Clips April 17, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips April 17, 2002

ARTICLES

Ashcroft Calls For New Laws, Resources To Fight Child Porn
Ban on 'Virtual' Child Porn Is Upset by Court
Hidden Bedroom Cameras Inspire Video Privacy Bill 
The Phraselator - Translation System Put to the Test in Afghanistan 
Harris to defend Army computers
Intranet open for victim notification
Lab helps cities prep for terror
Ports to Require Photo IDs
OMB allocates $4.1 million of e-gov fund 
Deal reached to combat digital piracy
Group OKs Web Site Privacy System
New York's Natural History Museum Pioneers Use of Internet2
Proposal Sets National Rules For State IDs 
Discovery Plans to Launch High-Definition TV in June 
Border tech bill on fast track
Modular PC Downsizes the Computer
Reawakening the creative mind
Children get impatient on the net
Web is the future for business
NIST opens new round of ATP competitions 
Google protects its search results
CompuServe switches browsers 

*******************
Newsbytes
Ashcroft Calls For New Laws, Resources To Fight Child Porn

Reacting to a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning portions of a law
designed to curtail child pornography, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said
today he is committed to working with Congress to craft new anti-porn laws. 

The announcement came shortly after the high court struck down the bulk of the
Child Pornography Prevention Act, which made it illegal to possess or
distribute computer-generated or enhanced images that appear to show children
engaged in sex acts. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the law was overly broad
and unconstitutional.

In a news conference this afternoon, Ashcroft said he was "disappointed" yet
"undeterred" by the decision. 

"I am committed to working with the Congress to develop strong measures to
fight child pornography that will survive judicial scrutiny," Ashcroft said. "I
believe today's opinion and the constitution leave open legislative avenues to
protecting our children from harm and we will seek to develop the means to do
so." 

The attorney general pledged to work with U.S. attorneys' offices around the
country "to ensure that today's ruling affects as few of our pending child
pornography cases as possible." Toward that end, the Justice Department plans
to pursue such cases under existing obscenity laws. 

"I would warn the child pornographers and others who exploit our children that
they will find little refuge in today's decision," Ashcroft said. "We will
continue to use every available resource to identify, investigate and prosecute
child pornography cases to the fullest extent of the law." 

Ashcroft also said he had ordered the Justice Department to revise its rules
for conducting child pornography investigations. Since 1998, the agency's Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section has had to seek prior approval of the local
U.S. Attorney's office before beginning an child porn investigation in a
specific district. Today's revision waives that requirement. 

The DOJ's Criminal Division has also allocated nearly $1 million to hire five
new investigators and two prosecutors to pursue child pornography on the
Internet, Ashcroft said. 

Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1996, in response to
the emergence of technologies that allow pornographers to create images that
look like child pornography by digitally superimposing children's faces upon
adults engaged in sex acts. 

The Free Speech Coalition, a group of adult content companies, immediately
challenged the law, saying it could outlaw works such as the Academy Award
Winning movies "Traffic," and "American Beauty." 

A federal court initially upheld the statute, ruling that CPPA was consistent
with the federal government's role in protecting kids from sexual exploitation.
But in 1999, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Free Speech
Coalition, saying the law was vague enough to endanger constitutionally
protected free speech. 

In response, a coalition of conservative lobbying groups led by the National
Law Center for Children and Families and the Family Research Council asked the
high court to hear the case. 

In defending the case, the Justice Department had argued that
computer-generated child pornography serves to whet the sexual appetite of
pedophiles, who could then be incited to deviate from their erstwhile virtual
kiddie-porn habits to abusing real children. 

The government also presented experts who testified that in some cases it may
be virtually impossible to distinguish between actual child pornography and
digitally manipulated images. 

But the government "showed no more than a remote connection between speech that
might encourage thoughts or impulses and any resulting child abuse," Justice
Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for himself and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, and David H. Souter. 

The majority opinion concluded that current law prohibits the government from
banning unprotected speech "if a substantial amount of protected speech is
prohibited or chilled in the process." 

Justice Clarence Thomas issued a separate brief to concur with that opinion.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed in part and dissented in part on the
majority's decision, and was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and
Justice Antonin Scalia. 

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com 
***********************
Los Angeles Times
Ban on 'Virtual' Child Porn Is Upset by Court
Law: U.S. justices, in defending free speech, rule the government can't make it
a crime to show sexual images that "appear to be" children.
By DAVID G. SAVAGE
Times Staff Writer

April 17 2002

WASHINGTON -- In a surprisingly strong defense of the right to free speech, the
Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down part of the federal child pornography law
that makes it a crime to sell or own images of computer-created children
engaged in sex. 

The justices also said the 1st Amendment shields films and photographs that
show adult actors who "appear to be minors" involved in sex. 

In both instances, the court said, in a 6-3 vote, that Congress had gone too
far in a laudable effort to stamp out child pornography. 

"The sexual abuse of a child is a most serious crime, and an act repugnant to
the moral instincts of a decent people," said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. 

But no real children were portrayed in the photographs and films at issue in
Tuesday's decision, he said. The government cannot make it a crime to show
sexual images that only "appear to be" children without threatening legitimate
filmmakers, photographers and advertisers, he said. 

Award-winning Hollywood films such as "Traffic" and "American Beauty" could be
subject to prosecution, Kennedy said, if the law were applied literally. Those
films contain scenes of sexuality featuring adult actors portraying underage
characters. 

Tuesday's ruling creates an immunity for a new generation of "virtual"
pornographers who rely entirely on computer images. So long as no real children
are portrayedor "morphed" into a sex scenethe image, film or photograph cannot
be prosecuted as child pornography, the court said. 

There is one exception. A truly obscene work can be prosecuted as a crime, the
court noted, since obscenity is outside the protections of the 1st Amendment. 

But it is hard to win an obscenity case, and prosecutions are rare. To win such
a case, the government must convince a jury that a film is sexually graphic,
"patently offensive" and lacks any other redeeming value. 

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft condemned the court's ruling, saying it would make the
prosecution of child pornography "immeasurably more difficult." 

Where possible, the attorney general said prosecutors will "pursue general
obscenity charges" against virtual child pornographers. 

"I am committed to working with the Congress to develop strong measures to
fight child pornography that will survive judicial scrutiny," he added. 

Lott Sees Attempt to Change the Law

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said an effort will be made to
revise the law so that it passes constitutional muster. "Clearly there is a
desire and a need to have laws on the books in that area," he said. 

Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri, was among the lawmakers who pressed for
the passage of the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1996. 

That measure broadened the definition of child pornography to include any
"visual depiction that is, or appears to be, a minor engaging in sexually
explicit conduct." Moreover, visual depiction was redefined to include a
"computer-generated image or picture." 

Lawmakers were determined to bring the full weight of federal criminal law
against those who used new computer technology to create realistic images of
children and teenagers engaged in sex acts. 

These images were offensive in themselves, they said, and could be used to
"whet the appetites of pedophiles and child sexual abusers." A first-time
offender could receive up to 15 years in prison. 

But the new law pushed the boundaries of the free-speech protections set by the
Supreme Court. 

In the past, in opinions written by the late Justice Byron R. White, the court
said that all child pornography could be made illegal because it exploited
children. 

The Free Speech Coalition, a California trade association for the adult
entertainment industry, went to federal court in San Francisco to challenge the
new law on the grounds that real children were not being exploited. 

Photographers, filmmakers and bookstore owners joined the challenge and claimed
they feared possible prosecution over depictions that might be seen as
involving minors. 

A federal judge rejected their claim as farfetched, but the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals agreed with it on a 2-1 vote. The law cannot make it a crime
to show "images of fictitious children engaged in imaginary" sex acts, the
panel said. 

The Supreme Court took up the government's appeal in the case of Ashcroft vs.
Free Speech Coalition, 00-795, and in an unexpected move, affirmed the ruling
of the 9th Circuit. 

Kennedy said that at least since the days of William Shakespeare and his "Romeo
and Juliet," the romances of the young have been a recurring theme in
literature, drama and movies. 

"The visual depiction of an ideathat of teenagers engaging in sexual activityis
a fact of modern society," he wrote. If prosecutors were free to bring criminal
charges in all such cases, it would certainly chill filmmakers and
photographers, he said. 

