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ACM TechNews - Friday, March 22, 2002



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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 326
Date: March 22, 2002

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Top Stories for Friday, March 22, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"An IT National Guard?"
"Hollings Proposes Copyright Defense"
"FBI Weighs Fate of Cyber Security Arm"
"Software Pirates Face Brig Time, Angering Critics"
"Just Don't Call It a Hacker Camp"
"'You'll Puree Because I Said So'"
"Big Potential From Small Things"
"First Woman Named Chair of Internet Architecture Board"
"How Will USA Get More Fiber in Its Telecom Diet?"
"Bill Proposes IT Worker Swap"
"'Social Engineering' Spreads New Plague of Web Chat Viruses"
"A Concrete That Percolates, Keeping Snow and Spies at Bay"
"Bridgestone Develops Nanotech Display"
"Where Are All the Bright Ideas?"
"Global Police Can't Cope With Savvy Cyber Criminals"
"Virginia to Nix Key UCITA Provision"
"Tongues of the Web"
"Where High Tech Measures Up"
"Why Nanotechnology May Arrive Sooner than Expected"

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

"An IT National Guard?"
A new bill introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and George
Allen (R-Va.) would allow members of the private science and
technology community to contribute to the prevention and response
to emergencies that involve technology and communications ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item1

"Hollings Proposes Copyright Defense"
The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act
introduced yesterday by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen.
Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) would require electronics manufacturers
to install anti-copying safeguards in new hardware and software. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item2

"FBI Weighs Fate of Cyber Security Arm"
Statements that the FBI is considering changes at the National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) have sparked worries that
the bureau is planning to restructure or disband the
organization.  Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote that FBI ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item3

"Software Pirates Face Brig Time, Angering Critics"
Robin Rothberg and 16 other members of his Pirates With Attitude
software-piracy organization could face more than two years of
jail time for online software swapping, and critics are up in
arms.  Pirating software for purely recreational purposes, as ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item4

"Just Don't Call It a Hacker Camp"
White Hat Technologies is planning a summer camp where teenage
computer enthusiasts can learn network security basics and the ethics
of hacking, but CEO Thubten Comerford says he will stop referring
to the place as a "Hacker Summer Camp" because of the negative ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item5

"'You'll Puree Because I Said So'"
Voice activation is becoming a more popular feature in everyday
appliances around the home as a function of the technology's
decreasing cost and increasing sophistication.  Chips that enable
voice commands have dropped dramatically in price, with specialty ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item6

"Big Potential From Small Things"
Nanotechnology--the science of manipulating atoms or molecules to
form new materials--is gaining favor and investors as it moves
from the realm of science fiction to scientific possibility.
"The debate has shifted from 'Will it happen?' to 'When will it ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item7

"First Woman Named Chair of Internet Architecture Board"
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has named Leslie
Daigle as the new IETF Internet Architecture Board (IAB) chair.
Daigle, who works at VeriSign, has pioneering expertise in the
fields of search engines, directory services, and Web services, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item8

"How Will USA Get More Fiber in Its Telecom Diet?"
In as little as five years the United States could be facing a
shortage in telecommunications capacity, which would cause prices
to rise in nearly all sectors and push alternative technologies
to the fore.  The situation that is currently shaping up, say ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item9

"Bill Proposes IT Worker Swap"
When House members return from spring break in April, they will
vote on a proposal to create a program in which IT workers from
both the federal and private sectors will swap jobs for a
temporary period.  Such an initiative would offer relief from a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item10

"'Social Engineering' Spreads New Plague of Web Chat Viruses"
Hackers have taken to instant messaging and Internet Relay Chat
networks to spread viruses and malicious code, according to
security experts.  The CERT group at Carnegie Mellon University
reports that tens of thousands of user systems have been infected ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item11

"A Concrete That Percolates, Keeping Snow and Spies at Bay"
Scientists at the National Research Council of Canada have hit
upon a form of concrete that can conduct electricity while
retaining its structural integrity.  This property, which James
J. Beaudoin of the council's Institute of Research in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item12

"Bridgestone Develops Nanotech Display"
Bridgestone, the Japanese tire maker, says it has developed a
special material that will halve the cost of displays and consume
just a small fraction of the power used by current liquid crystal
displays (LCDs).  A spokesman for the firm said the company had ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item13

"Where Are All the Bright Ideas?"
The economic slowdown has hampered innovation in technology
because large companies are reticent about experimenting with new
research and venture capitalists are wary of funding uncertain
technology concerns.  "Innovation is a state of mind: the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item14

"Global Police Can't Cope With Savvy Cyber Criminals"
Speaking at a conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday, FBI assistant
director Ronald Eldon told gatherers that rapidly changing
technology has made it imperative that various countries share
their information about cyber threats.  Criminals are taking ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item15

"Virginia to Nix Key UCITA Provision"
Virginia has cancelled an important provision in the Uniform
Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), strengthening
software vendors' control over contracts.  The provision, which
the insurance industry fought especially hard for two years ago ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item16

"Tongues of the Web"
The Internet has helped highlight the usefulness of machine
translation (MT), a technology that has improved very little
since the 1970s.  With the emergence of the World Wide Web,
companies realize there will be people who communicate in other ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item17

"Where High Tech Measures Up"
New director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) Arden Bement has made it a priority to have
more people recognize his agency's contributions to the country's
quality of life.  Raising NIST's profile will help garner ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item18

"Why Nanotechnology May Arrive Sooner than Expected"
The progress of nanotechnology and the applications that stem
from it is going forward thanks to the development of technology
that helps scientists clearly understand and direct atomic
behavior; indeed, the nanotech era may arrive sooner than ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0322f.html#item19

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