Clips October 28, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips October 28, 2002

ARTICLES

Sniper leaves a mark [Finger Print Database]
White papers offer e-gov component architecture help
OPM making progress on two e-gov projects
INS foreigner tracking system awaits budget go-ahead from Congress
Lack of funding for statistics agencies could hurt economy
Visa lends ear to voice recognition technology
PayPal users targeted by e-mail scam -- again
British Firms Plan Merger to Lead in Screen Technology
Nobel scientist's bid for freedom
Display: Feeling Is Believing  [Assisted IT for Blind]
Prada's Smart Tags Too Clever?[Privacy]

***************************
Federal Computer Week
Sniper leaves a mark
BY William Matthews
Oct. 28, 2002

Two electronic fingerprint databases turned out to be keys to cracking the 
Washington, D.C., sniper case.

One, operated by the FBI, gave authorities the identity of a 17-year-old 
suspect in the three-week killing spree. The other, operated by the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service, led police to the 41-year-old 
suspected gunman, John Allen Muhammad.

Initially, the databases were tapped by Montgomery, Ala., police who were 
investigating a murder that appeared to be unrelated to the sniping spree.

A liquor store manager, Claudine Parker, was killed and a store clerk 
wounded Sept. 21 in what appeared to be a robbery in Montgomery. Police 
arrived at the scene quickly and chased the assailant, who escaped on foot 
but left behind a gun magazine bearing a fingerprint.

According to a government official, the Montgomery police turned the 
fingerprint over to the FBI, which compared it to prints in the bureau's 
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) database.

The FBI "got a hit" on John Lee Malvo. The IAFIS information told 
investigators that Malvo had once been arrested by INS.

That prompted a search of INS' IDENT fingerprint database. A hit there 
yielded more details and a digital photograph of Malvo. Most importantly, 
it pointed investigators to Malvo's INS arrest file, the official said.

According to the file, Malvo and his mother, Uma James, had been arrested 
by the U.S. Border Patrol in Bellingham, Wash., Dec. 19, 2001, and were 
charged with violating immigration laws. The Border Patrol had been called 
by Bellingham police who were investigating a dispute between James and 
Muhammad.

The link the records established between Malvo and Muhammad may have been 
the most important connection to solving the sniper case, the official said.

According to the records, Malvo and James were turned over to INS, the 
parent agency of the Border Patrol, and jailed for about a month. As part 
of the process, Malvo and his mother were fingerprinted.

The Border Patrol collected digital prints of their index fingers, which 
were added to the IDENT database - a system containing the fingerprints of 
10 million foreigners who have been arrested in the United States by INS.

The agency also collected "ink and paper" prints from every finger and sent 
those to the FBI, the official said. The FBI then digitized the prints and 
added them to IAFIS, its database of about 43 million digital criminal 
fingerprints.

The mother and son were released when a deportation hearing was scheduled 
for Nov. 20, 2002.
****************************
Government Computer News
White papers offer e-gov component architecture help
By Jason Miller

The Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office today 
released a component-based architecture white paper detailing the 
technology standards that could support the Office of Management and 
Budget's 25 e-government projects.

At the same time, the CIO Council's architecture working group made public 
the second version of its E-Government Architecture Guidance, which 
supplements the component-based architecture white paper by outlining an 
approach to define components needed to cost and plan e-government 
programs. Officials had hoped to release the CIO Council guidance by Sept. 
30 [see story, www.gcn.com/12_21/news/19474-1.html].

The component-based architecture white paper provides a brief definition of 
the technology that project managers should consider, and a Web link to 
find out additional information. OMB is not mandating the use of these 
technologies, but the platforms are scaleable, secure and interoperable, 
the paper said.

"The purpose of this white paper is to provide a framework and guidance for 
the technology standards and principles that will support and govern the 
[25] presidential priority e-government initiatives as well as future 
efforts directed to reuse technology components across the federal 
government," said Norm Lorentz, OMB chief technology officer in the paper's 
introduction.

The paper defines HTML technologies such as extensible markup language or 
universal description, discovery and integration as well as Microsoft .Net 
and Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform standards, security standards and 
lists the benefits, challenges and scope of a component based architecture.

The e-government architecture document discusses data architecture 
principles such as interoperability, physical integration and privacy. It 
also detailed the elements in the application and technology architectures.

The guidance "provides an initial set of terminology, architectural 
concepts, standards and technology models that provide a common foundation 
for e-government initiatives," the paper said.

Both papers can be found at www.feapmo.gov/index.htm.
****************************
Government Computer News
OPM making progress on two e-gov projects
By Jason Miller

The Office of Personnel Management is awaiting bids from nine vendors to 
upgrade its USAjobs.opm.gov Web site by the end of December.

