Clips August 28, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips August 28, 2002

ARTICLES

Federal Job Opportunities
Bonner backs Homeland shift [Employment Rules]
Roster Change in Key Federal Positions
Customs seeks early cargo info
Interior moves forward with Geospatial One-Stop
Commerce OKs new hashing standard for message authentication
Lawmaker outlines priorities for homeland security legislation
Defense official says attack unlikely
CIA urged to collaborate more, strengthen weaknesses
Travel website's mistake nets family £15 flights to Florida
U.S. Wireless Internet Users Reach 10 Million

************************
Federal Computer Week
Federal Job Opportunities

Series/Grade: GS-2210-11
Position Title: Information Technology Specialist, Seaside, CA (S) (Request 
vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: DHRA-02-2220
Closing Date: Sept. 3, 2002
Contact: Department of Defense, DLA-HROC, 3990 E. Broad St, Building 11-3, 
Columbus, OH 43213; Deb Metoxen 614-692-0247

Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Position Title: Information Technology Specialist (Internet), Lakewood, CO 
(S) (Request vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: FWS6-02-170
Closing Date: Sept. 5, 2002
Contact: Department of Interior, Fish & Wildlife, HR, Box 25486, Denver, CO 
80225; D. Mendias 303-236-5414 Ext.

Series/Grade: GS-1530-9/12
Position Title: Statistician (Education), Washington, D.C. (NS) (Request 
vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: WA152110-CM
Closing Date: Sept. 16, 2002
Contact: Department of Education, 1900 E St. NW, Room 2469, Washington, 
D.C. 20415; C. Morgan 478-744-2254

Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Position Title: Information Technology Specialist (Network Services), 
Washington, D.C. (NS) (Request vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: M/P-02-122
Closing Date: Open until filled
Contact: U.S. Information Agency, Room 1543, 330 Independence Ave. SW, 
Washington, D.C. 20237; 202-619-3117

Series/Grade: GS-335-5/7
Position Title: Computer Assistant, Chicago, IL (S) (Request vacancy; must 
address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 03-MSA-2002-0044Z
Closing Date: Sept. 6, 2002
Contact: Housing & Urban Development, HR, The Wanamaker Building, 100 Penn 
Square East, Philadelphia, PA 19107; 215-656-0593 X3

Series/Grade: GS-1530-12
Position Title: Survey Statistician, New Orleans, LA (NS) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: SWGY02112752
Closing Date: Sept. 3, 2002
Contact: Department of Army, SW Staff Div, Building 301 Marshall Ave., Ft. 
Riley, KS 66442; 504-862-2800

Series/Grade: GS-2210-7
Position Title: Information Technology Specialist, Stonehan, MA (S) 
(Request vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: FDA-25266
Closing Date: Sept. 23, 2002
Contact: Health & Human Services, FDA Pers, 26 Federal Plaza, Room 3400, 
New York, NY 10278; 212-256-4138

Series/Grade: GS-854-14
Position Title: Computer Engineer, Indianhead, MD (S) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 02-347AR
Closing Date: Sept. 4, 2002
Contact: Department of Defense, DISA, Pers, 701 S. Courthouse Road, 
Arlington,VA 22204-2199; Anne Ross 703-607-4429

Series/Grade: GS-1530-11/13
Position Title: Statistician (Demography), Hyattsville, MD (NS) (Request 
vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: MP / DE4-02-021
Closing Date: Oct. 2, 2002
Contact: Health & Human Services, CDC, Box 12214, MS P-09, Research 
Triangle Park, NC 27709; Jean Stancil

Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Position Title: Information Technology Specialist, Kansas City, MO (NS) 
(Request vacancy; must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: CK153284CS
Closing Date: Sept. 5, 2002
Contact: Department of Treasury, 601 E. 12th St., Room 131, Kansas City, MO 
64106; 816-426-5706

Series/Grade: GS-335-5/7
Position Title: Computer Assistant, New York City, NY (S) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 03-MSA-2002-0044Z
Closing Date: Sept. 6, 2002
Contact: Housing & Urban Development, HR, The Wanamaker Building, 100 Penn 
Square East, Philadelphia, PA 19107; 215-656-0593 Ext. 3

Series/Grade: GS-334-12
Position Title: Computer Specialist, San Antonio, TX (NS) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: DS-2-11-152066-BM
Closing Date: Sept. 6, 2002
Contact: Department of Justice, 8610 Broadway, Room 305, San Antonio, TX 
78217; 210-805-2423 Ext. 406

