ACM TechNews - Wednesday, November 6, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 420
Date: November 6, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, November 6, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Is Our Infrastructure Open to Online Terror?"
"Tech Money Fueling Campaigns"
"Dreaming of a Digital Democracy"
"Text Software Spots Intruders"
"SETI@home Yields to Pressure to Curb Cheating"
"Hackers Fight China's Internet Curbs"
"Why Microchips Weigh Over a Kilogram"
"Texas Program Hopes to Fuse Nano and Manufacturing"
"How Paper is Becoming Super Smart"
"Old Industry Legends Partner for Next-Generation Displays"
"Dust-Sized Sensors Could Monitor Weather"
"Speech Technology Loses its Kooky Luster"
"Meet the New Silicon Speed Demon"
"Piggybacking Creates Supercomputer"
"Distributed Computing: Power Grid"
"The Mobile Home of the 21st Century"
"Making Life Better, Fuller, Safer, Longer"
"Structuring Stray Data"
"Holograms in Motion"

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

"Is Our Infrastructure Open to Online Terror?"
Sept. 11 and the threat of terrorist groups such as al-Qaida have
spurred government and industry to push for better security for
critical infrastructure, which is relying more and more on
electronic control.  One particular area of emphasis concerns ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item1

"Tech Money Fueling Campaigns"
Although the tech industry has made less donations to political
campaigns this year than last year, it is contributing much more
than it did 10 years ago:  The Center for Responsive Politics
reports that the tech sector gave $18.2 million to federal ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item2

"Dreaming of a Digital Democracy"
Internet voting, which would enable citizens to cast their votes
electronically anytime and anywhere, would eliminate the need for
polling booths, as well as lines and glitches, according to Mike
Alvarez of the California Institute of Technology.  Many states ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item3

"Text Software Spots Intruders"
Computer security researchers at the University of California at
Davis are improving on anomaly detection schemes by using text
characterization to categorize system calls.  System calls are
generated when software programs on the computer talk with one ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item4

"SETI@home Yields to Pressure to Curb Cheating"
In response to complaints of rampant cheating in the SETI@home
project, administrators have promised to clamp down on such
practices.  More than 800 of the project's major contributors
signed a petition after participant Max Nealon revealed last week ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item5

"Hackers Fight China's Internet Curbs"
Recent Washington legislation aims to battle Internet censorship
in China by creating an Office of Global Internet Freedom, which
would apportion $100 million over two years to support
anti-censorship initiatives.  The proposal was introduced by Rep. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item6

"Why Microchips Weigh Over a Kilogram"
A team led by Eric Williams of United Nations University in Tokyo
has conducted a study concluding that the amount of energy and
materials that go into the manufacture of a typical microchip is
hundreds of times greater than the final product's mass.  Using ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item7

"Texas Program Hopes to Fuse Nano and Manufacturing"
The University of Texas system is working to create a coalition
of academia and industry that will make Texas a strong player in
nanomanufacturing.  The Integrated Nano Manufacturing Technology
(INMT) program is a new extension of the university's existing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item8

"How Paper is Becoming Super Smart"
The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is attempting to
commercialize an electronic paper product called SmartPaper,
which consists of polymer beads 100 microns in diameter that are
black on one side and white on the other, suspended in an oily ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item9

"Old Industry Legends Partner for Next-Generation Displays"
DuPont Displays, Sarnoff, and Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs will
team up to develop flexible organic thin-film transistor (TFT)
technology that could be incorporated into the next generation of
displays.  The project will marry DuPont's expertise with organic ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item10

"Dust-Sized Sensors Could Monitor Weather"
Researchers are looking at micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
to act as airborne environmental sensors that could gather
real-time data for meteorological and military purposes.  By
dispersing hundreds of networked, micron-sized sensors from miles ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item11

"Speech Technology Loses its Kooky Luster"
Speech recognition technology is moving from a niche market to
much wider applications, including voice authentication for a new
generation of wireless devices; progress is also being made
toward the goal of enabling computers to take dictation, although ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item12

"Meet the New Silicon Speed Demon"
A 15-year development effort bore fruit recently as IBM announced
the creation of the world's fastest silicon-based transistor, a
device made from silicon germanium (SiGe) that operates at 350
GHz per second, four times as fast as current leading commercial ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item13

"Piggybacking Creates Supercomputer"
In an unprecedented move, the University of Alberta has created a
virtual supercomputer that links over 1,200 machines across
approximately 19 Canadian learning institutions, according to U
of A computer science professor Paul Lu, who designed the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item14

"Distributed Computing: Power Grid"
Grid computing, an offshoot of the distributed computing
initiative, is breaking out of academia and expanding into the
commercial sector.  Notable grid computing efforts include the
$53 million TeraGrid, which the U.S. National Science Foundation ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item15

"The Mobile Home of the 21st Century"
The proliferation and increasing sophistication of wireless and
voice networks is transforming living environments, particularly
households, and several companies are hoping to capitalize on
this transformation by studying how people interact with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item16

"Making Life Better, Fuller, Safer, Longer"
Electronic advancements are likely to have a revolutionary impact
on virtually every aspect of life, leading to dramatic
improvements in comfort, entertainment, security, and health
care.  Carbon nanotube-based cathodes currently being employed in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item17

"Structuring Stray Data"
Laura Ramos of Giga Information Group estimates that about 80
percent of all corporate data is unstructured, and tapping into
this dormant information could give companies a strategic
advantage, although the cost and work commitment is considerable. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item18

"Holograms in Motion"
Initiatives are underway to make advancements in holography, the
creation of three-dimensional images whose potential applications
range from surgical planning to ultra-realistic video gaming and
other forms of entertainment.  A team led by Ken Perlin at New ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item19


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