Clips 3/13/02

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Reuter?s Internet Reports
House Panel Votes to Take on Internet Gambling 
Tue Mar 12, 6:08 PM ET 
By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House panel voted Tuesday to update a 40-year-old
law banning interstate betting so that it would apply to fast-growing Internet
gambling sites as well. 

  
The House Judiciary subcommittee on crime voted unanimously to approve a
measure that would update the Wire Act of 1961, which bans interstate wagers,
so it would clearly apply to the Internet and other modern communications well
as telephone lines. 

The bill, which passed on a unanimous voice vote, would allow law enforcement
agents to take down sites found in violation, or stop credit-card payments to
sites operating outside of the country. 

"This legislation is badly needed because there are a great many offshore sites
that are sucking billions of dollars from American households," said Rep. Bob
Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who sponsored the bill. 

The proposed legislation targets the estimated 1,400 online casinos that have
sprung up over the last several years and operate outside the reach of local
and state regulators. 

Online gambling sites took in $2.2 billion in revenues in 2000, and could
collect $6.4 billion by 2003, according to an estimate by Christiansen Capitol
Advisors. 

Many of these sites operate from offshore bases, making them impossible for
U.S. law enforcement agents to shut down. 

Goodlatte's bill would allow agents to obtain a court order requiring
credit-card companies and other payment services to cut off transactions with
the sites if they could not be shut down directly. 

Law-enforcement agents could also direct U.S.-based Internet providers to take
down links to gambling sites, and tell online advertising firms such as
DoubleClick Inc. to stop distributing ads for illegal online casinos. 

The bill does not affect the ability of states and Indian tribes to regulate
online gambling within their borders, as long as barred minors or out-of-state
users. 

While New Jersey has prosecuted several online casinos, Nevada has passed a law
that could allow existing bricks-and-mortar casinos to set up online
operations. 

Fantasy-sports leagues, state lotteries, and off-track betting on horse or dog
racing would not be affected by the bill, which now moves to the full Judiciary
Committee (news - web sites) for consideration. 

A different Goodlatte-sponsored gambling bill was defeated on the floor of the
House in the summer of 2000. 
****************
The Washington Post
Terrorist Pilots' Student Visas Arrive
Officials Blame 'Antiquated' System for Delay of Paperwork 
   
By Dan Eggen and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 13, 2002; Page A01 

Exactly six months after terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi flew two
jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Florida flight school that trained
the men received paperwork showing that their student visas had been approved.

The two suicide hijackers had applied for the visas through their flight
school, Huffman Aviation International, in August 2000. But because of backlogs
and an antiquated processing system at the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, notification of the approval did not arrive at the Venice, Fla.,
flight school until Monday.

The belated receipt of the documents underscores the chronic problems that
continue to plague the beleaguered INS -- the target of strenuous reform
efforts since the Sept. 11 attacks -- and prompted howls of outrage yesterday
from Capitol Hill.

"This shows once again the complete incompetence of the immigration service to
enforce our laws and protect our borders," said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.
(R-Wis.), who has co-sponsored legislation to break up the agency. "If you look
at the chronology of this, it shows why the INS has to be dismantled and put
back together again."

INS and Justice Department officials acknowledged yesterday that the delayed
mailings were embarrassing, but stressed that the change to student visas for
Atta and Alshehhi was actually approved last summer. The pair had entered the
United States on tourist visas.

In addition, the INS said in a statement, "when the applications were approved,
the INS had no information indicating that Atta or Alshehhi had ties to
terrorist organizations."

The records received by Huffman, first reported by CNN, show that Atta's visa
was approved July 17 and Alshehhi's was approved Aug. 9. The visa approvals
came well after the two would-be hijackers had completed their training course
at Huffman, which cost $27,300 each and ended in January 2001.

That means it took the INS nearly a year to process the visa applications after
they were submitted by a Huffman official in August 2000, and seven months more
to return the forms to the flight school. The schools are not required to deny
instruction to foreign nationals while the visa applicants wait for an INS
decision, officials said.

Huffman owner Rudi Dekkers said he feels vindicated by receipt of the forms,
because they prove his school followed INS guidelines.

"It's very strange," Dekkers said. "I have no idea why it took so long."

INS officials said in a statement last night that the agency "regrets the late
arrival of notifications to the school," and blamed the delay on an
"antiquated, inaccurate, untimely" and inefficient paper-based processing
system. The INS is switching over to a computer-based system, which was first
mandated by Congress as part of an immigration reform package in 1996.

"How can these guys get training before they're approved to get training?
That's a legitimate issue," one senior Justice official said. "But it's
important to note that these guys were approved long before anyone in law
enforcement knew they had ties to terrorist groups."

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), head of a congressional caucus that seeks reduced
immigration, said the agency is "completely and totally dysfunctional.

"The INS is the Mickey Mouse Club of federal agencies, but this actually would
indicate that's an insult to Mickey Mouse," Tancredo said. "I do not know what
straw is possibly going to be the one that will break this back. The pile is so
high now you can't see over it."

A spokeswoman for ACS Inc., the contractor that runs the London, Ky.,
processing center that mailed the paperwork to Huffman, said that INS rules
allow the company to wait six months before sending approved student visa
applications to flight schools. "There was no delay," said Lesley Pool. "We
perform our services according to their dictates."

INS and Justice officials said last night that the company's latest contract,
announced last fall, reduces the deadline to 30 days, officials said.

Ben Ferro, a former INS district administrator who now runs a consulting firm,
said the Atta and Alshehhi cases reflect how the immigration service has lost
control of its own documents.

"What happened here is an embarrassment and worse," Ferro said. "Clearly INS
doesn't discriminate in its backlogs and delays. Everyone gets delayed, even
dead people."
****************
Reuters
Ballmer Seeks to Soothe Microsoft Critics 
Tue Mar 12, 2:43 PM ET 
By Lucas van Grinsven 

HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer attempted
to build bridges with governments and industry rivals on Tuesday when he said
the software giant aspired to become a responsible industry leader. 

  
"I say to our people we want to be a trustworthy Microsoft in a world of
trustworthy computing," Ballmer said in a speech at the official opening of the
CeBIT technology trade show in the German city of Hanover. 

Ballmer, head of a company that has been embroiled in long-running legal action
in the United States over its dominant Windows software, acknowledged that
Microsoft "has no perfect track record" in the areas of trustworthiness. 

His comments came after it emerged that Microsoft had offered an olive branch
to the European Commission (news - web sites) by saying it would open up some
information that the Commission alleged it unfairly kept secret to make life
tough for rivals. 

Microsoft reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department (news - web
sites) in November after an appeals court in June upheld a lower court finding
that Microsoft had used illegal tactics to maintain its Windows monopoly. 

Nine states refused to sign the agreement and argued that a tougher remedy than
that proposed by the Justice Department is required. Last week, a judge in
Washington overseeing the case expressed misgivings about the breadth of the
states' demands. 

Only recently had it become clear to Microsoft that it had become an industry
leader which needed to behave differently, Ballmer told 2,500 guests in the
Hanover congress center ahead of the first day of the trade fair on Wednesday. 

"We need to be a responsible leader for our industry. We have to be engaged
with our industry. We have to be a respectful, open and appropriate
competitor," Ballmer said. 

"With governments we need to be much more involved and need to recognize that
there are many more policy issues with our industry," he said. 

Not only should Microsoft change its own behavior, it should also help to make
computing more secure and reliable, he added, addressing issues that have
become even more pressing since the attacks in the United States on September
11. 
***************
The Washington Post
CEOs Plan Network to Link Them In Attack 
Nationwide System To Speed Response 
By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 13, 2002; Page E01 
Leaders of the nation's largest corporations are designing a new communications
network that would alert them immediately to a terrorist attack and enable them
to instantly talk with one another and government officials about how to
respond.

The system would enable competitors in one field, such as telecommunications,
to work with one another as well as with their counterparts in other
industries. It would help private companies respond more quickly to disaster
scenes and improve their chances of keeping the economy running after
catastrophes, officials said. 

The initiative comes from a task force set up last fall by the Business
Roundtable, an organization of about 150 chief executives from companies that
generate more than $3.5 trillion in annual revenue.

Had such a system been in place on Sept. 11, officials said, companies could
have gotten equipment and supplies to the sites of the attacks in a quicker,
more coordinated way. At the same time, they said, businesses that depend on
the swift delivery of goods to keep factories running, such as automakers,
would have been able to find quicker supply alternatives as airports closed and
security was tightened at border crossings.

The planned system, called CEO Link, also could have helped executives amid
last fall's anthrax mailings, when corporations and governments struggled to
protect their mail systems while continuing with everyday business, said C.
Michael Armstrong, chief executive of AT&T and the task force's chairman.

More than 40 top executives volunteered to work on the task force, representing
a diverse group of industry giants such as Bethlehem Steel Corp., Bristol-Myers
Squibb Co., CSX Corp., General Motors Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., McGraw-Hill
Cos. and United Parcel Service of America Inc. All signed up within three days
of its creation.

"This is unprecedented. It reflects the deep sense of commitment and patriotism
and concern and obligation that everyone feels to make a difference," Armstrong
said.

Other CEOs leading the task force's working groups include Frederick W. Smith
of Federal Express Corp., Herbert L. Henkel of Ingersoll-Rand Co., Maurice R.
Greenberg of American International Group Inc. and Sanford I. Weill of
Citigroup Inc.

"These CEOs are really looking to make a difference for the country," said John
J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable. "They aren't coming to the
table with business agendas. They're looking at how to make the country more
secure."

AT&T is designing CEO Link at its own expense, Armstrong said. It will include
a wireless telephone network as well as a secure Web site. Still to be
determined is how to tailor the system to include state and local governments
across the United States, and leaders of smaller companies.

The communications network, which initially will be limited to the 150 chief
executives in the Business Roundtable and the federal government, should be in
place within six weeks, Castellani said. The users would be pre-certified and
require an identification verification to participate in any of the conference
calls, he said. 

"The system would be up all the time and available all the time, because
there's no way to predict an event. It would have to be maintained," Castellani
said. 

Castellani said the system would enable to executives to talk with one another
not only about threats but also about ways to respond to potential or actual
attacks. The system also could be activated after natural disasters, he said.

Armstrong has presented the model for CEO Link to Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge and other federal officials. Ridge's spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said
Ridge believes the communications system "can be helpful with homeland
security" and is an example of the creativity Ridge hopes to harness within the
private sector. 

"This fits in with [Ridge's] mission to create a national homeland security
strategy that isn't just the federal, state and local government, but also the
private sector," Johndroe said, adding that Ridge has also met with other
groups of business leaders. 

Armstrong said other ideas are still being worked out, including creating a
place for corporations to share "best practices" for dealing with terrorist
threats. Corporations also could share plans about how to remain in business
while recovering from disasters, he said. 

To encourage these new ideas, Armstrong said, the federal government could
offer tax credits for anti-terrorism research and development. That idea has
been discussed among some policy analysts within Ridge's office but Ridge
hasn't yet embraced the idea. The Business Roundtable also hasn't taken a
position.

James L. "J.J." Johnson Jr., an AT&T vice president on loan to the Business
Roundtable, said the task force also is considering measures to thwart
cyber-attacks and avoid widespread industry disruptions. He pointed out that
most of the nation's critical infrastructure -- such as telecommunications
systems, energy facilities and financial services networks -- is owned by
private businesses, not the government, and said that underscored the need for
the Business Roundtable to encourage new ways of thinking.
****************
Reuters
Americans Suspicious of National ID, Survey Finds 
Tue Mar 12,11:59 AM ET 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite heightened security concerns after Sept. 11, two
out of five Americans oppose a national identification system to keep better
track of U.S. citizens and visitors, a research firm said Tuesday. 

Audio/Video 
  Ridge Unveils New Alert System (AP)  
 
 
  
Research firm Gartner Inc. . said it found that 41 percent of U.S. citizens
opposed the creation of a national identity database, while 26 percent said
they supported such a move. 

Unlike many other developed countries, the United States does not use a
centralized identification system. State-issued drivers' licenses serve as
proof of identity for most citizens. 

Proposals for a national ID system have gained momentum after investigators
discovered that several of the 19 men who slammed planes into the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) on Sept. 11 had used assumed
identities. 