Series/Grade: GS-335-5/7
Position Title: Computer Assistant, Ft. Worth, TX (S) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 03-MSA-2002-0044Z
Closing Date: Sept. 6, 2002
Contact: Housing & Urban Development, HR, The Wanamaker Building, 100 Penn 
Square East, Philadelphia, PA 19107; 215-656-0593

Series/Grade: GS-854-13
Position Title: Computer Engineer, Arlington, VA (S) (Request vacancy; must 
address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 02-342CB
Closing Date: Sept. 3, 2002
Contact: Department of Defense, DISA, Pers 701 S. Courthouse Road, 
Arlington, VA 22204-2199; Colleen Baldwin 703-607-4472

Series/Grade: GS-1550-13
Position Title: Computer Scientist, Arlington, VA (S) (Request vacancy; 
must address ranking factors)
Announcement #: 02-342CB
Closing Date: Sept. 3, 2002
Contact: Department of Defense, DISA, Pers 701 S. Courthouse Road, 
Arlington, VA 22204-2199; Colleen Baldwin 703-607-4472

Series/Grade: GS-854-13/15
Position Title: Computer Engineer, Hampton, VA (NS) (Request vacancy; must 
address ranking factors)
Announcement #: LA02D0190
Closing Date: Sept. 13, 2002
Contact: NASA, Langley Research Center, MC: 174, Hampton, VA 23665; 
757-864-2558

Jobs on this page are excerpts from thousands of listings in the FedJobs 
searchable database. Job information is available on the Web 
(www.fedjobs.com) or as a printed report, "Federal Career Opportunities." 
To subscribe, contact Federal Research Service, P.O. Box 1708-FCW, 
Annandale, VA 22003-1708.
*************************
Federal Computer Week
Bonner backs Homeland shift

U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner is backing President Bush's 
plans to shift federal employees to other jobs to build a Homeland Security 
Department and pay incentives to attract talented workers.

In a speech Aug. 26 to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 
Bonner said the president must have the authority and flexibility to make 
personnel changes and quickly shift job assignments as new threats or new 
enemies emerge.

"The new Department of Homeland Security must be the most modern, efficient 
and flexible in the federal government," Bonner said. "And the new 
secretary should have the authority he or she needs to do the job right.

"This includes having the authority to consolidate and align functions, 
integrate and deploy personnel and transfer assets and funds as needed to 
get the job done."

Customs is one of several agencies that will be folded completely into the 
new department once Congress passes legislation authorizing the biggest 
reorganization in government since the end of World War II. The changes 
could affect 170,000 employees throughout government who could be 
reassigned jobs or the locations of their offices once the change is made.

In addition, Bonner said the new secretary of the department must have the 
flexibility to quickly shift funds as needed to deal with terrorist threats.

If that authority is not given to the new secretary, Bonner warned, "We 
cannot possibly be nimble enough to respond to the shifts in the evolving 
and complex threats we will face from international terrorist organizations."
 *************************
Federal Computer Week
Roster Change in Key Federal Positions

Stephen Varholy will retire as deputy chief financial officer for NASA 
headquarters in Washington, D.C., effective Sept. 3. Varholy, who spent a 
decade in public accounting before joining the government, also has been 
the agency's acting CFO.

Kenneth Winter, from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., will 
serve as acting deputy CFO until a permanent replacement is selected. 
Winter is Langley's CFO and was the deputy for NASA headquarters before 
Varholy.

***

The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization 
dedicated to recruiting and retaining excellence in the federal civil 
service, announced two new staff members Aug. 23:

* Marta Tellado, vice president for communications. Previously, she was 
director of domestic policy programs at the Center for National Policy.

* Jeffrey Yeager, vice president for development. Previosly, he was 
executive director of the American Canoe Association.

***

Cathy Tilton, SAFLink Corp.'s director of special projects, has been 
appointed to serve a three-year term as the international representative of 
the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) 
M1 Biometrics group.

Tilton will be representing the United States on the committee, which is 
leading efforts to establish standards for the interchange and 
interoperability of biometric technologies for future submission to the 
International Organization for Standardization.

***

Bill Clark has joined portal software and Web services vendor Epicentric 
Inc. as vice president of government operations. Clark is a 20-year veteran 
of the software and information technology industry.