Pedophile Argument Is Dismissed

In truth, the Justice Department was not likely to bring charges against a
Hollywood film studio. But the Supreme Court regularly strikes down laws that
infringe on freedom of speech, even if no prosecutions were brought. 

Kennedy also rejected the government's argument that virtual child pornography
can be banned because it is used by pedophiles to lure children into sexual
activity. "There are many things innocent in themselves, such as cartoons,
video games and candy, that might be used for immoral purposes, yet we would
not expect those to be prohibited because they can be misused," he wrote. 

He stressed, however, that the government remains free to prosecute those who
make, sell or own sexually explicit images of real children that are "morphed"
into sex scenes. The 1996 law also prohibits images that are "adapted or
modified" so that it appears a minor is engaged in sex, and that portion of the
law went unchallenged. 

But federal prosecutors feared that they will have a hard time proving that
children portrayed on an Internet sex site, for example, are real children and
not computer-created images. In the end, the Supreme Court's opinion does not
answer that concern. 

Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G.
Breyer joined Kennedy's opinion. 

Justice Clarence Thomas concurred in the result and said the government can
still bring successful prosecutions by showing real children were involved. 

Rehnquist, Scalia Back Narrow Reading

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed the law went too far by covering
young-looking actors in films. But she said she would have upheld the ban on
computer-generated child pornography. 

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, saying
the law should have been read narrowly and upheld. 

In particular, the chief justice said that even after the law took effect
filmmakers produced movies such as "Traffic" without apparent fear of criminal
prosecution. 

"The chill felt by the court has apparently never been felt by those who
actually make movies," Rehnquist said. 

In Hollywood, the Directors Guild of America praised the decision. "From 'Romeo
and Juliet' to 'American Beauty' and 'Traffic,' artists have told stories that
included allusions of adolescent sexuality, stories which have enriched our
lives," said DGA President Martha Coolidge. 

Coolidge, whose films include the teen comedies "Valley Girl" and "Real
Genius," said, "Every American would suffer the loss of freedom if this
overzealous governmental intrusion into our rights of expression had been
allowed to stand."
********************
Reuters
Hidden Bedroom Cameras Inspire Video Privacy Bill 
Tue Apr 16, 5:46 PM ET 
By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hidden video cameras in bedrooms, bathrooms and other
private places would be outlawed under a bill introduced in Congress on Tuesday
that would also limit pornographic Web sites to an online red-light district. 

  
Television star Angie Harmon and privacy activist Susan Wilson joined Louisiana
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to announce a bill that would make it illegal to
film someone for a "lewd or lascivious purpose" without that person's consent. 

Violators would face an unspecified fine and up to three years of jail time, or
10 years if the filmed subject was under 18. 

The bill would not apply to security cameras in private places such as
department store dressing rooms, nor would it penalize those filming on city
streets or other public places where privacy does not exist. 

Landrieu said she wrote the bill after hearing from Wilson, a Monroe,
Louisiana, homemaker who found hidden video cameras above her bed and in her
shower nearly four years ago. 

Wilson found she could not pursue criminal charges against the voyeur because
secret video taping, unlike audio surveillance, is illegal in only a handful of
states. 

"It's an outrageous, outrageous violation of someone's privacy and it's
outrageous we don't have laws prohibiting this," Landrieu said. 

Harmon, best known for her role on the hit TV series "Law and Order," played
Wilson in a TV movie for the Lifetime network. 

A privacy expert said the bill would provide a needed update to existing laws,
but should be extended to cover potential abuses by government or private
surveillance systems. 

"It's getting to the point where every aspect of our lives is now subject to
this kind of surveillance ... and there's a lack of procedures governing the
use of that technology," said David Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic
Privacy Information Center. 

ADULTS-ONLY INTERNET DOMAIN 

The bill would also require Web sites containing pornography, hate speech or
other material deemed harmful to minors to give up their ".com" Web addresses
and register under an adults-only Internet domain such as ".prn." 

Such an approach could prove troublesome, as other congressional attempts to
regulate online content have been struck down in the courts or run aground on
free-speech concerns. Moreover, Internet domains are created and approved not
by the U.S. Congress but by an independent, international body. 

A bill approved last week by the House of Representatives Commerce Committee
would seek to protect children from inappropriate online content by creating a
kid-safe Internet space within the United States' ".us" domain. 

A House staffer who has worked on the issue said that Commerce Committee
members decided their approach was workable because it would not limit speech
online, nor would it seek to impose U.S. decency standards on other countries. 
*********************
Washington Post
The Phraselator 
Translation System Put to the Test in Afghanistan 
Rob Terry
Washington Techway Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 16, 2002; 8:30 AM 

About 500 of them were shipped to Afghanistan in late March. Bill Gates
apparently wants one. And former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sampled
its Russian at a recent wireless communications conference. 

The device is the Phraselator, a hand-held computer that translates more than
1,000 spoken English phrases into other languages. Developed by a consortium of
companies, including two regional businesses, with roughly $1 million in grants
from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the wireless device is
being used by peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan to communicate in Arabic,
Urdu, Pashto and Dari. 

Company executives envision commercial uses for the product in public safety,
hospital care and education. But the homeland security effort is what cut
months out of the development effort to get a prototype shipped  136 days from
U.S. shores to the front lines, according to Applied Data Systems in Columbia,
which designed and built the Phraselator?s computing platform and implemented
the operating system. 

?That was always paramount in the design process, that this is not going to be
used on the sofa reading your e-mail or playing video games. This is going to
be used in a very harsh environment,? says Applied Data Systems CEO Bob Olsen. 

That awareness came largely from Ace Sarich, a former Navy SEAL and principal
engineer with Annapolis-based Marine Acoustics. Sarich  who was in Afghanistan
and unavailable for an interview  designed the computer-based phrase
translation system through his DARPA contract work. 

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks placed new urgency in going from crude prototype
to fully functioning PDA. That meant working through four prototypes to smooth
out the audio system and its power source  it runs on rechargeable or AA
batteries  and input a versatile library of phrases like ?Hello, may I help
you? and ?Stop or I?ll shoot,? played in sound files of native speakers. 

Applied Data Systems built the platform by integrating speech recognition
software from Menlo Park, Calif.-based SRI International, chips from Intel and
the operating system from Microsoft (hence Bill Gates? interest in the device).


Sarich has launched a sister company called VoxTec to further develop and
market the Phraselator. 

Military analysts say the device should help U.S. troops because they?ve lacked
foreign language skills. Desert Storm peacekeeping troops found themselves
overwhelmed by mass surrenders, and the language gap slowed doctors? attempts
to tend to the sick and injured. Some of them fashioned communications devices
with laptop computers and WAV files. 

?It?s certainly a quantum leap from the phrase books the troops were issued
back during the 20th century,? says John Pike, a military analyst with
Globalsecurity.org in Alexandria. 

Analysts also say the Phraselator is limited because it only understands
English and doesn?t translate other languages into English. The real promise is
in such two-way communications systems, which could be anywhere from three to
10 years from fruition, depending on whom you ask. 

?So much of communication is eye contact and body language,? Lawrence Ricci,
Applied Data Systems? director of business development, concedes. ?Having this
little gadget in your hand lets you maintain that.?
*********************
Federal Computer Week
Harris to defend Army computers

The Army announced April 15 that it has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract
to Harris Corp. to help protect its worldwide computer networks from
cyberthreats.

The award calls for deploying Harris' Security Threat Avoidance Technology
(STAT) Scanner on more than 1.5 million Army workstations worldwide. The work
to install the vulnerability assessment tool is already under way, according to
a company spokesman.

STAT Scanner provides network administrators with an analysis of all
vulnerabilities, details about the risk level of each vulnerability and
remediation of detected weaknesses. The product features enterprise reporting
to enable officers to monitor the vulnerability analysis results of systems
under their command, according to the Melbourne, Fla.-based company.

Under terms of the contract, which was awarded last month, STAT Scanner will be
used to detect vulnerabilities in active-duty and reserve Army computer
networks. Myriad systems are scheduled to be covered including:

* Strategic networks  post, camp and station computers.

* Tactical networks. 

* Mobile Subscriber Equipment networks (microwave radio system).

* The Army's Tactical Internet, including direct applicability to the
Warfighter Information Network-Tactical. 