State drivers' license bureaus are seeking to create standards to allow them to
work more closely together and create a de facto national ID. 

But respondents to the Gartner survey said they found drivers' license agencies
the least trustworthy to handle the job, ranking them behind banks, credit-card
companies, the FBI (news - web sites) and the Social Security Administration
(news - web sites). 

A Gartner analyst said the survey showed the public was suspicious of what the
government might do with such a national ID system, and would support it only
for very limited purposes such as airport security and immigration. 

"The government hasn't done a good job of explaining to the public how it's
going to protect from misuse all the information it gathers about them," said
Richard Hunter, a Garter vice president and research director for security
issues. 
************
Newsbytes
Radio Ads To Spread Online Privacy Messages  

By Michael Bartlett, Newsbytes
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
12 Mar 2002, 9:55 PM CST

 The Privacy Leadership Initiative (PLI) and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB)
have co-produced a series of public service announcements designed to help
people protect their privacy online, the two organizations said today. 
PLI, which describes itself as a privacy watchdog group comprised of CEOs from
major corporations and business associations, said participants in recent focus
groups it conducted named identity theft and online privacy as two areas of
greatest concern. 

One of the ads advises people never to give out their social security number -
either on the back of a check or over the phone. Another cautions against
making passwords easy to guess, and recommends using words not found in a
dictionary. 

The third radio spot tries to dissuade people from meeting face-to-face with
strangers they make acquaintance with in Internet chat rooms. 

The radio ads are expected to supplement an existing public service campaign of
banner advertisements, the group said. The PLI began that online campaign on
Oct. 2, 2001. 

"Our extensive consumer research has shown that the public is eager to learn
what they can do to protect their own privacy both online and offline," David
Klaus, executive director of the PLI, said in a written statement. "We're using
the airwaves to deliver the message to people where they live and work -
following a few simple tips can instantly help them protect their privacy and
feel more secure." 

"With radio's unprecedented reach in local communities across the country, the
RAB's goal is to help the PLI strengthen the relationship between consumers and
business by encouraging the use of privacy practices," RAB President and CEO
Gary Fries said in a written statement. 

The RAB is the sales and marketing arm of the radio industry. 
**************
Computerworld
Study: Web exposes data on CIA networks 


Security firm claims to have mapped unclassified networks in surprising detail

By DAN VERTON 
(March 11, 2002) 
A London-based Internet security and risk consulting firm last week published
the results of a two-day study that highlights in surprising detail the CIA's
primary points of presence on the public Internet.   ADVERTISEMENT
 
Using open, legal sources of information and without conducting any illegal
port scanning or intrusive network probes, Matta Security Ltd. produced a
detailed map of nonclassified CIA networks, including several that aren't
readily available to the public. Matta's study also uncovered the names, e-mail
addresses and telephone numbers of more than three dozen CIA network
administrators and other officials. 

A CIA spokeswoman cast doubt on the significance of the report, stating that
there are many IT professionals within the agency who are "overt" employees and
need to have Internet access. 

However, some security experts, although vague about the specific nature of
potential vulnerabilities such information could be used to exploit, noted the
possible threat from determined adversaries who might be able to use the
information to obtain more sensitive or secret information or for other forms
of attack planning. 

"The points of presence all seem to be overt CIA links, and the names are of
overt employees who seem to be either system managers or points of reference
for billing purposes," said Vince Cannistraro, former chief of
counterintelligence at the CIA, who reviewed the report. "It doesn't tell you
anything about the clandestine side of CIA networks over which classified
information flows and which has no public points of presence. But perhaps these
are good starting points for less-scrupulous elements to begin cyberattacks." 

A Foot in the Door 

Richard Hunter, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. and a former
National Security Agency analyst, cited the report as an example of the threat
that open information can pose to any organization, including intelligence
agencies. 

"Simply knowing the names and e-mail addresses that Matta turned up would be
enough for some social engineers to get the rest of the information necessary
to mount an attack," said Hunter, referring to hackers who break into networks
using information obtained from legitimate users or public sources. 

"The fact that this information was gathered through a search on Google.com,
which is hardly considered by most people to be a hacker's tool, is especially
interesting," he noted. "The network map is rudimentary, but it gives an
attacker some idea of where to look first." 

And that was the whole point of the study, said Chris McNab, the report's
primary author. 

"We wanted to draw attention to the risks of publicly available data that could
be mined by determined attackers when targeting large organizations," said
McNab. "Through issuing simple search engine requests, combined with [network
interface card] and [Domain Name System] querying, we were able to build good
pictures of the CIA's primary Internet presence, without ever port-scanning or
probing their networks directly." 

Steven Aftergood, a defense and intelligence analyst at the Federation of
American Scientists in Washington, said he wasn't shocked by the results of the
study. 

"Any server that is connected to the Internet will always leave certain
footprints," said Aftergood. "It would be a stretch to call them
vulnerabilities. On the other hand, the CIA may be unhappy about this effort
because it reveals more than the agency wants the public to know." 
****************
San Jose Mercury News
Valley teens lacking interest in high-tech jobs, study says
LOW LEVEL DOES NOT BODE WELL FOR WORKFORCE GAP
By Margaret Steen
Mercury News

If Silicon Valley is to have enough skilled workers in the future, more
students need to become interested in technology careers, according to a new
report on the local workforce.

The 2002 workforce study, to be released Thursday, found that only about
one-third of local eighth- and 11th-graders are interested in pursuing
high-tech careers. Girls expressed less interest than boys, and Hispanic
students were less likely to be preparing for these careers than their peers.
The study was done for Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.

This low level of interest does not bode well for filling what the report calls
the workforce gap, which it estimated at 127,000 jobs in 2001. The gap is the
difference between the number of technology jobs in Silicon Valley and the
number of skilled workers who live in that same area. It includes not only jobs
that go unfilled but also those that are filled by people who commute or move
here from outside the area.

This gap dropped dramatically from 2000 to 2001, but researchers said it is
likely to increase again when the economy rebounds.

``We know that each wave of innovation has brought greater demand for talent,''
said Rebecca Guerra, vice president of human resources at Riverstone Networks
and a board member of Joint Venture.

The report estimates that even during the downturn of 2001, not having workers
available in the immediate area cost Silicon Valley businesses between $2
billion and $3 billion in lost productivity, turnover, hiring and training
costs.

To assess the high-tech workforce of the future, the researchers surveyed 2,500
Silicon Valley eighth- and 11th-grade students.

Among the findings:

? Virtually all the students had access to computers, either at home or at
school. However, only 32 percent said they were interested in high-tech
careers.

``It's great that most kids have computers, that we're connecting the schools,
but there's no evidence that all that is actually going to help get these kids
interested in technology careers,'' said researcher Praveen Madan, principal at
A.T. Kearney, which conducted the research for Joint Venture.

? Students who weren't interested in technology careers frequently said it was
because the work seemed boring or intimidating.

``By eighth grade, people don't know what they want to do, but they do know
what they don't want to do,'' said W. Keith Kennedy, chairman of the Joint
Venture board of directors.

Madan said a middle-school girl he interviewed explained that her mother worked
at a local high-tech company.

``She said, `Every time I go visit her there, I see these guys. They're losing
their hair; they're really stressed out,' '' Madan said.

? There was a pronounced gender gap: Although 42 percent of the boys surveyed
expressed interest in technology careers, only 23 percent of the girls did.

? Hispanic students were less likely than Asian, white and African-American
students to be planning to attend a four-year college.

? Asian students were most likely to be interested in technology careers. They
were also the most likely to have parents working in technical careers.

The student survey was conducted in late 2000. The workforce gap analysis was
begun in 2000 and updated in 2001.

Those involved in getting workers into high-tech careers said it is important
for students see beyond the stereotypes of high-tech workers.

``I'll bet you, for example, that kids don't know that a lot of these jobs
involve travel,'' said Bill Schaffer, author of ``High-Tech Careers for
Low-Tech People.''
*****************
Los Angeles Times
Accused Teenager Files SEC Report
Probe: Late filing on Internet betting site run by Cole Bartiromo leaves
unanswered questions.
By BONNIE HARRIS
TIMES STAFF WRITER
March 13 2002

A Mission Viejo teenager accused of Internet securities fraud filed a
long-awaited accounting of the money he raised, but the report sheds little new
light on the operation and appears to raise more questions than it answers.

Lawyers for Cole A. Bartiromo, 17, submitted an eight-page document to the
Securities and Exchange Commission over the weekend, about a month past the
deadline by which Bartiromo had agreed to provide an accounting as part of a
settlement with the SEC.

The agency in January accused the Trabuco Hills High School senior of bilking
investors of more than $1million through a sports-betting Web site called
Invest Better 2001. Bartiromo settled the SEC civil complaint without admitting
guilt. He still could face criminal charges. Alex Vasilescu, an SEC attorney in
New York, said Tuesday that much of the filing is based loosely on information
federal authorities already know.

SEC officials previously said they have recovered $1.2 million from the alleged
scam. The filing indicated that nearly $1.1 million has been turned over to
authorities--including $895,000 from an account at a Costa Rican casino,
$121,000 from an electronic payment system and $25,000 from a personal bank
account in Bartiromo's name.

Two other people, Jake Sansome and Scott Burrola, are mentioned as having
turned over $7,000 to authorities, with an additional $20,000 promised. But the
report gives no further information, and SEC's Vasilescu declined to comment
about them.

The filing also indicates, without explanation, that Bartiromo received $1.6
million from third parties and paid back $900,500 to third parties. Yet the
accounting says there was "no loss to third parties."

"We're trying to make sense of it," Vasilescu said of the report. "We are still
not convinced we have the total assets acquired by Invest Better 2001."

Calls to Bartiromo and his San Francisco attorney, David Bayless, were not
returned Tuesday.
*************
San Francisco Chronicle
Anonymous browsing returns

New York -- A Montreal company that specializes in privacy software said
yesterday that it is again offering a service for browsing Web pages
anonymously -- but users will be less anonymous this time. 

The Freedom Network, discontinued by Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc. last fall, was
too expensive to run and too complicated to use, spokesman Dov Smith said. He
said the new service, called Freedom WebSecure, is designed for the mass
market. 

The main difference is in the level of anonymity users can expect. Under the
old system, data bounced around a worldwide network of computer servers to
remove any traces of a user requesting a Web page. 

Under the new system, data will make only one pass through a server run by
Zero-Knowledge. Web sites still wouldn't know the user, but employees at Zero-
Knowledge would. 

Emeryville's SafeWeb stopped offering anonymous Web surfing in November. Like
Zero-Knowledge, SafeWeb is looking for ways to resurrect its free service.
****************
The Boston Globe
EarthLink, AT&T sign access deal
Smaller ISP to offer broadband access on cable giant's network
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 3/13/2002

fter three years of talking about offering its cable modem subscribers ''open
access'' to other Internet service providers, AT&T Broadband yesterday
announced a deal to let Atlanta-based ISP EarthLink offer services in Greater
Boston over AT&T's high-speed network this year. 

Wall Street hailed the deal, sending EarthLink's shares up 89 cents to $10.58.
EarthLink has about 4.7 million subscribers, close to 90 percent of whom use
dial-up connections instead of faster cable modems or telephone digital
subscriber lines.

With a deal already in hand to offer services over AOL Time Warner cable modem
systems in 24 US cities, with 15 more to be added this year, EarthLink is seen
by analysts as poised to boost its subscriber base and move thousands of
customers up to higher-priced broadband connections.

Seattle will be the first AT&T Broadband market where EarthLink will be able to
sell its services over AT&T Broadband wires, probably this summer, followed by
Boston sometime before the end of the year, executives said. EarthLink would
move into other AT&T Broadband markets in 2003.

As of last evening, EarthLink had no details on what it will charge for cable
modem service or whether it plans to offer a discount from AT&T's $47-a-month
standard residential package. 

AT&T Broadband cable modem service offers an ''always-on'' Internet connection
that AT&T claims can reach download speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second, or
30 to 50 times as fast as a dial-up connection.

Under terms of the deal, EarthLink would market broadband access under its own
brand, with AT&T providing the actual service and billing for it. 