Mark Steinberg, who has been with Epicentric for three years, has been 
promoted to senior government solutions architect.

***

Ayesha Rahman has been named business development manager and Katherine 
Rettenmaier has been named senior consultant at Savantage Financial 
Services Inc., a provider of accounting, financial systems and IT solutions 
to government and commercial markets.

Rahman returns to Savantage after earning a master's degree of business 
administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 
She was responsible for project management and product marketing for 
Savantage from 1996 to 2000, and will be working to expand the company's 
presence in the government and commercial markets.

Rettenmaier, who has more than eight years of technical consulting 
experience, will be working to expand Savantage's Oracle financial 
application practice.

Savantage customers include the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan, 
the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Maritime Commission 
and the Census Bureau.

***

Phyllis Johnson has been named director of government sales at Vicinity 
Corp., a provider of Web, wireless and speech-based applications that 
enable enterprises to direct customers to a local store or office.

Johnson has spent the past 14 years selling and managing sales 
organizations exclusively dealing with government agencies and federal 
systems integrators.
***************************
Federal Computer Week
Customs seeks early cargo info

In another move to tighten security at the nation's borders, the Customs 
Service wants to require ships to electronically send a complete list of 
cargo to U.S. authorities at least 24 hours before loading at a foreign port.

Customs published a notice in the Federal Register Aug. 8 announcing the 
proposed rule.

In a speech Aug. 26, Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner said the proposed 
rule is one more step in policing the enormous business of importing goods 
to the United States. More than 500 ships arrive daily at U.S. ports, and 
the threat of contraband, including weapons of mass destruction, is growing.

The regulation would require cargo information to be transmitted to Customs 
24 hours before loading at a foreign port. It also would require a separate 
list of all foreign cargo that is not destined for the United States that 
will remain onboard the vessel.

"Good targeting depends on complete, accurate and timely information about 
containers being shipped  what is in it, who is shipping the goods, where 
it originated and so on," Bonner said in a speech to the Center for 
Strategic and International Studies. "Such information is essential to U.S. 
Customs' Automated Targeting System."

Bonner said the policy would allow Customs to "identify high-risk 
containers effectively and efficiently while ensuring prompt processing of 
lower risk containers."

Sam Banks, a former acting Customs commissioner, said that 80 percent of 
all vessels already send their cargo lists to Customs 48 hours before 
arriving at a port. Tightening the rule to 24 hours will make it harder for 
importers, he said, but shipping companies are likely to comply because 
they want to swiftly unload their cargo on arrival.

"It's to their advantage to do this, but it's going to change the 
dynamics," Banks said.

Comments on the rule must be received by Sept. 9.
*************************
Government Computer News
Interior moves forward with Geospatial One-Stop
By Dipka Bhambhani

The team working on Geospatial One-Stop intends to push ahead with 
development of the spatial data portal despite agencies' slow cooperation 
with the initiative, the project's chief says.

"We will have a number of the features up and running by February," said 
Scott Cameron, managing partner for the portal and the Interior 
Department's deputy assistant secretary for performance and management. A 
full version will go live by the end of next year, he said.

Geospatial One-Stop, one of the Office of Management and Budget's 24 
e-government initiatives, will provide a single online face to the 
government' spatial information databases via the FirstGov portal.

"We're not talking about one humungous database," Cameron said. "We're 
talking about a series of distributed databases."

For the project to work, each participating agency's database must classify 
spatial data the same way so that searches will retrieve data correctly. 
Agencies now use varying terms for similar data, Cameron said. For 
instance, some agencies classify a stream as a creek or a highway as a 
parkway, he said.

Working with the Federal Geographic Data Committee, a board of directors 
for the Geospatial One-Stop project is creating a list of standard terms 
for data collection and classification in seven categories: government 
boundaries, hydrography, elevation, digital orthoimagery, transportation, 
cadastral data and geodetic control.

The board expects to finish standards for the transportation layer this 
fall, Cameron said, with the remaining standards completed by year's end.

But convincing agencies to reclassify their spatial data and put their 
information online are the biggest barriers to the portal's development, he 
said.

"The challenge is intergovernmental coordination, getting agreement on 
these standards and getting main players to spend time and effort to 
characterize data, and to get people one by one to make their data 
accessible online," Cameron said.

