ACM TechNews - Monday, April 14, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 482
Date: April 14, 2003

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Top Stories for Monday, April 14, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Future of Technology Is Hardly Ever What Anyone Has Predicted"
"I've Seen the Real Future of Tech--And It Is Virtual"
"Master of Innovation?"
"Sharpening Our Senses"
"Intrusion Prevention Touted Over Detection"
"Humanoid Robots: The Face of the Future?"
"Itanium Gets Superconducting Software"
"Government Urged to Bridge Skills Gap"
"Space Net Would Shift Military to Packet Communications"
"W3C Advances Semantic Web Drafts"
"Andreessen Assesses Browser Prospects"
"Honeypots: The Next Intrusion Detection Solution"
"GUIs Face Up to the Future"
"Smart Tools"
"Gathering in Clusters"
"UCITA: Blessing or Curse?"

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

"Future of Technology Is Hardly Ever What Anyone Has Predicted"
Technology companies are often considered to invent the future,
but even as they construct the components for a future killer
app, they are not likely to realize what it is until it happens.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently predicted that the technology ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item1

"I've Seen the Real Future of Tech--And It Is Virtual"
Ten years after entrepreneur Bill Davidow presented the concept
of the virtual corporation, virtualization has started to usher
in a transformation of corporate infrastructure, writes Stewart
Alsop.  Widely distributed networks have become easier to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item2

"Master of Innovation?"
China aspires to become a technology standards-maker by
leveraging its growing consumer base, national brainpower,
low-wage workforce, and central government control.  Although
many technology products are made in China today, Asian neighbors ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item3

"Sharpening Our Senses"
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to create a new
Web site fielding solicitations from sensor technology vendors.
Although some proposals may give some the feeling that Big
Brother is watching, new sensor technology will help law ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item4

"Intrusion Prevention Touted Over Detection"
The upcoming RSA Conference 2003 will showcase security
technologies that focus more on intrusion prevention than
detection, and enforce authorized network activities through the
application of behavioral rules, usage models, and correlation ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item5

"Humanoid Robots: The Face of the Future?"
Robotics experts such as Dallas University's David Hanson believe
the future of human-machine interaction will be robots equipped
with human faces that can model a range of expressions.  Hanson's
K-bot is a case in point:  The machine consists of a head with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item6

"Itanium Gets Superconducting Software"
National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure
(NPACI) researchers announced on Thursday that version 2.3.2 of
the NPACI Rocks software (a.k.a. Annapurna) will fully support
Intel's high-end Itanium processor, thus simplifying the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item7

"Government Urged to Bridge Skills Gap"
Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK, has called on the U.K.
government to do more to improve the level of computer skills
taught in schools.  Price made an appeal to Education Secretary
Charles Clarke during an event in which e-skills UK, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item8

"Space Net Would Shift Military to Packet Communications"
A next-generation space-communications architecture designed to
be shared by American intelligence, defense, and space agencies
was revealed by the Defense Department and National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on March 8.  Called the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item9

"W3C Advances Semantic Web Drafts"
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued a quintet of Semantic
Web revisions last week, describing in more detail several
elements of the Web Ontology Language (OWL), including the OWL
overview, guide, reference, semantics and abstract syntax, and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item10

"Andreessen Assesses Browser Prospects"
Opsware board chairman Marc Andreessen, who co-developed the
Netscape Web browser precursor Mosaic, notes that the browser has
not undergone any major changes since its debut a decade ago:
"After 10 years, it's still a user sitting in front of a Web ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item11

"Honeypots: The Next Intrusion Detection Solution"
Honeynet Project founder Lance Spitzner details the usefulness of
honeypots--bogus systems and services designed to lure malicious
hackers--and how they can be used to substantially improve
intrusion detection.  Honeypots are supposed to cost-effectively ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item12

"GUIs Face Up to the Future"
A number of U.K.-based companies are working to radically enhance
the function and usability of graphical computer interfaces
(GUIs).  Visual Information (VI) is a family-owned affair whose
flagship product is Vi Business Analyst (ViBA), a front-end ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item13

"Smart Tools"
Artificial intelligence is being employed in many sectors, both
public and private, and has led to significant productivity and
efficiency gains across the board.  Financial institutions have
reduced incidents of credit-card fraud through the application of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item14

"Gathering in Clusters"
More and more enterprises are considering clustering technology
as a way to save money and boost the performance of their
computer systems, especially for intensive data management
chores; among the advantages clustering offers for such companies ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item15

"UCITA: Blessing or Curse?"
Almost 10 years ago, the National Conference of Commissioners of
Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) proposed a national software
licensing law that stirred up resentment from consumer groups, IT
business users, and others because it allowed software vendors to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0414m.html#item16


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