EarthLink spokesman Kurt Rahn said the company will focus more on getting its
existing dial-up customers to migrate to broadband connections than taking
business from AT&T. It also sees a big opportunity to better market the service
to the hundreds of thousands of customers who have access to broadband Internet
service, but have balked at paying the premium price.

''Our objective is not to walk in and try to take AT&T's customers. The market
is not well-penetrated enough in the first place that we should be talking
about the market-share game,'' Rahn said.

Broadband services such as cable modems and DSL are estimated to be available
to more than 70 percent of US homes, but only 10 to 12 percent have signed up.

While not criticizing AT&T Broadband specifically, Rahn said, ''Broadband as an
industry has been too fixated on technology and speed and being always on. We
need to move into a mass market and explain to people what having broadband can
do for them,'' such as making Internet-based information and entertainment
sources far more accessible and useful, Rahn said.

Jennifer L. Khoury, a spokeswoman for AT&T Broadband's New England operations,
said, ''Both parties feel that this agreement will increase the customer base
for both AT&T Broadband and EarthLink.'' 

For years, smaller ISPs and consumer advocates have been clamoring for
open-access deals to allow third parties to use AT&T Broadband and AOL Time
Warner cable modems to sell Internet access in the same way that ISPs can use
Baby Bell phone lines to sell their services. AT&T predecessor MediaOne Group
fended off a threatened state ballot question in 2000 mandating open access by
promising to pursue such arrangements. 

Paul Trane, a principal with the Telecommunications Insight Group in
Somerville, which has advised open-access advocates, praised the AT&T deal with
EarthLink as a good step. But Trane said he thought the main factor driving it
was AT&T's pending $45 billion merger with Philadelphia-based Comcast and a
desire to try to defuse open access concerns as it proceeds with getting
hundreds of towns to move franchises over to the new AT&T Comcast.

EarthLink has signed access deals with AOL Time Warner covering 24 markets,
with 15 more to be added in coming months, taking advantage of strong political
pressure the cable giant faced to open its network when America Online and Time
Warner consummated their $106 billion merger last year.

EarthLink reported having 471,000 broadband customers as of the end of
December, along with 4.2 million conventional dial-up customers, Rahn said.

AT&T Broadband, which controls cable franchises in more than 200 Bay State
cities and towns and southern New Hampshire, has 13.6 million cable television
customers, about 1.5 million of whom also subscribe to its high-speed Internet
services. AT&T chairman C. Michael Armstrong said the company is pursuing
discussions with other ISPs for open-access deals to its network.

Peter J. Howe can be reached by e-mail at howe@xxxxxxxxxx
*************
Reuters
IDC Boosts Forecast for PC Sales This Year 
Wed Mar 13, 1:18 AM ET 
By Daniel Sorid 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research firm IDC raised its forecast for full-year
personal computer shipments on Wednesday, saying the market has been buoyed by
strong U.S. retail sales and renewed hopes for a jump in corporate technology
spending. 

  
The research firm said it now expects shipments of personal computers to rise
3.0 percent this year to 125.5 million units, up from a forecast made in
December of a 1.8 percent rise in shipments. Last year, PC shipments fell 5.2
percent after years of rapid growth. 

"We're getting more evidence of a recovery," said Loren Loverde, director of
IDC's quarterly personal computer tracking report. 

Loverde said unexpectedly strong U.S. retail sales in the fourth quarter played
an important part in the revision. He also said shipments would be boosted as
companies replaced computers bought in advance of the heavily publicized Year
2000 bug. 

The expected growth in unit shipments for 2002 nevertheless hides what could be
seen as a sore point for PC makers. In dollar terms, sales of personal
computers are forecast to fall 7.9 percent this year, slightly improved from
the 8.7 percent decline that was forecast in December. 

Consumers have capitalized on the price war that has engulfed PC makers, often
spending less than in previous years as they buy more computers. 

REGIONALLY, MANY DIFFERENT STORIES 

In the United States, where about one-third of all personal computers are sold,
unit shipments are expected to rise 2.5 percent. In the Asia-Pacific region,
excluding Japan, IDC forecasts shipments rising 11.2 percent. 

Asia's strength owes much to China, the new darling of many electronics makers
for its appeal as a low-cost manufacturer with a massive domestic market.
Loverde said growth in China's PC shipments has fallen into the single-digit
percentages after whopping growth last year. 

But, he said, growth is expected to be back up to almost 20 percent by the
fourth quarter. 

Western Europe shows a different picture. Shipments are expected to be
virtually flat this year, after a drop of 5 percent last year. 

"Europe has been balancing sort of a slow commercial market and trying to
attract consumer users," Loverde said. European consumers, he said, are
spending on high-definition television sets and other electronics, but are
holding off for more "convincing offerings" from personal computer makers. 

Japan is also expected to be a soft spot for computer shipments, hurt by a weak
economy and sluggish spending on technology. Shipments in the first half of the
year are expected to fall in double-digit percentages, and will barely reach
growth by the fourth quarter, IDC said. 

In January, research firm Multimedia Research Institute Ltd. predicted a 6.5
percent year-over-year decline in Japan's personal computer shipments. 

AN UPBEAT LONG-TERM VIEW 

For 2003, IDC forecasts PC shipment growth rising to 10.9 percent. 

Yet over the long term, some analysts question the future growth opportunities
for personal computer makers, which may be nudged aside by makers of
inexpensive and powerful portable electronics. 

Loverde said IDC projects worldwide PC shipment growth through the end of its
forecast range, in 2006. But growth will be harder to come by, he said, not
because of competition from alternative devices, but because the market of
first-time personal computer users is always shrinking. 

Electronic devices will still rely on personal computers, he said, with the
majority of them attachable or interactive with regular computers. 

The personal computer, he said, is "a cornerstone of technology usage, and it's
going to continue to be that." 
****************
Government Executive
March 12, 2002 
Lawmakers pledge to track wasteful security spending 
By Liza Porteus, National Journal's Technology Daily 

The Bush administration and Congress must be wary of wasteful spending on
homeland security measures that do not fit into an effective national plan,
lawmakers and panelists said during a House subcommittee hearing.

The House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs
and International Relations on Tuesday held the first of two hearings on how
federal money could be used most effectively to combat terrorism. 

Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and ranking Democrat Dennis
Kucinich of Ohio, as well as Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton,
R-Ind., and ranking Democrat Henry Waxman of California, last October sent a
letter to President Bush stressing the need for Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge to make the development of a national homeland security strategy a top
priority. 

"The administration has failed" to do this, Kucinich said at the hearing. 

Edwin Meese, co-chairman of the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security Task
Force, said his group has a "continuing dialogue" with Ridge's office and
stressed the importance of keeping communication lines open between that office
and state and local officials.

Heritage released a report in January offering 25 recommendations on how to
take a more proactive approach to protecting the nation's computer networks and
improving intelligence gathering, information systems and surveillance systems,
among other things. 

Meese stressed the need for a "fusion system" to collect, analyze and
disseminate threat information for all levels of government that could serve as
a central clearinghouse. Ridge's office is establishing a Crisis Coordination
Center to serve such a purpose. 

The federal government should fund research conducted by the private sector on
new technologies to detect diseases such as smallpox and anthrax, said Randall
Larsen, director of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security. 

Bioterrorism is a new threat and many current technologies cannot effectively
detect harmful pathogens until it is too late, he said. But one promising
technology under development that could use government aid is the "zebra chip,"
which is used to identify common diseases, he said. 

"I know of no other technology that offers more potential promise to both
mitigate and deter biological attacks on the American homeland," Larsen said. 

Paul Bremer, former chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism and member
of the Gilmore Commission, said he supports legislation requiring the Office of
Homeland Security to establish a single database available to everyone dealing
with border security, including consular officers at embassies abroad who issue
visas. 

But he said Ridge's lack of budget authority has led to problems. He noted that
Ridge's proposal to combine the four agencies responsible for border security
had been rejected, and Ridge had refused to testify before a congressional
committee on homeland security spending. 

Henry Hinton, managing director of defense capabilities and management for the
General Accounting Office, suggested that partnerships forged between the
public and private sectors during the preparation for the Y2K computer bug
could be looked to as possible models for the homeland security effort.
***************
Government Executive
March 12, 2002
Public-private partnerships called key to cybersecurity 
By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily 

Voluntary partnerships between government agencies and the private sector are
crucial to protecting the nation's critical infrastructures from increasingly
sophisticated forms of cyber warfare, information security experts from the
public, private and academic sectors said Tuesday. 

"We need you, but we don't own you, so we have to have this partnership to make
it work," Howard Schmidt, vice chairman of President Bush's Critical
Infrastructure Protection Board, told industry representatives during a
Washington conference organized by the Strategic Research Institute. 

Schmidt, who formerly served as chief security officer for Microsoft, noted
that about 90 percent of the nation's critical information infrastructure is
owned and operated by the private sector. Schmidt said making those networks
"resistant to degradation, and resilient when attacked" requires information
sharing, coordinated research and other cooperative efforts between the public
and private sectors. 

"It's got to be voluntary because if we don't work in a spirit of cooperation
and trust, we are shooting ourselves in the foot at the outset," Schmidt said,
noting that President Bush has charged the Critical Infrastructure Protection
Board with coordinating the cybersecurity capabilities of government, industry
and the academic sector. 

Public and private sector officials involved in those coordination efforts must
realize that keeping pace with cyberterrorist threats is likely to be
increasingly difficult, according to Robert Gerber, chief of analysis and
warning at the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. 

"The threat out there has never been greater," Gerber said, noting that "the
nature of attacks will continue to deepen and become more intense" because of
rapidly evolving new technologies.

The inherently open nature of the Internet is another reason for that
increasing threat, according to Jacques Gansler, chairman of the University of
Maryland's Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise. "The Internet was
not developed to be a secure system and that is kind of why we are playing
catch-up," Gansler said. 

Gansler, who formerly served as the Defense Department's undersecretary for
acquisition, technology and logistics, added that if the al Qaeda network had
combined the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with
simultaneous cyberattacks on the nation's critical infrastructures, the events
of Sept. 11 "could have been much more destructive." 

Schmidt said the White House's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board is
helping state and local agencies to protect their critical systems to ensure
that their response capabilities would not be crippled during a terrorist
attack. 

"We must make sure state and local governments have the same [cybersecurity]
capabilities as a multibillion dollar federal agency," Schmidt said. "It takes
a lot of coordination to do that." 

Schmidt added that the board must also help the federal government "get its
house in order." 

"We have to make sure our systems are secure while helping the private sector
do their part as well," Schmidt said. 
***************
Government Executive
March 12, 2002 
Bush may tap retirement funds to avoid hitting debt ceiling 
By Keith Koffler, CongressDaily 

The Bush administration may borrow billions of dollars from federal employee
retirement funds, temporarily eliminating the need for Congress to raise the
debt ceiling and helping Republicans sidestep a public relations thicket.

According to several sources familiar with the issue, Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill, who has the authority to tap federal retirement kitties to meet
federal obligations, is likely to act on the idea. The move would be a
temporary measure that would not jeopardize the retirement accounts,
Republicans said. The funds would have to be repaid, with interest.

According to a House Republican leadership aide, Treasury officials presented
several options to House leaders last week for tapping retirement funds.

Several sources said Treasury is most likely to borrow from one federal
retirement account, the "G Fund." GOP leadership aides said Treasury had
indicated it could obtain as much as $40 billion from the G Fund.

Late last month, Treasury issued a statement demanding that Congress take
immediate action to increase the $5.95 trillion debt ceiling, which Treasury
said could be reached "in just the next few weeks."

But House Republicans refused to pass a stand- alone increase in the debt
limit, instead demanding that Treasury come up with other options. This has
effectively forced O'Neill to take the extraordinary measure--or default on the
government's debt, sources said.

The debt increase bill would expose the GOP to withering attacks from Democrats
charging that Republicans squandered the surplus by passing President Bush's
tax cut last year, Republican leaders fear. The legislation would attract
little or no Democratic support, and it might even fail if Republicans
legislators became too fearful of the Democratic onslaught, according to
congressional officials.

"We made it very clear to Treasury that we're not having a free-standing vote,"
said one Republican leadership aide.

Republicans had hoped to attach the debt increase to a wartime supplemental
spending measure, which would include provisions for the military and homeland
defense. Many Democrats would find such a bill difficult to oppose. But
informed sources say a supplemental bill is unlikely to make its way to Capitol
Hill before the end of this month.