To get a handle on the amount of data the portal must consolidate access 
to, FGDC is asking agencies to include any spatial data collection plans 
with their fiscal 2004 budget plans, which are due at OMB Sept. 9. The 
committee said it would post the agencies' plans on its Web site, at 
www.fgdc.gov.
****************************
Government Computer News
Commerce OKs new hashing standard for message authentication
By William Jackson

The Commerce Department has approved a new secure hashing standard that 
adds three algorithms to produce longer hashesor message digestsfor digital 
signatures and message authentication.

Federal Information Processing Standard 180-2 replaces FIPS 180-1 and will 
become mandatory for use with sensitive but unclassified information when 
it takes effect Feb. 1. The SHA-1 algorithm specified in FIPS 180-1, which 
produces a 160-bit message digest, is one of the algorithms included in the 
new standard, so products certified as meeting FIPS 180-1 requirements 
still can be used after January.

Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology developed the new 
standard, which includes algorithms that produce 256-bit, 384-bit and 
512-bit message digests.

A hashing algorithm is a program that produces a series of digits when run 
on a document. It is "computationally infeasible to find two different 
messages that produce the same message digest," according to NIST. Any 
change in the document will produce a different digestor hashwhen checked, 
revealing that a document has been altered.
****************************
Government Executive
Lawmaker outlines priorities for homeland security legislation
By Teri Rucker, National Journal's Technology Daily

ASPEN, Colo. -- There are a number of provisions, such as indemnifying 
firms that do business with the federal government, that Rep. Tom Davis, 
R-Va., wants to see the Senate include in its bill to create a Homeland 
Security Department.

If the Senate does not address these provisions, Davis plans to fight to 
have them included when the House and Senate reconcile their legislation, 
he said last week at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit.

The Senate's first order of business when it returns from the August recess 
is to address a bill, S. 2425, passed by the Senate Governmental Affairs 
Committee on July 25, which differs on key points from the bill, H.R. 5005, 
passed by the House on July 26.

"Our approach is to give limited indemnification to access new 
technologies," said Davis, who chairs the House Government Reform 
Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee. He said that the House 
approach is preferable to the Senate proposal to cap the amount of damages 
that can be collected, but Davis said he could support a combination of 
tort liabilities limitations and indemnification.

Davis also wants to see an expansion of the Freedom of Information Act 
(FOIA) exemptions. Currently, the legislation says it is applicable to 
firms that share information about security breaches to the Department of 
Homeland Security, but he wants it enlarged to cover other departments as 
well, he said.

With the FOIA exemption, "who will share information with the U.S. 
government" about their vulnerabilities or solutions to security problems 
if that information can be requested by competitors, the media or even 
terrorists, he said.

He predicted that the Senate would not act on the legislation by Sept. 11, 
but a Senate leadership source said the Senate could pass its own bill by 
the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

The same issues that plagued the House-passed bill, such as moving the 
Computer Security Division from the National Institute for Standards and 
Technology (NIST) to the new department and workers rights issues, likely 
will resurface when the Senate takes up its bill, the leadership source said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., supports moving the NIST division, but the 
tech industry opposes the shift and plans to mount opposition, sources said.

Davis also noted that biometrics will have "a huge role in homeland 
security." While biometrics technologies raise privacy issues, the reality 
is "if we play by the old rules in a free and open society, we are going to 
get slammed" by our enemies, Davis said.

In the next few months, the government will lift its spending freeze on 
information technology projects as policymakers and officials within a 
Homeland Security Department sort out their IT needs, Davis said.
**************************
Government Executive
Defense official says attack unlikely
By George Cahlink
gcahlink@xxxxxxxxxxx

A terrorist attack on the United States involving weapons of mass 
destruction is not imminent, or even likely, according to Stephen Younger, 
head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

"What we are dealing with is a low probability, high consequence event," 
said Younger in a recent interview with Government Executive. "The 
consequences associated with an attack are so great that the president is 
exactly right to raise the priority of reducing the threat of weapons of 
mass destruction to the highest levels."

Younger says past terrorist attacks, including those of Sept. 11, suggest 
terrorists favor highly explosive devices that offer quick results as 
opposed to more complex weapons of mass destruction that do not always have 
an immediate impact. Also, he says, the condemnation from the rest of the 
world if a nuclear, chemical or biological strike were launched would be so 
great that even terrorists groups would hesitate to go that route.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has been at the forefront of federal 
efforts to reduce threats poised by nuclear, chemical and biological 
weapons. The Defense agency is responsible for identifying emerging threats 
to the United States and its interests by hostile countries and terrorist 
organizations. It is also charged with finding ways to deter and combat 
these threats. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency has worked closely 
with intelligence agencies to identify future threats, assisted the FBI in 
its investigation of last fall's anthrax attacks, and studied ways to 
penetrate fortified targets by modifying missiles already in the U.S. 
weapon inventory.

