ACM TechNews - Monday, May 12, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 494
Date: May 12, 2003

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Top Stories for Monday, May 12, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html


"Open Source Lobby Struggles in EU Patent Debate"
"Feds Seek Broader Surveillance Power"
"Pumps, Not Fans, May Cool Tomorrow's Computers"
"PCs Have Become Just Like Appliances: Both Are Too Complex"
"Etch a Site as Easy as Pie"
"Social Climbers"
"Light Show Makes 3D Camera"
"Digital Maps Tell the Time"
"Chinese Lab Hopes to Commercialize Sign-Language Recognition Platform"
"Cobol Enters the 21st Century"
"The State of OS X"
"Computer Systems Going on the Road"
"Is That a Computer Chip in Your Carpet?"
"Product Activation Gains Ground"
"On the Tube"
"Sleuthing Out Data"
"Tech: Where the Action Is"
"Scale-Free Networks"


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

"Open Source Lobby Struggles in EU Patent Debate"
Open-source and free software advocates held a conference in
Brussels on May 8 to protest against a Europe-wide software
patent protection directive drafted by the European Commission
that the European Parliament will vote on in early June ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item1

"Feds Seek Broader Surveillance Power"
The U.S. Senate voted 98-4 to approve the lone-wolf bill, also
known as the "Moussaoui Fix," on May 8.  Under the bill, which
was introduced by Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item2

"Pumps, Not Fans, May Cool Tomorrow's Computers"
Analysts expect the amount of heat produced by computer chips in
PCs to quadruple within three years, and one possible solution is
a "pump-less" fluid-cooling system devised by Issam Mudawar and
Swaraj Mukherjee of Purdue University.  The chip is attached to a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item3

"PCs Have Become Just Like Appliances: Both Are Too Complex"
Consumers are complaining about how complex PCs are, and wishing
that the devices were as easy to use as home appliances, writes
Lee Gomes.  Unfortunately, Gomes observes that appliances are
becoming harder to use, while PC difficulty has not decreased ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item4

"Etch a Site as Easy as Pie"
A research team at the University of California at Berkeley last
month released Denim, a software sketching tool that enables
designers to build interactive Web sites.  "We're trying to
replicate the way designers have traditionally worked in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item5

"Social Climbers"
Social software was a hot topic at the O'Reilly Emerging
Technologies conference (ETCon) in April; presenters discussed
the increasing importance and usability of social software, which
allows many-to-many communication in addition to one-to-one ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item6

"Light Show Makes 3D Camera"
University of Kentucky researchers say they have a new technique
that can capture 3D video data with just one camera.  While
existing 3D camera setups require arrays of cameras, the new
system uses patterns of light to gauge the depth of recorded
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item7

"Digital Maps Tell the Time"
Scientists at MIT's Media Labs Europe in Dublin, Ireland, are
trying to incorporate a feature into digital maps that gauges
time.  Users could know whether they have enough time to walk to
the park during lunch, for instance.  Based on walking speed and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item8

"Chinese Lab Hopes to Commercialize Sign-Language Recognition Platform"
The Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) in China has
developed a software platform that can translate spoken and
written Chinese and other languages into sign language via a
virtual character that hearing-impaired users would read ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item9

"Cobol Enters the 21st Century"
Cobol has been modified with new object-oriented features that
will make it easier for companies to integrate Cobol-based
applications with other systems.  Although some observers believe
it will take some time for Cobol programmers to learn the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item10

"The State of OS X"
Apple is winning over Macintosh fans with each new release of the
OS X operating system.  Little changes have made a huge
difference in improving the speed of the OS X operating system in
three major releases since its introduction in 2001.  Apple's OS ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item11

"Computer Systems Going on the Road"
Telematics startup Truman Mobile says the hardware is now
available for a reliable on-board PC that can sync with a home
wireless network, play people's MP3 collections, and read email,
news, and driving directions aloud.  So far only three customers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item12

"Is That a Computer Chip in Your Carpet?"
Infineon Technologies has developed a chip sensor network that is
woven into industrial fabrics.  The technology is useful for
monitoring movement or structural integrity in buildings when
embedded in the carpet or in textiles wrapped around support ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item13

"Product Activation Gains Ground"
Product activation technology for fighting piracy is now being
used in more and more software, including Symantec's Norton
AntiVirus 2003 program.  Symantec is currently testing the
technology in downloadable editions of the application, and could ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item14

"On the Tube"
Nantero has developed a prototype memory chip based on carbon
nanotubes that could allow manufacturers to reach the Holy Grail
of fast "non-volatile" memories that retain information even in
the absence of a power source.  The chip consists of billions of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item15

"Sleuthing Out Data"
Companies can increase worker productivity and lower costs
through categorization software that makes it easier for users to
find necessary information.  The software automatically assigns
data into categories and subcategories that are arranged in a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item16

"Tech: Where the Action Is"
The tech downturn has not stifled innovation, and companies
reaping profits despite the slump are those that offer software
and services that chiefly benefit end users rather than
investors.  Declining hardware sales and prices are good news for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item17

"Scale-Free Networks"
A wide array of complex systems--cellular metabolism, social
networks, and the World Wide Web, to name a few--have a shared
network architecture featuring a small number of nodes connected
to a vast number of other nodes; some nodes can support a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0512m.html#item18


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