ACM TechNews - Monday, May 6, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 345
Date: May 6, 2002

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Top Stories for Monday, May 6, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"High-Flying Tech Salaries Come Down to Earth"
"Cyberspace Full of Terror Targets"
"Beware of Valley's New Fad: Nanotechnology"
"Environment-Friendly Chip Designs in the Works"
"For Techies, Some Hope Amid Gloom"
"Quest for More Meaning Online"
"UK Government Launches Artificial Intelligence Drive"
"Another DMCA Attack Looms"
"Cyber Scholars"
"Time for Physical Sciences to Get Its Act Together, Says D.C.
 Counsel"
"Artificial Voice System Says Hello"
"Chapter 12: A Conversation with Howard Rheingold"
"Makers of Electronics Begin to Emphasize Style"
"England Votes, But Not Necessarily at Polls"
"Federal IT Spending to Reach $63.3 Billion"
"Universally Connected"
"Sensory Perceptions"
"Targeting Terrorism"
"Adaptive Interfaces for Ubiquitous Web Access"

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

"High-Flying Tech Salaries Come Down to Earth"
Silicon Valley companies are scaling back their employee
compensation packages, trimming salaries and eliminating bonuses
and other perks.  Many tech workers are simply content to have a
job, and those with jobs are taking a pay cut, such as workers at ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item1

"Cyberspace Full of Terror Targets"
U.S. intelligence officials are warning that international
terrorists, some of them directly affiliated with Osama bin
Laden, have been plotting terrorist attacks against critical U.S.
government and corporate computer systems.  Among the targets ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item2

"Beware of Valley's New Fad: Nanotechnology"
Nanotechnology--the creation of super-small devices through
molecular manipulation--is still in a very early stage of
development, yet advocates are touting it as the next Industrial
Revolution and claiming it is just around the corner.  The ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item3

"Environment-Friendly Chip Designs in the Works"
The Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign
Semiconductor Manufacturing aims to devise new microchip
fabrication methods that do not put such a strain on money and
resources as current techniques do.  Researchers from the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item4

"For Techies, Some Hope Amid Gloom"
Almost 530,000 U.S. tech professionals lost their jobs in the
past year, representing nearly 5 percent of the tech workforce,
according to an Information Technology Association of America
(ITAA) survey to be released today.  However, the study forecasts ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item5

"Quest for More Meaning Online"
Tim Berners-Lee's semantic Web is a vision where a new layer is
added to the existing Internet that allows computers to perform
mundane tasks for humans more effectively, such as searching for
arcane information and automating certain tasks.  However, some ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item6

"UK Government Launches Artificial Intelligence Drive"
The British government is launching a cognitive computing project
that involves collaboration between business leaders, academic
researchers, and government agencies.  The project will operate
under the aegis of the U.K. Foresight program, and will study the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item7

"Another DMCA Attack Looms"
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) says that within the next month he will
introduce legislation that would rewrite section 1201 of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to permit "fair use" of
such digital content as audio CDs even if it means bypassing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item8

"Cyber Scholars"
The effects of digital technology and its development have become
widespread throughout academia, as demonstrated by the Digital
Divides conference at the University of California, Davis.  What
was once restricted to a small group of university personnel in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item9

"Time for Physical Sciences to Get Its Act Together, Says D.C.
 Counsel"
The scientific, industry, and grassroots communities supporting
nanotechnology need to become more organized in order to convince
Congress that it should pass a bill establishing a new
nanotechnology governance body.  William Bonvillian, chief ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item10

"Artificial Voice System Says Hello"
In an effort to smooth human-robot interaction, Hideyuki Sawada
of Japan's Kagawa University is developing an artificial voice
system capable of producing more natural-sounding utterances.
The system uses a compressed air tank as the mechanical ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item11

"Chapter 12: A Conversation with Howard Rheingold"
In an interview, author Howard Rheingold discusses the history
and future of virtual communities.  They predate the Web, going
back at least 30 years to PLATO, a community-structured
electronic educational resource; Rheingold says that most virtual ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item12

"Makers of Electronics Begin to Emphasize Style"
Electronics and computer manufacturers are designing more stylish
products in order to keep consumers' interest.  Technology itself
has advanced so far that it is less of a differentiator between
devices and allows engineers to be more flexible with the design. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item13

"England Votes, But Not Necessarily at Polls"
Britain held its first electronic elections this week for 6,000
city council seats throughout the country, and in doing so is
pioneering the use of the latest technology to test e-democracy.
Voters could cast their ballots via the Internet, text messages ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item14

"Federal IT Spending to Reach $63.3 Billion"
The federal government's expenditures on IT and IT services will
grow from $37.1 billion this year to $63.3 billion in fiscal
2007, generating a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent,
Input predicts in a new report.  The agencies expected to spend ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item15

"Universally Connected"
Practically everyone expects dumb devices such as sensors and
actuators to be integrated into corporate networks over the next
several years, to the point where IT could undergo a dramatic
paradigm shift.  Device networking increases efficiency and saves ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item16

"Sensory Perceptions"
Institute for the Future director and technology forecaster Paul
Saffo declares that the advent of microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS), or sensors, will ignite an automation revolution in which
more and more tasks will be turned over to machines.  He says the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item17

"Targeting Terrorism"
The U.S. government has recruited data management companies to
help track down suspected terrorists through the use of their
commercial data cleansing technology.  For example, Vality
Technology has developed Veri-Quest, a tool that matches customer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item18

"Adaptive Interfaces for Ubiquitous Web Access"
Adaptive personalization technology uses artificial intelligence
and statistical methods to automatically determine the personal
content preferences of wireless device users in order to increase
the presence of mobile access.  Considerable user time and effort ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0506m.html#item19


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