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Clips February 5, 2003
- To: "Lillie Coney":;, Gene Spafford <spaf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;, John White <white@xxxxxxxxxx>;, Jeff Grove <jeff_grove@xxxxxxx>;, goodman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx;, David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>;, glee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx;, Andrew Grosso<Agrosso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;, ver@xxxxxxxxx;, lillie.coney@xxxxxxx;, v_gold@xxxxxxx;, harsha@xxxxxxx;, KathrynKL@xxxxxxx;, akuadc@xxxxxxxxxxx;, computer_security_day@xxxxxxx;, waspray@xxxxxxxxxxx;
- Subject: Clips February 5, 2003
- From: Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 15:47:10 -0500
Clips February 5, 2003
ARTICLES
A Teen Dies: Who Is Responsible?
SQL Slammer Worm Spread Worldwide in 10 Minutes
Researchers Use Computing Grid in Smallpox Battle
Online Work Balances Play, Survey Finds
Kaiser to Put Patient Records Online
White House demands results from IT spending
IT fund biggest budget priority for GSA
Agencies face 'smart card' challenges
*******************************
Wired News
A Teen Dies: Who Is Responsible?
02:00 AM Feb. 05, 2003 PT
(Third installment of a three-part series.)
On a January afternoon in 2002, a 17-year-old boy from Lawrence, Kansas, posted the following message on several Internet newsgroups:
From: unresistance (unoriginality_incarnate@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Subject: goodbye.
Newsgroups: alt.suicide.holiday, alt.suicide.methods, alt.drugs.psychedelics
I just took step one of my suicide plan thing. Should be dead in about 40 minutes. Bye everyone.
i weigh 120 lbs
1. dramamine for anti-vomit, wait 30 min
2. 3 bottles robo max strength
3. bottle zoloft
4. bottle celexa
5. wash each down w/ antifreeze
6. some more antifreeze
7. some benedryl
8. tie plastic bag around head
If I don't post back, it worked. :-)
It did work. When Patrick Marks' mother returned home a few hours later, she found her son's still-warm body; but neither she nor paramedics were able to revive the teen.
Joanne Hossack filed a wrongful death suit in December against Amy Viscuso, another poster on alt.suicide.holiday, who was on the phone with Hossack's son while he overdosed.
ASH, a website that combines discussion groups and detailed instructions for self-annihilation, has been linked to 10 confirmed suicides.
Images
Read the posts left by members of ASH.
Viscuso, a Pennsylvania resident, later referred to their conversation on ASH:
"I talked to him on the phone and kept him company while he was taking his drug overdose. He told me he wanted someone to talk to before he died, and I was there for him."
The lawsuit accuses Viscuso of being aware of Patrick's "diminished mental capacity" and encouraging him to "act on his suicidal feelings and not avail himself of mental health treatment."
"By reason of these circumstances and facts, Defendant Amy Viscuso acted with willful and reckless disregard for the danger to the life of Patrick Marks, and by her actions caused his death."
Viscuso did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview.
Video
"You don't know if they quit ASH or if they're dead."
The newsgroup's reaction to Patrick's final post ranged from "good luck" to a $50 bet that his method wouldn't work.
Hossack, who said her son was an intelligent boy who scored 730 on the verbal portion of the SAT in seventh grade and whose favorite class was debate, said she was unaware of ASH until after her son's death.
She was aware, however, that he was having emotional problems. In November, she said he stopped doing schoolwork, lost a significant amount of weight, and told her that he was having problems "thinking the way he used to."
At the time of his suicide, he was in therapy and taking antidepressants.
"He consistently denied having the desire to hurt or kill himself, and unfortunately I believed him," Hossack said. She blames ASH, and specifically Viscuso -- who knew where Patrick lived but failed to alert local authorities -- for her son's death.
"I truly believe that he would have been alive today, and probably happy, if not for ASH's intervention," she said.
Suicide is considered a felony in South Carolina and 26 states have outlawed assisted suicide, according to the American Association of Suicidology.
Martin Katz, a law professor at the University of Denver, said the case cuts to the heart of the First Amendment.
"From a constitutional law point of view, it raises questions about the boundaries between speech that is protected by the Constitution and speech that is not," he said.
Katz said a court would likely look to the speech guidelines set forth in Brandenburg v. Ohio to determine whether ASH or Viscuso was to blame for Patrick's death. In that landmark 1969 case, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard for a speech he gave encouraging violence against minorities. The court ruled that the oration was abstract advocacy -- which is protected by the First Amendment -- and not an imminent threat of violence.
In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court invoked three legal tests that must be met before speech can be outlawed. Known collectively as the Brandenburg standard, the tests include: 1.) intent (the speech was intended to incite a lawless action); 2.) immediacy (the lawless action was imminent); and 3.) risk (the speech has to be likely to produce an imminent lawless act).
In terms of ASH, prosecutors would need to prove immediacy and risk, Katz said.