STAT Scanner searches for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp. Windows NT,
Windows 2000/XP, Linux and Unix operating platforms, assessing more than 1,400
network security vulnerabilities and automatically repairing many of them.

The Army contract also requires Harris to provide maintenance services for
three years.

In addition to Scanner, the STAT product suite includes: Neutralizer, a
behavior-based intrusion-prevention tool that stops security threats, and
Analyzer, a network security risk assessment tool that automates and
streamlines the network security assessment process.
********************
Federal Computer Week
Intranet open for victim notification

The Justice Department now has a Web-based system to notify victims of federal
crimes about changes in the status of their cases, AT&T announced April 15.

The national Victim Notification System is a collaborative effort among the
FBI, the U.S. Attorneys' offices and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Victims of
crime can register with the system to receive notification about such things as
court proceedings and information about the release of a defendant.

Justice awarded the contract to GRC International Inc., an AT&T subsidiary, in
August 2000. An automated call center that is part of the project opened last
year.

The new Web-based system includes a secure intranet site for the federal
victims and witness coordinators to enter information. It also has a
centralized system to provide automated notification to the victims by letter,
e-mail, fax or pager. 

Automating these functions will provide more time for the coordinators to work
with victims and other agencies, according to AT&T.
******************
Federal Computer Week
Lab helps cities prep for terror

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Public Technology Inc. are
partnering in an initiative to enhance local governments' ability to monitor,
detect and report chemical and biological releases in the atmosphere.

The multiyear initiative called LINC  which stands for the Local Integration of
the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center with Cities  will help local
agencies prepare for and respond to urban terrorist attacks involving chemicals
and biological weapons.

Livermore, (www.llnl.gov) an Energy Department laboratory based in California,
began preparations with Seattle about four to five weeks ago in a pilot
program, said Donald Ermak, the national laboratory's Atmospheric Release
Assessment Programs leader. 

The laboratory is assessing the capabilities of Seattle's fire department,
emergency operations center, hazardous material units and mobile command
centers. Based on that assessment, the laboratory will provide the city with
Web-based tools and databases that map and predict the probable spread of
hazardous material at multiple sites.

"We want to wed what we have with what they already have," Ermak said, adding
that it will take about six months to fully implement the system in Seattle.

After this initial phase, Ermak said the national laboratory would identify
regions where the system could support multiple jurisdictions. The third phase
would involve incorporating the federal and state governments.

The project began about 18 months ago when representatives from Public
Technology Inc. ({http://www.pti.org} www.pti.org)  the technology arm of the
National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and the
International City/County Management Association  visited Livermore to see what
technologies could be used in municipalities, Ermak said.

Ermak and several other Energy officials presented LINC and other emerging
technologies at PTI's annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., last week.
******************
Los Angeles Times
Ports to Require Photo IDs
Security: L.A. mayor's task force, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, develops
the plan after six months of effort.
By LOUIS SAHAGUN
TIMES STAFF WRITER

April 17 2002

After six months of effort, Mayor James K. Hahn's task force on waterfront
security has devised a plan to protect the nation's busiest port complex: Port
visitors will have to show a valid photo ID, such as a driver's license.

The system, to be implemented May 1, will not include the background checks on
all dockworkers and truck drivers that Hahn called for shortly after Sept. 11
as part of a plan to protect the seaport from terrorist attacks.

"Some people are going to be disappointed" with the plan, said Capt. J.M.
Holmes, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard at the ports of Los Angeles
and Long Beach and a member of the mayor's task force. "But it's an important
first step in changing the culture of our ports, which right now are
vulnerable," he said.

"Are we ever going to be getting a formal port-wide identification system? Yes.
Eventually," Holmes said.

Hahn was unavailable for comment. But Troy Edwards, deputy mayor for special
projects, said, "The mayor is very, very disappointed. This is not what Mayor
Hahn envisioned. He expected the stakeholders to work together on an
identification system with real teeth.

"The mayor thinks the task force and U.S. Coast Guard should be further along
than they are now," he said.

"But this matter is not over," Edwards said. "They have to redouble their
efforts, bear down, come up with an agreement and implement it."

Hahn assembled the 18-member task force in October to develop a comprehensive
system to upgrade security at the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,
which together handle about 5,000 vessels a year ferrying cargo valued at $200
billion.

The centerpiece was to be a foolproof method to confirm the identities of the
25,000 people who do business at the ports each day.

Of particular concern are the thousands of trucks owned by mostly independent
drivers who haul nearly 5 million containers a year from the harbor to train
yards 20 miles to the north and retail outlets across the country.

Authorities must know, Hahn demanded last fall, "who the drivers are, what they
are bringing into the ports and where it came from."

Although Congress already was struggling to craft legislation on criminal
background checks for waterfront workers, the task force hoped to be the first
to forge procedures that would become a national model.

Almost immediately, however, conflicts over turf and politics emerged among
groups that have long been at odds. Unions and employers could not agree.
Neither could the cities and ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Local, state
and federal agencies had differing agendas. And shipping and railroad companies
wondered who would pay for it all.

The task force has yet to reach a consensus on two fundamental questions: Who
will pay for a proposed identification system that will cost about $25 million
to implement? Who will control its databases?

The panel's members also have tangled on a range of other issues.

The Port of Long Beach, for example, takes exception to Hahn's demands that
Port of Los Angeles officials hammer out local security measures while Congress
is working on a program that would apply to all ports nationwide.

"We're reluctant to put something in place only to have it superseded by a
federal plan later," said Fausto Capobianco, spokesman for the Port of Long
Beach. "We think that's bad business."

Separately, the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which is
represented on the task force, opposes background checks as violations of
privacy that could lead to dismissals of people who have worked on the docks
for decades with spotless employment records.

'Failure Is Not an Option'

As if all that were not enough, task force members hesitate to make any changes
that might slow commerce at the harbor, which supplies the Chicago area alone
with 60% of its imported goods.

"One mistake on our part could affect the economy of the entire nation--failure
is not an option," Holmes said.

"I don't want to be known as the guy who forced closure of an auto plant in
Ohio," Holmes said.

Facing continued gridlock, and fearing complacency if action isn't taken soon,
the task force has decided to "do something we could all agree on," said Los
Angeles Port Police Chief Noel Cunningham.

"Reaching this point has been a very, very difficult and complicated process,"
he said.

"We're going to move ahead in phases, doing the simple things first," he said.

Under "phase one," all port workers and truck drivers will have to show a valid
photo ID at existing checkpoints to labor near volatile and toxic materials,
cargo vessels and military equipment.

In addition, the port police will be expanded by about 25% to roughly 70
officers, and a consulting firm will be hired to determine, among other things,
the extent of the background checks that might be administered at some future
date under "phase two."

"We will be conducting background checks on some people working on or near the
most sensitive locations," Cunningham said.

"But it would not be necessary or practical, and could hurt relationships
between union workers and their employers, if everybody got them," he said.

"We want to keep Big Brother from prescribing a program that won't work," he
said.

Harbor Commission President Nick Tonsich, who was appointed by Hahn, predicted
that eventually, "as we move along with phase two, all of the mayor's goals
will be achieved."

Role of the Port Police

"Phase two will kick in once we reach a consensus over who will be in charge of
the security system," Tonsich said.

"It may be more economical to let the Los Angeles Port Police do it," he said.

Given the competitive dynamics of port matters, no one can say if even that
plan would be amenable to all stakeholders.

"Would I like to see these security matters move faster? Yeah," Holmes said.
"Can we move more quickly on them? Nope."
*********************
San Francisco Chronicle
Conference on privacy opens in S.F.

In 1991, computer users, civil libertarians and law enforcement gathered in
Burlingame to discuss their fears of an Orwellian future where law enforcement
and corporations would use technology to spy on ordinary citizens. 

Now that some of those fears have come true -- and unforeseen issues have
arisen -- the Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy has returned to the
Bay Area to open its 12th annual meeting today in San Francisco. 

"This year, the big thing is the changes that we have had as a result of Sept.
11," said Lorrie Cranor, a security and privacy researcher for AT&T who serves
as an adviser to the conference. 

Participants -- who include industry and government representatives as well as
privacy and freedom advocates -- will examine how the USA Patriot Act, the
security bill passed in response to the terrorist attacks, may affect privacy,
even in the seemingly unrelated area of health care records. 

