alarm Sounded"
"Congress No Haven for Hackers"
"Vendors Struggle to Get Online 'Yellow Pages' Rolling"
"Future's Big Sellers Rely on Tiny Science"
"House Committee OKs Export Act Deadline Extension"
"Does the President Care About Technology"
"The Growing Gay Workforce"
"Geeks in Ghana"
"Innovation in the Fast Lane"
"The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer?"

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

"Technology Downturn Becomes Threat to U.S. Innovation"
The third Internet Summit this week was overshadowed by a serious
lack of venture capital for technological innovations on account
of the economic downturn.  Salesforce.com Chairman Marc Benioff
expects the drought to last 18 months, throwing many companies ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item1

"Microsoft, Red Hat Argue Open Source"
Attendees at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention on Thursday
showed little patience with Microsoft's position on the open
source model.  Microsoft's Craig Mundie--who earlier this year
made a speech in which he attacked open source software and the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item2

"E-Workers Hanker for Old Economy"
A new survey by Financial Times Deutschland has found that
employees at British and German Internet startups are
disillusioned with the New Economy.  The survey of 450 employees
and managers reveals that 80 percent of staff and 50 percent of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item3

"31,000 Tech Jobs Slashed Globally"
Tech firms around the world announced a total of 31,000 cut jobs
on Thursday.  Tech industry layoffs had fallen off after peaking
in April, but analysts warn that the growing unlikelihood of a
year-end rebound will prompt firms to continue to shed workers.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item4

"Tech Giants Targeting SEC Stock Option Rule"
With its new chairman soon to be confirmed by the Senate, the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing a new rule
requiring extra disclosure on tech companies' stock option plans
for employees.  The SEC says it is nearly impossible for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item5

"Giving Away Dot-US in an Unseemly Hurry"
The U.S. Department of Commerce is moving quickly to pass control
of the .us country code top level domain to a private entity.
States, schools, public libraries, and local communities
currently use the .us domain.  The entity that gains oversight ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item6

"PC Groups Fail to Reboot Demand"
Computer companies have been caught up in falling PC sales,
resulting in disappointing second-quarter results and bleak
third-quarter forecasts.  Studies from two research firms last
week indicate that the worldwide computer market is experiencing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item7

"Intel Expected to Unveil Tualatin Next Week"
On July 30, Intel will officially debut the Tualatin chip, the
first processor to be fashioned from the 0.13-micron process.
The chip will run at higher clock speeds, operate at lower
temperatures, and consume less power than 0.18-micron models, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item8

"Call for Tougher Laws for Cyber Crime in India"
India's Information Technology Act 2000 is not doing enough to
address cybercrime and other technology issues and may need to be
supplanted by broader legislation, according to Supreme Court of
India Justice Umesh Chandra Banerjee.  Banerjee's comments, which ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item9

"Tech Talent Alarm Sounded"
Speaking at the New Democrat Network's fifth annual retreat,
Hewlett-Packard nanotechnology chief Stan Williams said Silicon
Valley is suffering from a talent shortage, a deficit that could
topple the United States' technological leadership.  At the same ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item10

"Congress No Haven for Hackers"
While programmers, technologists, and consumer advocates rail
against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), insiders
believe that they do not have much chance of changing the law.
Approved unanimously in both the House and Senate in 1998, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item11

"Vendors Struggle to Get Online 'Yellow Pages' Rolling"
Industry observers claim that several major firms have yet to
provide the necessary corporate information to the Universal
Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) database, an
online directory of businesses.  First announced in September and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item12

"Future's Big Sellers Rely on Tiny Science"
The potential scientific and commercial applications of
nanotechnology are tremendous, ranging from minuscule computer
chips with molecule-sized transistors to robust laptop batteries
that weigh far less and last much longer than lithium batteries ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item13

"House Committee OKs Export Act Deadline Extension"
A House committee on Wednesday approved a deadline extension for
the Export Administration Act (EAA).  Originally due to expire on
Aug. 20, the EAA deadline has been extended two months.  House
members say a Senate bill (S. 149) amending the export act ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item14

"Does the President Care About Technology"
President Bush continues to come under criticism from those who
say he is more concerned about oil, tax refunds, holding teachers
accountable, and faith-based programs than he is about
technology.  In fact, David Hart, a scholar of 20th century tech ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item15

"The Growing Gay Workforce"
Increasingly, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) IT
workers are pushing for equal treatment at work.  "All gay people
want is to be treated the same way--allowed to be who we are,
just as straight people are," says Philip Calderon, a program ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item16

"Geeks in Ghana"
Geekcorps, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the
digital divide around the world, recently sent a team of
volunteers to Ghana, where the World Bank reports there are only
2.5 PCs for every 1,000 residents.  Still, Ghana has a GDP of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item17

"Innovation in the Fast Lane"
Analysts and industry insiders say the market for online
applications to assist in product design and development is set
to explode in coming years.  AMR Research forecasts that the
product lifecycle management (PLM) sector will grow from $1.2 ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item18

"The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer?"
In his book, "The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer,"
Ed Yourdon argued that international rivalry would drive U.S.
programmers out of business by the end of the 1990s.  Keith
Mander, director of the University of Kent's Computing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0727f.html#item19

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