ACM TechNews - Wednesday, April 24, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 340
Date: April 24, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, April 24, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Tech Firms Look Beyond Traditional Recruiting to Diversify Work Force"
"Hackers Habits Analyzed"
"Congress: Tighten IT Security"
"DVD Copy Controls Head to Court"
"Gates Says Court Ruling Could Doom Windows System"
"Supercomputing '@Home' Is Paying Off"
"The Vast Universe of Tiny Technology"
"Life Sciences Boost Slumping IT Firms"
"Shooting Blanks"
"Futuristic Focus"
"The Fully Wired Workplace: Dream Deferred"
"Building Blocks to the Next PC?"
"ICANN Seeks Out Dot-Org Operator"
"How Teens Still Hack Million-Dollar Security Systems"
"Not Just Sci-Fi: Uncrackable Encryption"
"Mainframe Skills Shortage Five Years Off"
"Piece by Piece"
"What They Know That You Don't"
"Charting the Virtual World"

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

"Tech Firms Look Beyond Traditional Recruiting to Diversify Work Force"
To bring more minorities into Silicon Valley's tech work force,
companies are starting to focus outside of long-cherished
higher-education institutions such as San Jose State University
and Stanford.  Hewlett-Packard and others are collaborating with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item1

"Hackers Habits Analyzed"
The Honeynet Project is a nonprofit consortium of 30 leading
information security professionals who set up bogus
networks--honeynets--designed to tempt hackers so their intrusion
methods and behavior can be studied in detail.  Its findings are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item2

"Congress: Tighten IT Security"
Congress is focusing its cybersecurity efforts on a greater role
for the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST)
Computer Security Division.  The Cybersecurity Research and
Development Act, recently passed in the House of Representatives, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item3

"DVD Copy Controls Head to Court"
In the hopes of stopping Hollywood studios from driving it out of
business, DVD software tools firm 321 Studios is asking a San
Francisco court to rule that it has not broken the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by selling its DVD Copy Plus ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item4

"Gates Says Court Ruling Could Doom Windows System"
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates warned that Windows could be taken
off the market if U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
rules in favor of states proposing that the company sell a
stripped-down version of the operating system so that computer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item5

"Supercomputing '@Home' Is Paying Off"
Distributed computing efforts over the Internet are growing in
size and number and recently reached a milestone as the SETI@home
project reached a landmark one million years of computing time
looking for extraterrestrial communications.  It has amassed the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item6

"The Vast Universe of Tiny Technology"
Microelectrical-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology are
emerging as very promising fields, observes Gartner Dataquest
principal analyst Jim Walker.  MEMS technology appears to be
ahead of nanotechnology in its development.  In the manufacturing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item7

"Life Sciences Boost Slumping IT Firms"
IT companies see the burgeoning life sciences market as a
financial oasis, compared to the battered corporate IT spending
market.  That is because computing power is more integral than
ever in the development of new drugs, the success of which hinges ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item8

"Shooting Blanks"
The manifesto of the recently organized GeekPAC digital rights
lobbying group maintains that technological innovation and
economic growth is being stifled by federal regulations that
serve the interests of a handful of media companies, the Digital ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item9

"Futuristic Focus"
MIT President Charles M. Vest shares a sense of optimism about
future technological progress with the researchers and engineers
on his campus, despite the current tech recession.  He says that
nanotechnology is one of the most promising fields of research, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item10

"The Fully Wired Workplace: Dream Deferred"
Many executives dream of an office that is connected to
everything and everyone, but analysts say that that vision will
have to wait until the economy bounces back and workers
familiarize themselves with equipment acquired during the tech ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item11

"Building Blocks to the Next PC?"
The modular PC could potentially surpass all previous computer
devices with its convenience, portability, and size.  IBM and OQO
are developing modular devices, and OQO executive VP Colin Hunter
says a commercial version of its prototype should be ready for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item12

"ICANN Seeks Out Dot-Org Operator"
ICANN began its search for a new .org operator on April 23 and is
requesting proposals from potential .org operators, who must pay
a $35,000 processing fee to ICANN, a requirement that has raised
eyebrows among public interest groups that are monitoring .org's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item13

"How Teens Still Hack Million-Dollar Security Systems"
Teenagers are still hacking into advanced computer systems,
despite attempts to impose harsher penalties.  In fact, the
number of security breaches reported to the Computer Emergency
Response Team in the first quarter of 2002 exceeded all ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item14

"Not Just Sci-Fi: Uncrackable Encryption"
Dr. Richard Hughes of Los Alamos National Laboratory has devised
an unbreakable encryption method that relies on the laws of
physics.  He is developing a way to imprint data on photons by
polarizing them with a laser; a receiver then reads out the data. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item15

"Mainframe Skills Shortage Five Years Off"
A shortage of programmers and operators with mainframe skills is
not expected until about 2007, when the mass retirement of IT
staffers begins.  This was the opinion of experts at the American
Federation of Computer Operations Management conference for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item16

"Piece by Piece"
The componentization of business processes can facilitate the
rapid creation of tailor-made applications, which is key to the
success of Web services.  These applications' behavior can also
be quickly modified as business processes change.  Such an ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item17

"What They Know That You Don't"
There are many different technologies that companies use to
maintain their competitive edge, although they are reticent to
disclose them for fear of losing that edge as well as alienating
employees and customers.  Business intelligence technology can ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item18

"Charting the Virtual World"
Cyberspace maps are being created in an effort to give people a
navigable view of complex data.  Martin Dodge of University
College London's Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis argues that
information, people on the Web, and their interactions can be ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0424w.html#item19

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