They will discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of using a national identity
card system to keep terrorists out of the country. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation, an online civil liberties organization based in San Francisco, will
talk about how the new emphasis on security has limited the amount of
government information available to citizens. 

Privacy in the face of corporate marketing is still a hot topic. Yesterday,
P3P, a system to help Internet users understand how each Web site uses personal
data, received final approval. 

Today, U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris will describe
the privacy campaign his agency has been waging during the past six months. The
FTC has cracked down on marketers making fraudulent claims via junk e-mail and
telemarketing, and is working on a national "do not call" list to protect
consumers from phone sales pitches. 

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will speak today about consumer
privacy. 

As the conference continues tomorrow and Friday, another contentious topic is
likely to be intellectual property in the digital age -- the same controversy
that brought Redwood City firm Napster into the limelight in 2000. A new
brouhaha has been growing in recent months, as the entertainment and technology
industries have squabbled over technology that enables users to copy movies and
CDs. 

Tomorrow, the inimitable Big Brother Awards will be handed out. These
tongue-in-cheek honors -- along with statuettes depicting a boot stomping a
human head -- are given to those designated enemies of personal privacy by the
British nonprofit group Privacy International. Past "winners" have been the
FDIC, for its Know Your Customer initiative, compelling banks to report unusual
transactions; Web advertising agency DoubleClick; and former Rep. Bill
McCollum, R-Fla., for supporting surveillance initiatives.
**********************
Government Computer News
OMB allocates $4.1 million of e-gov fund 
By Jason Miller 

The Office of Management and Budget soon will dole out $4.1 million to a trio
of e-government programs, the FirstGov project and to an effort to educate
agencies about managing change. 

The money is part of the $5 million e-government fund that Congress
appropriated for this fiscal year. The General Services Administration, which
manages the e-government fund, sent the House and Senate Appropriations
committees a March 25 letter outlining the OMB spending plan. 

The bulk of the money, $3.5 million, will go to the e-government projects:
GSA?s E-Authentication project will receive $2 million; the Labor Department?s
GovBenefits.gov will get $800,000; and the Small Business Administration?s
One-Stop Business Compliance will collect $740,000, an official familiar with
the letter said. 

FirstGov is slated to receive $400,000 for content management software. OMB
also plans to spend $100,000 to create a program to educate agencies on project
management, technical planning and performance metrics use. 

One project manager said agencies do not have access to the money yet. 

OMB has about $900,000 left. Mark Forman, OMB associate director for
e-government and IT, has said the agency would hold back some funds for a later
project.
*********************
Associated Press
New Orleans Mayor Sees Web As Tool 
Wed Apr 17, 3:09 AM ET 
By BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The incoming mayor is employing high-tech hiring tactics in
a city where old-style patronage has long ruled: People are invited to apply
for the city's top jobs at popular Web sites such as Monster.com.

Ray Nagin, who was a regional cable television executive and political unknown
just months ago, has pledged to make New Orleans more business-friendly, and
says he wants to start by creating a modern, customer-friendly City Hall.

"Ray has a whole different approach because he comes straight from the
corporate world," said Flo Schornstein, a retired city parks director who has
joined Nagin's transition team.

"And because he's never been a politician, he doesn't come in with individuals
or groups to whom he owes anything, so the whole issue of patronage and
cronyism is out the window."

Some skepticism remains over whether substantive change will come under Nagin,
who officially takes over May 6. He grew up here and has personal and
professional relationships with some of the people known as political insiders
in Mayor Marc Morial's administration.

Nevertheless, Nagin has pledged to work to change the city, and will use the
Internet to help modernize city government.

The job search methods are aimed largely at attracting talented New Orleans
natives who now work elsewhere.

"I'm reaching out to the expatriates to tell them it's time to come home, that
it's a new day in New Orleans," Nagin said.

The job postings on various Internet sites  including those of various
newspapers including The New York Times  instruct applicants to click on to
Nagin's Web site, http://www.nagintransition.com. There, hopefuls select
specific positions of interest, such as police chief or chief technology
officer.

Some 2,100 resumes  including more than 100 from out of town  have come in for
just a few dozen jobs since the site launched in mid-March.

The site also solicits applications for appointments to task forces and boards,
such as the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, which helped organize last
February's Super Bowl, or the New Orleans Jazz Commission. More than 2,000
resumes for those positions have come in as well.

Nagin also plans to use the Web site to post permits for downloading, as is
done in New York City. A message board will enable those with questions about
city business or permits to post them on the site and get quick e-mail
responses.

Site designer Greg Meffert, volunteer co-chair of the transition team's
technology task force, said responses could come in minutes or even seconds,
replacing needless phone conversations or trips to City Hall.

Other features include idea forums, where those interested in anything from
streetcars to minority business development can discuss ideas or concerns.

Many cities have Web sites, and Nagin said he's just trying to help New Orleans
catch up.

To some extent, the process also removes the politics of race from a Southern
city where segregation was once the norm, and where pollsters emphasize the
white vote and black vote as distinct blocs, said Nagin spokesman Patrick
Evans.

"The Internet can't see black or white, male or female," Evans said. "It
eliminates the initial human contact where someone might say, 'I don't like the
way that person looked or they're not part of the in-crowd.'"
******************
USA Today
Deal reached to combat digital piracy
By Mike Snider, USA TODAY

A group of electronics makers and movie studios moved the rollout of digital TV
a step ahead Tuesday with a preliminary agreement on copy protection for
high-definition broadcasts and digital TV sets.

The format, called High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), is a single,
high-speed connection that would carry full-bandwidth digital video and audio
from set-top boxes to TV sets.

Most observers note this agreement was necessary for further negotiations to
continue between hardware manufacturers and studios. But they also caution that
it's just one of a laundry list of issues that must be addressed before
Hollywood would be willing to feed the pipeline for the new broadcast standard
without fear of its products being pirated.

"It's a very important milestone to getting the content out there," says Steve
Tirado of Silicon Image, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company that co-designed the
piracy-preventing High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection system in HDMI with
microprocessor giant Intel.

Two major studios, Fox and Universal, announced support for the standard, along
with satellite TV providers DirecTV and EchoStar and electronics companies
Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Philips, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba.

The agreement "is a good step forward," says Panasonic's Peter Fannon. But, he
adds, the rules of how the technology would be implemented  what home users
will and will not be permitted to do, and how much control Hollywood will have
over those uses  "still have to be worked out."

New cable and satellite set-top boxes will include the HDMI connections, as
will new digital TV sets. But only a few of the 2 million digital TV sets sold
to date include a compatible connection, an earlier incarnation called DVI.

Early HDTV adopters, who spent thousands of dollars on their sets, feared that
DVI would make their sets obsolete, and this new agreement still sounds
"counterproductive," says Dale Cripps, publisher of HDTV Magazine.

Another issue for home-theater users is that the new standard cannot easily be
used for recording, as the video is uncompressed and far too demanding for
current and even near-future digital recorders.

But most observers expect that HDMI would be one of several available
connections. "If the only interface is this one, that's a problem," says Dave
Arland of Thomson Electronics, which plans to add new inputs to upcoming RCA
sets. "To only use this interface ... would be a mistake."

If several outputs are available, Hollywood could use the new interface to send
unrecordable pay-per-view movies directly to HDTV displays, says Bob O'Donnell
of market research firm IDC.
***********************
Associated Press
Group OKs Web Site Privacy System 
Tue Apr 16, 2:03 PM ET 
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer 

NEW YORK - A system for quickly telling Internet users how well a Web site
honors their personal privacy won final approval Tuesday from the Web's main
standards organization.

  
The decision by the World Wide Web Consortium seeks to address growing concerns
about how e-commerce sites use e-mail addresses, shopping preferences and other
personal data they collect.

The system, known as the Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P, is akin to
nutrition labels on food products, except the information about data privacy
can be automatically read by computer software.

"P3P will give users a better understanding about the privacy relationships
they choose to enter into or choose to avoid," said Danny Weitzner, head of the
Web consortium's technology and society group. "It will help them make choices
without having to read through screen after screen of privacy policy."

