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ACM TechNews - Monday, July 22, 2002
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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 376
Date: July 22, 2002
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Top Stories for Monday, July 22, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Lawmakers Propose Volunteer Corps to Guard Nation's Technology"
"Federal Bill Targets E-Waste"
"Do We Need a National ID Plan?"
"With 'Old' Design, Japanese Supercomputer Beats Top U.S. Machine"
"Alloy With Shape Memory May Be Ready For Broad Use"
"Raising the Accessibility Bar"
"Second Law of Thermodynamics "Broken""
"Higher Learning at Warp Speed"
"Scientists Create Smallest Ever Laser-Like Light Beam"
"A Conversation With the Inventor of Email"
"With False Numbers, Data Crunchers Try to Mine the Truth"
"Taking Programming to the Extreme"
"Another Dimension"
"How Colleges Get More Bang (or Less) From Technology Transfer"
"Last Mile by Laser"
"Inside the Invention Factory"
"Lawrence Lessig: The Thought Leader Interview"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Lawmakers Propose Volunteer Corps to Guard Nation's Technology"
On July 19, the U.S. Senate passed the Science and Technology
Emergency Mobilization Act, which calls for the formation of a
National Emergency Technology Guard. The guard would be composed
of scientists and technology experts volunteering to help . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item1
"Federal Bill Targets E-Waste"
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced legislation
to create a national program for the recycling of computer waste
funded by a $10 fee levied on retail sales of desktop and laptop
computers, as well as monitors. Thompson's Computer Hazardous . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item2
"Do We Need a National ID Plan?"
Free Congress Foundation analyst Brad Jansen, one of the key
members of an ad hoc coalition that vehemently opposes the
creation of a national ID standard, is advocating a White House
proposal submitted last week suggesting federal agencies help set . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item3
"With 'Old' Design, Japanese Supercomputer Beats Top U.S. Machine"
NEC's new Earth Simulator, built in Japan, can process 35.9
calculations per second, faster than the combined computational
power of the 15 fastest machines based in the United States,
according to Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee. The . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item4
"Alloy With Shape Memory May Be Ready For Broad Use"
Nanomuscle is working to mass-produce small actuators that
replace motors in small devices. The Nanomuscle devices use
nickel-titanium alloy wires that contain "shape memory"
properties in which its molecules change their shape depending on . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item5
"Raising the Accessibility Bar"
Stanford University's Archimedes Project is an initiative to
develop information interfaces that disabled people as well as
the general population can use. Attracting this wide range of
users depends on creating a system designed to last decades . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item6
"Second Law of Thermodynamics "Broken""
Chemical physicists at the Australian National University (ANU)
have discovered through experimentation that the second law of
thermodynamics--which states that a closed system becomes more
disorganized as time passes--can be consistently violated on the . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item7
"Higher Learning at Warp Speed"
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland is setting up a $27
million fiber-optic network that will connect 16,000 computers
and boast a top data delivery speed of 1 Gbps, which surpasses
the speed of the average home broadband link about a thousand . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item8
"Scientists Create Smallest Ever Laser-Like Light Beam"
A report in the current issue of Science magazine details how
scientists created laser-like light beams emanating extremely
small wavelengths that enable the viewing of nanoscale
technology. The viewing of nanoscale technology has become a . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item9
"A Conversation With the Inventor of Email"
In an interview with Internet.com's Sharon Gaudin, email creator
Ray Tomlinson of BBN Technologies says the invention of email was
not very complicated, and its impact was not immediately apparent
because there were few computers. He acknowledges that email has . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item10
"With False Numbers, Data Crunchers Try to Mine the Truth"
Consumers are often reluctant to answer truthfully to personal
questions online--such as their age and how much money they
earn--and will often substitute false answers, which complicates
companies' business. "People are lying, and vendors don't know . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item11
"Taking Programming to the Extreme"
So that they can churn out quality software in a market clamoring
for fast rollouts of new products and features, software
companies are increasingly adopting development tactics that
emphasize collaborative engineering. "Agile development" . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item12
"Another Dimension"
Chip designers are rapidly running out of space for additional
computing power, and many efforts to build a 3D chip solution
have been dropped in favor of nanotechnology. However, two
chipmakers have continued to pursue a 3D chip, and claim that . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item13
"How Colleges Get More Bang (or Less) From Technology Transfer"
Colleges are implementing policies to commercialize the fruits of
their research, but measuring the success of this technology
transfer is difficult. The University of Michigan has had to
retool its technology-transfer effort to shore up a flagging . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item14
"Last Mile by Laser"
Nine out of 10 U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees
cannot avail themselves of the nation's multibillion-dollar
optical-fiber network because they are separated by just one
mile, but many experts believe that free-space optics (FSO) . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item15
"Inside the Invention Factory"
Bell Labs channels the ingenuity of 1,850 researchers who average
four patents each day, and has paved the way for many innovative
products--phones, VCRs, televisions, remote controls, CD players,
stereos, and computers among them. But this has not made the . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item16
"Lawrence Lessig: The Thought Leader Interview"
Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig says the
Internet's freedom, growth potential, and innovation potential
are being threatened by a slew of legislation, technology, and
monopolization that would cede control of the medium to a few . . .
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0722m.html#item17
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