Norm Enger, OPM's e-government project manager, said the E-Recruitment team 
selected nine vendors from an initial set of 62 to provide a commercial 
system to enhance the employment Web site.

E-Recruitment is one of five e-government projects OPM is managing under 
the Quicksilver initiatives.

In June, OPM released a request for information and, from those responses, 
selected nine companies to compete. OPM issued the request for proposals 
Oct. 18 and bids are due Nov. 7. Enger said he expects an award to be made 
in early December.

The agency wants to outsource day-to-day operations and maintenance of the 
system and streamline how users find vacancies, submit resumes online and 
track applications through the hiring process.

Enger also said OPM is finalizing agreements with two teams, the Defense 
Finance and Accounting Service and the General Services Administration, and 
the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center and the Interior 
Department's Federal Personnel Payroll System, to provide payroll services 
to the entire federal government.

OPM wants to consolidate 22 payroll systems to four under the E-Payroll 
e-government project, which is another of OPM's Quicksilver projects.

Enger said he hopes to announce the agreements around Nov. 14 and have an 
education forum about a week later so agencies, if needed, can decide on 
their new payroll provider by the end of December.
*****************************
Government Executive
INS foreigner tracking system awaits budget go-ahead from Congress
By Shane Harris
sharris@xxxxxxxxxxx

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has made progress on its plan to 
document all foreigners entering and exiting the United States, but the 
agency is waiting for Congress to pass a fiscal 2003 budget before it can 
begin implementing the plan, according to an INS official.


The agency plans to spend $326 million this fiscal year on the National 
Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which must be implemented at all 
airports, seaports and land border crossings by the end of 2005. But 
Congress has yet to sign off on the agency's fiscal 2003 budget, holding 
INS to fiscal 2002 spending levels under the latest continuing resolution. 
"We want to get this thing moving," said Bob Mocny, director of the INS 
entry-exit program office. "With the lifting of the [continuing 
resolution], we're good to go."


It's still unclear exactly whom INS would track using the entry-exit 
system. An agency memorandum obtained by the Associated Press last month 
instructed immigration inspectors to begin registering men ages 16 to 45 
from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen on Oct. 1. The memo also gave 
inspectors the authority to monitor anyone they thought worthwhile to track 
for national security reasons.


In September, the agency began documenting visitors from Iran, Iraq, Sudan 
and Libya. Visitors must provide fingerprints, photographs and details 
about what they plan to do in the United States. Mocny said the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology is still evaluating various types of 
identifiers the entry-exit system could use, such as fingerprints and eye 
scans, but hasn't settled on one that would work best.


On Oct. 1, the INS began receiving passenger lists for departing flights of 
all major airlines, Mocny said. The agency had already received arrival 
records, often hours before planes touched down in the United States.


The INS' top priority on entry-exit this fiscal year is to integrate more 
than two dozen databases at the Justice and State departments that contain 
information about non-resident aliens, Mocny said. He's unsure how many of 
the systems can be linked together, but said the agency will build new ones 
to accomplish that goal if necessary. The INS will ask private contractors 
to propose how to integrate the systems, rather than devise a plan on its own.


The entry-exit system would be one of the largest undertakings attempted by 
the government in years. Scott Hastings, the INS' chief information 
officer, compared the scale of the project to building a new air traffic 
control system.


The INS is required to establish the system at all airports and seaports by 
Dec. 31, 2003. The 50 largest land points of entry would be included one 
year later, and by the end of 2005, the system must be operational at all 
other border crossings.


Mocny said he foresees no logistical problems putting the system in place 
at airports and seaports, largely because the INS is now receiving data 
about passengers who arrive in the country by air or sea. Land border 
crossings, though, present a much greater challenge. There are 162 official 
land border crossing points, most of them located on small highways between 
the United States and Canada. Attempting to track foreigners passing 
through these points could cause massive traffic congestion.


Still, Mocny said he was "absolutely" confident that INS would meet its 
deadlines for the entry-exit system. He added that the agency has studied 
other large-scale projects where databases and networks have been linked 
together, and will make reference to those projects in its request for 
proposals from industry. But he declined to name those projects specifically.
*********************************
Government Executive
Lack of funding for statistics agencies could hurt economy
By Julie Kosterlitz, National Journal

Given the scale of the budgetary chaos in Congress, the plight of the 
federal government's statistical agencies naturally hasn't captured many 
headlines. Economists inside and outside the government, however, say that 
Congress's likely failure to approve additional funds for a cluster of 
Commerce Department data-gathering agencies could cause slow but insidious 
damage to U.S. economic well-being.


To understand why, consider the big kahuna of national economic performance 
measures: the gross domestic product (GDP). It is an all-important 
statistical summary of the U.S. economy. Produced by the department's 
Bureau of Economic Analysis from data collected chiefly by its sister 
agency, the Census Bureau, and the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, GDP totes up all the goods and services produced nationwide.