Users tell the software how much data collection and sharing they are willing
to tolerate. The software then checks the machine-readable privacy policies
attached to Web sites as hidden tags. The software can warn users when there
isn't a match.

The P3P standards approved Tuesday represent the building blocks for software
developers and Web sites to use.

Already, Microsoft Corp. has included a limited form of P3P in its latest
browser, Internet Explorer 6. AT&T is distributing a free tool that can do
more, but requires a download and installation.

The system is voluntary, and its usefulness will ultimately depend on how many
sites embrace it.

According to the Internet Education Foundation, more than 40 percent of the top
100 Web sites already have or plan to apply P3P labels. But others remain
unconvinced, waiting to see what their competitors do.

Regardless of whether a site uses P3P, the system won't prevent sites from
collecting data or sharing the information with marketers, nor would it let
users negotiate with sites on how information gets used.

Just like nutrition labels, P3P is all about disclosure, and users can either
take it or leave it once they find out.

Some privacy advocates have actively campaigned against P3P, calling it "Pretty
Poor Privacy." They complained P3P will do nothing to protect users' privacy
and may make it more difficult to win passage of privacy-protection
legislation.

Jason Catlett, president of the Junkbusters Corp. privacy organization, worries
that some Internet users may mistakenly assume the privacy label "represents an
accepted and approved level of conduct."

"It's nothing of that sort," he said. "There are some things companies should
not do with information without the explicit consent of the person concerned,
and merely being upfront about it isn't enough."

The decision is the culmination of nearly five years of work at the World Wide
Web Consortium, which had to battle a patent dispute, make the technology work
and define the privacy terms well enough to reflect conflicting legal and
privacy environments around the world.

The announcement was timed to the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy
conference, which started Tuesday in San Francisco.
********************
Chronicle of Higher Education
New York's Natural History Museum Pioneers Use of Internet2
By FLORENCE OLSEN

More than 190 universities are connected to Abilene, the backbone network
operated by the Internet2 consortium of research universities. But only one
independent museum -- the American Museum of Natural History in New York --
participates in the network consortium.

Other museums have inquired about Internet2 but so far have not participated,
says Greg Wood, a spokesman for Internet2.

In many ways, New York's natural-history museum is like a research university,
with similar needs for a high-speed research network. "Most people think of
museums as halls with dusty display cases," says Francis C. Lees, chief
information officer for the museum. But "the real engine" behind a big museum,
he says, is research -- the museum has a research faculty and research fellows,
just like any large university.

Sebastien Lepine, a post-doctoral fellow at the museum, had figured that it
would take him a year, using the commercial Internet, to finish downloading two
360-degree digital sky surveys for his study of fast-moving stars. But that was
before the museum connected to Abilene.

The museum's new high-speed connection to Abilene is more than 100 times as
fast as the institution's former connections to the Internet. The museum had
two T1 lines, one of which was used 100 percent 24 hours a day, seven days a
week ferrying Mr. Lepine's data from the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore to the museum in New York.

With his hands no longer tied by a slow network, Mr. Lepine can begin work on
"the real science," says Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, assistant curator of
astrophysics at the New York museum. Mr. Mac Low says the Internet2 connection
has freed Mr. Lepine and many of the museum's 200 other researchers to spend
less time collecting data "in tiny snippets" and more time analyzing the
information.

Mr. Mac Low, who is a computational astrophysicist, says his own research
requires much more bandwidth than the commercial Internet provided. He uses
three-dimensional gas dynamical simulations for his study of how stars form.
The calculations are done at supercomputer centers in Illinois and California,
and the results are now shipped over the Internet2 backbone to the museum,
where he analyzes the data.

The natural-history museum also supports research on a very different scale for
the study of animal genomes. That research depends on having large databases of
genome sequences, which are updated daily and downloaded almost as frequently.

"If you want to make that practicable, you have to have very high bandwidth
connections," says Ward Wheeler, a curator of invertebrate zoology who studies
the evolutionary history of arthropods -- insects, centipedes, millipedes,
crustaceans, and spiders. Mr. Wheeler combines genomic-sequence data with
morphological and other data sets, and develops his own computational tools, or
algorithms, to analyze the data.

Mr. Wheeler says he collaborates with scientists all over the world, not all of
whom have high-speed Internet connections. If he sends data to a scientist at
another institution that is connected to the Internet2 backbone, Mr. Wheeler
says his data gets automatically routed from his desktop computer to the
Abilene backbone. A researcher with an Internet2 connection doesn't have to do
anything differently, he says. "Just all of a sudden, things go a lot faster at
your desktop."

As great as the museum's bandwidth needs are for research, the network capacity
needed for producing the museum's educational displays is often greater, says
Mr. Lees, the museum's CIO. The museum used the Internet2 backbone to move very
large graphical files while it was developing the high-resolution astronomical
images that are projected onto the dome of the museum's Hayden Planetarium.
"The space show lived on Internet2 during production," Mr. Mac Low says.

One long sequence of the show consists of three-dimensional renderings of
complex computational models for how stars and planets are formed. The images
-- about a half-trillion bytes of data -- were produced at the San Diego
Supercomputer Center at the University of California at San Diego and at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign and sent back to the museum over the Internet2 backbone.

But the museum's biggest growing need for a fast Internet is high-definition
television, according to Mr. Lees. The museum now regularly produces
high-definition-television segments for educational and research purposes, and
it shares them with other museums. The HDTV segments show ecological,
oceanographic, and animal studies that the museum has under way throughout the
world. "These are all things being captured in the new video format that is so
much more appealing because of its high density," Mr. Lees says.

The National Museum of Natural History in Washington is not connected to
Abilene, but it may soon need such network capacity, says Anna Weitzman,
research and collections informatics manager for the museum. Ms. Weitzman says
she is concerned about having enough Internet bandwidth to share the museum's
vast specimen database with other researchers and with policy makers when those
5 million records are put online sometime next year. "We absolutely have a
need," she says.

Having more Internet capacity at New York's natural-history museum has opened
up avenues for research and education that were prohibitive before, says Mr.
Lees, the CIO. A good example is Mr. Lepine's comparative study of near-Earth
moving objects, for which he is using two digitized sky surveys that were done
40 years apart -- in 1950 and 1990. Because of the network resources now
available to researchers studying such objects, Mr. Lees says, "the discovery
of those has moved apace at an unbelievable rate."
*********************
Washington Post
Proposal Sets National Rules For State IDs 
Privacy Issues Raised on Hill 
By Spencer S. Hsu
Wednesday, April 17, 2002; Page A07 

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) outlined legislation yesterday that would set
national standards for state-issued driver's licenses, permitting rapid
data-sharing among certain government agencies.

The measure marks Congress's first attempt at a comprehensive overhaul of state
identification systems since last year's terrorist attacks. It would set
federal rules for granting licenses, build in high-tech anti-counterfeiting
measures and provide funding for states to make changes within three to five
years.

The plan is coming before Congress this spring with strong support from police
chiefs and administrators of the nation's motor-vehicle departments. Those
groups believe the public is more supportive of a national system than ever
before, citing a poll showing that 77 percent of Americans favor changes to how
licenses and ID cards are issued.

Anticipating objections by civil-liberties and consumer groups who oppose a
national ID system on privacy grounds, Durbin emphasized that his measure would
leave the authority to issue and revoke licenses solely with the states.

"This [measure] is about state-issued driver's licenses, not a national ID,"
Durbin said at a hearing yesterday in which he invited testimony by government
and trade groups. "Since September 11, we have come to realize that this is
going to become the coin of the realm in this country. You are going to have to
produce a photo ID. The question is, is it reliable and is it accurate?" 

Representatives of police, motor-vehicle agencies and the National Governors
Association testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that the nation's current
system of verifying citizens' identify is broken and vulnerable to criminal
use.

The American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators offered survey
results that showed strong support for changes, including an 88 percent
majority who favor allowing states to share drivers' identities and motor
history. The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies of 800 license
holders from April 2 to 4 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. 

There are more than 200 valid forms of driver's licenses and ID cards issued by
the states and other levels of government, said Betty Serian, vice chairwoman
of the association and Pennsylvania deputy secretary for transportation.
Individual agencies have different requirements. Kansas, for example, does not
require any document other than a photo to obtain a driver's license.