Another free speech lawsuit that might affect the case is Rice v. Paladin Enterprises, which found that the Brandenburg standard applied to a publisher of materials that incited illegal acts. That ruling stemmed from a triple murder in which a hired mercenary used the guidelines published in a book called Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors to commit his crime.
The book's publisher, Paladin Enterprises, settled a wrongful death suit with the victims' families in 1999 and agreed to stop selling Hit Man. (Nevertheless, the book has been reproduced in its entirety online.)
The authors of two popular how-to books on suicide said they'd never been sued over their work.
Derek Humphry, who said his book Final Exit and a related video have sold over a million copies in 11 years, estimated that the number of people who have used his materials to kill themselves "must run into the thousands."
"What I do is neither a crime nor a civil offense," Humphry said. "Daily, people approach me by Internet or telephone to get advice about their own self-deliverance or that of a dying loved one."
Both Humphry and Geo Stone, author of Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, define themselves as "pro-choice" regarding suicide, meaning they believe people have the right to kill themselves.
"It would make as little sense to sue me as to sue a rope, knife or drug manufacturer because their product was used for suicide," Stone said. "Suicide is not rocket science.... People kill themselves from desperation and hopelessness, and they do so whether or not they have read or bookmarked something about it."
*******************************
Reuters
SQL Slammer Worm Spread Worldwide in 10 Minutes
Tue Feb 4,11:42 PM ET
SEATTLE (Reuters) - It only took 10 minutes for the SQL Slammer worm to race across the globe and wreak havoc on the Internet two weeks ago, making it the fastest-spreading computer infection ever seen, researchers said on Tuesday.
The worm, which nearly cut off Web access in South Korea (news - web sites) and shut down some U.S. bank teller machines, doubled the number of computers it infected every 8.5 seconds in the first minute of its appearance, said a computer security research group led by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis.
By comparison, the Code Red worm -- which came 18 months earlier -- only doubled every 37 minutes.
"We were pretty surprised by how quickly it spread," said David Moore, a senior technical manager at CAIDA. "This is the fastest we've ever seen something spread like this."
The worm, which exploited a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) SQL (pronounced 'sequel') Server database software, caused damage by rapidly replicating itself and clogging the pipelines of the global data network.
The tiny malicious program, which was also known as Sapphire, did not erase data or cause damage to desktop computers, but was designed to replicate itself so fast and so effectively that no other traffic could get through networks.
"The Sapphire worm's scanning technique was so aggressive that it quickly interfered with its own growth," CAIDA said in a report.
The United States and South Korea were hardest hit by SQL Slammer, CAIDA said, making up 43 percent and 12 percent of the victimized computers.
"Though very simple, Sapphire represents a significant milestone in the evolution of computer worms. Although it did not contain a destructive payload, Sapphire spread worldwide in roughly 10 minutes causing significant disruption of financial, transportation, and government institutions," the CAIDA report said.
"It clearly demonstrates that fast worms are not just a theoretical threat, but a reality -- one that should be considered a standard tool in the arsenal of an attacker."
*******************************
Reuters
Researchers Use Computing Grid in Smallpox Battle
Wed Feb 5,12:05 AM ET
By Caroline Humer
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technology companies including International Business Machines Corp. are kicking off on Wednesday a research project that will use computing power from millions of personal computers to help scientists find a treatment for smallpox.
The computing grid, which also includes large IBM computers and data storage systems, will crunch massive amounts of data as it looks for chemical interactions between a library of 35 million drug molecules and several protein targets on the smallpox.
Concern about an outbreak of smallpox in the U.S. has increased since the Sept. 11 attacks set off speculation about the potential for biowarfare. The existing smallpox vaccine, which some healthcare and emergency workers are receiving, is only effective before or a few days after infection.
By downloading free software from San Diego, California-based United Devices, personal computer users become part of a computing grid that already includes 2 million computers and contribute their excess computing power to the project, the companies said.
A grid is a kind of hypernetwork that links computers and data storage owned by different groups so that they can share computing power. By comparison, the Internet allows independent users to trade data, not computer resources.
Finding the matches between the drug molecules and protein target is the first of many steps toward creating an anti-viral drug to treat smallpox after infection, according to United Devices Chief Executive Ed Hubbard.
"Think of those 35 million molecules as those pegs that you had when you were a kid -- square ones, round ones, triangular shaped ones, and then we have a peg board," Hubbard said.
"We're trying to see where those pegs fit ... the square hole in this case is the smallpox target and we're looking for just the right square peg that will basically shut it down or make it inactive it in the human body," he said.
It could take a few weeks to crunch the numbers the first time around, Hubbard said, depending on how many computers contribute to the project. With 2 million machines, the grid has a peak processing power of over 1,100 teraflops, or 1,100 trillion calculations per second.
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases will manage the project for the Department of Defense (news - web sites), with the goal of developing the results to help combat the use of smallpox as a military weapon.