"Probably the single most important thing we can do to predict future acts 
of terrorism is to understand causes of terrorism as causes of culture. 
This is not a technology problem. Technology will not save us from 
terrorism; it will help us mitigate the effects of terrorism. This is a 
socio-political problem," said Younger, who says understanding how a 
terrorist's culture differs from our own culture is crucial to identifying 
future threats.

For example, Younger said, terrorists traditionally have favored high 
explosives over chemical and biological weapons because they create a 
"dramatic and immediate impact"like commercial airlines slamming into the 
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Terrorist tendencies can also be 
understood by examining what means of attack have not been used. "It's 
certainly within the realm of terrorists to use chemicals against us," he 
said. "They have not done that yet. We'd like to understand better why and 
how to keep it that way."

According to Younger, one of the most valuable ways to learn about a 
culture is by studying its literature. "People tell you about themselves in 
the way they tell stories. That's how we communicate. That's why novels 
sell more than business books," he said. However, studying Al Qaeda 
literature has proved vexing because much of it exists only orally and very 
little of what is written has been translated into English, he added.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has also helped the FBI search for the 
person or organization responsible for the anthrax attacks. Younger said 
the equipment used to manufacture anthrax is "ubiquitous" in the scientific 
community and a "graduate-level microbiologist" would have the skills 
required to manufacture the deadly biological agent. "Lots of people have 
the capability. What we need to understand is who would have the intent to 
use it," he added.

The Defense agency has also studied potential vulnerabilities at federal 
buildings and suggested improvements. For example, an analysis of the U.S. 
embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, found that support columns were vulnerable to 
high-explosive blasts. As a result, the agency recommended that a 
protective coating be applied to the columns. That has made them much less 
vulnerable.

Younger emphasized that the agency's structural expertise is not based 
simply on computer modeling, but also on extensive testing done at federal 
test ranges in New Mexico. "We go out and build structures and build 
columns and expose them to real high explosive blasts, often with hundreds 
of pounds of high explosives, and measure the response of that structure. 
Then we treat it through various means and measure the response of the 
improved structure," he said.
**************************
Government Executive
CIA urged to collaborate more, strengthen weaknesses
By Shane Harris
sharris@xxxxxxxxxxx

PHILADELPHIA  The CIA and other intelligence agencies have little 
experience identifying potential terrorist targets in the United States and 
dealing with the threat posed by those vulnerabilities, according to 
Winston Wiley, the CIA's associate director of central intelligence for 
homeland security, who spoke Monday at a homeland security conference here.

Wiley said the ability of intelligence agencies to perform "vulnerability 
assessments" of the country's infrastructure is the key talent missing from 
the proposed Homeland Security Department. While President Bush's proposal 
would set up a division charged with making those assessments, Wiley said 
that if it is going to succeed, the Homeland Security Department, the FBI 
and the CIA must draw more on the expertise of other agencies in this area.


The Energy Department is one agency that has the experience in making these 
assessments, and works with other agencies and state and local governments 
to find threats posed to power plants, transit systems and other critical 
elements of the infrastructure. The FBI's National Infrastructure 
Protection Center and the Commerce Department's Critical Infrastructure 
Assurance Office also fulfill similar roles.


Wiley also said the FBI and CIA's counterterrorism efforts would have to be 
married to the Homeland Security Department's information analysis and 
infrastructure protection division so that the agencies could have access 
to details about U.S. infrastructures that they've never had in the past.

The relationship between intelligence agencies and the Homeland Security 
Department also would have to extend far beyond analysis. "The intelligence 
community is going to have to interact with every part of the department," 
Wiley said. White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has said the 
department would leave intelligence gathering to the CIA and other 
intelligence agencies, and that the new department would become a major 
consumer of their work. The other divisions, particularly those focused on 
border security and countering weapons of mass destruction, would also 
depend upon the information that intelligence agencies analyze, Wiley said.

Wiley advised CIA Director George Tenet about the agency's new cooperation 
with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies on counterterrorism. The 
CIA has detailed 25 intelligence analysts to the FBI, and Wiley said FBI 
agents have been assigned to the CIA's counterterrorism center. Wiley 
described himself as "[Tenet's] stalking horse for homeland security."