Eight of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists obtained official state-issued licenses by
exploiting Virginia regulations that grant licenses based on a notarized form
vouching for an applicant's state residency. One hijacker, Ziad Samir Jarrah,
was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore on Sept. 9,
but produced an apparently valid Virginia driver's license and was not
detained.

"What we have is a system that is broken, and a product that is not very
reliable," Serian said.

A coalition of liberal and conservative civil-liberties groups and privacy
advocates disputed the public merits of Durbin's proposal. They said it would
create a de facto national ID that would greatly expand government's awareness
of people's movements and activities.

"It looks like a national ID, walks like a national ID and quacks like a
national ID," said J. Bradley Jansen, deputy director at the Free Congress
Foundation, a conservative think tank, in remarks prepared for Durbin's panel.

Critics say that creating a high-technology network of government databases,
setting national requirements for issuing IDs and subsidizing it with federal
funds would build an infrastructure that could be exploited and expanded by
police, marketers and others. They say that terrorists and other criminals
would likely still find ways to create fraudulent documents.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center said that support for a national ID
card is falling in national polls, to 26 percent, and that motor-vehicle
departments rank alongside the IRS in public estimation of trustworthiness to
administer such a system.

"The proposal would be ineffective, expensive and would preresent a serious
threat to core American liberties," said Katie Corrigan, spokeswoman for the
American Civil Liberties Union.

A draft of Durbin's proposal would require the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
to develop minimum verification requirements for states, and identify common
security features such as holograms or unique identifiers that would be
included on cards.

The proposed legislation also would outline how state and federal governments
would share information. The proposal would bar independent collection or
storage of data and impose other restrictions, as well as enhanced penalties
for fraud and fake-ID manufacture and use.

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) is also drafting legislation in the House that
would require states to have stricter card-issuing standards and to include
"biometric" technology on ID cards, such as fingerprint or retinal-scan data.
******************
Washington Post
Discovery Plans to Launch High-Definition TV in June 
By Frank Ahrens
Wednesday, April 17, 2002; Page E02 

Discovery Communications Inc. yesterday announced plans to launch a
round-the-clock high-definition television channel on June 17, enabling viewers
with digital TVs and tuners to watch a "best of Discovery" program lineup with
an improved picture and sound.

Discovery HD Theater has been in the works for about five years and was
scheduled for a September launch, but recent urging by Federal Communications
Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell prompted Discovery to move up the launch,
which coincides with the Bethesda company's 17th anniversary, Discovery
chairman and chief executive John S. Hendricks said in an interview yesterday.

High-definition and digital television offers vastly improved picture and sound
over traditional analog TV and makes it possible for broadcasters to add
interactive features. But the industry has been slow to embrace the new
technology. Earlier this month, Powell sent a letter to all major players in
the television industry, setting voluntary compliance dates for digital
conversion.

Initially, Discovery plans to offer 115 programs on its new service, including
titles from the company's nature, science, travel, education and children's
programming.

Hendricks said Discovery's research shows that about 1.1 million U.S. homes
currently have a high-definition TV, anticipating that number will grow to 7
million within four years. By that time, he said, Discovery HD Theater should
approach break-even status.

It's important for Discovery to get its high-definition programming on air
quickly, Hendricks said. Because of capacity, most cable and satellite
providers will be able to provide only six to seven high-definition channels,
at least in the short run, he said. Because HBO and Showtime cable channels
already broadcast in high-definition, and networks ABC and CBS are soon
expected to occupy two more channels, Hendricks worried that Discovery could be
squeezed out.
*****************
Federal Computer Week
Border tech bill on fast track

The Senate began debate April 15 on legislation that would tighten security at
the nation's borders using high-tech tools to track visitors and turn away
those who might be a threat to U.S. security.

The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act is on a fast track, and
lawmakers hope to get it passed this spring. It would provide $3.5 billion over
three years to tighten the security net at the nation's borders, including $1
billion for fiscal 2003. The House has already passed the bill.

"We have to use technology to the greatest effect we can  with well-trained
people and good technology at the entry level," Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) said
on the Senate floor April 15.

"With this new technology, we will be able to track when individuals acquire a
visa and follow that individual while they are in the United States," he said.

The legislation would require machine-readable, tamper-resistant visas that use
standardized biometric identifiers. The high-tech tools will enable the
Immigration and Naturalization Service to track the arrival and departure of
foreigners and more easily identify those who overstay their visas.

It also would create an interoperable data system to give law enforcement
agencies access to the latest information about a visa holder. Lawmakers are
moving quickly in the wake of disclosures that INS issued visas to two of the
Sept. 11 hijackers. Six months after the terrorist attacks, the visas arrived
at the Florida flight school where the men had been taking lessons.

The legislation is co-sponsored by 61 members of the Senate and has the support
of various special interest groups. In a recent letter to Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote, "We strongly
support the provisions to increase resources for technology and personnel for
our Immigration and Customs Services, enhance data sharing capabilities, expand
pre-clearance and pre-inspection programsÖ. These changes are long overdue."
*********************
Los Angeles Times
Modular PC Downsizes the Computer
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:22 a.m. ET


NEW YORK (AP) -- A little-known San Francisco company called OQO Inc. announced
on Tuesday a ``modular'' computer that crams processor, memory, battery and
storage into a package the size of a paperback novel.

When the $1,000 Ultra-Personal Computer hits stores this fall or winter, it
will operate as a stand-alone wireless handheld computer, akin to a Palm, the
company said. Or it can be used as a ``modular PC'' that connects to a
full-size keyboard, mouse and monitor to replace a desktop PC.

For now, handheld computers of its size -- such as those running the Palm and
Microsoft Pocket PC operating systems -- merely synchronize with a computer's
personal organization software.

The portable OQO goes further, becoming the central computing entity.

``This is a full Windows XP computer that fits in your pocket,'' said Colin
Hunter, executive vice president of OQO. ``Desktops are pretty much dead. Most
people would prefer to have a computer they can carry around with them all the
time.''

The 5-inch by 3-inch device runs Microsoft Windows XP Professional on a
Transmeta Corp. Crusoe processor, of up to 1 gigahertz. It also bundles 256
megabytes of RAM, a 10 gigabyte hard drive, and two wireless networking
connections -- using the 802.11b and Bluetooth standards.

A docking cable allows it to connect with an external keyboard, mouse and
monitor. It can also be networked to an existing PC or laptop through an
Ethernet cable or wireless connection.

When undocked, the device's battery life is similar to a laptop's, at 3-8
hours, depending on use.

OQO is currently negotiating licensing agreements with electronics companies
who could manufacture and market the device. A version manufactured and sold
under the OQO brand is also possible, a spokesman said.

Start-up OQO, founded in 1999, includes engineers and designers from Apple
Computer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, IBM Corp., the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Oracle Corp. and Transmeta.

In February, IBM announced it would license technology for a similar device,
known as the MetaPad, to vendors. IBM's MetaPad won't be ready for a few years.
******************
BBC
Reawakening the creative mind

The invention raises the possibility of being able to unlock one's inner genius
by reawakening dormant parts of the brain. 

It is based on the idea that we all have the sorts of extraordinary abilities
usually associated with savants. 

According to scientists at the Centre for the Mind in Sydney, these hidden
talents can be stimulated using magnetism. 

The news, reported in Chemistry and Industry magazine, has been given a
cautious welcome by experts in the UK. 

Professor Allan Snyder and colleague Elaine Mulcahy say tests on 17 volunteers
show their device can improve drawing skills within 15 minutes. 

They intend to submit their work for publication in a scientific journal. 

'Unconscious skills' 

Professor Steve Williams of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said
Professor Snyder was a highly respected international scientist and he was
looking forward to reading the scientific paper. 

He told BBC News Online: "This shock finding that everyone might possess
unconscious skills that can be 'switched on' with magnetic stimulation will
challenge many of our conventional views regarding creativity." 

The inspiration for the device comes from savant syndrome, a condition
portrayed in the Hollywood film Rain Man. 

Savants are extraordinarily gifted. They may have amazing memories or excel at
maths, music or art. But they also have developmental disorders such as autism.


Mind state 

One theory behind savant syndrome is that the right side of the brain
overcompensates for damage to the left hemisphere. 

The skills most often seen in savants are those associated with the right side.