In addition to concerns about side effects of the smallpox vaccine, health officials also worry about different strains of the disease that cannot be treated with the vaccine currently available.
United Devices said it has built a network of 2 million computers from businesses, individuals and universities that have been used for work on similar projects with the University of Oxford that have aimed to screen molecules related to cancer and to anthrax.
Grids have been used by universities, but now companies including IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. are looking for commercial applications for the technology, such as creating a network for electronic games. In this case, IBM's database software will be part of the analysis process.
There are security issues with grids as companies open up their resources to each other, but United Devices says its software has passed security tests and that in terms of privacy, it only takes information on the computer hardware.
The program is available at www.grid.org and will enable the research project to tap into and use the extra computing power of the microprocessor in the average personal computer.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and Essex University in the UK; the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research center in the United States determined what to include in the database.
Life sciences developer Accelrys provided the software, called LigandFit, to analyze the data.
*******************************
Washington Post
Online Work Balances Play, Survey Finds
By Ellen McCarthy
Wednesday, February 5, 2003; Page E01
Employees with Internet access at home spend more time there doing work for their companies than they spend online for personal reasons at their offices, a survey released yesterday found.
Nearly everyone surveyed admitted using company e-mail and Web connections for personal activities. But workers with Internet access both at home and in the office said they logged on from home to do job-related tasks an average 5.9 hours a week and spent 3.7 hours a week at work on personal matters online, according to the fourth annual National Technology Readiness Survey, conducted by the Center for E-Service at the University of Maryland and Rockbridge Associates Inc., a Great Falls research firm.
"What information technologies are doing, particularly the Internet, is changing the picture so that we can shift our work around in terms of time and space," said Charles Colby, president of Rockbridge Associates and co-author of the study based on the survey. "People may do things [on the Internet] at work, and then feel they should compensate for that at home. Or they may work late on a work project, and then go into the office anyway and feel, 'Well, I'm entitled to go check ESPN.com today.' "
Colby said "work-related activities" were not defined for participants but could include checking e-mail, conducting research and participating in online training courses.
There is skepticism that the Internet can boost the efficiency of cubicle-dwellers. Some companies have cracked down on personal Internet use by employing software that tracks and records usage.
There is debate over whether workers make up time at home.
"I kind of doubt that that's the case," Andrew Peach, a research director with Jupiter Research, said of the Maryland survey's findings. "I don't have any hard data to back that up . . . but I think that just the fact that people always have the Internet on at work lends itself to doing personal stuff."
If the Maryland findings are true, the temptation to shop or chat or surf online during work hours is countered by a work ethic that drives many to log on during their off hours.
"My guess is that it's a wash. The larger story here is that people's use of the Internet is breaking down whatever was left of the barrier between home and work," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "Most employers are getting their money's worth from their employees, whether they have their nose every minute or not. If you can do a little shopping during your lunch hour, it's better than getting in your car and going down the street to the mall."
Employees without Internet access at home may be the real burden for employers, according to the study. Those who can log on only at work reported spending an average of 6.5 hours a week on personal activities, time that is not compensated in sessions from home.
But Rainie said the number of people with access only at the office is small and dwindling. Only 8 percent of Americans can log on only at work, while 44 percent have connections at home and at work. Another 44 percent can connect only from home, according to Rainie's research. Jupiter Research numbers vary only slightly. Jason Epstein said it may be the ease of logging on from the couch during the weekends or the nature of his job or even his level of interest in the job that pushes him to work at home during his off-hours.
"It may be a very pathetic state of affairs to say that I do more work-related stuff at the house than I do surfing at the office. I'm not sure if it's a lifestyle choice or what," said Epstein, director of legislative affairs for B'nai B'rith International in the District.
Fannie Mae, a Washington mortgage finance firm, found that its 4,700 employees devote 85 percent of the time they spend on the Internet to business activities.
"We track that very closely and we're pleased with the results. We find that the 15 percent that is out there could have a quasi-business action to it. It could cross over into the business of Fannie Mae, so that's not why it's really an issue," said Gabrielle Barry, a media relations manager for the company who estimated that she spends six to eight hours a week doing work on the Internet from home. "At the office, I get so many interruptions throughout the course of the day a lot of the research gets put on the back burner and it's easier to do it at home."
The survey, conducted in December, was based on phone interviews with 501 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of four percentage points.
The survey also covers government Web services and consumer Internet habits. Questions about work and home Internet use were added to the latest survey.
*******************************
Washington Post
Kaiser to Put Patient Records Online
By Bill Brubaker
Wednesday, February 5, 2003; Page E03
Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization, said yesterday that it will spend $1.8 billion over the next three years to create a vast electronic archive of medical records for its 8.4 million members.
Under the plan, Kaiser's health care providers, including 12,000 physicians, will have access to what the HMO's chief executive, George C. Halvorson, called "the largest and most current patient database in the world."
The password-protected system "will make it much easier for physicians to provide the very best care" by giving them access to up-to-the minute medical records, test results and scientific literature, Halvorson said.