Wiley said the CIA is beginning to understand how to share classified 
information outside its bureaucratic borders to prevent future attacks. But 
he also noted that sharing nonclassified information is perhaps even more 
important to homeland security. Immigration information, such as visa 
records, would be considered nonclassified. State Department officials, in 
separate speeches at the conference, said they are looking for ways to 
electronically disseminate information on foreigners with whom their staff 
members interact at embassies and consulates to a wide range of 
intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the hopes of spotting 
potential terrorists.

Wiley is one of several high-ranking intelligence agency officials who are 
speaking at the conference, which ends Wednesday and was sponsored by 
Government Emerging Technologies Alliance, a nonprofit technology association.


Many speakers have said that such a public discussion of the activities of 
intelligence agenciesunheard of a few years agois a sign of how much those 
agencies are trying to be more open since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
************************
The Guardian Online
Travel website's mistake nets family £15 flights to Florida
Rebecca Allison

Surfing the net for a holiday bargain may never be as fulfilling again for 
a British family which snapped up the ultimate cheap deal thanks to an 
error on a travel firm's website.
Dalite Dryer and her husband Nick could not believe their luck when they 
discovered return flights to Florida advertised on the First Choice holiday 
website at £15 each, at least £450 less than the normal fare.

The couple from Woolton, Liverpool, had been planning a summer trip across 
the Atlantic to visit Mrs Dryer's father and had begun searching for the 
best flight deal.

Discovering the First Choice offer, which also included a £10 discount on 
each ticket because they were booking online, the Dryers wasted no time in 
booking seats for themselves and their daughters Talia, four, and Yaell, 
three, at a total cost of £60.

The family then rang Mr Dryer's parents, Martin and Maureen, in London and 
persuaded them to take advantage of the offer too.

"Our initial reaction was that it was a promotion to get people flying to 
America again in the wake of September 11. Then we thought it might be just 
the cost of the airport tax and the cost of the actual flight had not been 
added," Mr Dryer said yesterday.

"We decided to put the credit card details in anyway and it came back as 
confirmed, so we rang my parents in London and said 'we think we have found 
something amazing and do you want to come?' They said yes, as you would for 
£30, and so we went back online and booked them flights too," he added.

The family put off booking hotels and hiring cars for several months 
because they were worried their flights might be cancelled if First Choice 
realised there had been a mistake.

"We did not know what to think. I was convinced that at any time the 
company would ring and say there had been a mistake. We waited for a couple 
of months before booking hotels and car hire just in case.

"They never did ring and two weeks before we flew, the tickets arrived. We 
worried even when we were checking in and going through the gate that 
someone might stop us but they didn't and we were on the plane and away as 
planned on July 8," Mr Dryer said.

First Choice yesterday admitted a mistake had been made by someone loading 
information on to the website.

The family paid £15 each for the flight instead of a much higher fare. The 
exact amount they should have paid was not available, but the price of a 
ticket on the same date next year was £522 per person, a spokeswoman 
confirmed.

"It was human error. But all we are saying is that we are glad the family 
enjoyed their holiday," she added.

Others, however, have been less fortunate in their dealings with holidays 
and the internet.

Emma Nunn, of Sidcup, Kent, and Raoul Christian, of Charlton, south east 
London, both 19, bought their tickets for "Sydney" over the internet for 
£740 each, expecting to travel to Australia.

Instead, the pair spent their holiday in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a small 
industrial town on the north eastern seaboard of Canada known locally as 
the Steel City.

Problems with flight bookings made on the internet have also contributed to 
the rise in the number of consumer complaints, according to the aviation 
industry consumer watchdog, the Air Transport Users Council.

Ian Hamer, chairman of the council, said: "We are handling increasing 
numbers of telephone inquiries about reservation errors, most of which 
appear to have arisen from direct bookings with airlines either over the 
phone or via the internet."

· The UK is the biggest online travel market in Europe, with almost six 
million people visiting travel sites in January 2002. Germany is next with 
5.1 million, followed by France with 2.6 million.

· Internet analyst Jupiter estimates that the European market for online 
travel will be worth more than £12bn by 2006, and that online traffic to 
travel sites grew by 75% in some European countries last year.

