ACM TechNews - Friday, August 31, 2001

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ACM TechNews
Volume 3, Number 247
Date: August 31, 2001
Site Sponsored by Gateway (http://www.gateway.com)

Top Stories for Friday, August 31, 2001:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Brussels' Microsoft Probe Moves Closer to U.S."
"Keep Digital Copyright Law Intact, Agency Says"
"Russians Deem Arrest Insult to Their Industry"
"What Tech Wreck? Many IT Workers See Bigger Payday"
"Germany Wants IT From U.S."
"Law Enforcers Report Spike in Cybercrime"
"California E-Mail Privacy Bill Clears Legislature"
"Internet Body Debates Membership, New Web Addresses"
"Rallying Cry in Open-Source War"
"It's Still a Plain Gray Box, but the Innards Are Changing"
"Programming a Way Out of Poverty"
"Study Recommends Retooled ICANN Governance Structure"
"'Specialist or Generalist?' May Not Be the Question"
"Delhi Children Make Play of the Net"
"Programmers to Encode Human Behavior"
"Justice Bans Foreign Nationals From Its Info Tech Work"
"Linux Breaking Out in Clusters"
"Reinventing the Internet"
"Will Computers Rule the World?"

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

"Brussels' Microsoft Probe Moves Closer to U.S."
American and European antitrust investigations of Microsoft are
beginning to dovetail.  The European Commission has put forth
allegations that Microsoft illegally tied its Media Player
software into the Windows operating system, an expansion of an ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item1

"Keep Digital Copyright Law Intact, Agency Says"
Officials at the U.S. Copyright Office have issued their findings
as to whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) needs to be
amended, just three years after its issuance.  The report,
requested by Congress, says there is no need to drastically ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item2

"Russians Deem Arrest Insult to Their Industry"
Russian computer programmers are taking offense at the arrest of
fellow programmer Dmitri Sklyarov, who was detained for allegedly
trafficking in e-book decryption software that ran counter to
U.S. law.  The anger stems from feelings that Sklyarov is being ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item3

"What Tech Wreck? Many IT Workers See Bigger Payday"
In its 15th annual salary survey, Computerworld magazine
estimates that the growth rate of IT salaries exceeds that of the
national average, despite the deluge of firings brought on by the
economic downturn.  Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item4

"Germany Wants IT From U.S."
The Stuttgart Region Economic Development Cooperation launched a
campaign to bring German information technology workers in the
U.S. back home.  The Move-Back.com campaign is sponsored by
Porsche, Bosch, and other corporations, as well as the local ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item5

"Law Enforcers Report Spike in Cybercrime"
Cybercrime units in high-tech areas of the United States,
including Silicon Valley, Boston, and Austin, are reporting an
increase in incidents of hacking, theft of trade secrets and
hardware, and other computer crimes.  Last year, a poll of 273 ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item6

"California E-Mail Privacy Bill Clears Legislature"
An email privacy bill sponsored by California Sen. Debra Bowen is
ready to be sent to the desk of Gov. Gray Davis (D).  The
California State Assembly passed the bill by a 43-22 vote, but
there is no word yet whether Davis intends to sign the bill into ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item7

"Internet Body Debates Membership, New Web Addresses"
ICANN will consider whether to grant domain name owners the power
to elect up to six ICANN board members at its upcoming meeting in
Uruguay, with the goal of increasing user input at ICANN, a topic
that ICANN CEO Stuart Lynn says will be atop the agenda.  The ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item8

"Rallying Cry in Open-Source War"
Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School professor, spoke recently at
the LinuxWorld Conference about the dangers of copyright and
patent law to innovation.  He said that large companies were
using their resources in Congress and the courts to stifle ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item9

"It's Still a Plain Gray Box, but the Innards Are Changing"
Computer processors may be gaining in speed, but the Peripheral
Component Interconnect (PCI) standard has fallen behind,
resulting in inefficient data flow.  To solve this problem, a
major overhaul of the standard, its first in nearly 10 years, is ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item10

"Programming a Way Out of Poverty"
Students of Mission High School in the urban area of San
Francisco are learning computing skills that will help them land
good jobs upon graduation.  The Multicultural Foundation for
Technology and Science at the school is an effort to teach ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item11

"Study Recommends Retooled ICANN Governance Structure"
The ICANN At-Large Study Committee has issued a draft of its
reform report that recommends ICANN create an internal group to
represent Internet users.  The new group would function like
ICANN's three other internal groups, which filter recommendations ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item12

"'Specialist or Generalist?' May Not Be the Question"
Whether information technology workers have a better chance of
retaining their jobs from gaining specialist skills or developing
a wider background that can be applied to multiple areas is a
matter of debate, but some researchers say intangible skills, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item13

"Delhi Children Make Play of the Net"
Sugata Mitra of India-based software company NIIT wanted to see
what role computers could play in educating the illiterate
members of India's society, so in a study funded by the World
Bank, the Indian government, and local institutions, Mitra ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item14

"Programmers to Encode Human Behavior"
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards (OASIS) is outlining HumanMarkup Language (HumanML), a
set of standards culled from around the world that would allow
software programmers to encode non-verbal communications into ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item15

"Justice Bans Foreign Nationals From Its Info Tech Work"
The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) wants to
meet with representatives of the U.S. Justice Department
regarding its decision to ban foreign nationals from working on
the agency's IT systems.  In a mid-July order, the Justice ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item16

"Linux Breaking Out in Clusters"
More mission-critical Linux-based applications were deployed in
2000 than in 1999, according to an IDC survey.  The continued
maturation of the Linux operating system and its use in the
corporate world depends on the open-source community working to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item17

"Reinventing the Internet"
The federal government is not doing enough to make the United
States the leader in e-commerce, according to Robert E. Kahn,
chairman of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
In an interview with Computerworld, Kahn says the government ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item18

"Will Computers Rule the World?"
Virtual reality creator Jaron Lanier, in his essay "One-Half of a
Manifesto," is concerned about "cybernetic totalism," an
unshakeable faith in technology and its power to transform the
human race.  Cybernetic totalists believe that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/0831f.html#item19

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