GDP and its component parts-known as the national income and product 
accounts-provide information that the Federal Reserve Board relies on to 
tinker with interest rates and that Congress and the White House rely on to 
produce budget and economic forecasts.


Those who labor in these statistical vineyards argue that it's in the 
national interest that the raw material fermented and bottled as GDP be 
fresh and of the highest quality. As Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans 
told a congressional panel this summer, a mistake in GDP-growth estimates 
of a mere one-tenth of 1 percent can translate into a $230 billion error in 
a 10-year budget estimate.


Right now, the Census Bureau is supposed to be getting ready to launch the 
economic census-a survey of roughly 5 million businesses conducted every 
five years. It generates most of the raw data from which GDP and the 
national income and product accounts are devised. But this summer, the 
Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, 
and the Judiciary passed a bill keeping the agency's funding flat-actually 
promising 40 percent less than the $87 million that Commerce had requested 
for the economic census. And while the House subcommittee with jurisdiction 
over the Census Bureau has yet to pass a funding bill, Commerce officials 
note that the panel has $4 billion less, overall, to dole out than its 
Senate counterpart. And while Congress puts off passage of this and other 
appropriations measures, it has been keeping the statistical agencies' 
budgets flat.


Economists say that canceling the economic census would be a serious 
problem-and an event that hasn't occurred for half a century. It would 
force the government and economists everywhere to try to gauge the state of 
the economy over the next five years on the basis of a snapshot taken in 
1997 supplemented only by smaller surveys and the educated guesswork of 
economic modeling. "GDP statistics would become increasingly unreliable," 
said Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.


Indeed, so unthinkable is the prospect for the career numbers crunchers at 
the Census Bureau that they're planning to draw on existing funds to send 
out their 5 million surveys, beginning in December. They hope additional 
money will come through before the returned surveys start piling up early 
next year.


The Census Bureau was also hoping to improve on the smaller surveys used to 
update GDP in between the economic censuses. As the service sector has 
grown as a share of economic activity, the Census Bureau has argued for 
surveying that sector once a quarter rather than just once a year.


The Census Bureau also wants to collect new data on business investment in 
computers and telecommunications. Government statisticians now believe that 
the lack of such data is a major culprit in the government's recent 
misestimates of GDP. Unfortunately, says Elizabeth Gregory, a Commerce 
Department spokeswoman, the funding levels approved by the Senate 
Appropriations subcommittee seem likely to hobble those plans as well.


Diane Swonk, chief economist at Chicago-based Bank One and a past president 
of the National Association for Business Economics and the current head of 
its Business Statistics Council, argues for more and timelier data: "We 
could have seen the economic downturn sooner, and economic policy could 
have been more pre-emptive and more clearly thought out in late 2000." The 
public might also have been tipped off earlier about just how weak the 
economy was last year.


Also on the chopping block, say Commerce officials, are plans to help trim 
the cost and size of the decennial census by shifting a raft of questions 
off the current "long form" questionnaire and onto shorter and more 
frequent surveys. These could produce valuable data for state and local 
policy makers.

Appropriators said their hands were tied. A subcommittee spokesman said 
that to maintain fiscal discipline while boosting funding for homeland 
security programs at the Justice Department and for the Securities and 
Exchange Commission required freezing all other spending at last year's 
levels.

But economists and Commerce officials are hoping that lobbying by business 
economists and heavyweight officials at the Fed will eventually persuade 
Congress to relent. The extra money required "is peanuts in this game, and 
the benefits far outweigh the costs," Swonk said.
********************************
Computerworld
Visa lends ear to voice recognition technology
By LUCAS MEARIAN
OCTOBER 25, 2002

A voiceprint authentication technology that will eventually allow credit 
card holders to speak into their laptop or handheld devices to verify an 
online purchase is currently being tested internally at Visa International 
Inc., which began using the service for password resets earlier this month.
Foster City, Calif.-based Visa said this week that about 200 employees are 
beta-testing Voice Secure Password Reset software from Mountain View, 
Calif.-based Vocent Solutions Inc., which Visa expects to bring a speedy 
ROI by cutting down on help desk calls. The credit card company is 
considering applying the voice recognition portion of the technology as a 
customer-facing application sometime next year.

"I think for us it shows a lot of promise; It's not invasive and it's very 
accurate," said Georgann Scally, vice president of alliance management at 
Visa International.

Scally said it will be up to credit card-issuing banks to decide whether to 
install the required servers and software, once Visa is confident the 
service will work for consumers. The company plans to go live with the 
application internally at the beginning of next year in order to allow 
5,000 employees worldwide to reset network passwords.

Visa is using two Windows 2000 servers to perform the automated password 
resets. The first server runs Vocent's Voice Secure and Nuance application 
along with software to interface to the private branch exchange telephone 
system.

