Clips January 14, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips January 14, 2003

ARTICLES

Google fighting lawsuit over lowered search rankings
Phone Units Join in Effort for Seamless Wireless Net
A competition crisis? [Editoral]
Council offers vision for infosec standards
Postal Service simplifying privacy
DOE plans integrated management system
Head of anti-terrorism panel wary of data mining
Internet error puts Starwood in no-win situation
Judge rules in favor of Internet pharmacy

**********************************
Computerworld
Google fighting lawsuit over lowered search rankings
By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service
JANUARY 13, 2003

In a case that underscores the increasing importance Internet search 
rankings have on business, Google Inc. is fighting to dismiss a lawsuit 
claiming that it purposely devalued the search rankings of online 
advertising network Search King Inc.
According to documents filed Dec. 30 with the U.S. District Court for the 
Western District of Oklahoma, Google is asking the court to deny a request 
for a preliminary injunction from McLoud, Okla.-based Search King, which 
sued the search giant in October claiming that it unfairly bumped the 
rankings of its Web sites, leading to financial losses.

In its suit, Search King alleged that Google "arbitrarily and purposefully" 
devalued its rankings when it discovered that the company's advertising 
sales branch, PR Ad Network, was placing text ads on Web sites with a high 
"PageRank" from Google, therefore making it one of the few competitors to 
Google's advertising service.

Google's PageRank system calculates search results based on how many sites 
link to a particular site, with more "important" linking sites adding more 
weight to the ranking. Because Google is one of the largest and most highly 
trafficked search sites on the Web, Search King alleges that the way in 
which it delivers results can significantly affect the amount of traffic 
received by a Web site.

Although Search King's PageRank rating was restored in November, the 
company decided to follow through with the suit as a matter of principle.

The case is about Google's attempt to squelch competition by targeting 
businesses and arbitrarily reducing page rankings or search status, Search 
King and PR Ad Network President Robert Massa said in a statement released 
when his company's ratings were restored.

No one from Mountain View, Calif.-based Google was immediately available 
for comment today.

Search King is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 as well as punitive 
damages and attorneys' fees.
********************************
New York Times
January 14, 2003
Phone Units Join in Effort for Seamless Wireless Net
By BARNABY J. FEDER

Motorola, Proxim and Avaya are expected to announce today that they will 
jointly develop technology to allow wireless communications to jump between 
networks without interruption.

If the three companies are successful, an executive could begin downloading 
data using a wireless hub in a Starbucks, airport or other public site and 
move to a company office without interrupting the transfer. Similarly, a 
phone call that began over a company's internal voice-over-Internet network 
could move to a public carrier as the user of the cellphone left the building.

Analysts briefed on the plans said the partnership would face daunting 
technical hurdles, including reconciling the different security levels and 
frequency levels in different wireless networks. Analysts called it the 
most ambitious wireless roaming plan yet to try to take advantage of the 
spread of communication hubs based on a standard called 802.11, known as 
Wi-Fi. The hubs, also called hot spots, are either free to any user of a 
mobile device with a Wi-Fi card who happens to be in the neighborhood or 
are limited to subscribers, depending on who operates them.

Most Wi-Fi networks have focused on transfer of e-mail messages and other 
forms of data from laptop computers but the goal of the three companies is 
to offer seamless transitions to cellphone users as well.

"The way hot spots are evolving, it could take a lot of traffic off of 
traditional wireless networks," said Frank Dzubeck, president of 
Communications Network Architects, who is among the analysts briefed by the 
companies.

In an unrelated development, Motorola said yesterday that it had made an 
offer to acquire the 26 percent of Next Level Communications it does not 
own for $30 million, or $1.04 a share.

Next Level, based in Rohnert Park, Calif., makes equipment to send video 
and other broadband communications through copper phone lines at very high 
speeds. Next Level was among the hottest stocks of the Internet bubble 
after going public at $20 a share in late 1999, with shares soaring as high 
as $195.75 the next March. The company was controlled by General 
Instrument, which Motorola acquired in January 2000.

Next Level shares fell sharply in 2000 when large phone companies failed to 
choose its technology as their main weapon in competing with cable 
companies to offer high-speed Internet connections. While the technology 
offers high performance over existing wires, it can reach customers only 
within a short distance of central switching offices.

Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Ill., said it had provided more than $200 
million in subsidies and financial guarantees to keep Next Level afloat. It 
said that taking Next Level private would remove financial pressure and 
allow Next Level to continue to develop and sell products. But analysts 
said the main reason for the move would be to simplify shutting down or 
selling Next Level while Motorola concentrated on increasing its 
investments in wireless technologies like the ones it will work on with 
Proxim and Avaya.

Motorola does not need Next Level's approval to complete the takeover, said 
J. Michael Norris, the chairman and chief executive of Next Level.

Next Level shares rose 31 cents, to $1.22; Motorola's fell 48 cents, to $9.45.
******************************
Federal Computer Week
A competition crisis? Editorial
Jan. 13, 2003

The Bush administration has put in place all the makings of an identity 
crisis for 2003.

A string of seemingly unrelated policy decisions in the past two years 
raises fundamental questions about how the government will do its job in 
the years ahead.

The primary issue: Who should do the work of government  contractors or 
employees? This is not simply a philosophical discussion, but a matter of 
pressing concern for all federal agencies.

Administration officials have stated publicly that for any service that is 
not inherently governmental, the public and private sectors should compete 
for the opportunity to perform that service  what the Bush administration 
calls competitive sourcing.

But competitive sourcing quickly becomes tangled with such issues as 
information technology and project management training, employee retention 
and broader visions of civil service reform.

The administration's policies in those areas must be developed or refined 
to support its commitment to shifting government work to the private sector.

Managing a team of contractors, for example, is a different challenge from 
managing in-house staff, experts say. Federal chief information officers 
already are concerned that many of their senior staff members lack the 
skills to manage large programs. Outsourcing only exacerbates that problem.

And highly qualified managers are in high demand everywhere, making it 
tough for agencies to hire and keep them.

The Bush administration's success in rolling back some civil service 
protections for Homeland Security Department employees has many people 
wondering if similar changes are in store governmentwide. The loss of 
traditional protections, though, could further impair the government's 
ability to maintain its workforce, especially in IT, where skilled workers 
have other options.

The administration cannot have a split personality in this area, promoting 
more competition for government work yet not giving agencies the guidance 
and resources they need. It's a resolution for 2003 that officials simply 
cannot afford to ignore.
***********************************
Federal Computer Week
Council offers vision for infosec standards
BY Diane Frank
Jan. 13, 2003

President Bush's private-sector infrastructure protection advisory council 
agreed Jan. 8 that the federal government should use industry-developed 
security standards, but should also be willing to use its heft to drive 
those standards toward interoperability.

The National Infrastructure Advisory Council's recommendations will go to 
the president later this month along with a revised National Strategy to 
Secure Cyberspace, said Richard Clarke, chairman of the President's 
Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

Most of the council's recommendations had been finalized before the Jan. 8 
meeting, but it took members  including the president and chief executive 
officers of Cisco Systems Inc. and Internet Security Systems Inc.  time to 
find the right language to state their vision of the government's role in 
setting information security standards.

Their final recommendation is that the federal government should encourage 
the development and use of open standards in the market instead of 
dictating specific standards. But federal officials should also use the 
government's significant buying power to push for interoperability in those 
market standards and solutions that will raise the baseline of security 
across all sectors.

This recommendation falls in line with the approach taken by the Bush 
administration in its draft cybersecurity strategy, which the White House 
released for comment in September 2002. Many criticized the draft as being 
too soft on industry and lacking significant milestones. Revisions that 
Clarke's office proposed include setting specific priorities, such as 
taking a closer look at the Common Criteria security product certification 
program.

Later this month, the council plans to meet again to look at other 
infrastructure protection issues, including the international migration to 
Version 6 of the Internet Protocol and developing a systematic 
vulnerability assessment program for private-sector infrastructure.

If the government exerted its buying clout, it would benefit both the 
private sector and federal agencies, according to industry analysts. 
"Government security spending is going up, and [its buying power] can be a 
dramatic stimulus" to push the development of better security solutions, 
said John Pescatore, a vice president at Gartner Inc.

For example, after denial-of-service attacks, which brought down leading 
e-commerce sites run by Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc. and others three years ago, 
Internet service providers tested new technologies to thwart such attacks 
but didn't see tremendous demand to justify the cost of incorporating the 
products into their services.

