ACM TechNews - Friday, November 2, 2001

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ACM TechNews
Volume 3, Number 272
Date: November 2, 2001
Site Sponsored by Gateway (http://www.gateway.com)

Top Stories for Friday, November 2, 2001:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Cyber-Security Bill Planned by House Committee"
"Ruling a Blow for DVD Industry"
"Berners Lee: WWW Royalties Considered Harmful"
"High-Tech Security May Get $1 Billion Boost"
"Women Impeded by Tech Downturn"
"$15.8 Billion Needed to Restore IT, Telecom After U.S. Terror
 Attacks"
"Cybernarks--Who's Hunting the Hackers?"
"Input Devices Call On a Little Muscle"
"Sony Dogs Aibo Enthusiast's Site"
"'Box' May Propel Communications in Developing Countries"
"Technology Firms Flock Back to Washington With Security Pitches"
"Contractors Told of Opportunities"
"Web Addresses Sprout New Suffixes, Needed or Not"
"Motion Sickness"
"New Grid on the Block"
"Mainframes, Cobol Still Popular"

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

"Cyber-Security Bill Planned by House Committee"
Claiming that the critical infrastructure of the United States
"has a woefully inadequate investment in computer security,"
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.)
announced that his agency is planning a bill to rectify that.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item1

"Ruling a Blow for DVD Industry"
The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose, Calif., has ruled
in favor of First Amendment rights by allowing Web sites to post
DeCSS, software that decrypts the copy-protection safeguards of
DVDs.  The court gave free speech precedence over what the DVD ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item2

"Berners Lee: WWW Royalties Considered Harmful"
Tim Berners Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, advised the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Patent Policy Working Group (PPWG) not
to adopt Web standards with royalties attached, known as the RAND
license.  Doing so would threaten to fragment the Web, he said.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item3

"High-Tech Security May Get $1 Billion Boost"
Democratic senators are developing a $20 billion economic
stimulus proposal that may allocate $1 billion for an IT fund.
The Office of Management and Budget would earmark the money for
projects that serve to boost the security of critical ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item4

"Women Impeded by Tech Downturn"
The slump in the tech sector has hit male and female
professionals hard, but women seem to be losing more, according
to a Catalyst study.  Many of the top female executives in
Silicon Valley have resigned or been laid off.   There are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item5

"$15.8 Billion Needed to Restore IT, Telecom After U.S. Terror
 Attacks"
Rebuilding the IT infrastructure destroyed at the World Trade
Center last month will cost $15.8 billion, according to research
firm Computer Economics.  Because the financial institutions
housed there are so technologically dependent, the physical ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item6

"Cybernarks--Who's Hunting the Hackers?"
Computer security experts say cyber-stakeouts are on the verge of
dying out because companies would much rather secure their
system's entry points and lock out intruders altogether.  One
reason for the unwillingness of companies to track down hackers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item7

"Input Devices Call On a Little Muscle"
Jun Rekimoto, director of Sony Computer Science Laboratories'
Interaction Laboratory, has created a wristwatch device that
users can wear to transmit computer commands through the
electrical activity of their arm muscles.  Rekimoto anticipates ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item8

"Sony Dogs Aibo Enthusiast's Site"
Sony has asked the operator of an Aibo fan site to remove
software tools he hacked from existing Sony products, which were
available for free and infringed on the company's copyrights,
according to Sony.  Aibo is the hit robotic dog that has sold ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item9

"'Box' May Propel Communications in Developing Countries"
A small wireless modem that provides simultaneous voice and data
communications may revolutionize telecommunications in developing
countries such as India, where less than 2 percent of the
population have regular access to a phone.  Although the pilot ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item10

"Technology Firms Flock Back to Washington With Security Pitches"
A host of technology firms have visited Washington in order to
hawk their products that they say will help boost national
security.  Tech firms have lost considerable influence in
Washington since the beginning of the downturn, seeing far less ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item11

"Contractors Told of Opportunities"
With the government set to add billions of dollars to its IT
budget, contractors are eager to grab a piece of the pie.  Over
700 high-tech companies attended a conference in Virginia where
government procurement officials discussed the kinds of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item12

"Web Addresses Sprout New Suffixes, Needed or Not"
With cybersquatters and speculators cornering the best domain
names in the .com space, ICANN was spurred to create seven new
TLDs to expand consumer choices, but now with the .com frenzy
receding into recent history, the demand for new TLDs has become ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item13

"Motion Sickness"
The widespread proliferation of wireless devices has opened up a
can of worms for network managers: An epidemic of wireless virus
attacks and security breaches is inevitable, according to
security experts.  "Every time there is a technology advancement, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item14

"New Grid on the Block"
There are several roadblocks to converting the Internet into a
grid network that users can turn to for their supercomputing
needs, but the potential advantages are enormous:  Companies
could engage in biotech research and development without paying ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item15

"Mainframes, Cobol Still Popular"
Older corporations or those whose forebears are older,
established firms still depend on mainframes for both critical
and major applications, according to a survey from Cutter
Consortium.  Furthermore, some companies will probably continue ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1102f.html#item16

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