The second server runs Courion's PasswordCourier software, which is 
integrated with the Vocent user and voiceprint data stored on SQL Server on 
the same box. Vocent is using application programming interfaces that 
Courion provided for integration.

Each password reset costs Visa about $20 in help desk time. The company 
averages 1,400 resets per month at a cost of $28,000, according to Sam 
Rollins, vice president for information security at Visa. When the voice 
recognition/password reset technology is fully deployed, Visa expects to 
cut up to three-quarters of those password reset calls.

"It's more than just a savings in dollars, though," Rollins said. "We're 
also talking about the time involved. It resolves [the] issue of getting 
hold of someone to do reset the password. There's the productivity time of 
the user involved, as well, and user convenience.

"We're confident that the ROI's there, but we haven't actually calculated 
one that we've given to management," Rollins said.

While he wouldn't speak to the contract's price, he did say the system's 
hardware and internal resource time added up to about $30,000. The system 
took between 60 and 90 days to roll out.

According to Brad Adrian, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., 
voice recognition technologies suffered from too much hype during the 1990s 
regarding what they could really provide. But today's applications are 90% 
to 95% accurate and "can pay for themselves very quickly."

Voiceprint authentication technology works much the same as other 
biometrics technologies, such as fingerprint recognition -- by creating a 
digital representation of a person's voice using sophisticated algorithms. 
Those attributes are stored in a database, which is prompted to make a 
match against the user's voice when the online system is accessed.

When it's rolled out to consumers, they would be prompted to leave a voice 
imprint when they activated their card, much the same way they're asked to 
verify their identity. Then, upon checking out of an online shopping site, 
the consumer would be prompted to speak into a computer's microphone to 
verify their identity.

Rollins said the credit card company had tried voice recognition technology 
before with "another vendor, and it just didn't work." Both he and Scally 
said they are "trilled with Vocent."

"The voiceprint technology itself has been around for several years, but in 
order to really deploy it, a company would need to develop the front end to 
it and find a way to connect it to the back-end systems, which is what 
Vocent has done," Scally said.
*****************************
Computerworld
PayPal users targeted by e-mail scam -- again
By LINDA ROSENCRANCE
OCTOBER 25, 2002

Users of online payment service PayPal Inc. have again been targeted by 
scam artists trying to steal their personal data, including name, address, 
home and work telephone numbers and credit card information.
Earlier this week, a reader e-mailed Computerworld saying he had received a 
message allegedly from "CustomerService@xxxxxxxxxx" with the subject 
"PayPal Security Update." Last month, PayPal users were hit by a similar 
scam (see story).

The Oct. 22 message, which arrived as an HTML e-mail replete with 
grammatical mistakes, was set up to mimic PayPal's Web site, and said: To 
confirm that you are an authorized PayPal member, authorization is needed. 
The New SSL 4.0 Secure Socket Layer has been updated to the PayPal servers. 
To be authorized, please visit https://www.paypalauthorization.com/. After 
completion, you will recieve[sic] and [sic] email confirmation within 24 
hours of reciept [sic]. Thanks for using PayPal!, PayPal Security Team.

The Web site address listed in the e-mail took users to an official-looking 
site that asked for their personal information.

The reader said he was fooled into entering his user name and password, his 
address and half of his credit card number before he realized he had been 
scammed. He said he immediately changed his PayPal log-in password, removed 
his credit card and bank information from his PayPal profile, sent an 
e-mail to PayPal's customer service department and filed a complaint with 
the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center.

As of late yesterday Eastern time, the spoofed PayPal site was still 
available. It wasn't available today.

PayPal spokeswoman Julie Anderson said the company was notified of the 
spoof site yesterday morning, immediately contacted the Web host for the 
site and asked that it be removed. The company also plans to file a 
suspicious activity report with law enforcement officials.

Previously, Anderson had said spoof sites are very common. She said the 
scam artists probably got hold of a database and sent messages to thousands 
of people, hoping to hit some PayPal account holders.

"[These scams] happen often, and they happen often to successful Web sites 
like eBay, PayPal and other financial services sites," Anderson said last 
month. "Fortunately, we know from experience that PayPal users are for the 
most part savvy enough not to fall for them. But in the end, if they do, 
they are certainly not liable for any losses."

A "whois" search on the domain name used in this week's scam showed that it 
was registered on Sept. 29, 2002, to a woman in Jacksonville, Fla. However 
when reached for comment, the woman said she was the victim of a similar 
scam targeting users of Dulles, Va.-based America Online Inc. (AOL).

The woman said she had only been a member of AOL for one week when she 
received a message allegedly from the company saying there was a problem 
with the credit card information she had provided and her service would be 
shut off immediately if she didn't provide the number of a different credit 
card.