However, if the government mandated that all federal agencies with Internet 
connections should use ISPs with built-in denial-of-service protection, 
then ISPs would work together to make those links more secure.

Likewise, if the government said all agencies using personal computers 
should have personal firewalls to protect them from attacks, desktop 
computers would be more secure, Pescatore said.

Rutrell Yasin contributed to this article.
***************************
Federal Computer Week
Postal Service simplifying privacy
BY Sara Michael
Jan. 9, 2003

The U.S. Postal Service has reorganized how it collects and shares 
information on customers and is working to make its privacy notices more clear.

In keeping with the obligations of the Privacy Act of 1974, USPS has 
streamlined the collection of customer information by ensuring that each of 
its programs gathers the appropriate personal information, according to Zoe 
Strickland, USPS' chief privacy officer.

Previously, there was no consistency as to how USPS collected and used 
personal data. With improved data collection practices, Strickland said 
USPS officials have now turned their attention to translating the service's 
practices to customers in a detailed notice.

Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and 
Technology, applauded the reorganization of what he called "haphazard 
collection." But the Postal Service's move raises a larger concern, he 
said: The Privacy Act simply needs to be updated.

With little policy guidance, agencies are left to individually interpret 
the outdated act and decide the best way to collect customer information 
and relay the privacy safeguards in notices.

"[The Postal Service] is doing the best they can, however there should be a 
larger discussion," Schwartz said.

USPS took a "big picture approach" in re-examining the collection of 
private information that is maintained in its records system, Strickland 
said. After determining what personal data USPS has and where it is 
maintained, Postal Service officials mapped its collection. From there, 
they were able to look at each customer practice and bring consistency to 
the data collection for each program.

For example, a customer may register for several products and services on 
the Postal Service's Web site. Instead of having to provide personal 
information for each, USPS' universal registration simplifies the process 
and ensures information is obtained and used correctly. A pop-up window 
will appear on the site to notify customers of USPS' data collection process.

"You need to review them to keep them up to date," Strickland said of the 
data sets. "You've really got to take a look at current trends in privacy 
and reflect that, and you've got to keep it current."

The Privacy Act requires federal agencies to publish notices describing the 
safeguards that keep personal information private. While there weren't 
major problems in the Postal Service's previous notices, Strickland said 
they needed improvement.

"You have to understand both the facts and the law," she said. "Some 
[notices] were fragmented and not as clear and standardized as they could be."

USPS is now in the process of clearly defining the Privacy Act and the core 
requirements around securing information.
****************************
Government Computer News
01/14/03
DOE plans integrated management system
By Patricia Daukantas

Over the next few years, the Energy Department will roll out an integrated 
business management system made of off-the-shelf Web applications.

The Integrated Management Navigation System, or I-Manage, is meant to 
satisfy the President's Management Agenda by consolidating and streamlining 
a number of departmental systems, said Ed Golden, deputy program manager 
for I-Manage.

The department will implement the system in stages over the next three 
fiscal years, Golden said. Officials have selected Oracle Federal 
Financials for the financial portion of the system but have not yet picked 
vendors for other applications, including the system's central data warehouse.

Energy will also tie its existing Web-enabled human resources application 
from PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., to I-Manage, Golden said.

Department officials want to realize economies of scale by getting 
enterprise licenses for the I-Manage components instead of piecemeal 
licenses for Energy's multiple agencies and field offices, said Jack 
Koller, a senior policy adviser in the Energy CIO's office.

Energy officials and Mark Forman, the Office of Management and Budget's 
associate director for IT and e-government, held a kickoff meeting for 
I-Manage last week.
*******************************
Government Executive
January 13, 2003
Head of anti-terrorism panel wary of data mining
By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily

The Pentagon's proposed Total Information Awareness (TIA) project must be 
watched "very closely" to ensure that Americans' civil liberties do not 
fall victim to massive data-mining tools that could be used to identify the 
electronic transactions of potential terrorists, the chairman of a 
high-profile anti-terrorism commission said Monday.


"This is a program that's designed to begin to accumulate data from a great 
many sources and accumulate it in one place," said former Virginia Gov. 
James Gilmore, chairman of the four-year-old Advisory Panel to Assess 
Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass 
Destruction, commonly known as the Gilmore Commission.

"The goal here would be to watch this very closely and make sure that ... 
there are proper restraints placed upon it so that it's doing the job 
against terrorism [without] invading the civil liberties of the American 
people," Gilmore added during a homeland security panel discussion 
sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. "These are very, very tough issues."