According to Professor Snyder, it might be possible to train someone to access
this state by controlling their brain waves. 

David Potter of the National Autistic Society, a UK support group, said the
research was fascinating. 

"Some scientists believe that the essence of creativity is not a state of mind
but an activity," he told BBC News Online. 

"Whether Snyder and Mulcahy's research will enable the expression of savant
skills without accompanying impairments remains to be seen."
*********************
BBC
Children get impatient on the net

A study by the US design think tank, the Neilsen Norman Group (NNG), observed
children using a wide range of websites. 

It found that the bells and whistles often used on sites designed for kids do
not necessarily impress. 

"Our study convinced us that most websites for children are built upon pure
folklore about how kids supposedly behave," said web design guru Jakob Nielsen
from NNG. 

"While it is true that kids love whizz bang animation and sound effects, even
these things won't hold their attention if they come upon something too
difficult to figure out or they get lost on a website." 

Kids love interactivity 

Like adults, children are quick to close a window and find something else to
do, said Mr Nielsen. 

Children are forming a rapidly growing and important group on the web. 

According to Datamonitor, 65.3 million children aged between five and 17 have
access to the net at home in the US and Western Europe, while 54.1 million have
access at school. 

The survey found that children rarely scroll pages and mainly interact with
information visible on the screen. They love interactivity and will roll the
mouse over a page searching for interactive resources. 

Online advertisers struggling through the downturn in the internet economy will
be heartened to hear that children, in contrast to adults, do not distinguish
between content and advertising and are likely to click on ads. 

The report also found a difference between how boys and girls use the net. Boys
are more annoyed by verbose pages while girls like instructions. 

Boys are also more likely to spend time alone on the computer whereas girls
spend more time with a parent. 

Older surfers more patient 

NNG also conducted a survey into how senior citizens use the web and found that
they were far more patient than the younger generation. 
A study of over-65s found that although older people found navigating the web
harder than younger people, they were more prepared to find the information
they wanted. 
On average it took older people 12.5 minutes to complete a task on the web,
compared to just over seven minutes for the youngsters. 
"Given that most websites are produced by young people who probably take it for
granted that all web users have perfect vision and motor control, we weren't
surprised that the seniors had a tougher time," said Mr Nielsen. 
"What did surprise us is what good sports the seniors were about it. They
tended to see the positive parts in generally negative experience and enjoyed a
good challenge," he said. 
NNG also conducted a survey into how senior citizens use the web and found that
they were far more patient than the younger generation. 

A study of over-65s found that although older people found navigating the web
harder than younger people, they were more prepared to find the information
they wanted. 

On average it took older people 12.5 minutes to complete a task on the web,
compared to just over seven minutes for the youngsters. 

"Given that most websites are produced by young people who probably take it for
granted that all web users have perfect vision and motor control, we weren't
surprised that the seniors had a tougher time," said Mr Nielsen. 

"What did surprise us is what good sports the seniors were about it. They
tended to see the positive parts in generally negative experience and enjoyed a
good challenge," he said.
******************
BBC
Web is the future for business

The next two years will see businesses start to remake the software they use to
run their organisations as they start to put the net at the heart of everything
they do, says a report by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

It predicts that the move to more web-centric ways of working will be aided by
industry groups and software companies defining and standardising how programs
should swap information via the net. 

But it also warns that a lot needs to be done to make web-centred software
secure and reliable before businesses start to use it in everything they do. 

Test case 

The annual PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Technology Forecast attempts to work
out what will be popular with companies over the two years following its
publication. 

The 2002 edition predicts that the next 24 months will see a pronounced move
away from the get-rich-quick schemes of the dot.com era and over to basic
technology and innovation. 

Many companies and start-ups are expected to focus their attention on so-called
web services that use the net to co-ordinate the workings of companies, trading
groups and, ultimately, entire sectors of industry. 

Web services are likely to prove popular with businesses that have been left
with isolated islands of computation in branch and regional offices as they
move away from mainframes to smaller, more distributed computers, said PWC
consultant Robert Marano. 

Web services, which swap data via the internet, were fast becoming the ideal
way to link all these disparate systems together, said Mr Marano. 

But before trading partners will think about linking themselves together,
companies were likely to prove to themselves that the technology works by using
it extensively within their own organisations, he said. 

Standard process 

To help them do this, many software companies and industry groups were now
defining the standard format for data swapped as part of a web service. 

"We are at the letter definition stage, and have really only just defined the
alphabet," he said. "The next step is defining the grammar and vocabulary." 

The next two years will see organisations working out how to build basic web
services. 

But, cautioned Mr Marano, the security and reliability of net protocols will
have to be improved before web services can be widely adopted.

The standardisation process will mean that eventually companies will be able to
go to online directories that let them pick and choose the components they need
to create or join web-based trading systems.
********************
Government Computer News
NIST opens new round of ATP competitions 
By Vanessa Jo Roberts 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has set deadlines for the
latest R&D funding competition of its Advanced Technology Program and is
encouraging applicants to submit their proposals online. 

NIST has set up the ATP Electronic Submission System, at
webguy.nist.gov/index.htm, so that would-be ATP award recipients can create and
file proposals in a paperless environment. 

Through ATP, the Commerce Department agency supports projects to develop
high-risk technologies. Since it began funding R&D initiatives in 1990, ATP has
plowed $1.8 million into 581 projects. Vendors and universities participating
in the ATP research have matched the federal funding with another $1.8 million.


This year, NIST plans to dole out $60.7 million in funds to teams developing
technologies that have potential economic benefits for the country, are
innovative and are likely commercial candidates. 

Teams can begin submitting proposals April 22. NIST set three proposal
deadlines but promised that only those submitted by the first deadline of June
10 will definitely be considered for fiscal 2002 funding. Proposals submitted
by the later two deadlines, July 31 and Sept. 30, will receive funding this
year if it?s still available, otherwise NIST will consider these efforts for
funding in fiscal 2003.
*******************
MSNBC
Google protects its search results

April 16  Dimandja Emoungu got a surprise when he tried to search Google this
month: Instead of a results list, he says, the company handed him a ?rude? note
denying service. Emoungu is not alone. This month, about 100 Comcast
subscribers were temporarily shut out of Google when the search company charged
the high-speed Internet access provider with hosting some accounts that had
abused its terms of service by performing ?automated queries.? The crackdown
cut a wide swath, taking out a block of IP addresses, shutting down the guilty
and innocent alike.

       ?WE ARE NOT accusing you personally of having violated our Terms of
Service,? said Google?s notice to Emoungu, a computer programmer who has been a
subscriber to Comcast?s high-speed Internet service for two years. ?You are
most likely an innocent victim of someone else?s bad behavior. We?re really
sorry to have had to take this action.?
       Lockouts are hardly unprecedented on Google. The company has long banned
computer-generated search requests, which can sop up substantial system
resources and help unscrupulous marketers manipulate its search rankings. But
the latest clashes hint at an escalation in a war that may see many more Web
surfers caught in the crossfire. 
       At stake in the battle is the purity of Google?s search results, which
are widely viewed as among the most relevant for any given keyword on the Web.
That reputation has made Google an Internet darling, drawing large crowds of
surfers to its site and accolades for its technology. 
       A survey this week from Web researcher OneStat.com showed that Google
drew the largest global search audience on the Web, with nearly 46 percent of
surfers using its site. Web portal Yahoo came in second with 20.6 percent
usage, and Microsoft?s MSN followed with 7.8 percent reach. America Online?s
search service was seventh on the list, attracting 1.8 percent of Web users
worldwide. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)
       Success has made Google a target. It faces competition from a raft of
search newcomers offering twists on its successful formula such as Ask Jeeves?
Teoma and LookSmart?s WiseNut. In addition, marketers and others are eager to
game the most popular and influential Web search tool around.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
    Much of the conflict to date has raged over search engine optimization
services and software that explicitly aims to push certain Web sites up the
rankings for specific key words. Such tools may use a variety of techniques,
such as ?link spamming? to improve rank placements and automated queries to
judge the success of such campaigns. 
       The tactics play on Google?s ranking methods, which use links as a kind
of vote to vouch for the authority of a given Web site. Since Google?s search
method automatically indexes billions of Web pages, the ranking system is
crucial to ferreting out the most valuable sites for specific keywords.
FirstPlace Software?s WebPosition Gold, one of the most popular search
optimization tools, has served as a flashpoint in the debate. It has attracted
a range of customers interested in inflating their site rankings. 
       The software helps create ?doorway pages? that can be used to stack Web
pages with popular keywords as a way to drive surfers to other pages that have
little or no relation to those search terms. The software also reports Web site
ranking and tracks the number of visitors to a sitea feature that can run users
afoul of Google?s ban on automated queries. Among the search engines that
WebPosition Gold analyzes include Yahoo, Google, Overture, WebCrawler, Excite
and AltaVista.
FirstPlace Software President Brent Winters said that although Google does not
like the automated queries, businesses have ?an inherent right? to know what
their rankings are to measure their business results. He said the
Missouri-based company tries to educate its customers as to what the search
engines consider spam, but it does not have control over what a customer does
with the software. 
       ?You can buy a hammer to build a house or you can buy a hammer and go
smash your neighbor?s window,? Winters said. ?So we can?t control how people
are going to use the tool. We just try to educate people to use it properly and
to not abuse the search engines and to keep queries to a minimum.? 
       Winters said his company has attempted to work out negotiations with
Google on multiple occasions but that the search company has ?not been all that
cooperative.? He said Google has not responded to WebPosition Gold?s proposals,
such as working together to reduce the number of queries by the average user or
to shift more queries to off-peak periods. 
       When asked about Google?s negotiations with software companies such as
WebPosition Gold, Google declined to comment, saying only that automated
queries slow its system. 
       ?It can place a demand on our servers and can slow down Google as a
service for the millions of millions who use it everyday,? said Google
spokesman Nathan Tyler. 
       