She said she complied with the request and then said she was asked to 
resubmit the number and expiration date of the card she originally 
provided. Again she complied with this request.

Shortly thereafter, the issuing banks called her because they determined 
there had been some suspicious activity on her card. She said that's when 
she realized she had been victimized.

AOL couldn't be reached for comment today.

Russ Cooper, a security consultant at TruSecure Corp. in Herndon, Va., said 
that in addition to the security center PayPay has on its site -- complete 
with tips for users, including a warning that they never share their PayPal 
password with anyone -- the company could do more to protect users.

He suggested that PayPal use digital signature technology that would allow 
users to determine the veracity of an e-mail purporting to be from PayPal. 
He also said PayPal could alert users to this technology by posting 
information about it on a prominent place on its site.
*****************************
Computerworld
Sun joining Web services interoperability group
By TODD R. WEISS
OCTOBER 25, 2002

Until yesterday, Sun Microsystems Inc. has been notably absent from the Web 
Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I ), which was established in 
February to promote Web services interoperability in the IT industry (see 
story).
That absence is now history.

In an announcement yesterday, Sun said it's joined the WS-I as a 
contributing member to help create Web services standards among a field of 
vendors for platforms, applications and programming languages.

The move by Sun came after WS-I members changed the group's bylaws last 
week to allow the expansion of its board of directors by two seats.

Sun had previously said it wouldn't join the standards group without having 
a chance to be on the board. The company has now said it will seek one of 
the two seats when the board is expanded in March.

"Sun has received requests from many parties to participate in WS-I, and 
the new board member positions allowed us to reconsider our original stance 
and join the organization," said Mark Herring, Sun's senior director for 
Java Web Services, in a statement. "We have always applauded the objectives 
of the WS-I and intend to be energetic participants in the industry effort 
to promote transparency, openness and interoperability in the marketplace."

Participants in the 100-member WS-I already include Microsoft Corp., IBM 
and Oracle Corp.

"We are pleased that Sun has decided to join WS-I," Edward Cobb, vice 
president of architecture and standards for BEA Systems Inc. in San Jose, 
said in a statement. "As the steward of Java and a leader in enterprise 
systems, Sun has much to offer the organization."

Tom Glover, president of WS-I, said in a statement that Sun's contributions 
will be "critical to our efforts to promote universal Web service 
interoperability."
****************************
Los Angeles Times
British Firms Plan Merger to Lead in Screen Technology
Cambridge Display Technology's purchase of Opsys unit would give it control 
of a method to create organic light-emitting diodes.
From Reuters
October 28 2002

AMSTERDAM -- Two British companies announced plans early today to merge to 
become a world leader in the technology of so-called glowing plastics.

Cambridge Display Technology announced the acquisition of the research 
activities of rival Opsys, giving it control of another major method to 
create organic light-emitting diodes (OLED).

Financial details were not disclosed.

The two closely held companies sell their know-how to major electronics 
manufacturers, such as Seiko Epson Corp., Philips, DuPont Co. and Siemens, 
some of which have just opened factories for the first generation of 
monochrome OLED displays used in cell phones. As the technology matures it 
will be used for full-color screens.

Cambridge Display is taking on U.S. photo giant Eastman Kodak Co., which is 
one of the pioneers of OLEDs. The Cambridge University spinoff claims to 
have found a more efficient production method, which effectively prints a 
special type of OLED on a surface.

The market for OLEDs is expected to rise from just $85 million this year to 
$3 billion by 2007, according to a recent survey by U.S. market research 
group DisplaySearch.

Hopes for the technology are high because polymers that emit light do not 
require a backlight used for the current generation of flat-screen liquid 
crystal displays (LCDs). It makes them energy efficient and much thinner -- 
so thin they can be folded.

Opsys, spun out of Oxford and St. Andrews universities in 1997, uses 
polymers called dendrimers, which are brighter and more energy efficient 
than Cambridge Display's light-emitting polymers. The two companies hope to 
blend their technologies to improve the life span of the dendrimers.

Cambridge Display Chief Executive David Fyfe said he expected that by 2005 
the technology would be mature enough, and the price per display 
competitive enough, that OLEDs would start replacing LCD full-color flat 
screens, which recently started replacing 70-year-old cathode ray tube 
technology.

"The attraction is that [OLEDs] are much more energy efficient. It doesn't 
generate as much heat, and the light goes only in one direction," he said.
********************************
BBC Online
Nobel scientist's bid for freedom

Nobel-prize winning scientist Sir John Sulston spent some 30 years in a 
laboratory studying a millimetre-long worm in an attempt to help us 
understand our own bodies.
At the cutting edge of scientific research he also led the UK race to 
sequence the human genome, where he found himself championing public 
benefit over private gain.

Speaking to BBC World Service's Agenda programme, Sir John explained what 
motivates his work.

