ACM TechNews - Friday, May 17, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 350
Date: May 17, 2002

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Top Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Shoring Up Software Is New Group's Aim"
"Breakin' the Law: Without Nano, Moore Is No More, Experts Say"
"The DMCA Is the Toast of D.C."
"Senator Prevents Action on Online Privacy Bill"
"Dell Readies PC Recycling Program"
"Teaching a Search Engine"
"At MIT, They Can Put Words in Our Mouths"
"Net Clearinghouse for Creatives"
"Electrochemists are Facing a Battery of New Challenges"
"The Technology Behind Napster Is Far from Dead"
"'Dork' Duo Finally Get Noticed"
"Three Wireless Trends to Watch"
"Meta Report: Hit the 'Refresh' Button on Employee Skills"
"VOIP: the Latest Word in Networking"
"Revival Drives India's Tech Firms to Hunt Chip Skills"
"IT Changes Everything"
"Coming: Failsafe Software"
"The Invention Factory"
"Wireless Data Blaster"

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


"Shoring Up Software Is New Group's Aim"
In an effort to improve the security and reliability of software,
Carnegie Mellon University has joined forces with federal
agencies, technology companies, and others to form the
Sustainable Computing Consortium (SCC).  "We have a broad scope, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item1

"Breakin' the Law: Without Nano, Moore Is No More, Experts Say"
Moore's Law could end in as little as 10 years, and many people
believe nanotechnology is the key to extending its life.  A key
nanotech development that IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others are
working on is self-assembling nanoscale transistors; IBM recently ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item2

"The DMCA Is the Toast of D.C."
D.C. politicians and lobbyists toasted the health of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) at a celebration on Thursday,
praising its success at curtailing piracy and encouraging
innovation.  "Creativity--and the economy--thrive when copyrights ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item3

"Senator Prevents Action on Online Privacy Bill"
An online privacy bill has been stalled in the Senate Commerce
Committee by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who has objected strongly
to provisions allowing consumers to sue over infringement and
releasing offline companies from the rules.  Although the solid ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item4

"Dell Readies PC Recycling Program"
Dell Computer, the world's No. 2 PC vendor, will release the
details of its PC recycling program within a few days, according
to spokesman Bryant Hilton.  The new program would provide
another option for Dell customers.  Under the DellExchange ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item5

"Teaching a Search Engine"
Teaching search engines to customize their results for users
would solve a lot of headaches, according to David Plotnikoff,
whose theory was inspired by a special report on the adaptive Web
in the May issue of Communications of the ACM.  He envisions a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item6

"At MIT, They Can Put Words in Our Mouths"
Using artificial intelligence, MIT scientists are able to
convincingly doctor videos of people so that they speak words and
sentences they never actually said.  MIT team leader Tony F.
Ezzat explains that the computer studies between two to four ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item7

"Net Clearinghouse for Creatives"
A Stanford University-based online clearinghouse where creative
people can contribute selected works will be launched on
Thursday; artists could share the donated material without
obtaining permission from and paying royalties to copyright ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item8

"Electrochemists are Facing a Battery of New Challenges"
The Electrochemical Society of Philadelphia is celebrating its
centenary this week, with approximately 2,000 chemists,
engineers, physicists, and Silicon Valley innovators convening to
discuss the issues and challenges of the day.  One such challenge ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item9

"The Technology Behind Napster Is Far from Dead"
Napster may be on its last legs, but the peer-to-peer (P2P)
technology it popularized is thriving, as evidenced at the
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.  For instance, Onion
Networks has unveiled a P2P "content-addressable Web" that offers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item10

"'Dork' Duo Finally Get Noticed"
The hacker group known as "The Deceptive Duo" is responsible for
defacing many public- and private-sector Web sites in an effort
to bring the electronic infrastructure's vulnerability to the
attention of the nation, but it may have worked too well.  One ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item11

"Three Wireless Trends to Watch"
Analysts believe a trio of trends--mobile hard drives, fuel
cells, and global roaming--could make a significant impact in the
wireless sector.  Gartner's Phil Redman forecasts that
practically all mobile computing and consumer applications that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item12

"Meta Report: Hit the 'Refresh' Button on Employee Skills"
The convergence of IT strategy and business goals will continue
until 25 percent of Global 2000 firms can form virtual project
teams on an as-needed basis by 2007, according to the META Group.
This dynamic structuring and restructuring in the workforce will ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item13

"VOIP: the Latest Word in Networking"
Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology promises to merge
data and voice networks, cutting costs for large organizations
while increasing functionality by transmitting voice calls in
digital packets over converged networks along with emails and Web ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item14

"Revival Drives India's Tech Firms to Hunt Chip Skills"
As the global semiconductor sector bounces back from recession,
India's major technology companies are seeking out workers with
expertise in chip software and hardware development.  Among those
trolling for such candidates, as evidenced by want-ads in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item15

"IT Changes Everything"
The Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. government's response highlight
the increasingly critical nature of how organizations manage
information.  What is evident from both the hijackers' standpoint
and the military operation in Afghanistan is that the hardware is ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item16

"Coming: Failsafe Software"
Sun Microsystems' open source guru, Richard P. Gabriel, also
heads the Feyerabend Project, which is dedicated to making
computer programming and software more robust and adaptable.
When code was being written for the first computers, programming ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item17

"The Invention Factory"
Microsoft Research founder and multimillionaire Nathan Myhrvold
has embarked on an ambitious undertaking at his Intellectual
Ventures firm:  The Invention Factory, a collective of inventors
recruited to brainstorm projects in numerous fields, including ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item18

"Wireless Data Blaster"
Developers of the low-power, short-range ultrawideband (UWB)
wireless technology envision many uses for it, including the
transmission of wireless data between networks of portable
electronic devices, motion detection, and location triangulation. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0517f.html#item19


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