ACM TechNews - Friday, December 14, 2001

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ACM TechNews
Volume 3, Number 288
Date: December 14, 2001

Top Stories for Friday, December 14, 2001:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"In Digital Copyright Case, Programmer Can Go Home"
"Silicon Valley Given Call to Arms"
"Lawmaker: Net Security Bill Will Pass This Year"
"Meet the Newest Recruits: Robots"
"Google's Gaggle of Discussions"
"Virus Experts Connect to Combat Blended Threats"
"Court Just One Venue Still Available to Punish Microsoft"
"Tech Firms Are In Position to Benefit Most From Stimulus"
"Pooh-Poohing the Purists, a Scholar Revels in Netspeak"
"Scientists Activate Neurons with Quantum Dots"
"Is Linux a Black Art?"
"At the Core of Apple's OS X"
"Hackers, Programmers "Improve" Xbox"
"Will Vietnam's Software Industry Ever Take Off?"
"Slowdown Goes On"
"NIPC Urges Heightened Attention to Domain Name Servers"
"Coming Together"
"Public Sector Job-Appeal Improves"
"Write Here, Write Now"

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

"In Digital Copyright Case, Programmer Can Go Home"
The federal government has made a deal with Russian programmer
Dmitri Sklyarov's lawyers in which he will not be prosecuted, on
the condition that he testifies against his employer, ElcomSoft.
Sklyarov was charged with violating the 1998 Digital Millennium ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item1

"Silicon Valley Given Call to Arms"
Silicon Valley firms are being urged by government officials,
security experts, and others to develop new weapons and
protective measures against terrorism.  A major cyber terrorist
attack on the U.S. infrastructure has yet to occur, but special ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item2

"Lawmaker: Net Security Bill Will Pass This Year"
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) is
confident that his Cyber Security Research and Development Act
will be approved by Congress before 2002.  Speaking at an
Information Technology Association of America conference, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item3

"Meet the Newest Recruits: Robots"
The excellent performance of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in
Kosovo and Afghanistan has rekindled interest in military robots
that could be used to reduce casualties and offer more
surveillance, even in the face of staff cutbacks.  "We're ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item4

"Google's Gaggle of Discussions"
Internet historians can now peruse through an archive of 700
million Usenet postings made available by the Google search Web
site.  Google acquired the archive from dot-com casualty
DejaNews, but angered a lot of people by shutting it out from ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item5

"Virus Experts Connect to Combat Blended Threats"
Antivirus and computer security companies are cooperating to
thwart new viruses that also carry hacker code.  Whereas viruses
used to be mostly just nuisances that propagated on the Internet,
many of the most recent and publicized ones allow hackers to take ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item6

"Court Just One Venue Still Available to Punish Microsoft"
Microsoft's deal with the federal government lacks honesty, Dan
Gillmor says, but the nine remaining states fighting against the
company in court could succeed in preventing the company from
continuing its illegal practices.  The objecting plaintiffs did ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item7

"Tech Firms Are In Position to Benefit Most From Stimulus"
High-tech companies stand to benefit a great deal from the $100
million economic stimulus bill, which would boost demand for
computers and other capital equipment through an "accelerated
depreciation" scheme organized by the Information Technology ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item8

"Pooh-Poohing the Purists, a Scholar Revels in Netspeak"
In his book, "Language and the Internet," Dr. David Crystal
argues that the Web is actually enriching rather than degrading
language.  Indeed, he calls it "A whole new medium of
communication."  Crystal even claims that the Internet may one ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item9

"Scientists Activate Neurons with Quantum Dots"
A group of scientists led by assistant professor of biomedical
engineering Christine Schmidt have grafted cadmium sulfide-based
quantum dots to neurons using molecular recognition.  This
represents the first electrical interface between neural cells ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item10

"Is Linux a Black Art?"
Linux advocates should avoid complicating open-source use in
order to become competitive with Microsoft in the mass market.
Although there are ways around commonly lamented problems, expert
open-source programmers often fail to put together simpler ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item11

"At the Core of Apple's OS X"
Jordan Hubbard, a creator of the open-source FreeBSD system, now
works on Apple's new OS X, which the company put together in an
open-source fashion.  Although OS X's user interface and other
code is still closed, the majority of OS X is open to developers. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item12

"Hackers, Programmers "Improve" Xbox"
Hackers have already begun exploring the possibilities of using
Microsoft's Xbox gaming console for more than it was intended to
do.  Given the amount of attention the Xbox has garnered, the
limited number of compromises to the system is testimony to the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item13

"Will Vietnam's Software Industry Ever Take Off?"
Vietnamese prime minister Phan Van Khai has pledged to grow that
country's fledgling software industry to a $500 million part of
the economy, up from just $25 million last year.  He also wants
1.5 percent of the population connected to the Internet and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item14

"Slowdown Goes On"
Sweden's IT sector is experiencing a downturn unforeseen 18
months ago.  The country was poised to profit from a mobile
Internet boom that has yet to come.  Sweden's IT companies have
suffered from layoffs, cutbacks, and dwindling venture capital.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item15

"NIPC Urges Heightened Attention to Domain Name Servers"
The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) warns that
many companies do not adequately ensure their domain name servers
(DNS) against failure.  DNS systems translate Internet Protocol
addresses both to and from the text addresses typed into browser ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item16

"Coming Together"
Peer-to-peer technology, portal/enterprise application
integration, and email application delivery are emerging as
viable collaboration options for end users who want to boost
productivity and enhance enterprise business processes, but whose ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item17

"Public Sector Job-Appeal Improves"
The public sector has been enjoying much greater success hiring
information technology professionals these days as the IT sector
sputters and as widespread layoffs continue.  In the past, IT
professionals practically ignored state and local governments as ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item18

"Write Here, Write Now"
People could one day post and receive messages on the Global
Positioning System (GPS) using Web-enabled handheld devices;
diners could recommend or warn others about restaurants, drivers
involved in accidents could report them so that other motorists ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2001-3/1214f.html#item19

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