Kaiser members also will be able to go online to get information on their health status, test results and medications they are taking. And they will be able to send questions to Kaiser doctors and nurses.
"This means that patients will actually have a closer, richer and more informed relationship with their physicians because they will become genuine partners in their own care," said Francis J. Crosson, who heads Kaiser's doctors group.
Unlike most health insurers, Kaiser, which has 525,000 members in the Washington area, operates its own network of clinics, which members are required to use. At the clinics, doctors can refer patients to hospitals that have contracts with Kaiser.
Some smaller health insurers, hospitals and doctor groups already have automated records systems. So does the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. But never has a private health care provider as large as Kaiser attempted to automate so many records at one time, industry analysts said.
"Electronic medical records actually facilitate better care because it permits you to know what's happened to a patient," said Joyce Dubow, a senior policy adviser at AARP. "You can find out what happens with the range of medications that somebody may be on, so you avoid medical errors." It can also signal doctors when they're doing something wrong by saying, "Are you sure you want to do that?" she said.
Dubow said she doubts the new system will attract many new members. But some health industry executives disagreed.
"Clearly, from our standpoint, this would give Kaiser a competitive edge," said John A. Picciotto, executive vice president and general counsel of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Washington area's largest nonprofit health insurer, which is seeking to merge with WellPoint Health Networks Inc., a much larger private insurer. "It's not rocket science to say these are the kinds of things companies larger than us can do."
The automated records will not be accessible to patients who leave the HMO to join other health insurance plans, a Kaiser official said.
*******************************
Government Computer News
DOD, industry agree on sharing 5-GHz band
By Dawn S. Onley
Staff Writer
The Defense Department and IT product vendors have struck an agreement on how to share a band of radio frequencies without jeopardizing vital military radars that are used in part to guide warships and provide weather forecasts.
The agreement, reached Friday and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, requires vendors to use Dynamic Frequency Solution, a ?listen-before-transmit? detection technology, to avoid interference with military radars that operate in the same 5-GHz band, according to Badri Younes, DOD spectrum management director.
?After so many months of technical discussions, we have converged on a technical solution that protects the equities of the government and enables the WiFi deployment, although they will be a little constrained,? Younes said.
IEEE 802.11b systems, commonly referred to as WiFi, operate in the 2.4-GHz band. But the emerging 802.11a and 802.11g standards make use of the 5-GHz band.
DOD officials had been in discussions with executives from hardware and software companies, such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., that were pushing for additional spectrum between the 5250-MHz and 5725-MHz bands to roll out the latest broadband wireless access system devices.
*******************************
Government Executive
February 3, 2003
White House demands results from IT spending
By Maureen Sirhal, National Journal's Technology Daily
Citing the inefficiencies in the way the federal government manages information-technology assets, the White House proposed requiring agencies to account for their IT expenditures as part of a $59 billion IT budget for fiscal 2004.
In its 2004 budget analysis, officials at the Office of Management and Budget acknowledged that few of the government's IT investments over the last several years have ?significantly improved service to the taxpayer.? As a result, President Bush recommended that federal agencies be required to submit explanations for spending on their IT projects next year.
?Let me say that a lot of that [IT spending] is under question and we will not permit it to be spent unless the people running those programs can bring us a business case that shows that it makes sense,? OMB Director Mitch Daniels said in a press briefing. ?Part of making sense is you get a good return on the dollar, you get more productivity, you get better service to taxpayers. Part of making sense is that it doesn't make more confusion and chaos? in IT systems.
Daniels noted that several technology initiatives, such as the expansion of e-government initiatives, have yielded benefits, including the provision of new services and reduced government operating costs.
?Many of the improvements we made do run across departments,? Daniels said. ?Pre-tax filing is a one-department step forward but well over 60 percent of Americans will be able to file electronically because of that...These are very important steps forward in terms of bringing government closer to the people as the president proposed.?
Yet OMB's analysis also revealed that 771 of 1,400 IT projects that are budgeted for 2004 are designated as ?at-risk:? a category of projects that have not demonstrated ?sufficient potential for success? or adequate IT security. Projects labeled "at risk" will be unable proceed unless the sponsoring agency can present a credible business case. The budget agency hopes to redirect limited funding towards projects that will deliver "better government performance in critical areas such as the war on terrorism and e-government."
The Bush administration also designated specific funding for a variety of IT initiatives. The Office of Personnel Management, for example, would receive $8 million for several new projects that seek to boost its efficiency in delivering governmentwide services. Additionally, a new federal law to boost e-government will provide $345 million over the next four years to fund IT projects among multiple agencies.
OMB is also linking its budget process with a movement to develop a joint-agency approach to purchasing IT equipment and developing government-wide operations, such as financial management and human resources. The 2004 budget also proposed adding staffers to OMB's e-government office to help develop the Federal Enterprise Architecture, a management initiative that aims to consolidate redundant IT systems throughout federal agencies.