One GOP leadership aide predicted final action by Congress on the supplemental
in May.

Republicans leaders believe the temporary measures they expect Treasury to take
will keep the government from defaulting until a supplemental bill is ready.

Some congressional Republicans even hope that if Treasury moves as they
expect--and if the economy maintains its current momentum and receipts continue
to pick up--that the need to raise the debt limit can be kicked down the road
until after Election Day. 

Ironically, the steps O'Neill is considering once were used by the Clinton
administration to avoid defaulting on debt interest payments during the
infamous budget battle with congressional Republicans.

In November 1995, former Treasury Secretary Rubin authorized borrowing $39.8
billion from the Civil Service Retirement Fund and $21.5 billion from the G
Fund, raising criticism from Republicans.

Treasury spokeswoman Michelle Davis refused to confirm that any particular
action was likely, but she indicated that borrowing from federal retirement
funds was on the table.

"We have said many times that we will do what we have to do to avoid a
default," Davis said. "The options include everything that Rubin did."

A sign of the roadblocks Republicans would have faced in trying to increase the
debt limit is the staunch opposition they are getting from the moderate to
conservative Blue Dogs.

As Blue Dog leaders recently told their caucus, Bush "must work with Congress
to put the fiscal house back in order" before Congress votes to raise the debt
ceiling.

One Blue Dog aide said the group would insist that Bush "submit a revised
budget" or at least admit the current budget is "off-course."
******************
The Washington Post
Decision On GovNet Proposal Expected Before Summer 
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 
By Brian Krebs,
Newsbytes.com 

The Bush administration should decide within the next 90 days whether to pursue
GovNet, its controversial proposal to build a secure Intranet that would
insulate federal government systems from cyber-attack, according to the White
House's deputy security czar. 

"We should know within the next 60 to 90 days whether this is going to happen,"
said Howard Schmidt, corporate security officer for Microsoft, who doubles as
vice-chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, a
panel of top executives from companies that manage the nation's critical
infrastructures. 

The General Services Administration has received nearly 170 responses since
November to its request for input on GovNet, yet there is no clear consensus
from the recommendations, according to Schmidt. 

"The comments we've gotten on GovNet have been all over the map: some people
think it's the dumbest thing on the face of the earth, some think it's the
smartest thing we've ever done," Schmidt said at a network security conference
in Washington, D.C. today. "The bottom line is we're still exploring to see
whether it is technically feasible, manageable, and if it's going to protect
us." 

In the meantime, the board expects to complete the at least four out of five of
its main objectives by this time next year, Schmidt said. 

The board's primary responsibility is to develop a "national plan" to prevent
and respond to potential cyber-attacks on the country's most vital computer
systems. 

Working with other research and development agencies such as the National
Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
the board also hopes to create a system to oversee the cellular phone network
in the event of another national emergency of the type that temporarily
crippled portions of the mobile phone network on Sept. 11. 

The board also plans to urge reauthorization of several existing NSF programs
that offer computer science and network security scholarships to qualifying
applicants who agree to serve at least two years at a federal government agency
upon graduation. 

The board also is working on establishing a simulation center that would
attempt to map how disasters or breakdowns in one computer network might affect
other interdependent systems. 

Tied into that effort is a plan to create a "cyber warning information
network," that would allow governments to watch computer viruses and worms are
spreading geographically in real time. Theoretically, such a system also would
allow authorities to quarantine or isolate affected networks from the rest of
the Internet, Schmidt said. 

"We're talking about effectively war-gaming our critical infrastructures
because we still don't think we have a clear understanding of what all the
interrelationships are," he said. 

The administration also is keen on making sure the government "gets its house
in order," and is considering ways to amend and reauthorize the Government
Information Security Reform Act (GISRA), a statute used to gauge the
cybersecurity of federal government networks, Schmidt said. 

Under GISRA, agencies are graded on the results of penetration testing and
overall security. In last year's round of penetration tests, nearly all federal
agencies earned a grade of "D" or lower for computer security. 

President Clinton signed the measure into law in October 2000 as part of the
Defense Department appropriations package for 2001. As such, the law is due to
expire on Nov. 29, 2002. 

The leaders of the White House Office of Management and Budget and the General
Accounting Office have urged lawmakers to include provisions in any
reauthorization that would add significant enforcement "teeth" to GISRA. Last
week, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., introduced a reauthorization bill to do just that.


"We're in the process of working with the legislative affairs folks in Congress
to look at where we need to tweak GISRA a little bit," Schmidt said. 

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com 
***************
Chicago Sun Times
Nokia introduces new phones 

March 13, 2002
BY VILLE HEISKANEN 

HANOVER, Germany--Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest mobile-phone maker, introduced
six mobile phone models with new features at the Cebit fair in Hanover,
Germany, as part of a bid to revive demand.

Nokia said its sales will fall more than expected in the first quarter but that
its profit may rise more than previously forecast. ''Net sales for the first
quarter are expected to be slightly lower than anticipated, but higher than
expected profitability is being driven by Nokia's core strengths,'' Nokia said.


The company also said it will unveil its so-called ''third generation'' model
based on wideband code-division multiple access technology on Sept. 26.

''I know that there have been concerns about the availability of
third-generation phones,'' said Matti Alahuhta, head of Nokia's handset
division. ''However, Nokia is convinced that we can deliver.''

Nokia and rivals are counting on new models with faster Internet access to
revive growth. Nokia has launched 20 models this year, compared with 14 in
2001. Sony Ericsson, a venture between Ericsson AB and Sony Corp., last week
displayed its first six models.

Third-generation models will allow users to transmit data at 40 times current
speeds. Still, some analysts and investors are concerned consumers may not warm
to the services after Europe's phone companies spent $100 billion on faster
wireless licenses in 2000.

Going from current technology to third-generation technology ''is an evolution
that will take several years,'' Alahuhta said.

One of Nokia's new models, the 7210, has a color screen and an FM radio. It
also supports Java programming language and features Multimedia Messaging
Service, letting users swap pictures and sounds.

The phone, which also supports General Packet Radio Service, allowing faster
Internet access, is expected to start shipping in the third quarter.

Nokia also showcased five other models that are expected to start shipping in
the second quarter, including two mass-market, or ''expression category''
phones. The 3510 has GPRS, screen savers and polyphonic ring tones, while the
3410 can support downloading new applications, including three-dimensional
animated screensavers.
*****************
Chicago Sun Times
City offering Tech Solutions 
March 12, 2002

The Mayor's Office of Workforce Development is looking for Chicago businesses
to participate in its Tech Solutions program, offering companies easy and
inexpensive access to training for their IT staffs.

"The city is committed to helping local companies retain highly skilled
workers, and Tech Solutions is one of the ways we accomplish that goal," said
Mayor Daley.

In 1990, Congress created the H1-B visa to help employers access foreign
workers for high-skill and specialty occupations, a response to demands from
industries experiencing skill shortages, particularly information technology
and health care. 

"Tech Solutions uses the H1-B grant money to subsidize the costs Chicago
businesses pay to provide their employees IT training," explained Jackie Edens,
commissioner of workforce development. "Ultimately, we want to raise the skill
level of domestic workers and help them fill specialty occupations presently
filled by temporary foreign workers."

Tech Solutions helps businesses access high-quality training through a variety
of accredited training providers, including local colleges and universities.

"The ideal candidate for this program is a mid-sized business that employs
between 25 and 40 workers," said Joel Simon, assistant director of the Mayor's
Office of Workforce Development's Workforce Solutions division. Universal
Access, a telecommunications company, is just one company that used Tech
Solutions to enhance employee performance in areas such as Java and C++
programming, IT project management and Web commerce and development.

Businesses that are interested in finding out more about the Tech Solutions
program should call (312) 746-7777 or click on the Tech Solutions icon at
www.cityofchicago.org/WorkforceDevelopment/
****************
Chicago Sun Times
A look at the problem of company software piracy 
March 13, 2002
BY SANDRA GUY STAFF REPORTER 

Software piracy is costing the economy billions. In Illinois alone, an
estimated $90.29 million in revenue was lost from pirated business software in
2000, according to the latest data available from the Business Software
Alliance ( www.bsa.org ), a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group better known
as the software police.

The BSA penalizes companies it catches using and copying software without
permission. The penalties make up much of the BSA's operating revenue. The
alliance represents publishers of business software such as Adobe, Apple,
Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec, which hold copyrights on their software.

"Piracy can close a company, especially a start-up business that hasn't got the
means to fight a large company that pirates its software," says Mary Dicig,
president of Chicago-based CounselTech, a law practice that specializes in
licensing and technology law.

Dicig, a patent and licensing attorney, helps entrepreneurs, professors and
scientists commercialize their technologies. She advises companies to save
every receipt from every piece of software they've ever bought, and to either
buy or write an auditing program that tracks desktop software applications to
ensure they're properly licensed.

Dicig points to other complications, including the electronic distribution and
downloading of software, employees who load computer games or other programs
onto their PCs, and partnership programs whose licenses apply only to the most
current version of a software application.

Companies must be sure they have licenses for older versions of software, Dicig
said.

With so many complications, she said, "You'd be hard-pressed to find a company
with zero infringement." 

Paul Jarvie, president of Buffalo Grove-based ASAP Software, suggests companies
have written software-use policies that they clearly explain to their workers.

In addition, someone should be responsible for controlling and managing the
policies, Jarvie said.

Finally, companies should work to maintain relationships with dependable
license service providers, he said.

Part of the problem is that software pirating reflects the complexities of
human nature, said Bob Kruger, the BSA's vice president of enforcement.

It sometimes happens when businesses cut corners and figure they won't get
caught, he noted.

Companies usually get caught because of another human urge--revenge. Employees
who've been laid off or believe they've been victimized by their employer
usually report the illegal pirating, Kruger said.

Follett Software Corp., like a surprising number of software companies, learned
the hard way about using unlicensed software.

The company, a McHenry-based division of textbook seller Follett Corp., paid a
$78,938 settlement fee to the BSA three years ago after an internal audit
revealed it had overlicensed and underlicensed software titles, said Pam
Goodman, a Follett Corp. spokeswoman.

The incident started when the BSA received a complaint about Follett Software's
software-licensing practices and notified the company.

Follett paid the settlement fee to resolve liability for past copyright
infringement.

"It was the result of oversight and human error," Goodman said. "To remedy the
situation, we purchased all the necessary licenses. There was no intention to
be out of compliance."

Follett Software also reprimanded two workers and implemented new policies to
prevent a recurrence, including conducting random and annual audits of the
business' computers and putting the IT department in charge of buying and
tracking all hardware and software. 

Though software oversights may be unintended, they can be costly. Companies and
individuals can be held liable for up to $150,000 for each copyrighted work
they've infringed. Copyright law also lets the copyright owner recover any
profits a company has made as a result of hijacking software.

The BSA's Kruger describes software piracy as a business ethics issue--an issue
of critical importance in light of the Enron debacle.

"Piracy is theft. It is nothing less than depriving the rightful owners of
property--intellectual property--a return on their investment," he said.

BATTLING GANGS: Adell Young and her neighbors on Chicago's West Side are
featured in the January issue of Business 2.0 magazine for driving gangbangers
off their streets by accessing online police records and organizing via e-mail.

They were aided in their online activism by a local community group, Every
Block a Village Online, which gave Young and 42 other activists WebTV set-top
boxes with Internet access.

Contact Sandra Guy at sguy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
**************
CNET
AMD claws for top with new chip 


By John G. Spooner 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 12, 2002, 9:00 PM PT


Advanced Micro Devices is again challenging Intel for the PC processor speed
crown with a new chip for desktops. 
AMD on Wednesday will unveil its Athlon XP 2100+ processor at the CeBit trade
show in Hannover, Germany. The 1.73GHz chip outperforms Intel's 2.2GHz Pentium
4 on several benchmarks, the company claims, although Intel's chip sports a
more impressive clock speed. 

In North America, Compaq Computer will release PCs with the chip, and
Fujitsu-Siemens will put it in it boxes for the European market.
Hewlett-Packard expects to adopt the new chip later. 