TIA is being developed by a division of the Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency (DARPA). The office is researching ways to sift massive 
amounts of electronic data in order to track a wide range of "signatures" 
left by potential terrorists, such as credit-card purchases, pilot's 
license applications or scientific degrees that could indicate expertise 
with weapons of mass destruction.


But Gilmore said keeping a watchful eye over such a program could be 
difficult. "If you're going to have a data-mining organization that's 
designed to find terrorists and find enemy information on terrorists, then 
you don't want to tell anybody about it," Gilmore said. "But if you don't 
want to tell anybody about it, then how do you know what they're doing? So 
this is a big challenge."

Gilmore said federal, state and local officials also must be vigilant in 
guarding civil liberties as they implement information-sharing and 
communications technologies.

"The trick here is to find the best possible approach ... to utilize 
technology and communication to make sure that information can be properly 
shared, make sure that cybersecurity is in place so that it is not invaded 
... and do all of it while maintaining America's virtues and civil 
liberties," Gilmore said. "Good luck, but that is the challenge that is 
before us today."


Bush administration officials are addressing many of those issues as they 
develop an information architecture for the new Homeland Security 
Department, according to Lee Holcomb, the White House Office of Homeland 
Security's director of information infrastructure.

"Our goal is to provide the right information to the right people, all the 
time," Holcomb said. "That is a tremendous goal, and there are a lot of 
legal issues, as well as technical issues, in making that happen."
********************************
USA Today
Internet error puts Starwood in no-win situation
By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY
January 14, 2003

A missing zero on its Internet sites threatens to cost hotel giant Starwood 
either a lot of money or some customer goodwill.

A month ago, Starwood's Web site recently showed $85 rates  instead of 
$850  for over-the-water bungalows during high season at its luxurious new 
resort on the French Polynesian island of Bora Bora in the South Pacific.

Over two days, 136 people booked 2,631 rooms at the cheap rate and some 
made multiple reservations covering more than two months of vacation, 
Starwood says. If all the reservations were kept, the glitch would cost the 
resort $2 million.

Last week, the Bora Bora Nui Resort and Spa told customers it won't honor 
the rate, outraging many.

"A company takes a risk when it puts its business on the Internet and bears 
responsibility for checking for errors," says Rob Kniaz, who stays at 
Starwood hotels often. "It's not hard to write software that says this 
price is 10% of what is usually charged."

Internet mistakes aren't new. Kniaz, in fact, was able to stay at 
Starwood's W Times Square for about $20  only paying room taxes  when 
Starwood honored a $0 Internet rate for certain rooms about a year ago.

United Airlines has had several glitches on its United.com that let some 
passengers pay $25 for San Francisco-Paris flights and, more recently, $5 
for Chicago-Denver flights. In each case, United honored the cheap fares.

The $60 million, 120-bungalow resort, which Starwood manages, opened in 
October.

"While we deeply regret the rate snafu, the resort is just not in a 
position to honor the erroneous rate which would result in a more than $2 
million loss to the resort," says Starwood spokeswoman K.C. Kavanagh.

In the W Times Square case, she says, only about 250 rooms were booked at 
the wrong rate.

"In this particular situation, we are talking about nearly 3,000 rooms at a 
luxury resort with an extraordinary and obviously erroneous price 
differential," she says.

Starwood says it's trying to satisfy the customers. Its offer: A $531 
nightly rate at the resort, 40% off the typical bungalow rate or airfare 
reimbursement for those who booked non-refundable airline tickets before 
they were informed of the rate error.

"We do want to try to make things right with the relatively small number of 
guests who booked the rooms" at the wrong rate, she says.

Dan Hammer says he understands but still hopes he gets an $85 rate.

"These are the bungalows that you only dream about," says Hammer, a New 
York-based toy manufacturer who had planned to take his wife.
*********************************
USA Today
Judge rules in favor of Internet pharmacy
January 14, 2003

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  A state administrative law judge says an Internet 
pharmacy can deliver prescription drugs to customers who were also 
diagnosed online, despite objections from Florida health officials.

Florida Administrative Law Judge Daniel Manry ruled that Davie-based RX 
Network is operating within the parameters of the law and the state hadn't 
presented convincing evidence that the company endangered the public by 
selling drugs over the Internet.