"A scientist's role is to discover," he explained. "We have a crucial role 
to communicate, but we do not have the unique right to decide. That is for 
the democratic public after being well informed."

Worm gazing

For most people the idea of looking down a microscope at a wriggling worm 
for three decades may seem dull, but for Sir John the nematode was a 
gateway to a whole new world.

"It sounds boring but it is not because the world in there is unimaginably 
beautiful," he said.

"It is very much like astronomy, just sitting and looking at your object 
for a long time."

Sir John's worm gazing paid off and, after an intense 18-month period of 
study, he and his colleagues were able to construct what he described as 
"the family tree of cells".

In 1990, along with his colleagues, Sir John published the gene map of the 
nematode.

Explaining the significance of their findings, he explained how they 
continually justified their research.

"I am always anxious to know whether I am doing something which is 
worthwhile," he said.

"Each of us spent about £15m getting the sequence of the nematode. The only 
purpose for spending that money is to make research work better."

Monopolies

Sharing the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on the soil organism, Sir 
John was previously well known for his role in cracking our genetic code.

By 1998 the nematode team finally completed the first genetic sequence for 
an animal and Sir John found himself in the race to do the same for the human.

Modest about his achievements, he remains passionate about the scientist's 
role in pushing back boundaries.

"What is the point of human existence if we don't explore culturally?" he 
asked.

Not content with helping to translate "the Book of Life", Sir John has 
described the idea of venture capitalists patenting the genes or making 
private profit out of their work as "despicable".

Campaigning for freedom of information, he explained how, "if you hang on 
to any piece of information, you create a monopoly because the human gene 
is unique".

"It's not really a fight against business, but it is a fight against 
appropriate use of patenting and licensing," he said.

"We must keep this basic information free because only in this way can all 
the world's people and their scientists get hold of it."

A fervent believer in sharing information for human and scientific good, 
Sir John explained how he will continue to rally against the megalomaniacs 
of the scientific world.

"There are always people who are trying to appropriate the common good for 
their own ends and one has to continue to battle against that," he asserted.
*****************************
Wired News
Display: Feeling Is Believing
02:00 AM Oct. 26, 2002 PST

Blind people can already surf the Web using screen access software that 
translates information into synthesized speech or Braille. A new technology 
could change the way they use the Web by allowing them to "feel" electronic 
images and graphics.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently unveiled a 
prototype device, called a tactile graphic display, that allows blind users 
to explore two-dimensional drawings and pictures by sense of touch.

"Braille readers give you access to text," said Curtis Chong, director of 
technology for the National Federation of the Blind. "This will give you 
access to shapes."

The NIST and the National Federation of the Blind will field-test the 
device to get firsthand input on how it may be improved for future 
commercialization.

"We've talked about access to words, sentences and characters," Chong said. 
"We've talked about access to graphical information as a string of text 
next to a graphical object. But never before have we talked about access to 
the graphical object itself -- what it feels like and what its shape is like."

Chong, who is blind, hopes that this device will expose blind children to 
shapes and graphics, so they can get a better grasp on subjects like 
geography.

Blind students could use the device to create maps, plot mathematical 
curves, scan photographs, create art and engineering designs and read 
scientific images.

"There's a whole generation of blind people who have never had constant 
exposure to general shapes," Chong said.

The reader works in the same way that Braille makes words readable. The 
machine uses a plotter that pushes up thousands of small pins that can be 
raised in any pattern and then locked into place. The pins can be withdrawn 
and reset in a new pattern, so users can feel a succession of images on a 
reusable surface without using a powered device.

Inspiration for the refreshable tactile graphic display came from a "bed of 
nails" toy, essentially a plate of moving pins with their ends exposed that 
depress when touched to form shapes. Researchers used the toy to brainstorm 
ways the principle could be applied to electronic signals.

Researchers also leveraged ideas from NIST's Rotating-Wheel Based 
Refreshable Braille Display, which converts electronic text such as e-mail 
into Braille characters.

In the past, graphics for the blind have been difficult to produce and 
prohibitively expensive.

The reusable surface eliminates the cost and disposal problems of printouts 
from hard-copy Braille display devices that make a permanent record on 
plastic sheets or heavy-duty paper.

While hard-copy Braille displays are costly and time-consuming to use, 
"this technology can produce a shape with raised pins within a few 
minutes," Chong said.

Users can modify images and view a large number of images quickly, so they 
can browse the Web or view multiple illustrations, map outlines or other 
graphical images in electronic books.

"This gives blind people new capability that was previously beyond 
practical and financial means," said NIST project leader John Roberts.

The displays are expected to cost around $2,000, much less than most 
Braille readers. Researchers hope this new device will be cheap enough for 
individual consumers.

The prototype has some glitches, however. Currently, a sighted person has 
to run a computer to send images to the device.