Compaq's new black and silver Presario 8000 series desktop PC will pair the
2100+ chip with Nvidia's nForce chipset, which connects a PC's processor with
other system-level components. The nForce is unique in that it includes several
features not found in other AMD chipsets, such as the Hypertransport high-speed
chip interconnect technology, used to transfer data between its various chips. 

AMD will also release Athlon XP 1600+ for notebooks, and Athlon XP 2000+ for
workstations and servers. Compaq plans to use the former in its Presario 700
notebooks. 

All of these markets--desktops, notebooks, workstations and servers--will be
crucial for AMD this year, executives have said. 

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD and Intel have battled over desktop performance
supremacy since August 1999 when the first Athlon debuted. At various times,
each company has been able to declare itself No. 1. 

Overall, the top chips of both companies are roughly equal, according to most
analysts, and they each offer more computing power than most consumers will
likely use. Still, having the best chip is a powerful marketing tool, and among
hard-core computer enthusiasts the "AMD or Intel?" debate can run just as hot
and furious as the Mac/PC battles. 

AMD-based computers also often sell for $100 less than their Intel
counterparts, making them better buys, according to some benchmark testers. 

The latest phase in the competition began in October 2001 when AMD launched the
Athlon XP, which contained an enhanced processor core and a new name. 

Intel then countered in early January with the Northwood version of its Pentium
4, a chip which features a performance-enhancing 512KB Level 2 cache, the
largest for a desktop chip to date. Intel's chip was also made on the
130-nanometer manufacturing process, which should allow Intel to increase the
clock speed with greater ease. 

The fun, of course, won't stop there. The new 2100+, 2000+ and 1600+ chips will
be the last AMD manufactures with the older 180-nanometer process. An upcoming
Athlon chip called Thoroughbred, based on a 130-nanometer processor core, is
expected to have even higher clock speeds. It is due next quarter, slightly
later than expected. 

When purchased in 1,000-unit quantities, the new 2100+ chip will list for $420,
the 2000+ chip will list for $415, and the mobile 1600+ processor will go for
$380. 

Additionally, AMD cut prices on its Athlon 4 mobile chips. The 1500+ chip was
reduced by 52 percent, from $525 to $250. The 1.2GHz saw the largest price cut,
55 percent, from $425 to $190. The 1.1GHz was cut by 40 percent from $290 to
$175, while the 1.0GHz fell by 42 percent from $260 to $150. 

Price cuts from AMD, though, are sometimes difficult to gauge as the company
often gives even larger discounts to its big customers. These additional
discounts often end up causing chips to sell at retail for less than the
"official" price from AMD. 
******************
CNET
Palm launches HTML browser 


By Margaret Kane 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 13, 2002, 5:20 AM PT


Palm is offering its customers a new Web browser specially customized for
handheld computers, but it's going to cost. 
The Palm Web Browser will cost $19.95 in the United States and will be
available for purchase and download on Palm's Web site and at other stores next
month. The browser will work with Palm's m125, m130, m500, m505, m515 and i705
models.

The new browser will allow handhelds to view any site on the Internet, using
wireless access or a modem. Typical handheld browsers have difficulty
displaying many Web sites. The software also allows customers to save
information for offline viewing and record a history of visited sites. Versions
are available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese.
***************
CNET
Feds: PayPal not a bank
By Troy Wolverton 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 12, 2002, 3:55 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-858264.html 

Federal regulators' position that PayPal is not a bank boosts the company's
contention that it shouldn't be regulated as one, but officials caution that
theirs isn't the final word in the matter. 
In an advisory letter sent last month to PayPal concerning its use of
customers' funds, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it does not
consider the company to be a bank or savings association because it does not
accept deposits as defined by federal law, which requires institutions to have
a banking charter. PayPal doesn't have a charter, thus it is not a bank, the
FDIC said. 

"PayPal does not physically handle or hold funds placed into the PayPal
service," the FDIC said in its letter. 

PayPal representatives said the FDIC opinion should help the company stave off
attempts by state and federal officials to regulate its business. 

"As long as we continue doing what we are doing today, we won't be subject to
Federal banking laws," said PayPal Chief Executive Peter Thiel. 

But an FDIC official said state officials may still conclude that the company
is acting as an unauthorized bank. 

"It's really a state issue," said the FDIC official. "I've been on the phone
with several state regulators. I've indicated that federal law is not going to
help them. They are going to have to come to their own determination under
state law" about whether PayPal is acting as a bank. 

PayPal has come under increasing scrutiny from states such as New York and
California, which have raised questions about whether the Palo Alto,
Calif.-based company is operating an illegal banking service. 

State regulators have also begun to question whether PayPal is operating an
unauthorized money transmitting service. Last month, Louisiana asked PayPal to
cease offering its service to state residents until it secured a license from
the state to transmit money. PayPal is in the process of applying for such a
license, Thiel said. 

PayPal acknowledged that the FDIC opinion is not binding on state regulators,
but argued that it could have a positive effect. 

The opinion "could be considered relevant by some state authorities in their
review of whether PayPal is engaged in the business of banking under state law.
Notwithstanding the opinion, PayPal will continue its applications for state
money services licenses where appropriate," the company said in a statement. 

The FDIC's decision on PayPal's banking status came as part of an advisory
opinion on balances left in PayPal customer accounts. 

As of this quarter, PayPal began depositing customer balances into FDIC-insured
bank accounts. The company had asked for an opinion from the FDIC on whether it
could pass the insurance protection on to its customers. In its advisory
letter, the FDIC said the insurance protections--up to $100,000 per customer
per bank--would extend to PayPal customers, even when PayPal deposited the
funds for them, PayPal said. 
*****************
CNET
Memory market shows signs of recovery
By Michael Kanellos 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 12, 2002, 12:15 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-858150.html 

Following one of its most harrowing years ever, the memory market should be
more stable this year and allow big manufacturers to eke out a profit. 
Industry consolidation, product diversity and changes in the customer base and
other factors should result in fairly stable prices for the memory that goes
into PCs and servers, according to memory executives and analysts. 

Prices have been rising since November and could boost industry revenue from
approximately $11.2 billion in 2001 to between $16 billion and $21 billion this
year, according to various estimates. Although many industry executives and
analysts expect the pace of price increases to slow, they also don't expect the
market to go into a tailspin like last year. 

"There is a lot of comfort for the year being healthy, partly because of the
supply situation," said Tom Quinn, vice president of marketing at Samsung
Electronics, which produces approximately 21 percent of the world's memory. "It
sure feels a lot better than last year, so far." 

Memory prices right now reflect the sense of optimism. Currently, a 128Mb chip
of SDRAM, the most common form of memory on the market today, goes for $4.09 in
the spot market and is rising, according to figures from Thomas Weisel
Partners. In August, the same chip sold for $1.50. 

Meanwhile, manufacturers are finding ready markets for DDR DRAM, a faster
version of SDRAM now gaining popularity. Once considered too expensive, DDR
began to drop in price last summer, making it more attractive to PC
manufacturers and causing volumes to pick up. Now both volume shipments and
prices are rising, a beneficial confluence of forces for memory makers. 

 "Up until now, the price of memory was below cost," said Farhad Tabrizi, vice
president of worldwide marketing at Hynix Semiconductor. "Now it is at the
level where DRAM manufacturers can enjoy some profit." 

Optimism, though, is a relative commodity when it comes to the memory business.
Because of the large number of suppliers, the rapid evolution of manufacturing
efficiency, and the fluid nature of the worldwide markets, prices and supplies
are in constant flux. 

In early 2000, executives and analysts predicted shortages and higher prices,
but a sudden decline in PC sales in August 2000 kicked off a historic downward
spiral. From October 2000 to March 2001, prices dropped by about 75 percent.
And instead of hitting a floor, they dropped another 60 percent, forcing some
to sell products for below cost. 

"The thing that drives the DRAM market is FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt. And
we have more FUD today than ever before," Andrew Norwood, an analyst at
Gartner, wrote in an e-mail. 

"Moving pricing from $1 for 128Mb to $5 was relatively easy for PC guys to
accept," Norwood wrote, "as they knew that the DRAM companies were making big
losses. At $5, most people should be making money, so the DRAM vendors are
going to get a lot more push-back as they try to raise pricing higher." 

Reasons for rebound 

Part of the sea change comes from the fact that excess factory capacity is
finally getting soaked up. Japan's Fujitsu and a series of smaller Taiwanese
manufacturers exited the market for PC memory or curtailed production in recent
months. Toshiba sold its U.S. DRAM facilities to Micron Technology in December,
which could further curb production, some sources said. Hynix, the world's
third largest manufacturer, is trying to sell facilities too. 

"There has been capacity that has come off-line," Micron Technology spokesman
Sean Mahoney said. 

Bit production, the number of memory cells produced worldwide, may only
increase 40 percent to 45 percent this year, to 4.2 billion to 4.5 billion
bits. Demand, though, is expected to grow by 55 percent. 

"The supply side is fixed," Quinn said. "If (further) consolidation happens,
supply will be constrained. Otherwise, we will see 40 percent to 45 percent bit
growth." 

The motives of manufacturers have changed as well. In 2001, some manufacturers
appeared to be dropping prices to gain market share or other advantages, said
Jim Sogas, vice president of sales for Elpida. Now the pressure has abated. 

The growing popularity of DDR DRAM is also buoying optimism as manufacturers
can charge more for it than standard SDRAM. Although the memory had been
featured in PCs containing Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon processors,
manufacturing DDR remained a fringe business until last December when Intel
released a chipset, the 845, that allowed PC makers to match Pentium 4 chips
with the faster memory. 

The 845 proved to be a tidal wave. PC makers and motherboard manufacturers
began to stock up on DDR DRAM, driving the price of DDR up rapidly. In
reaction, prices began to climb on SDRAM. Customers began to worry that too
much factory space would be shifted to DDR, so they bulked up on SDRAM. In
December, Samsung managed to raise prices on large orders to PC manufacturers,
Quinn said. It was a symbolic rise, but was followed by subsequent hikes from
Samsung and others. 

DDR popularity isn't expected to abate, either. In 2001, the memory accounted
for less than 5 percent of Samsung's output. In 2002, it will account for 35
percent to 40 percent, while Rambus output will drop to 10 percent from 20
percent to 25 percent. Manufacturers are also working on faster versions,
called DDR 2 and DDR 3, according to documents from Elpida. 

Finally, PC makers helped buoy prices by cramming their computers with
unprecedented amounts of memory during what proved to be a fairly healthy
holiday season. 

"We saw notebooks shipping with 1GB of memory," Tabrizi recalled. "The
introduction of Windows XP also helped," as the new OS requires more memory
than its predecessors to run smoothly. 

However, manufacturers can easily start putting less memory in these boxes if
the price continues to rise. When memory exceeds 8 percent of component costs,
PC makers generally cut back, Quinn said. 

Indeed, Emachines' senior vice president of marketing, Bob Davidson, said the
budget PC maker is already cutting back on memory because customers don't place
a high value on it. When they are buying PCs, they notice that memory is cheap
and refuse to pay extra for it. Instead, Emachines is looking at increasing
hard drive sizes, another cheap upgrade but one consumers will pay for. 


*********************
USA Today
Animated 'Ice Age' takes mammoth step for Fox
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY 

Animation is coming out of the cold and into the cool once more at 20th Century
Fox. After the studio closed the doors on its $100 million animation studio in
Phoenix in 2000 after only six years, it seemed as though any hopes of Fox
chipping away at the Disney-DreamWorks 'toonopoly were permanently frozen.
Turns out their plans were only temporarily put on ice. Or, rather, Ice Age,
Fox's first-ever computer-animated feature that opens Friday.

The brisk prehistoric trip through nature's Big Chill follows a morose woolly
mammoth (voice of Ray Romano, star of sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond), a silly
sloth (John Leguizamo) and a sneaky saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) as they
return a lost human infant to his tribe before they freeze their tails off. 

For Fox, the stakes are higher than Ice's snowy peaks. "This is such an
important movie for Fox," says Robert Bucksbaum of box office tracking firm
Reel Source Inc. "If they make it in animation, they could put out one or two
films a year and have a nice share of the family market."