Manry, who held a four-day hearing in Fort Lauderdale last fall, cleared RX 
Network on 26 of 27 counts in four separate administrative complaints, 
finding that it filled 24 diet pill prescriptions in excessive quantities. 
He recommended a $24,000 fine and one year of probation. Davie is a suburb 
of Fort Lauderdale.

RX Network fills prescriptions and ships them overnight to patients. It is 
one of the pharmacies that fills prescriptions for Fort Lauderdale-based 
USA Prescriptions.com, which allows consumers to fill out forms on the 
computer about their ailments and health histories and receive diagnosis 
and prescriptions from doctors online.

Officials at the company and the health department can dispute parts of the 
judge's ruling to the state Board of Pharmacy, which will issue a final 
order in the case. The board's order can be appealed to the 1st District 
Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

The 90-page order released Friday also recommended that two state 
complaints against the company's leading pharmacist, Gwyneth M. Gordon, be 
cleared. The judge wrote that her "acts or omissions" did not occur in a 
"persistent or practiced manner" and that there was insufficient evidence 
that Gordon was present when state law was violated.

"This has been a long process, but one that reaffirms the appropriateness 
of the way RX Network operates," said RX Network's attorney, Miami-based 
Sean Ellsworth. "Despite the State's overzealous attempt to stop Internet 
medicine, RX Network has succeeded in proving that the method in which they 
conduct business is appropriate and legal."

The company is also pursuing ways to recoup some of its legal expenses from 
the state.

"It was a bittersweet outcome," Rosanna Catalano, the lead prosecutor for 
the Department of Health, said Friday. "This case was very voluminous, 
complex and the first of its kind in Florida. We're pleased we met our 
burden of proof on some of the counts."

The Department of Health did not immediately return phone calls Monday.
********************************


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the January 17, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 447
Date: January 17, 2003

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Top Stories for Friday, January 17, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Increase in Electronic Attacks Leads to Warning on Iraqi Hackers
and U.S. Safety"
"Justices OK Copyright Extension"
"Senators Vow to Halt 'Data Mining' Project"
"Spam Confab: Hackers to Rescue?"
"Gadget Makers Join the Scramble to Zap the 'Power Gap'"
"WSIS: Delegates Fail to Agree on Open-Source 'Support'"
"Bouncing Signals Push the Limits of Bandwidth"
"NASA, Universities to Launch Nanoelectronics Institute"
"Quantum Bits Need to Catch a Virtual Bus"
"Lack of a Viable Business Model Is Stifling Software Innovation"
"UN Summit Could Spark Net Regulation Talks"
"Senators Introduce Wireless Broadband Bill"
"Grid Computing Good for Business"
"Tech's Future--Smart Dust and Ratbots"
"Feds Seek Public Input on Hacker Sentencing"
"Consumer Electronics Show Panel Addresses E-Waste"
"The Two Faces of Linux"
"Will Innovation Flourish in the Future?"

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

"Increase in Electronic Attacks Leads to Warning on Iraqi Hackers
and U.S. Safety"
An evaluation prepared last week by the FBI's National
Infrastructure Protection Center warns that a national security
crisis could be looming, as evidenced by a recent increase in
electronic attacks on military and government networks.  These ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item1

"Justices OK Copyright Extension"
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 this week that a 1998 federal law
extending copyrights for another 20 years was constitutional,
handing a big win to the entertainment industry, which still
reaps large profits from icons and classics that are being ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item2

"Senators Vow to Halt 'Data Mining' Project"
The Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project aims to build
a database of electronic information on Americans and root out
suspected terrorists via data mining, but this has raised the ire
of civil libertarians as well as members of Congress.  In ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item3

"Spam Confab: Hackers to Rescue?"
Hackers are gathering at MIT this week in order to discuss
anti-spam technology, since email spam has become the bane of the
Internet, according to many users.  According to a Harris
Interactive survey, 74 percent of respondents favor legislation ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item4

"Gadget Makers Join the Scramble to Zap the 'Power Gap'"
Mobile device manufacturers are struggling to power their
gadgets, to which extra power-hungry features are being added all
the time.  Cell phones and handhelds now commonly feature digital
cameras and color screens, for example.  But while the need for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item5