· There has been a significant shift in the way we are buying our holidays, 
with a switch towards direct sales through call centres and the internet. 
In 1992 75% of sales were through shops, in 2000 the figure had fallen to 
62% and by the end of this summer the figure is expected to have dropped by 
another 10%.

· Travel continues to be one of the most popular categories among UK 
internet users attracting more than 30% of the 15.2 million online population.

· Travel sites are most popular with those who earn more than £45,000 per 
annum.

· Online travel companies have increased prices of package holidays and 
flights by 10% over the past year as the industry tries to begin making 
profits, according to the most recent annual survey by credit card provider 
Goldfish.

· A Holiday Which? survey of members in 2000 showed that at least 8% of 
them had booked some or all of a holiday online, and nearly all said that 
they would do it again.
*****************************
Reuters Internet Report
U.S. Wireless Internet Users Reach 10 Million
Wed Aug 28,12:07 PM ET

RESTON, Va. (Reuters) - Nearly 10 million active Internet users in the 
United States check e-mail or surf the Web for news or local services via 
mobile phones and handheld computers, a research group said on Wednesday.



ComScore Media Metrix, best known for its monthly surveys of most-popular 
Web sites, said it found that 5 million of the 19.1 million users of 
handheld computers and 5.8 million of the 67.2 million U.S. mobile users 
have wireless Internet access.

Dual use of both wireless Internet phones and handheld computers by some 
consumers shrinks the absolute number of U.S. wireless Internet users to 
9.9 million, the market research group said of its initial effort to survey 
the extent of wireless Internet use in the United States. The 9.9 million 
figure represents 11 percent of U.S. wireless users.

Males make up 72 percent (6.5 million) of wireless Internet users, compared 
with overall Internet usage, where 48 percent are men and 52 percent are 
women, according to comScore's studies of adult Internet use.

"Although wireless Internet usage is still in its relative infancy, these 
data prove there already is a significant wireless Web audience," said 
Peter Daboll, president of the comScore Media Metrix Internet measurement 
unit.

"While there are more Internet users with cell phones, a much higher 
proportion of PDA owners report using those devices to go online," he said 
in a statement summarizing the results.

The survey also found that 53 percent of online wireless users are between 
the ages of 18 and 34, while 42 percent are between 35 and 54. Just 4 
percent of people over age 55 have joined the trend.

The figures again contrast with general Internet usage via computer, 
television and other outlets, where 40 percent of Internet users are 
between 18 and 34, 46 percent are between 35 and 54 and 14 percent are 55 
and older, comScore said.

The survey was conducted among its group of 60,000 active Internet users 
aged over 18. Participants in the survey were asked what devices they 
carried with them and specifically whether they used these devices to 
access the Internet.

Wireless Internet devices counted in the survey include mobile phones with 
built-in Internet browsers, handheld electronic organizers running Palm, 
Microsoft or Linux ( news - web sites) software, and also some of the newer 
Blackberry e-mail pagers.

The company said the survey was the first in a planned quarterly survey of 
wireless Internet usage among its group of personal computer users. It is 
studying ways that it could eventually track actual mobile phone usage, a 
spokesman said.
************************


Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
lillie.coney@xxxxxxx


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the August 28, 2002 edition of ACM TechNews,
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 392
Date: August 28, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, August 28, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Tech's Major Decline"
"EU Copyright Directive 'All Bad News'"
"What Are the Real Risks of Cyberterrorism?"
"Cells Light Way for Flat-Panel Displays"
"Buggy Software Still Takes a Toll"
"Technical Degrees Still Command Highest Salaries"
"Hoping for Very Big, Yet Extremely Small, Discoveries"
"Battling the Bugs"
"Blue-Laser Storage Moves Closer to Reality"
"Nano Research Challenges Storage Unit"
"Bluetooth Rolls Toward Deployment in Cars"
"Selling the Connected Home"
"The NSF Looks Toward the Future"
"Purdue Retools Nanotech Research to Benefit University and Region"
"The Seven Deadly Security Sins"
"Compu-camp"
"P2P Getting Down to Some Serious Work"
"The Programmable Building"
"Homeland Insecurity"

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

"Tech's Major Decline"
The implosion in the U.S. technology industry is impacting the
number of computer science majors that U.S. universities are
churning out.  The Computing Research Association reports that
computer science undergraduates declined by 1 percent last year, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item1