JUICING RESULTS
       The Comcast automated query crackdown comes as Google faces increasing
attacks on the objectivity of its search results from link spammers, whose
ranks now include legions of casual self-publishers who have turned the
practice of driving sites to the top of keyword rankings into a competitive Web
sport. 
       While these attacks are not always associated with automated queries,
they are part of the larger challenge that Google is confronting as it seeks to
keep its results clean. 
       Danny Sullivan, an editor with SearchEngineWatch.com, said people have
used links for years to help promote Web sites. But as time progressed, Google
and other search companies found that people were creating artificial links
that existed solely to fool search engines. Sullivan said an ambitious link
spammer can create hundreds of Web sites and interlink them for the sole
purpose of pushing up its ranking on Google. 
       As a result, Sullivan said he wasn?t surprised that Google shut down
some Comcast customers because of the automated queries. He said it?s been a
?huge issue? for the search engines because it takes up a lot of time and
resources to keep ?junk? out of their listings. 
       ?There are lots of people who still successfully run automated queries
against Google,? Sullivan said. ?While it violates their terms and conditions
and while they absolutely do not like it, it?s more trouble than it?s worth to
try to shut them down.? 
       Automated queries and link spammers are not the only thorn in Google?s
side. 
       Other tactics that people use to manipulate their Web site?s rankings
include the use of cloaking software, which lets people create customized pages
meant to please a search engine?s algorithm. People may also create multiple
Web sites that are similar to each other, hoping that one will stick with a
search engine. 
       Another fast-growing tactic used to boost a Web site?s rank is called
?Google-bombing.? 
       Adam Mathes, a 22-year-old Stanford University student studying computer
science, discovered what?s considered to be the first Google bombing campaign
last April. He said the concept of Google bombing was that ?it was concerted
effort for lots of people to link a specific page with specific terms? in an
attempt to make that page show up among Google?s top-ranked Web sites. He found
that Google not only shows you pages that have the exact keywords, but also it
will show pages that are linked to that page with those words. 
       Mathes said he discovered this when he was playing a joke on a friend.
He said when he searched the words ?Internet Rockstar,? his friend?s Web site,
BenBrown.com, would be the first hits on Google. Mathes said at the time, his
friend?s site did not have those terms on it, but a lot of other sites linked
to him with that term did. So he launched the so-called Google bombing campaign
by linking his other friend, Andy Pressman, with the term ?talentless hack.?
Mathes said the campaign was effective because in the first couple of months,
Pressman was the first hit for the words ?talentless hack? on Google. 
       Mathes said he choose Google because it was ?the premier search engine
among the geeks? a year ago. He said he still has respect for Google, but ?in
the end, it?s just technology and all these search engines can be manipulated
somehow.? 
       
THE CLEAREST LOSERS
       Regardless of intent, such attacks may have raised the stakes for
Google, whose reputation for fending off manipulators of all kinds is under
more stress than ever. 
       In this battle, ordinary Web surfers will be the clearest losers, caught
between a possible decline in the quality of search results on one side, and
aggressive spam policing on the other. 
       Google?s enforcement tactics include denying service to blocks of IP
addresses when it cannot track down a specific abuser. The company?s notice
this month to Comcast users, for example, said it had shut off access to its
services because ?some person or people? had violated its terms of service
agreement. 
       Google declined to comment about the service denials, saying that the
company does not discuss details it undertakes to protect it from spam or
unauthorized abuse. 
       ?We?re very clear in our terms of service about key areas that we define
as inappropriate use,? said Google?s Tyler. 
       Comcast also declined to discuss any details but said it was ?an
isolated incident? that happened April 5, affecting less than a hundred people.
A company representative said the incident was ?resolved very quickly,? lasting
no more than a few hours. 
       Vince Bernardo, a Comcast customer caught in the crackdown, said he
immediately contacted friends and co-workers who used Comcast in South New
Jersey and they confirmed having the same problem. 
       ?I?ve set Google as my home page, and it?s a very critical part of my
Internet life,? Bernardo said in an e-mail to News.com. ?It?s an invaluable
research tool for leisure, general curiosity and work.?
*********************
MSNBC
CompuServe switches browsers 
 
Latest version has Netscape, not IE, as default browser

April 16  America Online on Tuesday fired the first shot in what may signal the
rekindling of the Web browser wars against Microsoft. The Internet giant
launched CompuServe 7.0 with Netscape bundled as its default browser.
CompuServe, AOL?s other online service, previously used Microsoft?s Internet
Explorer as its default browser, and AOL itself continues to use IE.

       ?WE?RE BACKING the product because we think it?s a good one and we want
to put it in users? hands, and CompuServe is a good place to get it out there,?
AOL spokesman Josh Danson said. 
        However, the decision for CompuServe to embrace Netscape, also an AOL
subsidiary, could further divide AOL?s tenuous partnership with Microsoft. For
years, the two companies existed in an amicable quid-pro-quo arrangement where
AOL would use IE as its default in exchange for Microsoft bundling AOL into its
Windows operating system. Last summer, that arrangement dissolved, sending the
tech rivals back to their respective corners.
      As Microsoft continues to weave Internet applications more tightly into
its ubiquitous operating system, AOL has also taken steps to favor its own
products. Nearly a year ago, AOL began testing versions of CompuServe that use
Gecko, the underlying browser technology browser engine developed by
open-source movement Mozilla.org and Netscape. Although AOL has not stated
grand intentions for Gecko, the technology is being tested in experimental
versions of the flagship AOL service. 
       
FIRST SHOT BY AOL?
        Although AOL said in a statement Tuesday that the upgrade was sparked
by consumer feedback, some analysts wonder if there are more political reasons
behind the move.
       ?The question is, are they doing it mostly for negotiating purposes or
are they really going to roll it out,? David Smith, an analyst for Gartner
Group, said in reference to Netscape. 
        Indeed, the decision seems contradictory to AOL?s actions. AOL Time
Warner, AOL?s parent company, filed suit against Microsoft earlier this year on
behalf of Netscape, claiming the software giant?s unfair business practices
resulted in the browser?s demise. Should AOL decide to bundle Netscape,
Microsoft could argue that AOL poses a competitive threat in bundling its
browser to its 34 million members.
      For now, CompuServe?s use of Netscape will act as a trial balloon.
CompuServe, with its 3 million subscribers, remains a dwarf compared with AOL. 
        ?It doesn?t surprise me that AOL wants a test bed to see how users
react and to iron out any rough spots so if they decide to go to a grander
scale they can avoid the initial pitfalls on CompuServe,? said Ken Smiley, an
analyst at Giga Information Group.
*********************


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