"WSIS: Delegates Fail to Agree on Open-Source 'Support'"
Delegates to the Asian Regional Conference, a precursor to the
U.N. World Summit on the Information Society to take place in
December, failed to agree on language "supporting" open-source
software.  The final draft instead "encouraged" open-source ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item6

"Bouncing Signals Push the Limits of Bandwidth"
Radio spectrum may not be as constrained as once thought, since
work at Bell Labs has uncovered a signal diffusion method that
can dramatically increase transmission speed and quality.  The
Blast technology works on 3G cellular networks and is based on ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item7

"NASA, Universities to Launch Nanoelectronics Institute"
The NASA Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing is a joint
project between the space agency and six universities--Purdue,
Cornell, Yale, the University of California at San Diego, and the
University of Florida.  The facility, which will be officially ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item8

"Quantum Bits Need to Catch a Virtual Bus"
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) say that most proposals for a quantum computer lack a key
component--namely, a mechanism that can transfer quantum bits
(qubits) between computer elements.  NIST atomic physicist Carl ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item9

"Lack of a Viable Business Model Is Stifling Software Innovation"
Serial software entrepreneur Dave Winer believes Silicon Valley
will no longer serve as a breeding ground for software innovation
because it lacks a business model for funding creativity in
software development.  The dotcom bust did not convince venture ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item10

"UN Summit Could Spark Net Regulation Talks"
International Telecommunications Union Secretary General Yoshio
Utsumi hopes an upcoming U.N. summit on the information society
will spur talks on an international framework for intellectual
property rights, tax, law, and individual rights on the Internet. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item11

"Senators Introduce Wireless Broadband Bill"
Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) says the debate over broadband rollout
has so far been limited to the two dominant technologies, cable
and digital subscriber line (DSL), but that alternative
technologies could provide a good solution.  His Jumpstart ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item12

"Grid Computing Good for Business"
Commercial interest in grid computing is picking up.  The
technology allows companies to share computing resources within
their own firms, as well as with partners outside.  Ian Foster,
University of Chicago professor and co-leader of the Globus ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item13

"Tech's Future--Smart Dust and Ratbots"
Smart dust, ratbots, and lily pads are three of nine technologies
that could one day change peoples lives, according to IDC
analysts John Gantz and David Emberely.  Ratbots, for example,
may help rats and other creatures send brain messages to a PC ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item14

"Feds Seek Public Input on Hacker Sentencing"
The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) engaged the public
for advice last week on whether prison or probation sentences for
cybercriminals are adequate enough, or should be stronger.
Michael O'Neill of George Mason University Law School says, "We ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item15

"Consumer Electronics Show Panel Addresses E-Waste"
Electronic waste was the big topic of discussion Saturday during
the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  The consumer
electronics industry addressed the tough issue of e-waste with a
panel on electronics recycling, which included representatives ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item16

"The Two Faces of Linux"
The increasing popularity of Linux in corporate accounts makes it
a more attractive target for hackers, and experts say the
open-source operating system's security mystique is evaporating
as a result.  The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) reports ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item17

"Will Innovation Flourish in the Future?"
MIT physics professor Jerome I. Friedman writes that the future
of basic research, which forms the basis of innovation that
significantly impacts society and the quality of life, may be in
doubt.  He cites Walter Brattain, who co-patented the transistor ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0117f.html#item18


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Welcome to the December 23, 2002 edition of ACM TechNews,
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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 438
Date: December 23, 2002

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Top Stories for Monday, December 23, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Bush Plan to Monitor Net Raises Stir"
"Many Tools of Big Brother Are Now Up and Running"
"File Swapper Eluding Pursuers"
"Electronics Makers Give Little Respect to Consumers' Rights"
"Digital Copyright: A Law Defanged?"
"Nanotech Pioneer Looks Ahead"
"Computers Just Doing What Comes Naturally"
"An Aria With Hiccups: The Music of Data Networks"
"Agencies Seek Stronger Controls on Trade in Dual-Use Technologies"
"New Heights for Wireless Net Access?"
"Voice Holds the Key"
"The Notebook Vs. Desktop Popularity Contest"
"The 10 Best Hype Jobs of 2002"
"Move Over, Silicon"
"Patenting the Process"
"2002 Year in Review"
"Future Tech: Thinking Machines"

