ACM TechNews - Wednesday, March 19, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 471
Date: March 19, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, March 19, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"U.S. Heightens Cybersecurity Monitoring"
"236,000 Tech Jobs Were Cut in 2002"
"Senate Wants Oversight of CAPPS II Program"
"Computer Virus Writers Mostly Obsessed Males--Expert"
"NASA Launches New IT R&D Programs"
"Redesigning the Net to Save It From Spam"
"Apple Dips Toes Into Clustering"
"PARC Cedes AspectJ Technology to Eclipse"
"Setting a Course for Shipshape Software"
"Chip Device Gets to the Point"
"Open Source Gets Booster Program"
"Privacy Advocate Warns of Microchip Invasion"
"Software Issues Hinder Bluetooth Interoperability"
"Virtual Reality Training and Terrorist Attack Preparation"
"Real World Robots"
"Flu Shots for Computers"
"Microprocessors March On"
"Harnessing Quantum Bits"

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

"U.S. Heightens Cybersecurity Monitoring"
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced that it
is stepping up its Internet monitoring efforts as the U.S.
prepares for war with Iraq.  The department will work with other
government agencies to "monitor the Internet for signs of a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item1

"236,000 Tech Jobs Were Cut in 2002"
The U.S. technology industry lost 236,000 jobs last year,
according to the American Electronics Association's Tech
Employment Update, and has lost 10 percent of its workforce in
the last two years.  Many of the jobs were lost in the high-tech ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item2

"Senate Wants Oversight of CAPPS II Program"
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has called for congressional oversight of
the Transportation Security Administration's proposed Computer
Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II).  Wyden also
led the legislation that cancelled funding for the Total ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item3

"Computer Virus Writers Mostly Obsessed Males--Expert"
Virus writers are mostly socially inadequate males, between 14-
and 34-years-old, who are obsessed with computers and creating
self-replicating code.  This generalization was offered by Jan
Hruska, CEO of U.K.-based Sophos, the world's fourth-largest ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item4

"NASA Launches New IT R&D Programs"
NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology program has
selected 20 IT projects for funding, with the goal of building
more efficient, less costly systems for in-flight use and on the
ground.  Altogether, the selected projects will receive $19.4 ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item5

"Redesigning the Net to Save It From Spam"
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on Thursday is
convening for the first time a physical meeting where anti-spam
experts and Internet engineers will discuss radical solutions to
solving the problem of unwanted email.  Companies such as ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item6

"Apple Dips Toes Into Clustering"
Apple Computer has tailored its Xserve machine for clustered
settings, joining the popular trend toward networking server
computers for greater processing power.  So-called Beowulf
clusters are commonly built using cheap Intel-based servers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item7

"PARC Cedes AspectJ Technology to Eclipse"
Developers dealing with large software systems will soon have
open-source access, through the Eclipse project, to the AspectJ
Java language extension.  Created at the Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC) with funding from the Department of Defense, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item8

"Setting a Course for Shipshape Software"
Economic belt-tightening means companies must better utilize
resources, and this traditional concept is carrying over into the
IT department in the form of more efficient software that is
focused on business performance.  Whereas free-wheeling IT ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item9

"Chip Device Gets to the Point"
University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers have built a
microelectromechanical system (MEMS) positioner that is able to
move individual atoms, a development that could give rise to
ultra-high capacity data storage and molecule-size machines.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item10

"Open Source Gets Booster Program"
A new hybrid software licensing program promises to let vendors
reap profits from their product while reassuring buyers their
purchases do not lead to proprietary lock-in.  Former U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Tony Stanco is ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item11

"Privacy Advocate Warns of Microchip Invasion"
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) holds tremendous promise
for manufacturers and retailers in being able to control their
inventory and product, but also market to individuals based on
databased personal information.  This information could be ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item12

"Software Issues Hinder Bluetooth Interoperability"
Bluetooth devices may or may not interoperate, depending on which
software profiles they have installed, warned a panel at the CTIA
Wireless 2003 showcase in New Orleans.  Although hardware
interoperability was pretty much "watertight," CSR's Eric Janson ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item13

"Virtual Reality Training and Terrorist Attack Preparation"
The University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) plans to develop a virtual
reality system to train police officers, firefighters, and
hazardous material personnel, especially in regard to possible
terrorist acts, says Dr. Ming Leu, a professor in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item14

"Real World Robots"
Real world applications for robots, or machines that make
decisions by themselves, are on the rise.  At the hospital at the
University of California, San Francisco, for example, a
600-pound, five-foot robotic cabinet called Elvis carries blood ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item15

"Flu Shots for Computers"
Researchers have applied computing to biology to map the human
genome, but now biology is being applied to computing to fight
electronic viruses and worms.  Sana Security has borrowed the
concept of the human immune system in its effort to create ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item16

"Microprocessors March On"
Chipmakers expect to get another 10 years or so of progress out
of the silicon semiconductor before it may be necessary to switch
to another technology, but even now as the number of transistors
per chip proceeds toward a billion, the cost of designing and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item17

"Harnessing Quantum Bits"
Quantum computers designed to exploit the unique nature of
quantum physics to carry out calculations far beyond the capacity
of conventional computers have begun to move out of the
conceptual phase, thanks to pioneering work by researchers such ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0319w.html#item18


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