*******************************
Government Executive
February 4, 2003
IT fund biggest budget priority for GSA
By Tanya N. Ballard
tballard@xxxxxxxxxxx
Funding for information technology at the General Services Administration may surpass funding for public building services for the first time, according to the president?s fiscal 2004 budget request.
The $20.2 billion budget request includes $8 billion for the IT fund, which finances the agency?s Federal Technology Service. FTS provides telecommunications and IT services to federal agencies. Another $6.8 billion is earmarked for construction, rental, operations, repairs and renovations to existing federal buildings.
?Our strategic goals served as the bedrock for our budgeting process,? Debi Schilling, GSA?s budget director, said Tuesday during a briefing at the agency. ?We crafted performance goals to meet our strategic goals and that led to our budget proposal,? she said describing how GSA prepared its proposal for OMB?s review.
More than $400 million of the budget request for GSA would go for new construction projects, including eight Border Patrol stations, an FBI building in Houston and a Census Bureau building in Suitland, Md.
To pay for interagency e-government initiatives, the budget sets aside $45 million in the request for GSA. GSA officials said agencies would have to submit proposals to the Office of Management and Budget to use those funds. The budget request for e-gov initiatives has grown in the past two years, partly due to the inclusion of the e-gov measure in the president?s management agenda. In December President Bush signed into law a measure that authorizes $345 million over four years to fund interagency technology initiatives.
The budget commits more than $7 million to help GSA develop enterprise architecture systems, create an XML registry that agencies can use to share data and business processes, and move its online travel management system forward. According to John Sindelar, GSA?s deputy associate administrator for the Office of Governmentwide Policy, some agencies will begin using the new travel and vouchers system by the end of 2003. All agencies should be using the system by December 2004.
?We?ve had good cooperation from agencies with this initiative,? Sindelar said.
Another $11 million in the budget proposal is earmarked to help agencies better deliver services to citizens through online ventures, as well as provide a repository for acquisition support services.
Much of GSA?s multibillion dollar budget is generated through reimbursements to revolving funds from customers who purchase goods and services or rent space from the agency.
*******************************
Government Executive
February 4, 2003
Agencies face 'smart card' challenges
From National Journal's Technology Daily
Government use of "smart cards" to prove the identities of employees and for other purposes can be beneficial, but federal agencies face several challenges in executing the systems, according to a General Accounting Office report released Tuesday.
Presently, 18 agencies are planning or implementing a total of 62 smart-card programs. They include initiatives to provide identification of government workers by e-mail, in online transactions and while trying to access restricted buildings. The programs also provide several cost-cutting benefits, the report said.
But significant challenges plague the widespread adoption of smart cards, including making them highly secure and usable across agencies. GAO called on the White House Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration to better support efforts to introduce smart cards.
*******************************
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Volume 5, Number 454
Date: February 5, 2003
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Top Stories for Wednesday, February 5, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says"
"Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input"
"Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say"
"Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System"
"Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will
'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community"
"Investigation to Include Onboard Computers"
"Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk"
"Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records"
"Why We Need H-1B Professionals"
"Growth: Cities Try to Cash In"
"Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark"
"What Python Can Do for the Enterprise"
"When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma"
"PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee"
"Women in IT (For a While)"
"DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal"
"Information Highway Needs Women Drivers"
"Right Data, Right Now"
"Can't We All Just Get Along?"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says"
In its latest Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec notes a 6
percent decline in the number of weekly cyberattacks on corporate
networks between the first half and second half of 2002, as well
as a decrease in the number of severe events. However, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item1
"Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input"
The final version of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace
will be issued in the next couple of weeks, and one of its
priorities is a national cyberspace security response system that
will have a heavy reliance on information contributed by the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item2
"Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say"
Representatives of entertainment and technology concerns agreed
at a Precursor Group investor conference in Washington, D.C., on
Tuesday that there is little chance of Congress enacting any
significant copyright legislation this year. Both sides have ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item3
"Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System"
Programmer Michael Phipps and his team of 20 other volunteers are
attempting to create OpenBeOS, an open-source version of the BeOS
operating system, which was the flagship product of now-bankrupt
Be Inc. Palm stopped development on BeOS after it purchased Be's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item4
"Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will
'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community"
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for
Cyberinfrastructure believes scientific and engineering research
will be able to gain significantly from upcoming progress and
confluences in computing technology. In a report released today, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item5
"Investigation to Include Onboard Computers"
Although inquiries into the disintegration of the space shuttle
Columbia during reentry are currently focused on its
heat-resistant tiles, investigators have not ruled out the
possibility that the computerized onboard flight controls could ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item6
"Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk"
A team of Washington University researchers led by experimental
physics professor Stuart Solin report that they have created a
prototype disk drive with at least 40 times the storage capacity
of conventional models, a breakthrough that could pave the way ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item7
"Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records"
The rapidity with which the Sapphire or Slammer worm proliferated
over the Internet 11 days ago beat all previous speed records,
according to report from a team of California-based network
security experts. "The...worm represents a major new threat in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item8
"Why We Need H-1B Professionals"
Ireland-based software engineer and Turtleneck Software founder
John Carroll argues that the H-1B visa program's current cap of
195,000 workers should be maintained in 2003 and perhaps extended
beyond that. He writes that the fear of foreign IT workers from ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item9
"Growth: Cities Try to Cash In"
Cities such as Athens, Ga., and Long Beach, Calif., are among a
growing number of communities that expect to boost revenues by
offering Wi-Fi networking and related services--a considerable
challenge, given that Wi-Fi is still largely a protean ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item10
"Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark"
A team of University of Illinois graduate students led by
electrical and computer engineering professor Milton Feng has
developed the world's fastest transistor, which can achieve
transmission speeds of 382 GHz. Feng expects this breakthrough ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item11
"What Python Can Do for the Enterprise"
The open-source, object-oriented programming language Python is
ideal for companies that need flexible code for use on a variety
of platforms, but do not have a lot of programming resources.