Researchers are working with accessibility experts to develop software that 
would allow a blind person to use the device independently.

Still, project leaders think the device has excellent untapped market 
potential.

"It addresses a need that's been there for a long time," Roberts said. "It 
will expand the range of things that blind people can do, at work or at home."
****************************
Computerworld
Prada's Smart Tags Too Clever?
01:36 PM Oct. 27, 2002 PST

The most striking thing about the new Prada store in Manhattan's SoHo 
neighborhood isn't the round glass elevator or the sloping wood floor that 
displays $500 shoes.

Nor is it the see-through raincoats in cages or the clear dressing room 
doors, made of liquid crystal panels that darken for privacy when shoppers 
step inside.

The real magic in the fashion house's 17,000-square-foot store is the 
technology behind the scenes innovations that other retailers are also 
looking to adopt.

Using a technology called radio frequency identification that embeds data 
in clothing tags, Prada sales associates armed with handheld computers can 
find out a lot on the spot. What sizes of that blouse are still in stock? 
What materials are in it?

Prada shoppers eventually will be able to create "virtual closets" and 
store information about what they tried on and bought in password-protected 
Internet accounts. They will also be able to opt for customer cards that 
detail past purchases and contain notes sales associates may have made on 
their preferences. Such cards would be readable either by associates' 
handhelds or at cash registers.

Although designed to improve the shopping experience and make stores more 
efficient, such technologies also carry risks for consumers concerned about 
privacy; unless merchants set clear policies on the sharing of customer 
information.

The Prada store in SoHo, which opened nearly a year ago, is the first of a 
string of so-called "epicenters" the Italian fashion company plans, with 
Tokyo and Los Angeles stores scheduled to open next year.

Prada's use of "smart tags" on the sales floor -- other retailers use them 
to track merchandise in warehouses -- puts it at the forefront of a 
movement among merchants to expand their use of technology.

Internet kiosks in some Barnes & Noble and Gap stores enable shoppers to 
research products or order merchandise not on the premises. And Nordstrom 
is experimenting with storing customer information.

At least one other major retailer is trying out a different sort of tech tool.

Vocera Communications Systems is testing WiFi wireless technology at a 
Target store in Rogers, Minnesota. It bundles the functions of a 
walkie-talkie, phone and pager into a 1.6-ounce badge. Store associates 
wear them around their necks and operate them hands free with voice commands.

In the Prada store's dressing rooms, customers can hang clothes in one 
lucite box and accessories, like handbags and belts, in another. An image 
is captured from their radio-frequency tags and projected on a plasma 
screen beside the closet in the dressing room.

By pushing buttons on the screens, customers can mix and match outfits, and 
find out more details about the clothing.

When a reporter wanted to try on a $540 tapered wool jacket recently, the 
sales associate took her to a dressing room and deftly showed her how to 
get information about the garment's fabric and other details by pressing 
buttons on the screen.

Screens in dressing rooms will eventually be linked to the Web, enabling 
consumers to create "virtual closets." Just when such features will be 
available, Prada spokeswoman Katherine Ross wouldn't say.

Integrating the technology at the Prada SoHo store hasn't always been easy.

As recently as July, sales associates still had trouble with the wireless 
tag scanners. And many shoppers interviewed during a recent visit were 
unaware of the radio frequency identification technology and how it works.

Eric Wong, 24, of New York, said that although he was impressed with the 
store's tech features he has a "better shopping experience" at Barney's, 
which carries Prada and has a more intimate feel.

"Overall, it seems that the technology wasn't used to enhance the consumer 
experience, but help the sales people on the floor," said Mitch Kates, a 
principal with Kurt Salmon Associates, a retail consulting firm. "The 
technology is cool, but it can also be intimidating."

One loyal Prada shopper, Shawn Rubino of Rye, New York, was impressed by 
streaming videos embedded in tables in the store and said she was "excited 
about the technology." But she was concerned about the potential "invasion 
of privacy" from some of Prada's tech plans.

Ross, the company spokeswoman, said Prada has no plans to share any 
information with outside parties.

How Prada uses its technology to learn more about its customers remains 
key, said analyst Kate Delhagen of Forrester Research. While other 
companies store information online, at Prada "store clerks will have access 
to it," she noted.

Nordstrom has moved into similar territory by teaming up with Blue Martini 
Software to roll out customer relations software in its stores. The 
intention is to help sales representatives better track customers' 
purchases and tastes by storing individual shoppers' information in a 
central database.

While the software is expected to make sales associates more efficient, the 
larger potential for Nordstrom is in cross-selling and pushing sales of 
related items, like hosiery with shoes.

That could be a big turnoff to customers who don't want clerks to know too 
much about them.

