ACM TechNews - Monday, April 29, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 342
Date: April 29, 2002

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Top Stories for Monday, April 29, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Information Tech Workers' Earnings Fall for 1st Time Since '97"
"Movement Afoot to Beef Up Industrial Cybersecurity"
"EU Throws the Book at Cyber Criminals"
"DVD Copying Software Defendant Gets Supported in Calif. Fight"
"White House Cool to Hollings' Act"
"What the Cat Can't Drag In: High-Tech Door Keeps Dead Prey Out"
"A Law to Protect Spyware"
"It's the Problem Solving, Silly!"
"A New Zealand-Born Professor Studies the Machine in the Molecule"
"Computing Power Brought Online"
"Software Wars: China vs. India"
"A New Risk to Computers Worldwide"
"Peer (to Peer) Pressure: It's a Good Thing"
"Spring Cleaning for University Tech Offerings"
"Grin and Wear It"
"Satellites Hit New Orbits"
"Glimpsing the Future"
"Motorola's Superchip"

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

"Information Tech Workers' Earnings Fall for 1st Time Since '97"
The economic recession and reduced consumer demand for computers
and computer services has caused IT workers' total compensation
to decline for the first time in five years, according to
economists and recruiters.  An InformationWeek study to be issued ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item1

"Movement Afoot to Beef Up Industrial Cybersecurity"
Earlier this month, federal officials met with private-sector
representatives to discuss improvement strategies for the
country's critical industrial-control systems.  At one such
meeting, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item2

"EU Throws the Book at Cyber Criminals"
The European Union has established a 20-month deadline for its
member nations to institute standards for cybercrime penalties
that comply with an EU proposal.  Under the proposal, people
found guilty of hacking or launching distributed denial of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item3

"DVD Copying Software Defendant Gets Supported in Calif. Fight"
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has
filed a friend of the court statement urging California's Supreme
Court to overturn a ruling that makes a Texas man, Matthew
Pavlovich, liable for Web-distributed software that harms ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item4

"White House Cool to Hollings' Act"
James Rogan, the Commerce Department undersecretary for
intellectual property and head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, has said he prefers a wait-and-see approach to the
digital copyright-protection technology debate currently on in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item5

"What the Cat Can't Drag In: High-Tech Door Keeps Dead Prey Out"
To prevent his cats from bringing dead animals into his house,
software engineer Boris Tsikanovsky has devised a system that
uses image-recognition technology he created to control the
admittance of his pets through an automatic cat door.  The ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item6

"A Law to Protect Spyware"
The new Online Personal Privacy Act introduced by Sen. Ernest
"Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) would legalize the increasingly
invasive practices of online marketers.  Included in the bill's
language are clauses that ensure the legality of online consumer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item7

"It's the Problem Solving, Silly!"
A recent study out of Ohio University found that a majority of
women currently working in the technology field are there because
of the problem-solving aspect of their jobs, not because they can
earn more or choose from a wide range of positions.  According to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item8

"A New Zealand-Born Professor Studies the Machine in the Molecule"
Nanotechnology specialist and New Zealander Michael Kelly
predicts that the technology's initial commercial impact is
likely to be felt in the areas of IT, detectors, and electronics.
He says IT is a key area for nanotechnology, and notes that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item9

"Computing Power Brought Online"
The University of Edinburgh has officially opened the National
e-Science Center, which will work to connect computers to the
Internet so that their collective power might be harnessed to
solve complex scientific problems.  The grid computing effort ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item10

"Software Wars: China vs. India"
There are fears that China could overtake India as Asia's leading
digital software provider, but National Association of Software
and Services Companies (NASSCOM) vice president Sunil Mehta
claims that it will be at least three years before China is a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item11

"A New Risk to Computers Worldwide"
A "blended threat" computer program called W32/KLEZ.H is wreaking
havoc around the world by combining elements of a computer virus
and a computer worm.  The program, a variant of earlier Klez
viruses, randomly changes the name, subject line, and message of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item12

"Peer (to Peer) Pressure: It's a Good Thing"
Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology may have attracted more notoriety
than praise, especially when many of its overhyped promises were
not fulfilled, but useful applications are taking place.  P2P is
proving very helpful with distributed computing initiatives, such ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item13

"Spring Cleaning for University Tech Offerings"
Academic institutions are facing difficulties in recruiting and
retaining students as economic and political turbulence makes
them more wary and less confident of following an IT career path.
Computer-science graduates are finding lower salaries and fewer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item14

"Grin and Wear It"
Wearable computers will inevitably take off as technological
advances make them more convenient and useful, but analysts warn
that their pervasiveness will also engender societal problems.
Today, people carry mobile phones in their pockets, connected to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item15

"Satellites Hit New Orbits"
Broadband IP satellite services offer easier implementation and
manageability than terrestrial connections; they can boost an
enterprise's productivity by adding subscribers faster and
updating services more easily.  Up to now, satellite technology ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item16

"Glimpsing the Future"
Experts forecast numerous developments for enterprise technology
over the next 18 to 24 months.  Emergent Web services will be
unmatched in terms of enterprise deployments, according to
Gartner analysts; Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) will form ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item17

"Motorola's Superchip"
Two years ago, Motorola Labs researcher Jamal Ramdani hit upon a
method to fabricate semiconductors that integrate gallium
arsenide with silicon.  The integration combines the cheapness of
silicon with gallium arsenide's optical and wireless ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html#item18


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