Python was created in 1991, the same year as Linux, and named ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item12
"When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma"
Security experts face a difficult moral choice when they discover
new software flaws--whether to disclose them and risk their being
used for malicious ends, or hold back. Such was the dilemma
British software engineers Mark and David Litchfield faced when ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item13
"PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee"
VG Wort, a German reprography rights society, wants German PC
maker Fujitsu Siemens Computers to pay copyright owners a fee for
every new item it sells as compensation for the private digital
copying of their works. A mediator from the German Patent Office ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item14
"Women in IT (For a While)"
Last week's "Women in IT: Engaging and retaining for success"
conference highlighted the problem of employee retention, which
was raised by keynote speaker Patricia Hewitt, Australia's
secretary of state for trade and industry. "[Women are] coming ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item15
"DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal"
Two court challenges to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), which is supposed to curb digital piracy by prohibiting
certain efforts to bypass copyright protections, alleged that it
violated the Constitution on a number of counts, all of which the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item16
"Information Highway Needs Women Drivers"
The belief that girls are more inclined to social interaction and
that to have an interest in computers makes one a geek is curbing
girls' interest in technology, says Eileen Ellsworth,
co-chairwoman of Girls in Technology (GIT). "These are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item17
"Right Data, Right Now"
The year 2003 will be marked by advanced storage-management
software that allows business-technology managers to better
control data in order to make critical decisions while lowering
IT department costs. More companies are upgrading their storage ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item18
"Can't We All Just Get Along?"
Software companies feeling the pinch from the collapse of the
dot-com bubble could achieve significant growth from businesses
seeking to squeeze the most efficiency out of existing enterprise
software; to aid them is an industry-wide push to make software ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item19
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 15:52:27 -0500
From: technews <technews@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: TECHNEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: ACM TechNews - Wednesday, February 5, 2003
Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:
Welcome to the February 5, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week. For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.
ACM's MemberNet is now online. For the latest on ACM
activities, member benefits, and industry issues,
visit http://www.acm.org/membernet
Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion
magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 454
Date: February 5, 2003
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Site Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company ( <http://www.hp.com> )
HP is the premier source for computing services,
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Top Stories for Wednesday, February 5, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says"
"Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input"
"Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say"
"Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System"
"Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will
'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community"
"Investigation to Include Onboard Computers"
"Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk"
"Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records"
"Why We Need H-1B Professionals"
"Growth: Cities Try to Cash In"
"Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark"
"What Python Can Do for the Enterprise"
"When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma"
"PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee"
"Women in IT (For a While)"
"DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal"
"Information Highway Needs Women Drivers"
"Right Data, Right Now"
"Can't We All Just Get Along?"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"The Net Is Dangerous, Research Says"
In its latest Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec notes a 6
percent decline in the number of weekly cyberattacks on corporate
networks between the first half and second half of 2002, as well
as a decrease in the number of severe events. However, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item1
"Cyber-Security Plan Counts on Private Sector's Input"
The final version of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace
will be issued in the next couple of weeks, and one of its
priorities is a national cyberspace security response system that
will have a heavy reliance on information contributed by the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item2
"Copyright Legislation Unlikely, Both Sides Say"
Representatives of entertainment and technology concerns agreed
at a Precursor Group investor conference in Washington, D.C., on
Tuesday that there is little chance of Congress enacting any
significant copyright legislation this year. Both sides have ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item3
"Group Sees Beauty in an Attempt to Revive BeOS Operating System"
Programmer Michael Phipps and his team of 20 other volunteers are
attempting to create OpenBeOS, an open-source version of the BeOS
operating system, which was the flagship product of now-bankrupt
Be Inc. Palm stopped development on BeOS after it purchased Be's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item4
"Report Envisions a Future Cyberinfrastructure That Will
'Radically Empower' the Science and Engineering Community"
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for
Cyberinfrastructure believes scientific and engineering research
will be able to gain significantly from upcoming progress and
confluences in computing technology. In a report released today, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item5
"Investigation to Include Onboard Computers"
Although inquiries into the disintegration of the space shuttle
Columbia during reentry are currently focused on its
heat-resistant tiles, investigators have not ruled out the