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

"Bush Plan to Monitor Net Raises Stir"
Among the goals outlined in the National Strategy to Secure
Cyberspace is the formation of a Cyberspace Network Operations
Center, a hub where ISPs would share information about network
traffic in order to forestall cyberattacks.  The September draft ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item1

"Many Tools of Big Brother Are Now Up and Running"
The government already has eyes and ears observing people's
everyday activities, but that data is not currently gathered or
analyzed comprehensively in a way that would be useful to
intelligence agencies.  The Internet, as well as new Web ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item2

"File Swapper Eluding Pursuers"
File-trading software Kazaa is proving a slippery adversary for
the music and movie industries seeking to shut it down through
legal means.  The system was built in Estonia by three freelance
computer programmers who were commissioned by a man in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item3

"Electronics Makers Give Little Respect to Consumers' Rights"
Electronics providers routinely ban consumer modifications of the
products they buy, a practice that is "blatantly
anti-competitive," writes Dan Gillmor.  For example, DVD movies
typically contain software code that limits how they play on DVD ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item4

"Digital Copyright: A Law Defanged?"
Although cyber-libertarians declare the U.S. District Court of
San Jose's acquittal of Russian software firm ElcomSoft for
allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) a
triumph for their side, it does not really set a precedent for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item5

"Nanotech Pioneer Looks Ahead"
Nanotechnology pioneer and IBM Fellow Don Eigler believes
electronic devices that exist on the molecular scale will one day
revolutionize mankind's way of life, although researchers have
only just begun to tap into nanotech's vast potential.  He ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item6

"Computers Just Doing What Comes Naturally"
Computer technology needs to become easier to use, not
necessarily more powerful, according to Telstra Research
Laboratories CEO Hugh Bradlow.  Telstra's IT research facilities
are the largest in Australia, and workers there are developing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item7

"An Aria With Hiccups: The Music of Data Networks"
Stanford University music professor Chris Chafe has developed a
new acoustic method of monitoring network performance.  In the
same way a guitar string resonates at a higher pitch when
vibrations are shorter in length, network signals are assigned ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item8

"Agencies Seek Stronger Controls on Trade in Dual-Use Technologies"
Agencies in the Bush administration want to curb the export of
dual-use technologies--commercial products that have military
applications as well--to unfriendly nations by raising awareness
among "transshipment" countries that lack effective export ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item9

"New Heights for Wireless Net Access?"
Sanswire Technologies, among other companies, is working on
high-altitude solutions to increase the range of high-speed
Internet access, using new airships to deliver wireless
communications services.  In collaboration with Canada's 21st ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item10

"Voice Holds the Key"
Speech recognition technology carries much more weight as a
result of Sept. 11 and its aftermath, which includes a new focus
on security, especially at the corporate level.  Thanks to recent
advances, voice recognition companies such as Phonetic Systems ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item11

"The Notebook Vs. Desktop Popularity Contest"
Notebook computer purchases are on the increase, both because of
their decline in price, says IDC analyst Alan Promisel, and
because of their skyrocketing performance improvements.
Notebooks now rival the speed and processing capacity of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item12

"The 10 Best Hype Jobs of 2002"
The marketing of technology again suffered from too much hype
this year, as a number of technologies were promoted beyond their
ability to deliver, writes Jon Oltsik.  Oltsik's pick for the 10
most overhyped technologies this year are, in order: ROI, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item13

"Move Over, Silicon"
The quest to make cheap and flexible electronics has fueled
advances in the use of plastic as a semiconductor, and yielded
some interesting breakthroughs.  Electro-luminescent
light-emitting polymers (LEPs) hold great promise as flat panel ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item14

"Patenting the Process"
There is a growing trend for companies to claim ownership of
patented e-commerce processes and file infringement suits against
users in order to collect usage fees that they feel are owed
them.  Sheppard, Mullins, Richter, & Hampton attorney Jonathan ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item15

"2002 Year in Review"
The past year has witnessed significant developments in the areas
of pervasive computing, edge computing, Web services, open source
and open standards, and virtualization.  The expansion of
handhelds, wireless networks, and mobile infrastructure and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item16

"Future Tech: Thinking Machines"
The development of a thinking machine has repeatedly eluded
researchers who follow a top-down approach whereby a computer is
used as a model for the brain, but scientists such as
neuromorphic engineer Kwabena Boahen theorize that better results ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1223m.html#item17


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