The studio has done all it can, marketing-wise. Crowd-pleasing teasers
featuring the Scrat, a twitchy rodent with an acorn fixation known as Ice Age's
certain-to-be breakout critter, have had audiences in stitches since June.
Telecasts of the Winter Olympics were jammed with ads. And the new trailer for
Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones will be exclusively attached to Ice
Age in theaters, which is certain to push at least a few teens into the seats
this weekend.

All the strategy just might pay off, especially during the current drought of
kid-friendly fare when even the mediocre likes of Big Fat Liar can squeeze out
$43.4 million in ticket sales. Most analysts predict a substantial Ice flow at
the box office, with an opening as high as $20 million.

Bucksbaum is more enthusiastic, estimating at least a $30 million debut and
more than $100 million total. He even thinks the cartoon will be popular enough
to keep the 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. the Extraterrestial, due March
22, at bay. "Ice Age will be one of the top films this quarter. It's tracking
great with kids and parents."

One parent who is pleased is Romano, a father of four. "There's nothing I like
better than to take the kids to a movie and be entertained myself. Some of
them, you just want to drop them off. Pokémon? That was a drop-off. But
Monsters, Inc. and Shrek have been fun to go to and, hopefully, this is the
same way."

While others like Warner Bros. (Osmosis Jones) and Sony (Final Fantasy)
continue to struggle to join the league of top 'toon players at the movies, Fox
is well on its way to undoing its damaged rep.

When the studio shuttered its much-touted facility, "the public perception was
that we would no longer do animation," admits Christopher Meledandri, Ice Age's
executive producer and head of Fox animation. Understandable, considering that
the studio's second feature, Titan A.E., a $75 million space adventure that
followed the modest success of 1997's Anastasia ($58.3 million at the box
office), crashed on takeoff in 2000, bringing in only $22.7 million.

Says Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman, "The unfortunate reality is, we got into
hand-drawn cel animation at the end of the wave."

Not only that, the studio unwisely attempted to out-Mouse the competition by
overspending and investing in films too similar to Disney's output of romantic
fantasies and action-adventure thrillers.

But thanks to a smart purchase in 1999, the studio now has the wherewithal to
be Fox-y about the genre. The secret weapon: Blue Sky Studios, a once-small
digital company based in White Plains, N.Y., which originally created effects
for commercials and movies (the dancing cockroaches in 1996's Joe's Apartment).

Fox already was in discussions with Blue Sky, which it now owns outright, even
before its creative leader, Ice Age director Chris Wedge, won an Oscar for his
1998 animated short, Bunny. That sweet-sad fable about an elderly lady hare
pursued by a relentless moth impressed with its use of lighting and realistic
depiction of fur, both of which are fully showcased in Ice Age. Says
Meledandri, "The audience believes they are watching living, breathing
characters that they are going to care about, with hearts that beat through all
the fur."

Wedge and Blue Sky have put Fox right on the edge of a cost-saving 'toon trend:
The "boutique" approach  when studios sign up independent producers of
non-traditional animation that are already stocked with talent, technology,
tools and experience.

With even Disney slashing staff (down to about 1,100 after a post-Lion King
peak of 2,200) and the price of doing state-of-the-art animation not getting
any cheaper, such deals are becoming a necessity. Says Disney chief Thomas
Schumacher: "We're still a huge studio, but we are hiring more people on a
project-by-project basis" rather than as full-timers. As he sees it, "it's more
efficient to paint a house with four people than 10 bumping into each other."

Disney kicked off the partner push with Pixar for the first
all-computer-animated feature, Toy Story, back in 1995. DreamWorks has a
five-picture pact with the British stop-motion specialists at Aardman (Chicken
Run) and operates a 3-D division, PDI (Shrek, Antz). Paramount has hooked up
with Austin-based CGI studio DNA (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius). Universal, which
hasn't released a cartoon feature since 1995's Balto, will produce a pair of
digital films, Where the Wild Things Are and The Ant Bully, both with Tom
Hanks' Playtone Productions.

As animation historian Jerry Beck puts it, "They used to treat animation like
an eccentric filmmaker. They want to make a film with Tim Burton, but they
think he's really wacky. Now they hire the experts to do it."

As for Wedge, 44, he is to Blue Sky what jovial John Lasseter is to Pixar and
dry-witted Nick Park is to Aardman, an Academy Award winner whose sense of
humor and humanity sparks Blue Sky's distinctive style. Says Meledandri,
"There's a childlike part of him that manifests itself in seeing the world in a
wonderfully simplistic way, so that an innocence comes through." Adds Rothman,
"He is the real deal."

Wedge, who is proud to be a tech geek, co-founded Blue Sky in 1987 with several
pals who worked on the pioneering computer effects in 1982's Tron. He is as
comfortable discussing "Ray Tracing" (the lighting technique that gives Ice Age
its glacial gleam) as he is talking about character design (more stylized and
"cartoony" than his CG counterparts).

Wedge admits that going into business with a Hollywood animal like Fox wasn't
always easy.

"We feel pressure to adhere to a genre represented by a very small number of
recent movies," says the animator, who was far more influenced by the artistry
of the original King Kong than Snow White. "They are very successful and are to
be respected, but they are not the only ways to tell stories by computer."

Fox gave Wedge some freedom to do it his way, including such zany additions as
a feather-brained flock of doomsday dodos whose idea of survival rations are
three watermelons. But he also was forced to learn the fine art of compromise.
If left to his own devices, he says, Ice Age "would be far less accessible."

But he had his share of victories as well. "The studio was continually pushing
for more comedy. Some instances seemed obvious choices; others I thought, 'This
is a moment to get back to the story.' " While a few kid-oriented poop jokes
slipped through, Wedge drew the line at sexual innuendo. "There was a tug of
war over the tone," he says. "We felt pressure to put in more adult humor." He
won't cite specifics, but one can guess what frisky business might have taken
place during Sid the sloth's hot-tub dunk with a couple of shapely females of
his species.

Meanwhile, the director had to tame the violence and scarier bits. (Ice Age is
rated PG for "mild peril.")

Ice Age may be fresher in its look than its story. (The reluctant buddyship
between mammoth and sloth is not unlike the one that blooms between a certain
green ogre and donkey.) But Wedge is ultimately pleased with the result and is
laboring on Blue Sky's next picture. (Word is that it involves robotic
designs.)

As can be the case with boutique animation, most of the 100 or so Blue Sky
employees hired for Ice Age duties have been laid off, reducing the staff to
the original group of 70. But that doesn't mean Fox is backing off again. It's
just watching the bottom line for a change, especially until the public gets a
chance to warm up to Ice Age.

At some point, Fox may tap its popular TV series such as The Simpsons for
feature animation material. But, for the time being, Rothman sounds as
possessive as the Scrat is of his precious nut as he declares, "We are in the
Chris Wedge business."
***************
USA Today
High-tech equipment helps set sights on enemy

WASHINGTON (AP)  When U.S. special forces troops began directing airstrikes in
Afghanistan, they quickly discovered they needed different equipment to
pinpoint targets.

In less than two weeks, the Pentagon had shipped them high-tech binoculars that
use a laser to calculate the precise coordinates of a target, special forces
commanders told a Senate panel Tuesday.

"As soon as it was approved, we could go out and buy it," said Harry Schulte,
the top purchasing executive for the U.S. Special Operations Command.

The war against terrorism has smoothed the way for American commandos to get
what they need quickly, Schulte and Gen. Charles Holland, head of the special
operations command, told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee.

President Bush's 2003 budget request calls for a 10% increase  about $430
million  in research and development for special forces, the clandestine
operatives who have been at the front lines of the U.S. ground war in
Afghanistan.

The budget proposal also calls for a $350 million increase in money to buy
equipment for special operations forces soldiers, Schulte said.

The overall budget for special operations forces would rise from $4 billion
this year to about $4.9 billion next year under Bush's plan. Both represent
about 1.3% of the overall Pentagon budget.

Schulte and Holland showed off examples of several of the high-tech gadgets
that the commandos use. The new laser range-finder delivered to troops last
October looks like an elongated pair of binoculars. A wire from the
range-finder attaches to a handheld global positioning system unit that
displays the precise coordinates of the target.

The soldiers then use a new radio  which looks like a common walkie-talkie  to
relay the coordinates directly to the pilots who drop satellite-guided bombs
onto the targets. Those new radios replace up to nine separate radios the
commandos once had to use to communicate with each other and with aircraft,
Holland said.

The radio has seen its first combat use in Afghanistan, where it has been
"exceptionally effective," Holland said.

The military is working on a system of robotic explosive sensors to check
vehicles entering military bases in Afghanistan and other countries, Schulte
said. That system should be ready for use in the next several months, he said.

Special operations forces also are involved in developing several other
futuristic technologies, including "high bandwidth" communications to quickly
transfer large amounts of information. Researchers are looking for ways to make
aircraft, vehicles and individual soldiers harder for enemies to detect.

Holland's command is scheduled to take over development of the "advanced
tactical laser," a high-energy laser weapon. The special operations forces are
also researching ways to develop smaller, more powerful batteries to run all of
their high-tech equipment.

"If you're carrying batteries, you're not carrying that much food or water or
ammunition," Schulte said. 
***************
[Note: Battery technology has not changed much since it first came into
existence.]
****************

Federal Computer Week
Locals look to IT in homeland plan

State and local officials called the federal government?s release of a Homeland
Security Advisory System March 12 a good first step to enhance communication,
but expressed concern that local agencies may not have the technology to make
the system useful.

During the past week, the Office of Homeland Security has discussed the
Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) with many state and local officials,
who said the system?s five threat levels and recommended actions will be
particularly important for facilitating coordination between the levels of
government (see ?Homeland threat system released?).

?It gives us the predictability we need to protect our citizens,? said Anthony
Williams, mayor of Washington, D.C. 

?I like it because it has very specific conditions attached to very specific
security levels which we didn?t have before,? said Tom Canady, an assistant
director at the National Center for Rural Law Enforcement and a former FBI
agent.

And the system shows that homeland security director Tom Ridge, formerly the
governor of Pennsylvania, is clearly concerned about the flow of information,
said Rock Regan, who is the president of the National Association of Chief
Information Officers (NASCIO) and the CIO of Connecticut.

But there is a lot more room for improvement as state and local agencies try to
figure out how to get the threat advisory information out, officials said.

NASCIO already is coordinating with the National Governors Association and
their responses will include an information technology component, Regan said.

?We need to make sure the method the federal government uses to alert
communities is one that can be received by every community in the country --
-rural and urban,? said Javier Gonzales, who is the commissioner of Santa Fe
County, N.M., and is also the president of the National Association of Counties
(NACo).

Many county information systems are fragmented and not necessarily designed to
address homeland security issues, and they often do not have e-mail or fax
systems, he said. 

Communication is also an issue for local law enforcement agencies, Canady said.


?There are even local police departments that may not have access, let?s say,
to the Arkansas state crime information and other state systems much less the
[FBI?s National Crime Information Center],? he said. ?As you get into those
rural areas, you?re going to see communication systems that aren?t as up to
date.?

NACo?s various steering committees and its homeland security task force will
also examine the HSAS to respond within Ridge?s 45-day comment period, Gonzales
said.

?The most important thing to recognize is it?s good to have these levels of
alert,? he said. ?But to have it doesn?t necessarily mean our communities have
all the resources to effectively respond.?
****************
Federal Computer Week
Digital MP adds facial recognition 
The Army this week announced that its military police officers have
successfully tested  and soon could be using  facial-recognition technology to
aid them in their duties. 

MicroOptical Engineering Corp. awarded Visionics Corp. a $100,000 subcontract
for the use of Visionics? FaceIt product in a mobile security system that is
part of the Army?s Digital Military Police program. The award follows
successful field trials by military police at Fort Polk, La., testing the
facial-recognition technology for checkpoint operations. 

The Army Digital MP program identifies technologies and promotes the
development of systems that enable the military police to better perform their
jobs.

The cornerstone of the mobile security system is an eyeglass-mounted wearable
camera and display device designed and made by MicroOptical, which awarded the
subcontract to Visionics Feb. 11. 

Joseph Atick, chairman and chief executive officer of Visionics, said this
award signified the second phase of the pilot project  following the Fort Polk
test  and will focus on ?scalability? and making sure the software works on the
Army?s massive platform.