"The main problem is that you set yourself up for more sales people to 
pitch you products," said Richard Smith, an Internet privacy consultant. 
"And if they see you spending a lot of money, they'll be hovering more."
***************************
Computerworld
Gun Add-On Sets Sights on Killers
02:00 AM Oct. 25, 2002 PST

A device that can be incorporated into any type of firearm aims to make it 
harder for criminals to get away with murder.

Every time a weapon fitted with the device is fired, it stamps an indelible 
imprint of the firearm's serial number onto the bullet's shell casing.

This means that shell casings retrieved at the scene of a crime will become 
an even more valuable forensics tool, potentially enabling law enforcement 
professionals to ascertain the gun's make instantly and quickly track down 
the weapon's last registered owner.

Stamping bullets, however, may not provide an instant solution to matching 
crimes -- like the Washington-area sniper shootings -- with culprits, said 
Todd Lizotte, vice president of research and development at NanoVia, where 
the new device is being developed.

"There are a lot of very educated criminals out there," Lizotte said. 
"Cartridges can be collected and planted -- left at the scene of the crime 
on purpose to excite some response."

John Mogle, general manager at Christensen Arms, a custom gun manufacturer, 
agrees.

"There is always going to be one or two of these lunatics out there, and 
these criminals are probably using stolen guns anyway, so the weapon will 
not be registered to them," Mogle said.

The system works by making use of the pressure and heat that build up when 
a weapon is fired, causing the cartridge to expand into the wall of the gun 
barrel.

"What we did was put a plug in the breech of the gun that has very small 
raised letters on it, so that when the expansion occurs the cartridge is 
self-embossed with these characters," Lizotte said.

At about one-tenth the diameter of a human hair, the etching is so small 
that forensic scientists need microscopes to identify the characters.

Lizotte said the system offers several advantages over current methods.

Currently, ballistics experts can only match casings to their guns if the 
weapon has also been recovered. When you have a shell casing with the gun's 
serial number stamped onto it, you no longer need the gun. Lizotte also 
said NanoVia's system is more reliable than current methods of matching 
casings to guns.

"It offers a more precise piece of evidence than a scratch or a ding in a 
bullet logged in a digital file," Lizotte said.

The system has met with some skepticism in the gun world.

"The law-abiding citizen will leave this alone, but the people who are not 
law-abiding will know it's there and will simply rub it smooth," said David 
Epstein, director of scientific services at the National Forensic Science 
Technology Center. "It just takes a file, and it's easy to do."

Lizotte, however, said that's not possible.

"You don't have direct access to it with a file. In order to be able to get 
to it and file it off, you'd have to ruin the gun," Lizotte said.

Mogle of Christensen Arms voiced some concerns over cost.

"It's going to be an added expense," he said. "We're a custom gun maker, so 
it's not such a big deal to us, but for the mass-production manufacturers, 
expense is very important."

Lizotte said that when manufactured in bulk, the system would add $4 to $5 
to every firearm.

Lannie Emanuel, secretary of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark 
Examiners, was more enthusiastic about the system.

"It's one step beyond what we are doing now," Emanuel said. "If you had the 
identification number, you wouldn't need to have the gun to compare what 
you had on the bullet."
*****************************
Reuters Internet Report
Hollywood Targets Workplace Song-Swapping
Thu Oct 24, 1:11 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hollywood took its fight against Internet 
song-swapping to the office on Thursday, asking the 1,000 largest U.S. 
public companies to block employee use of online file-trading networks.



Trade groups representing record labels, movie studios, songwriters and 
music publishers said they plan to send a letter this week to corporate 
chieftains asking them to prevent employees from using "peer to peer" 
networks such as Kazaa and Gnutella (news - web sites) that enable users to 
download songs, movies and other digital files for free.


"We urge you to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that your network 
is not being misused to infringe copyrighted works," the letter said. 
"Using technology to steal music and movies is no different from walking 
into a store and shoplifting a CD or DVD."


The letter comes on the heels of a similar request sent to college and 
university administrators several weeks ago. Like college campuses, many 
offices are wired with high-speed Internet access, allowing large files 
such as digital video to be downloaded quickly.


By contrast, roughly nine out of 10 home Internet users rely on slower, 
dial-up service.


The letter suggest that businesses could be held liable for copyright 
infringement on their corporate networks and asked that corporate legal 
officers be made aware of their request.


It was signed by the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web 
sites), the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music 
Publishers' Association and the Songwriters Guild of America.


The music industry blames Internet-based song-swapping for a decline in 
sales and has moved aggressively to shut down peer-to-peer networks since 
Napster (news - web sites) burst on the scene in 1999.


Industry lawsuits knocked Napster offline last year, but users turned to a 
wide array of other services that sprung up in its place.


The music industry has since switched tactics and sought to convince users 
that their actions are immoral and illegal through an advertising campaign 
and a speech during the annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
***************************
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