ACM TechNews - Friday, December 20, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 437
Date: December 20, 2002

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Top Stories for Friday, December 20, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Bush Administration to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of
 Internet"
"Terrorists on the Net? Who Cares?"
"Study Seeks Technology Safeguards For Privacy"
"Radio Free Software"
"Engineering Group Aims to Expand Web Character Set"
"Free Speech--Virtually"
"Quantum Dots to Form Basis of Next-Generation Computer Displays?"
"InfiniBand Group Sharply, Evenly Divided"
"W3C Finalizes Disability Guidelines"
"Bush Signs NSF Reauthorization Bill"
"Center for Nanoscale Innovation Transfers Knowledge to Industry"
"IBM Stacks 3-D Storage Blocks"
"Rat-Brained Robot"
"Wireless Visionary: The Future of Wireless Chat"
"ICANN to Add Three New Domains"
"The Next Chapter"
"The Race to Computerise Biology"
"2007 or Sooner"

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

"Bush Administration to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of
 Internet"
The final version of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace
is expected to include a proposal requiring ISPs to construct a
centralized system for Internet monitoring, supposedly as an
"early-warning center" designed to offer antivirus safeguards and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item1

"Terrorists on the Net? Who Cares?"
A new report compiled by Jim Lewis of the U.S. State and Commerce
Department for the Center for Strategic and International Studies
discounts the theory that terrorists or malicious hackers could
bring down the nation's infrastructure by launching an attack ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item2

"Study Seeks Technology Safeguards For Privacy"
In response to a request from the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, the Pentagon yesterday disclosed a report from the
Information Sciences and Technologies Study Group (ISAT) listing
specific technologies that the government should invest in to prevent ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item3

"Radio Free Software"
Electrical engineer Eric Blossom's GNU Radio project represents a
significant step toward the creation of a universal computer that
can operate like any other device, a development that has content
providers up in arms and pursuing legislation that could severely ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item4

"Engineering Group Aims to Expand Web Character Set"
The ASCII standard that most Internet addresses are written in is
based on the notion that most alphabets have about two dozen
characters, but vastly larger alphabets in Asian regions mean
that Web sites in those areas are inaccessible in North America, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item5

"Free Speech--Virtually"
Over the past several years, thousands of people have become
bloggers, or publishers of online journals--Web logs or
"blogs"--that chronicle or discuss a diversity of topics.
However, legal experts warn that many bloggers are unaware that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item6

"Quantum Dots to Form Basis of Next-Generation Computer Displays?"
MIT scientists report in the Dec. 19 issue of Nature that they
have synthesized a new quantum dot-organic light-emitting device
(QD-OLED) that merges organic materials with high-performing
inorganic nanocrystals.  It has the potential to become the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item7

"InfiniBand Group Sharply, Evenly Divided"
The six founding members of the InfiniBand Trade Association are
evenly split on whether or not to push forward with the I/O
technology at this time.  For the past two years, InfiniBand has
promised a new way to tie together storage, network, server, and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item8

"W3C Finalizes Disability Guidelines"
The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) User Agent Accessibility
Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0 recommend how designers should make user
agents--browsers, media players, and the like--more accessible to
people with disabilities.  The guidelines, which were finalized ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item9

"Bush Signs NSF Reauthorization Bill"
President Bush signed the National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authorization Act of 2002 on Thursday,  which aims to double the
NSF's budget to over $37 billion over the next five years.  More
than $1.5 billion would be funneled into actual research programs ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item10

"Center for Nanoscale Innovation Transfers Knowledge to Industry"
The Center for Nanoscale Innovation and Defense (CNID) is a
collaborative effort between the California universities of Santa
Barbara (UCSB), Riverside (UCR), and Los Angeles (UCLA) to
accelerate the transfer of nanotechnology research and expertise ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item11

"IBM Stacks 3-D Storage Blocks"
IBM scientists are aiming to build a prototype 3D storage grid of
cubic modules by the first quarter of 2003, under the aegis of
the Collective Intelligent Brick project (formerly IceCube).  The
stacked modules are equipped with a dozen hard drives and six ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item12

"Rat-Brained Robot"
Researcher Steve Potter has created a robot that is directed by
thousands of embryonic rat neurons on a silicon chip.  The
so-called hybrot is a cylindrical, coffee mug-sized machine
programmed to move throughout a playpen in response to neuronal ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item13

"Wireless Visionary: The Future of Wireless Chat"
Technology entrepreneur Yossi Vardi says that Internet messaging
will become even more significant in the future, as more devices
go online and wireless technology improves.  Eventually, each
device will adapt messaging technology in the way that is suited ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item14

"ICANN to Add Three New Domains"
Dot-kids, .web, .sex, and .xxx are among the potential new TLDs
that could be chosen by ICANN, Web experts and observers say.
Afilias CTO Ram Mohan believes that the domain name market is
suffering from "TLD fatigue," and as a result, he says that ICANN ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item15

"The Next Chapter"
On the topic of the future of wireless technology, wireless
analyst Amy Francetic believes a large technology company will
come to the aid of 802.11, and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's John
Jordan expects a U.S. carrier by 2005 to support both 802.11 and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item16

"The Race to Computerise Biology"
Central to the biotech industry's progress has been the
advancement of bioinformatics, in which biology and computing
merge through the acquisition, storage, and analysis of
biological data.  Bioinformatics leverages the power of computer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item17

"2007 or Sooner"
Over a dozen disruptive technologies are expected to hit the
telecommunications sector in the next five years.  The
integration of dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) and
optical Ethernet will facilitate the development of transparent ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1220f.html#item18


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