?It?s not about buying licenses and doing deployment because it?s not clear yet
when they?ll be deploying in large numbers,? Atick said. ?This will allow them
to implement our technology into the mobile platformÖthat the Army wants to
standardize on.?

The integrated FaceIt component will enable military police to perform
hands-free facial surveillance, automatically capturing the facial image of an
individual within their field of view and performing a ?one-to-many? match
against a database of known friends and enemies. When a match is made, the
officer receives confirmation of the individual?s status on the display screen
and can decide if further action is necessary, Atick said.

The FaceIt technology provides ?quick and accurate confirmation of an
individual?s statusÖ[that] will greatly increase the safety and effectiveness
of the military police,? said Mark Chandler of the Army?s Soldier Systems
Center in Natick, Mass.

Visionics will complete delivery of its technology to the Army by the end of
this month, Atick said. 

******************
Federal Computer Week
Make a date to get smart card
BY Dan Caterinicchia 
March 13, 2002 Printing? Use this version. 

Air Force personnel nationwide soon will be able to go online to schedule an
appointment to receive a Common Access Card (CAC) using a system developed by
TimeTrade Systems Inc. 
TimeTrade is providing its scheduling and resource management software as part
of the Air Force?s enterprisewide public-key infrastructure implementation.

Everyone working at an Air Force base must schedule an appointment to be issued
a new CAC, which is a secure, multi-application smart card for physical
identification and building and network access. TimeTrade?s technology will be
used for self-service scheduling of these appointments in real time via the
Web, said Ken Coleman, co-founder and executive vice president of TimeTrade. 

The system also will be used to determine the resources required at each step
of the card-creation process, including how many staff members will be needed
daily and ?locating where the bottlenecks are and where the process is
constrained,? Coleman said.  
Program administrators can use the system to monitor the project, report on key
program metrics, and provide overall coordination, he said.

The software will be hosted at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas,
with the first deployment scheduled for next month at Minot Air Force Base in
North Dakota. Other bases will be deployed during the next 18 months.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but TimeTrade implementations
usually cost between $50,000 and $500,000, and ?this is a medium-size deal, but
a very important foot in the door,? Coleman said. 

The Defense Department last month determined that it would not be able to meet
its goal of having the CAC in the hands of all 3.5 million DOD personnel by
October 2002, and instead pushed back the deadline one year.

********************
Federal Computer Week
Search engine pegged at $10.5 M 
BY William Matthews 
March 13, 2002 Printing? Use this version. 
Email this to a friend. 
  
The new search engine selected for the federal Internet portal FirstGov may
cost more than $10.5 million during the next five years, according to a
contract award notice published March 11 by the General Services
Administration.

The total, which is about $700,000 more than the amount GSA cited March 8,
includes money the agency would have to pay if it terminates the contract
early, GSA acquisition chief David Drabkin said. Ultimately, the extra sum may
not have to be paid, he said.

In January, GSA officials estimated the new search engine would cost about $8
million. 

GSA announced March 7 that it is buying search engine services from AT&T and a
Norwegian company, Fast Search & Transfer.

News of the higher price set off a new wave of complaints from losing bidders,
one of whom offered search services for FirstGov at $7.2 million during five
years.

The GSA award notice said that AT&T and its search engine partner, Fast Search
& Transfer of Oslo, offered the federal government the best value in a new
search engine for FirstGov.

However, competing companies, including Inktomi Corp. and Yahoo Portal
Solutions, have demanded "debriefings" from GSA to learn more about why their
bids were rejected. After the debriefings, companies will decide whether to
further challenge the award, one company official said. 

The award notice says GSA will pay AT&T $10,570,303 during five years for
search engine services for FirstGov.

The contract, which was to have been awarded Feb. 28, calls for the winner to
install and test a search engine and be ready to take over FirstGov search
duties April 1. Because the contract was awarded a week late, GSA is
negotiating with AT&T about whether the start date will be moved, Drabkin said.

The search engine must be able to search 51 million federal and state Web pages
in a fraction of a second and retrieve files in a variety of formats, including
PDF, HTML, Extensible Markup Language, plain text and Microsoft Corp.
PowerPoint, Excel and Word.

The new search engine is supposed to provide more relevant search results than
the current Inktomi engine does. In a notice to bidders in January, GSA said a
search for the term "white house," for example, should display the phrase
"George Bush lives in the White House" before it displays "Al's house is also
white."
*****************
The New York Times
March 13, 2002


Microsoft Tries a New Approach to Win Over Europe Regulators

By PAUL MELLER

RUSSELS, March 12  In a bid to reach a settlement of its European antitrust
lawsuit, Microsoft (news/quote) said today that it was about to submit
concessions to address the concerns of the European Commission.

But critics said there was little new in the offer and that it fell far short
of meeting the concerns raised by the commission.

John Frank, Microsoft's senior European counsel, said the company would offer
to license the technology embedded in its Windows operating systems that
computers use to operate together in a server network. One complaint against
Microsoft is that it does not allow rivals access to the technology that would
allow a PC running Windows to work with server software supplied by another
company.

The interoperability question is central to the commission's accusation that
Microsoft is using its dominance of the operating-system-software market to
squeeze out rivals in related software sectors.

"We will explain to the commission how the steps we are taking respond to their
concerns," Mr. Frank said. 

Microsoft will send its proposal to the commission later this week.

He added that other responses would be filed to the European regulator in
coming weeks, but he denied that Microsoft was negotiating. 

"We haven't entered the negotiating phase yet," he said. "We are submitting
comments in response to the commission's statement of objections sent to us in
the summer."

A second accusation made in the statement of objections accused the company of
bundling its Media Player software, which allows a computer to play audio and
video material, with its Windows products. The European regulator told
Microsoft that this practice blocked out rivals.

Mr. Frank said the concessions offered in the United States Justice
Department's case went a long way toward meeting this concern.

Microsoft's opponents accuse the company of a public relations campaign to
create the impression that it is making every effort to find a solution, said
Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

"The most significant thing about what Microsoft is saying isn't the content of
the offer; it is the fact that it is switching to a P.R. approach in its
efforts to fight its case," Mr. Black said. "
**************
The New York Times
March 12, 2002
Special Forces Get High-Tech Gear
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:20 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When U.S. special forces troops began directing airstrikes
in Afghanistan, they quickly discovered they needed different equipment to
pinpoint targets.

In less than two weeks, the Pentagon had shipped them high-tech binoculars that
use a laser to calculate the precise coordinates of a target, special forces
commanders told a Senate panel Tuesday.

``As soon as it was approved, we could go out and buy it,'' said Harry Schulte,
the top purchasing executive for the U.S. Special Operations Command.

The war against terrorism has smoothed the way for American commandos to get
what they need quickly, Schulte and Gen. Charles Holland, head of the special
operations command, told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee.

President Bush's 2003 budget request calls for a 10 percent increase -- about
$430 million -- in research and development for special forces, the clandestine
operatives who have been at the front lines of the U.S. ground war in
Afghanistan.

The budget proposal also calls for a $350 million increase in money to buy
equipment for special operations forces soldiers, Schulte said.

The overall budget for special operations forces would rise from $4 billion
this year to about $4.9 billion next year under Bush's plan. Both represent
about 1.3 percent of the overall Pentagon budget.

Schulte and Holland showed off examples of several of the high-tech gadgets
that the commandos use. The new laser range-finder delivered to troops last
October looks like an elongated pair of binoculars. A wire from the
range-finder attaches to a handheld global positioning system unit that
displays the precise coordinates of the target.

The soldiers then use a new radio -- which looks like a common walkie-talkie --
to relay the coordinates directly to the pilots who drop satellite-guided bombs
onto the targets. Those new radios replace up to nine separate radios the
commandos once had to use to communicate with each other and with aircraft,
Holland said.

The radio has seen its first combat use in Afghanistan, where it has been
``exceptionally effective,'' Holland said.

The military is working on a system of robotic explosive sensors to check
vehicles entering military bases in Afghanistan and other countries, Schulte
said. That system should be ready for use in the next several months, he said.

Special operations forces also are involved in developing several other
futuristic technologies, including ``high bandwidth'' communications to quickly
transfer large amounts of information. Researchers are looking for ways to make
aircraft, vehicles and individual soldiers harder for enemies to detect.

Holland's command is scheduled to take over development of the ``advanced
tactical laser,'' a high-energy laser weapon. The special operations forces are
also researching ways to develop smaller, more powerful batteries to run all of
their high-tech equipment.

``If you're carrying batteries, you're not carrying that much food or water or
ammunition,'' Schulte said.
***************
Computerworld
Analysts: IT managers need to benchmark IT performance
By LUCAS MEARIAN 
(March 12, 2002) 

IT managers' greatest shortfall is that they often fail to communicate their
shops' importance to their companies-- something they're not easily prepared to
do because they don't benchmark assets and projects as a way of measuring their
companies' IT investments, according to Meta Group Inc. analysts today. 

During an hour-long teleconference today that focused on benchmarking IT
portfolio performance and running IT shops like a business, three analysts
focused on IT organizations that made a fundamental commitment to understanding
technology performance and created performance measurement programs. 

It "had a very large impact on their ability to constantly perform and
transform," according to Karen Rubenstrunk, a senior vice president in charge
of executive services at Stamford, Conn.-based Meta Group. 

"What we're talking about is [using] many of the same approaches that are used
in normal portfolio management," she said. "That allows you to have
communications with the business [side] on terms they can understand." 

One example, Rubenstrunk said, could be to discover how server downtime or
system availability affects a company's operations. 

"You ask IT people, and they don't know," she said. "Ask, 'How many customers
are using that system? What are they doing? What is the impact of them not
being able to use it?'" 


Among Rubenstrunk's suggestions: Organize your investments in order to help you
understand what should be used where, figure out what investments are dependent
on one another, and determine what investments are used to run the business or
are currently being created to grow the business. 


"Benchmarking used as a tool is most effective when [you] first use it on
yourself to understand yourself and where you are in your mission, mode,
metrics and maturity," she said. That information can then be used by IT
managers to measure themselves against their peers. 


By following a portfolio management plan, IT managers can better understand the
life cycle of their assets, enabling them to explain to business executives the
difference, for example, in the life cycle of a desktop asset versus the life
cycle of an application asset (usually 18 months vs. five to seven years,
respectively). 


Even an IT shop that benchmarks its IT portfolios may look at only a static
snapshot, comparing it with historical information instead of charting it
constantly against internal progress and industry best practices, said Howard
Rubin, a Meta Group executive vice president and research fellow. 


Rubin cited the example of one company that looked at IT's cost per employee,
income per employee and sales per employee. 


"It showed what they were paying in IT costs per employee, and they were
underperforming in terms of revenue per employee and overperforming on sales
per employee," he said. "The point was the IT investment was targeted more at
supporting sales than profitability." 


Rubin suggested getting online information on industry IT portfolio management
practices "so you're always calibrating yourself against the moving market,
just as you would do with a financial portfolio." That way, he said, you'll be
"always finding market opportunities throughout the year in terms of cost,
price, performance and process." 


Michael Pedersen, senior vice president and a managing director at Meta Group,
said the connection between an IT portfolio and asset measurement leads not
only to an ability to cut costs but also the ability to "align those two
things." 


"You need to go back and say, 'Where is this company, and where does it need to
go? What are some of the things I have to change to reach those objectives?'"
he said. "That's where a measurement program needs to start." 
**************
Computerworld
IT Goes to War


The battlefield of the future will be computerized and networked.

By GARY H. ANTHES 
(March 11, 2002) 
The U.S. Army has seeded a field with antitank mines, but the enemy has managed
to clear a path through the mines and is advancing. But before the tanks can
get very far, mines from some distance away hop into the cleared area.  
ADVERTISEMENT
 
The military calls this a self-healing minefield. The robotic mines, which are
being developed by Sandia National Laboratories, are fitted with radios,
acoustic ranging sensors and communications software that automatically
establishes a network with other mines in the field. When a mine's onboard
computer learns that the minefield has been breached, it coordinates with
nearby mines and then fires a one-cylinder combustion engine connected to a
foot on which it hops to where it's needed most. 

Inspired by fresh lessons from Afghanistan, laboratories across the U.S. are
creating tools for the battlefields of the future. They include such esoterica
as robots that can crawl into caves, sniff out people and explosives, and radio
their findings to U.S. commanders miles away; helmets fitted with
communications gear and computer displays; and bombs that can serve as sensors,
computers and communications devices in the seconds before they explode. 