"EU Copyright Directive 'All Bad News'"
The Britain-based Campaign for Digital Rights sharply criticizes
the proposed European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) in a
detailed study released last week.  The EUCD is similar to
America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), in that it ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item2

"What Are the Real Risks of Cyberterrorism?"
Cyberterrorism warnings tend to exaggerate:  They imply massive
losses to human life and property, when in fact government and
security experts note that bombing a target is still far more
damaging--and easier--than hacking into a computer.  An ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item3

"Cells Light Way for Flat-Panel Displays"
Flat-panel, color displays of the future could be based on
light-emitting electrochemical cells (LEC), according to Penn
State University researchers, who disclosed their findings this
week at the 224th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item4

"Buggy Software Still Takes a Toll"
Although software quality is showing improvement, business
customers continue to blame faulty software for lost productivity
and finances.  A federal report estimates an annual loss of
almost $60 billion due to buggy software.  Sometimes the problem ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item5

"Technical Degrees Still Command Highest Salaries"
Students that possess undergraduate and graduate technical
degrees usually earn the highest starting salaries, compared to
those with degrees in other fields, according to the most recent
New York Times Job Market (NYTJM) survey.  The poll finds that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item6

"Hoping for Very Big, Yet Extremely Small, Discoveries"
Five new U.S. nanoscience centers are being built under the aegis
of the Department of Energy.  One facility, the Center for
Integrated Nanotechnologies, will be run by Los Alamos and Sandia
national laboratories in New Mexico; the other centers will be ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item7

"Battling the Bugs"
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
recently reported that software bugs cost American companies
approximately $60 billion in 2001, while Bill Guttman of
Carnegie-Mellon University's Sustainable Computing Consortium ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item8

"Blue-Laser Storage Moves Closer to Reality"
A new blue-laser optical disc format developed by NEC and Toshiba
is expected to be announced either this week or next week, and
the companies plan to present the product to the DVD Forum as a
next-generation successor to DVD.  The technology could end up in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item9

"Nano Research Challenges Storage Unit"
New research shows that magnetic storage technology may be viable
for several more years than previously thought thanks to advances
in nanotechnology.  Scientists had worried that, as magnetic
storage bits are squeezed into tighter spaces, they would become ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item10

"Bluetooth Rolls Toward Deployment in Cars"
Chipmakers are working on Bluetooth technology that can withstand
the extreme conditions often found inside an automobile as well
as provide the processing power needed to run a variety of
applications.  Bluetooth in cars and trucks would enable a number ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item11

"Selling the Connected Home"
The Internet Home Alliance (IHA) and the Zanthus research firm
recently issued a report detailing what kinds of households are
most amenable to the concept of the connected home, why many
consumers resist the notion, and what consumer requirements are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item12

"The NSF Looks Toward the Future"
National Science Foundation (NSF) assistant director Peter
Freeman says that his agency has organized an initiative to
bolster the country's high-end computer and supercomputing
efforts.  He adds that by investing in improved supercomputing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item13

"Purdue Retools Nanotech Research to Benefit University and Region"
Purdue University's Schools of Engineering plan to spruce up and
increase their engineering space by 60 percent via a $400 million
renovation that will include a $56.4 million core facility for
nanotechnology research.  The initiative's guiding force,...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item14

"The Seven Deadly Security Sins"
Most network security holes are attributed to basic failings,
such as poor password management, misconfigured servers, and
inadequate or nonexistent patching.  But security experts also
point to lesser-known dangers such as network sharing between ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item15

"Compu-camp"
The TIC summer camp in Washington, D.C., has been teaching
schoolchildren computer skills for 20 years now, including
programming, animation, Web design, and digital music creation.
Camp director Karen Rosenbaum says the TIC camp offers a unique ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item16

"P2P Getting Down to Some Serious Work"
Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is gaining ground in the corporate
IT environment, helping make networks more robust and assisting
applications.  In addition, P2P is joining with other network
technologies--most notably grid computing--that are also making ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item17

"The Programmable Building"
Director of the MIT Media Lab's Center for Bits and Atoms Neil
Gershenfeld believes that buildings will be much more efficient
and flexible if their myriad systems are connected to the
Internet, and his team is devising small, inexpensive networking ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item18

"Homeland Insecurity"
Bruce Schneier, author of "Applied Cryptography," says that most
of the computer security measures being planned and developed in
the wake of Sept. 11 will be ineffective, and in some cases could
make Americans even more vulnerable.  Schneier says people ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0828w.html#item19

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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