possibility that the computerized onboard flight controls could ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item6
"Data Storage Leap Could Produce Film Library on a Disk"
A team of Washington University researchers led by experimental
physics professor Stuart Solin report that they have created a
prototype disk drive with at least 40 times the storage capacity
of conventional models, a breakthrough that could pave the way ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item7
"Sapphire/Slammer Worm Shatters Previous Speed Records"
The rapidity with which the Sapphire or Slammer worm proliferated
over the Internet 11 days ago beat all previous speed records,
according to report from a team of California-based network
security experts. "The...worm represents a major new threat in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item8
"Why We Need H-1B Professionals"
Ireland-based software engineer and Turtleneck Software founder
John Carroll argues that the H-1B visa program's current cap of
195,000 workers should be maintained in 2003 and perhaps extended
beyond that. He writes that the fear of foreign IT workers from ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item9
"Growth: Cities Try to Cash In"
Cities such as Athens, Ga., and Long Beach, Calif., are among a
growing number of communities that expect to boost revenues by
offering Wi-Fi networking and related services--a considerable
challenge, given that Wi-Fi is still largely a protean ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item10
"Professor, Students Set Transistor Speed Mark"
A team of University of Illinois graduate students led by
electrical and computer engineering professor Milton Feng has
developed the world's fastest transistor, which can achieve
transmission speeds of 382 GHz. Feng expects this breakthrough ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item11
"What Python Can Do for the Enterprise"
The open-source, object-oriented programming language Python is
ideal for companies that need flexible code for use on a variety
of platforms, but do not have a lot of programming resources.
Python was created in 1991, the same year as Linux, and named ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item12
"When Computer Code Becomes a Moral Dilemma"
Security experts face a difficult moral choice when they discover
new software flaws--whether to disclose them and risk their being
used for malicious ends, or hold back. Such was the dilemma
British software engineers Mark and David Litchfield faced when ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item13
"PC Makers to Fight New Copyright Fee"
VG Wort, a German reprography rights society, wants German PC
maker Fujitsu Siemens Computers to pay copyright owners a fee for
every new item it sells as compensation for the private digital
copying of their works. A mediator from the German Patent Office ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item14
"Women in IT (For a While)"
Last week's "Women in IT: Engaging and retaining for success"
conference highlighted the problem of employee retention, which
was raised by keynote speaker Patricia Hewitt, Australia's
secretary of state for trade and industry. "[Women are] coming ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item15
"DMCA Resists Challenges, Despite Recent Acquittal"
Two court challenges to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), which is supposed to curb digital piracy by prohibiting
certain efforts to bypass copyright protections, alleged that it
violated the Constitution on a number of counts, all of which the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item16
"Information Highway Needs Women Drivers"
The belief that girls are more inclined to social interaction and
that to have an interest in computers makes one a geek is curbing
girls' interest in technology, says Eileen Ellsworth,
co-chairwoman of Girls in Technology (GIT). "These are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item17
"Right Data, Right Now"
The year 2003 will be marked by advanced storage-management
software that allows business-technology managers to better
control data in order to make critical decisions while lowering
IT department costs. More companies are upgrading their storage ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item18
"Can't We All Just Get Along?"
Software companies feeling the pinch from the collapse of the
dot-com bubble could achieve significant growth from businesses
seeking to squeeze the most efficiency out of existing enterprise
software; to aid them is an industry-wide push to make software ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.html#item19
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- To review Monday's issue, please visit
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0203m.html
-- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to:
http://www.acm.org/technews/
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Please send a separate email to listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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From owner-technews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mon Jan 6 12:53:57 2003
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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:
Welcome to the January 6, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week. For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.
ACM's MemberNet is now online. For the latest on ACM
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visit http://www.acm.org/membernet
Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion
magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 442
Date: January 6, 2003
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Site Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company ( <http://www.hp.com> )
HP is the premier source for computing services,
products and solutions. Responding to customers' requirements
for quality and reliability at aggressive prices, HP offers
performance-packed products and comprehensive services.
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Top Stories for Monday, January 6, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Experts See Vulnerability As Outsiders Code Software"
"DVD Copying Case Stalls"
"Cyberthreats Not to be Dismissed, Warns Clarke"
"Time to Peer Into the Flat-Screen, Wireless Future"
"'Gadget Nirvana' at Las Vegas Show"
"Interface Gets the Point"
"Robots Just Their Cup of Tea"
"Research Spending Going Up"
"Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It"
"Internet Users Find Barriers to Sites at School, Work, Library"
"IT Engineers Swimming Against Economic Tide"
"What's Up for the Internet in 2003?"