IT is tying these disparate technologies together for what the U.S. Navy calls
network-centric warfare (NCW). The idea is to link every war-fighting asset so
that information can be quickly shared, analyzed and acted on. 

"It's the ability to aggregate separated combat forces so they become totally
synchronized," says John Robusto, director of NCW at the Naval Air Systems
Command. 

NCW rests on two technological underpinnings. The first is the network itself -
"a self-describing, self-healing, self-annealing network," explains Robusto. 

In this scenario, virtually every military asset, from sensor to ship to
soldier, will have two-way IP ports, and many will communicate on a
peer-to-peer basis. Communications hardware and software will be embedded in
them, and they will automatically add themselves to a wireless network when
they power up, Robusto says. 

"You'll have thousands of these things interacting in mobile, ad hoc,
self-organizing networks," says Carl O'Berry, vice president for strategic
architecture at Boeing Space and Communications in Seal Beach, Calif. "The
networks' membership changes, and the relationship between members may be only
a few milliseconds." 

The company is developing the protocols and software to enable that kind of
communication at its new Boeing Integration Center in Anaheim, Calif. O'Berry
says they will be ready by year's end. 

The second component of NCW is the analysis that's performed on the flood of
information moving through the network. Robusto says the military will use
inferencing engines, agent-based computing and neural networks to turn raw data
into battlefield interpretations and suggested combat actions, or "kill
chains." 

"We'll have an inferencing engine that will say, 'This is a mess of
information, and here's what it might mean,' " Robusto says. "And another one
will say, 'I need to find something - an antiaircraft site or a mobile missile.
Please tell me what things in your sensor network have that information.' " 

Soldiers of Tomorrow 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., says it hopes to develop by
2010 "a high-tech soldier with 20 times the capability of today's warrior." His
helmet will be fitted with wireless communications gear, 3-D visual displays
and software that tells him precisely where he is and where friendly and
unfriendly forces are. The helmet will support voice command retrieval of data
from sensors and other sources using intelligent software agents. 

Meanwhile, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Sandia is developing robots that can operate
in the air, underwater and in hostile battlefield conditions, including
minefields. But building systems that can listen, communicate, think, move and
explode - all while resisting attack - isn't easy, says Rush Robinett, manager
of intelligent systems controls at Sandia. 

"You need multidisciplinary skills - computer science, chemistry, physics,
electrical and mechanical engineering," he says. "You have to change the way
you think about problems." 

Another issue is the expense, Robinett says. If you're going to sacrifice
thousands of robots in a mission, they can't cost tens of thousands of dollars
apiece. Sandia is working with toy companies to see how they can be built at a
low cost. 
****************
BBC
Google hit by link bombers

Popular search site Google is being exploited by some net users to mount
protests and play jokes on their friends. 
The users have found a way to "bomb" Google to improve the rankings of
particular webpages, and ensure a site is near the top of the results for
particular search phrases. 

Before now Google's method of ranking webpages was thought to make it largely
immune to the tactics that many businesses use to improve their position in web
searches. 

Some fear it is only a matter of time before businesses start using the bombing
tactic to influence their standing in search results. 

Bombing run 

Like many other search engines, Google regularly crawls the entire web to find
out just what is out there in cyberspace. 

But, unlike some other search engines, Google does not trust webpages to
accurately summarise what they are about. 

Instead of just looking for keywords, Google also ranks a page's importance by
the number of other sites that link to it and the phrases they use to describe
the link. 

A page that a lot of people have found useful on a particular subject will be
ranked higher than one that no one else refers to. 

Google also rates new webpages and links higher than old sites and referrals. 

By exploiting both these working methods, some net citizens have found a way to
artificially influence the rankings of the webpages that Google returns when
people search for certain phrases. 

First strike 

The practice of influencing Google in this way was first mooted by Adam Mathes
last year. 

Mr Mathes runs a weblog, an online journal of his thoughts and interesting
links he has found. 

He first used a bomb to ensure that whenever anyone typed the phrase
"talentless hack" into Google they got the site of his friend Andy Pressman. 

 
Plight of murdered journalist highlighted with Google bombs
 
The idea of Google-bombing has been taken up by the weblogging community. 

It has started to use the tactic to mount protests and fight the unfair
influence some organisations and individuals have about what is said about them
online. 

There are now many hundreds of net users who maintain online journals and it is
through their collaboration that the bombs can work. 

Famous name 

If a few hundred blogs host the same link and describe it in the same way then,
as far as Google is concerned, the page they refer to is likely to be a good
resource on that subject. 

Because many weblogs always put favourite links on their front page, the links
stay current and Google ranks them higher as a result. 

Blogger David Gallagher has set out to use a bomb to become the most famous
David Gallagher on the net. 

Others have used the bombs to highlight the plight of murdered Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, to raise awareness about unscrupulous companies
exploiting the web for marketing purposes, and to combat bias by some religious
groups. 

Net analysis site Corante has explored the workings of Google bombs in depth.
****************
BBC
Cardboard cards stop Russians drinking

Innovative smart cards have proved a widely popular substitute for cash in the
town of Gorlovo in the Kostroma region of central Russia. 

Usually, you would think of smart cards as pieces of plastic with embedded
memory chips. But the cards in Gorlovo use distinctly non-digital technology. 

They are made out of cardboard and marked with a stamp. 

Gorlovo, like farming communities throughout Russia, has seen its standard of
living fall precipitously since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Money going on vodka 

This cluster of 10 villages ekes out a hand-to mouth existence by producing
dairy products, meat, bread, and selling small amounts of timber. 

While the inhabitants tend to blame capitalism for their worsening economic
condition, they point to another issue as a destructive force in their
community: vodka. 

 
Cards are usually made of plastic
 
Vodka drinking has had such a huge impact on the people of Gorlovo that
families often go without food, as the main wage earners spend all their money
on drink. 

But the community may have been saved from destruction by holding on to the
Soviet-era collective system. Collaboratively, the residents produce and share
enough goods to effectively, if not luxuriously, get by. 

They have also developed an innovative response to the problem of alcoholism. 

Innovative use of cardboard 

Residents are largely paid for their work not in cash, but in a system of
credit specially stamped into cardboard smart cards. 

They can then use their smart cards to purchase food at the local store, along
with other items like cigarettes and chewing gum. 

"It is a matter of children having something to eat or not", said resident
Valentina Koneva. 

The cards have been particularly popular among the women who count on them for
the nutritional well being of their families. 

As the residents of Gorlovo have demonstrated, the success of technology
depends largely on the surroundings in which it is used. 

Digital debit cards may work as cash and passes for the London Underground, or
to make phone calls from a booth throughout the world. But, in the places such
as Gorlovo, cardboard smart cards hold their own as a technologically
successful and innovative interface. 
****************
BBC
Olympic website targets disabled

Athens is claiming an Olympic first this week as organisers for the 2004 Games
unveil what they say is the first website in the Olympic family to meet
international standards for disabled access. 

The main web presence for the next Olympics has undergone a period of intense
re-engineering since launching last year, in order to make it accessible to the
largest possible audience. 

"Everything you fix opens up new audiences, if you do it right it's open to
more browsers to get the information they want," said Athens 2004 head of
interactive Dimitris Paneras. 

While most people online rely on either Microsoft or Netscape software to
navigate, there are more than 25 alternative browsers for people with hearing,
visual, physical or cognitive impairment. 

Sydney sued 

Using a wide range of alternative approaches to the traditional point and click
interface, such as brail screens and synthetic speech, these browsers can make
the web accessible to all. 
"Clarity, ease of use and intuitive navigation - if you build with these aims
in mind it makes the site more fun and more usable for everyone," added Mr
Paneras. 

The key task in making sites accessible is providing alternative text labels
for all visual material. Menus with only visual icons are a stumbling block
that can be overcome using "alt tags" that decipher all the options for the
blind or partially sighted. 

The importance of Web accessibility was highlighted in court to the Olympic
movement two years ago after a law suit was successfully brought against Sydney
organisers (SOCOG) for their site www.olympics.com. 

A private citizen succeeded in winning $20,000 (Aus) in damages, on 6 November,
2001, after a ruling that the Olympics portal caused "unjustifiable hardship"
in failing to meet accessibility standards. 

Salt Lake criticism 

Sydney's Olympic Web site became the hottest destination on the internet for
the duration of the 
Games and Athens is expecting similar record traffic on their pages in two
years' time. 

However, the Greeks insist that pursuit of the biggest audience and not legal
threats have underpinned their efforts to comply with guidelines. 

"It is the right thing to do, the law differs from country to country and this
has not been a legal issue for us," insisted Mr Paneras. 

Salt Lake City Winter Games organisers also attracted strong criticism for
their failure to meet the basic accessibility standards set by Worldwide Web
Consortium (W3C). 

Impressive features on www.slc2002.com such as Flash animated live tracking of
events, meant a rich experience for most visitors but left out others accessing
the site through alternative browsers. 

Pavement problems 

"At 2004 we don't intend to exclude applications based on visual media. But we
do want to find ways such as text commentaries and audio to offer alternatives
as well," explained Mr Paneras. 

World wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, a W3C director, has said: "The power
of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability
is an essential aspect." 

But disabled spectators who make the trip to the Athens Games in 2004 are
likely to find their actual experience fails to match the smoothness of their
virtual visit. 

The overcrowded Greek capital presents a formidable array of obstacles to the
disabled many of which will have to be overcome if the Athens Paralympics that
will follow the main summer Games is to be a success. 

The largest ever contingent of Paralympians is expected and public transport,
chaotic pavements and ageing venues will need a major overhaul to cope. 
*************
BBC
'Web can break Whitehall monopoly'

Former whip Graham Allen says neither the public nor MPs are seriously involved
in putting together new legislation under the current process. 

If we are serious about getting MPs involved, we can be equally serious about
getting the public involved 

Mr Allen wants the rules changed so the public and MPs can join together to
provide an alternative to plans drafted by civil servants and ministers. 

In a Commons debate on Tuesday, he will press for MPs to examine planned new
laws for eight weeks before the proposals formally go before Parliament. 

The public would be able to e-mail their suggestions on how to improve those
plans in a move aimed at producing better laws and giving people more say in
politics. 

'No snap votes' 

Mr Allen told BBC News Online: "If we are serious about getting MPs involved,
we can be equally serious about getting the public involved, but not in a sort
of 'guilty or innocent, press the button B or A'." 

Instead of snap "e-plebiscites", thoughtful contributions could be received
from groups and individuals on keystone issues, he argued. 

Under Mr Allen's plans, MPs' initial discussions on proposed law changes would
be webcast and members of the public invited to send their ideas by e-mail. 

 
Graham Allen does not believe in "e-plebiscites"
 
"If it's about the Child Support Act, you can be sitting in York with fellow
fathers or mothers or whatever group and watch MPs question important
witnesses," Mr Allen said. 

"Then you can e-mail directly or later." 

Officials would sift out the serious suggestions and put them in front of the
MPs. 

Mr Allen stresses the importance of giving proper feedback to members of the
public who do take part, including due credit where ideas become law. 

That process could mean MPs, as part of a partnership with the public, could
produce real alternatives to plans written by Whitehall civil servants. 

New role for MPs 

Some opponents of using the internet in democracy say it leaves out those who
do not have internet access. 

But Mr Allen suggested all those who were part of community and charity groups
were able to get online. 

Mr Allen such pre-legislative scrutiny that would be the first time in his
lifetime that MPs were properly involved in legislation. 

He is pressing for the changes in an adjournment debate in the Commons on
Tuesday evening. 

Commons leader Robin Cook is trying to introduce more scrutiny of legislation
before it is formally debated by Parliament. 

Change hopes 

Mr Cook, who heads the Commons modernisation committee, was "probably the most
enlightened leader of the House in my time in politics", said Mr Allen. 

"I am sure that he will want to consider this very seriously," added the MP. 

A feeling of alienation from the political process is one explanation given the
59% turnout in last year's general election - the lowest since 1918. 

Enabling people to have more influence between elections is seen as one way of
tackling that problem.
*****************



Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 507
1100 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036-4632
202-659-9711