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ACM TechNews - Wednesday, September 4, 2002
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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 394
Date: September 4, 2002
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Top Stories for Wednesday, September 4, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Hollywood, Tech Piracy Efforts May Curtail Choices"
"Computer Recycling Bill Sent to Davis"
"Attacks Yield New Surveillance Laws"
"As Tracking Technologies Improve, We're Ever More Constantly Watched"
"Hack Attacks on the Rise"
"What's the Fall Fashion in Washington?"
"Rapid New Understanding of Superconducting Compound"
"Instant Message Goes Corporate; 'You Can't Hide'"
"Hooked on Photonics"
"Scientists Advance Search for New Semiconductor Insulators"
"Net Traffic Mimics Earthquakes"
"Letter from Ghana"
"'Talking' Tax Forms for Blind Developed"
"Super Robots Could Owe Their Mobility to a Cockroach's"
"Whatever Happened to Virtual Reality?"
"Researchers Lure Wi-Fi Hackers"
"Cells Fuel Innovation"
"See Me, Hear Me..."
"Reality Redefined"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Hollywood, Tech Piracy Efforts May Curtail Choices"
Proposals from Microsoft and other companies to introduce
technology that would give copyright owners such as movie studios
unprecedented control over their content has raised concern among
opponents that such measures could erode consumers' fair-use ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item1
"Computer Recycling Bill Sent to Davis"
Mere hours before the legislative session ended, the California
state legislature passed a landmark bill that would impose a $10
fee on the purchase of new computer monitors and televisions that
would be used to fund e-waste recycling efforts. A majority of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item2
"Attacks Yield New Surveillance Laws"
A recent poll of international privacy standards from Privacy
International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center
concludes that governments around the world have passed laws
designed to ensure safety from terror attacks by granting ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item3
"As Tracking Technologies Improve, We're Ever More Constantly Watched"
The sophistication of electronic monitoring technologies is
increasing, while proposals to connect myriad databases and
electronic resources are being researched, and technologists and
civil libertarians are worried that such developments will give ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item4
"Hack Attacks on the Rise"
Security firm mi2g forecasts that 2002 will be a record year for
cyberattacks, and Chairman D.K. Matai warns that more digital
assaults could be launched against the United States and its
allies in the war against terrorism as the one-year anniversary ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item5
"What's the Fall Fashion in Washington?"
Legislators are expected to use the war on terror as leverage in
order to increase budgets for dubious programs and extend law
enforcement's surveillance powers, writes Declan McCullagh.
Politicians often resort to the appropriations process to more ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item6
"Rapid New Understanding of Superconducting Compound"
Researchers have quickly achieved an almost full understanding of
magnesium diboride since it was classified as a superconductor a
year and a half ago by Dr. Jun Akimitsu of Aoyama Gakuin
University in Tokyo, and experiments by other researchers have ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item7
"Instant Message Goes Corporate; 'You Can't Hide'"
Instant messaging (IM) is taking off as the new killer app for
corporate communications. Perhaps even more importantly than
allowing people to easily chat with one another, IM allows for
"presence." That means IM users, unlike those relying on the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item8
"Hooked on Photonics"
Photons have been tapped to replace electrons in a number of
technological functions, perhaps leading to tremendously
beneficial, and yet unforeseen, innovations. Currently, the
low-power and super-fast properties of photonics lends itself to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item9
"Scientists Advance Search for New Semiconductor Insulators"
Researchers from the Commerce Department's National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found a better way
to test new porous chip insulator materials. New materials are
needed if the industry is to follow the International Technology ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item10
"Net Traffic Mimics Earthquakes"
Japanese university researchers have found that the earth's fault
systems and the Internet share many similar characteristics and
behaviors, and that the Internet regularly experiences
"Internetquakes." Scientists at Tsukuba and Nihon universities ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item11
"Letter from Ghana"
A society of African hackers is growing and prospering in the
Ghanaian city of Accra, despite the poor state of Ghana's
telecommunications sector, which is hobbled by a lack of
expertise and capital. The poverty of Ghana is characterized by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item12
"'Talking' Tax Forms for Blind Developed"
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has rolled out new technology
that allows blind people to use their screen text readers with
PDF (Portable Document Format) files. The IRS, along with many
other government agencies, commonly posts documents on the Web in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item13
"Super Robots Could Owe Their Mobility to a Cockroach's"
Biomimetic robots that take their design cues from simple animals
could be stronger, more adaptable, and more effective than
current models, and the lowly cockroach shows promise as a
template. Such robots can be built via the Shape Deposition ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item14
"Whatever Happened to Virtual Reality?"
Experts such as Gartner's Jackie Fenn say that virtual reality
technology is a victim of its own hype, and has lost momentum
because it promised far more than it could actually deliver. The
high cost of the hardware and research and development has ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item15
"Researchers Lure Wi-Fi Hackers"
In an effort to profile Wi-Fi hackers and their methods, Science
Applications International (SAIC) has set up a honeypot--a system
that exists as a false target designed to lure intruders.
Hackers who penetrate the honeypot are sensed, tracked, and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item16
"Cells Fuel Innovation"
Micro fuel cells, which generate electric power from alcohol or
hydrogen gas and are supposed to have 10 times more battery life
than lithium-ion batteries, signify a notable advance in power
supply technology. MTI Micro Fuel Cells recently introduced a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item17
"See Me, Hear Me..."
The goal of current advancements in computer interface technology
is to produce a computer that can intuitively interact with users
and run operations without the need for typed instructions. Ted
Selker of MIT's Media Lab says such machines will rely on ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item18
"Reality Redefined"
Augmented reality (AR), in which real-world environments are
enhanced with computer-generated images, has become more refined
over the last three years. The overlay of computer graphics onto
the user's point of view is accomplished by a head-mounted ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0904w.html#item19
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