"Even the Unconnected Have High Expectations for Net, Survey Finds"
"So Many Holes, So Few Hacks"
"Organic Displays Near Critical Mass"
"Eyes in the Back of Your Mouth"
"Micromachines for the Birds; Motes Monitor Shy Wildlife"
"Speech and the Automobile"
"Corporate R&D Set Free"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Experts See Vulnerability As Outsiders Code Software"
Analysts and others say the growing trend of outsourcing, in
which American companies transfer their software coding processes
overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor, carries with it the
risk of lessening security. Programmers such as Ken O'Neil of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item1
"DVD Copying Case Stalls"
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has vacated a temporary
stay requested by the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA),
which would have kept a Purdue University student from posting
DeCSS code on a Web site. The DVD CCA lost a suit against ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item2
"Cyberthreats Not to be Dismissed, Warns Clarke"
Chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection
Board Richard Clarke devotes most of his time to raising
awareness of the threat of cyberterrorism and the need to prevent
it by eliminating security holes in widely deployed software, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item3
"Time to Peer Into the Flat-Screen, Wireless Future"
NewsFactor writer Bill Husted makes several predictions for
technological advancements that should emerge in the next year or
so. Rising sales of widescreen monitors and the growing
popularity of high-definition television is fostering the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item4
"'Gadget Nirvana' at Las Vegas Show"
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week will
host over 2,000 technology companies that will showcase tools and
gadgetry that integrate PC functionality and advanced displays,
among other things. The merger of cell phones and handheld ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item5
"Interface Gets the Point"
Scientists at Pennsylvania State University and Advanced
Interface Technologies are developing a computer interface that
can recognize the relationship between prosody and gestures in an
attempt to make human-computer interaction more natural. Penn ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item6
"Robots Just Their Cup of Tea"
The second annual First Lego League Rhode Island State Robotics
Tournament was notable for the number of pre-teen and teenage
female participants. A late 1990s report from the Department of
Commerce's Office of Technology Policy found that women received ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item7
"Research Spending Going Up"
Research spending will be up this year, according to a joint
survey from R&D Magazine and analysis group Battelle. At the
University of Dayton (UD), for example, sponsored research monies
are set to grow 8 percent from 2002 to total more than $50 ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item8
"Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It"
A research team at Vanderbilt University's Department of
Mechanical Engineering is developing a robot equipped with
sensors that are used to determine people's emotions by picking
up physiological cues. The machine is designed to approach a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item9
"Internet Users Find Barriers to Sites at School, Work, Library"
Roadblocks to Internet access are being set up for a variety of
reasons: To block junk email, filter out pornographic and other
objectionable sites, protect networks and content from hackers or
digital pirates, and boost corporate productivity by keeping ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item10
"IT Engineers Swimming Against Economic Tide"
Canadian IT engineering graduates and students have been hit hard
by the economic recession, especially when combined with a
government-sponsored surge in enrollments through initiatives
such as Ontario's Access to Opportunities Program. As a result, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item11
"What's Up for the Internet in 2003?"
The Internet in 2003 will become faster, cheaper, and more useful
for many people as they migrate to broadband and employ wireless
technology in their everyday lives. EMarketer says that
broadband connections will total 23.3 million U.S. households by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item12
"Even the Unconnected Have High Expectations for Net, Survey Finds"
A survey of American Internet users and non-users conducted by
the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that 64 percent of
non-users expect that they can find the information they want
online in at least one of the following categories: health care, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item13
"So Many Holes, So Few Hacks"
Despite heavy emphasis on the many network security holes
reported in 2002, there have been few actual exploits of such
flaws. In fact, security experts such as consultant Richard
Smith think they and their peers may be spending too much time ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item14
"Organic Displays Near Critical Mass"
The market for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays is
expected to grow quickly and present a viable challenge to rival
thin-film transistor (TFT) display technology. OLED displays
already on the market are small and limited in function, showing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item15
"Eyes in the Back of Your Mouth"
University of Wisconsin professor Paul Bach-y-Rita is
experimenting with sensory input devices that can send visual and
other kinds of signals to the brain through alternate pathways.
The foundation of such a concept is plasticity, the human brain's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item16
"Micromachines for the Birds; Motes Monitor Shy Wildlife"
Ecologists off the coast of Maine are using a network of wireless
miniaturized sensors to study the breeding habits and needs of a
reclusive seabird that migrates from South Africa, Antarctica,
and other regions every spring. Researchers at Intel and the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item17
"Speech and the Automobile"
Telematics, the incorporation of voice recognition technology in
vehicles, promises to usher in a new era of driver-vehicle
interaction. Both businesses and consumers have started to
recognize the value of telematics, and this has encouraged the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item18
"Corporate R&D Set Free"
Intel is pioneering a new form of corporate research by
collaborating openly with university researchers in "lablets."
These facilities are located near major universities--Carnegie
Mellon in Pittsburgh, the University of Washington in Seattle, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0106m.html#item19
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