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ACM TechNews - Wednesday, May 14, 2003



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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 495
Date: May 14, 2003

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

"Draft of Bill on Mass E-Mail Is Called Weak"
"Taking Aim at Denial-of-Service Attacks"
"Nanotech Gets Down to Business"
"Setting a Standard for Wireless Security"
"Faster Computer Techniques for Google"
"Xerox Runs This Up the (Telephone) Pole: MEMS for Magical 'Last
 Mile'"
"Video Devices Benefit the Deaf"
"Fizzer Worm Bubbles Over"
"The Games Robots Play"
"Aftermath of War"
"Invention International"
"Intel Prototype Transforms Notebook"
"'Simple, Cheap Technology' Holds Huge Promise"
"New Virtual Reality Array Allows Immersive Experience Without
 the Disorienting 3-D Goggles"
"Moving Up the Stack"
"The Really, Really Messy Wi-Fi Revolution"
"Reality Bytes"
"Dawn of the Superworm"

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

"Draft of Bill on Mass E-Mail Is Called Weak"
A draft of a federal anti-spam bill sponsored by Reps. W.J.
Tauzin (R-La.) and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) is causing
consternation among consumer groups and anti-spam advocates, who
argue that all the measure will do is replace fraudulent spammers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item1

"Taking Aim at Denial-of-Service Attacks"
Carnegie Mellon University graduate students Abraham Yaar and
XiaoFeng Wang presented two proposals at the IEEE Symposium on
Security and Privacy on Monday that could act as effective
deterrents against denial-of-service attacks by tweaking network ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item2

"Nanotech Gets Down to Business"
Venture capitalists, big-money firms, and the U.S. government are
all putting resources into nanotechnology, as evidenced by this
year's NanoBusiness Conference in New York.  Participants are
excited by actual deployments of nanotechnology and reports by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item3

"Setting a Standard for Wireless Security"
The Presence and Availability Management (PAM) Forum and the
Parlay Group announced their intention to merge on May 13 so that
they can develop wireless security standards together.  The
organizations issued a press release stating that their merger ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item4

"Faster Computer Techniques for Google"
Stanford University, the same academic institution that hosted
research leading to the popular Google search engine, has yielded
three methods that could collectively boost the speed of Google's
Web page rankings by up to a factor of five.  The techniques, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item5

"Xerox Runs This Up the (Telephone) Pole: MEMS for Magical 'Last
 Mile'"
Xerox has developed a prototype "last-mile" technology that may
make the dream of cheap, rapid on-demand video and Internet
services for the home and enterprise a reality.  The device, a
microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch incorporated into a...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item6

"Video Devices Benefit the Deaf"
The are strong indications that wireless Internet is taking off
among the 20 million hearing-impaired Americans in the United
States, rather than leaving them behind.  Sales of T-Mobile's
wireless service using Danger in Motion's SideKick text-messaging ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item7

"Fizzer Worm Bubbles Over"
The "Fizzer" worm that first emerged on May 8 is a mass-mailing
worm that propagates by multiple means and attacks machines that
run Microsoft's Windows operating system, according to McAfee,
which updated Fizzer's risk profile on Monday from "low" to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item8

"The Games Robots Play"
Academic institutions contribute research to artificial
intelligence that is put through its paces at RoboCup, an annual
event in which robots compete in soccer games.  The RoboCup
American Open, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University, featured ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item9

"Aftermath of War"
The fight against terrorists and the recent war in Iraq
demonstrate how the Internet today affects war, political
expression, and the media.  The ability of embedded reporters was
greatly enhanced through the Internet and some, such as Kevin ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item10

"Invention International"
Former U.S. Patent Office commissioner and founder of the
International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) Bruce Lehman
says he established IIPI as a resource that people in developing
countries could use to learn how to leverage patent, trademark, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item11

"Intel Prototype Transforms Notebook"
Intel's Florence is a prototype notebook computer that can easily
switch between a tablet PC and a portable entertainment or
messaging console.  Designer Nick Oakley says the hinged,
double-jointed device was inspired by "a two-way restaurant ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item12

"'Simple, Cheap Technology' Holds Huge Promise"
Researchers reported significant advancements in the field of
microfluidics with the announcement of a silicone rubber device
that can transport a consistent stream of fluid despite pressure
fluctuation.  Such a device, which has no moving parts, could ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item13

"New Virtual Reality Array Allows Immersive Experience Without
 the Disorienting 3-D Goggles"
The University of Pennsylvania is using a new system called
LiveActor to allow users to interact in a virtual reality setting
without 3-D glasses.  LiveActor works by combining an optical
motion capture tool with a stereo projection system.  Users' ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item14

"Moving Up the Stack"
Mainframes, PCs, minicomputers, and servers are transitioning to
grid computing, in keeping with Gordon Bell's tenet that the
prevalent IT platform changes every decade or so.  The increasing
complexity and heterogeneity of computing, as demonstrated by the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item15

"The Really, Really Messy Wi-Fi Revolution"
Low-cost, wireless broadband Internet access (Wi-Fi) is being
touted as a revolutionary technology that will transform the way
people use computers, but the Wi-Fi market is currently fraught
with anarchy as Wi-Fi providers large and small fight over ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item16

"Reality Bytes"
"Mirror Worlds" author David Gelernter's prediction that
increased computing power and complexity would help bring about
the online equivalent of cities is coming closer to reality.  For
example, participants in Web-based multiplayer games are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item17

"Dawn of the Superworm"
The Slammer worm--also known as Sapphire or SQL Hell-- was
launched on Jan. 25, causing Internet service disruptions, flight
cancellations, and malfunctioning ATMs.  But experts warn that
the worm could have been experimental, similar to the Nimda and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0514w.html#item18


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