ACM TechNews - Wednesday, June 5, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 357
Date: June 5, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, June 5, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Hollywood Has a Setback in Controls for Digital TV"
"Did MS Pay for Open-Source Scare?"
"UCITA Backers Try Again"
"New Viruses Aim to Cross Multi Platforms"
"Universe Is a Computer"
"MIT Student Hacks Into Xbox"
"Interference More Likely as Wireless Devices Get Popular"
"NASA Graduates From Pens to Computers"
"Superchip"
"Govt. Key to Broadband Reaching Masses, Net Pioneer Says"
"Research Shows Court Everyone's Handwriting Different"
"Search Engine Helps Move University Research Into Real World"
"Sally Ride Launches Girls' Science and Technology Club"
"Conference Looks at Africa's IT"
"Reform Board Wants a Bigger ICANN"
"Apps on the Edge"
"IT Workers' Skills Tested"
"Survival In an Insecure World"
"The Rise of the Creative Class"

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

"Hollywood Has a Setback in Controls for Digital TV"
Although negotiators announced on Monday that film studios,
technology firms, and consumer-electronics companies were close
to a deal that could speed up the adoption of digital television,
the coalition fell apart yesterday as the participants were ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item1

"Did MS Pay for Open-Source Scare?"
A soon-to-be-released white paper about the inherent security
risks of open-source software--and the authors' reticence to
reveal the identity of the report's sponsor--has aroused
suspicion from open-source proponents that Microsoft may be ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item2

"UCITA Backers Try Again"
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is
trying to revise its unpopular legislation governing software
licenses.  The group's proposal, the Uniform Computer Information
Transaction Act (UCITA), has only been adopted so far in Maryland ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item3

"New Viruses Aim to Cross Multi Platforms"
Smile.D, a new cross-platform virus, has been released that is
more difficult than most to detect, according to antivirus
companies, who say the code could force antivirus developers to
rethink their strategies.  Simile.D, the fourth variation of the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item4

"Universe Is a Computer"
MIT physicist Seth Lloyd reckons that every event that has taken
place in the universe since its birth can be reduced to a form of
computation; he has essentially modeled the universe after a
computer.  The link between physics and information science ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item5

"MIT Student Hacks Into Xbox"
MIT student Andrew Huang reports in a recently published research
paper that he has successfully breached the security system of
Microsoft's Xbox game console and extracted software keys that
would allow the console to run unauthorized applications.  He ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item6

"Interference More Likely as Wireless Devices Get Popular"
There will likely be an increase in online congestion and
Internet access slowdowns as more people acquire wireless devices
and crowd network frequencies.  Wireless is becoming more and
more popular for companies, universities, and households because ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item7

"NASA Graduates From Pens to Computers"
NASA researchers plan to collaborate with each other using new
technology when the agency sends a pair of explorer robots to
Mars next year, according to an announcement on Monday.  They
will use IBM's BlueBoard, a plasma screen with touchpad ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item8

"Superchip"
Intel's new Itanium 64-bit processor, based on Explicitly
Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) design, will drive computer
developments over the next decade just as today's computer
technology is running out of gas, says University of Waterloo ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item9

"Govt. Key to Broadband Reaching Masses, Net Pioneer Says"
Internet pioneer and WorldCom VP Vint Cerf says the U.S.
government needs to be a more active participant in the effort to
extend broadband's reach to the masses, which is currently
blocked by existing and proposed telecom regulations.  He ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item10

"Research Shows Court Everyone's Handwriting Different"
An initiative by University of Buffalo computer scientists has
yielded objective criteria for handwriting analysis, which could
impact court cases that rely on handwritten documents as
evidence.  Sponsored by a grant from the National Institute of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item11

"Search Engine Helps Move University Research Into Real World"
University of California, Santa Barbara associate professor Tao
Yang is helping three graduate students develop software that
seamlessly connects computer clusters to the end user, using
Yang's Teoma search engine as the primary development tool.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item12

"Sally Ride Launches Girls' Science and Technology Club"
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, has founded a club
that aims to help girls in elementary and middle school maintain
their passion for science, math, and technology in the hopes that
they might one day become scientists and engineers.  Studies show ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item13

"Conference Looks at Africa's IT"
In Mali, delegates from approximately 40 African countries joined
media groups and international organizations Tuesday for a
conference on the continent's roll in the new "information
society."  Attendees discussed ways in which African nations ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item14

"Reform Board Wants a Bigger ICANN"
The ICANN committee proposal to reform ICANN's internal structure
calls for creating a structure that separates ICANN functions
into three departments: technical issues, policy-making, and
operational structures.  The proposal calls for a study group to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item15

"Apps on the Edge"
The spread of Web applications has spurred enterprises to improve
performance for remote users, and edge computing is one such
initiative.  Content delivery networks (CDNs) and application
infrastructure suppliers are teaming up to provide offerings that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item16

"IT Workers' Skills Tested"
More and more companies are requiring both new and veteran IT
workers to take extensive tests that assess their technical and
business skill levels in order to identify shortcomings,
formulate improvement strategies, and organize IT teams.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item17

"Survival In an Insecure World"
David A. Fisher of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at
Carnegie Mellon University notes that there is no real central
control of the unbounded systems that compose the nation's online
critical infrastructure, which makes defending it against hackers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item18

"The Rise of the Creative Class"
In the quest to optimize IT employee performance, focusing
strictly on financial advantages does not yield the best results,
because workers have inner needs and desires that money alone
does not satisfy, writes Richard Florida, co-director of Carnegie ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0605w.html#item19


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