ACM TechNews - Friday, August 8, 2003

[technews <technews@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the August 8, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week.  For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.

ACM's MemberNet is now online. For the latest on ACM
activities, member benefits, and industry issues,
visit http://www.acm.org/membernet

Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion
magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 530
Date: August 8, 2003

Top Stories for Friday, August 8, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Mapping Technology Speeds Help to Fire-Scarred Land"
"Warning Lights Flash for Transport Planners"
"Advocates Form Open-Source Trade Group"
"Object Technology Conference Takes on Open Source Software"
"XML: Extremely Critical or Exhaustingly Complex?"
"Reasonable Computers"
"Combing Through the Tech-Job Haystack"
"How Robots Will Steal Your Job"
"Smart Rooms"
"CC Product Evaluation Picks Up Steam"
"Israeli High Tech Targets U.S. Security Market"
"Educators Turn to Games for Help"
"Light on the Horizon"
"Sharing the Code"
"Future Results Not Guaranteed"
"E-Cycling"
"Is the Pen Mightier?"
"Flash of Brilliance or Flash In the Pan?"

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

"Mapping Technology Speeds Help to Fire-Scarred Land"
Wildfires not only threaten forests, but can lead to soil erosion
that results in flooding and water contamination.  Evaluating the
risk of erosion in order to protect property and water supplies
is an arduous procedure that assessment teams only have a limited ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item1

"Warning Lights Flash for Transport Planners"
The technology to build fully automated cars exists, but
lawmakers have yet to set the safety standards and legislative
foundation that will make such a vision a reality, while
transport planners are wrestling with the impact self-driving ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item2

"Advocates Form Open-Source Trade Group"
Although the Open Source And Industry Alliance (OSAIA) has not
yet been officially inaugurated, its members are drumming up
support for its mission, which is to promote the advantages of
nonproprietary software and battle proprietary software makers' ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item3

"Object Technology Conference Takes on Open Source Software"
The ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages
(ACM SIGPLAN) is addressing open-source software at its annual
object technology conference on October 28 and 29 in Anaheim, CA.
Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig will define  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item4

"XML: Extremely Critical or Exhaustingly Complex?"
Despite its tremendous popularity, XML deployment has become even
more controversial with its proliferation, since there is no
central authority governing XML standards.  Gartner research
director Charles Abrams says the XML meta-language is as ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item5

"Reasonable Computers"
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA)
Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL) program is an initiative
to develop cognitive computer systems that can automatically
perform many of the routine tasks that decision-makers are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item6

"Combing Through the Tech-Job Haystack"
Challenger, Gray & Christmas lists technology as one of the few
job sectors starting to show signs of recovery, but a surfeit of
job candidates and a shift in employer attitudes requires
job-seekers to revise their strategy.  Herb Rozoff of Challenger ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item7

"How Robots Will Steal Your Job"
Over 50 percent of Americans could be replaced by robot labor by
the middle of the 21st century, according to futurist Marshall
Brain in his essay, "Robotic Nation."  Brain projects that
machines will be handling about 5 million retail jobs by 2015, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item8

"Smart Rooms"
Carnegie Mellon University's "Barn" is a prototype conference
room capable of recording everything that happens during a
meeting through an array of microphones, cameras, projectors, and
other equipment.  Faculty advisor Asim Smailagic says the Barn ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item9

"CC Product Evaluation Picks Up Steam"
The Common Criteria accreditation for software and hardware is
gaining support in the U.S. government and from vendors, who are
beginning to place stress on the system by submitting more
products for evaluation.  The United States, along with 14 other ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item10

"Israeli High Tech Targets U.S. Security Market"
Israel expects to parlay its defense expertise into more business
opportunities in the United States:  With the United States
starting to focus more on guarding against terrorism, Israel's
technology sector views the market as a potential source of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item11

"Educators Turn to Games for Help"
Academics are hoping to employ the software that powers popular
video games to enhance the learning experience and allow students
to apply classroom lessons to simulated environments.  The
Digital Media Collaboratory at the University of Texas at Austin ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item12

"Light on the Horizon"
Commercial, three-dimensional holographic data storage has long
been an elusive dream of academic and industrial researchers, but
a holographic memory is expected to hit the market in 2004.  In
theory, holographic methods could significantly expand data ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item13

"Sharing the Code"
The success of the established open-source projects Linux and
Apache and their frequent use in higher education has given rise
to other open-source projects intended for colleges and
universities' use.  One example is uPortal, which can be used to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item14

"Future Results Not Guaranteed"
To rely exclusively on computerized demand forecasting is a
serious error, despite the continued endorsement of demand
forecasting software by vendors and academics:  The best strategy
is to couple demand forecasts with human intelligence and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item15

"E-Cycling"
Recycling lead-bearing cathode ray tubes (CRTs) is a difficult
process whose most common solution causes air contamination, but
researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have
developed a fast, easy CRT disassembly method that eliminates ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item16

"Is the Pen Mightier?"
Tablet PCs promise to boost worker productivity and support more
flexible collaboration by capturing data and graphic information
more efficiently, but there have been few major white-collar
tablet PC implementations thus far, and many companies lack an ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item17

"Flash of Brilliance or Flash In the Pan?"
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena)
and the University of California at Santa Barbara have a made a
discovery that could potentially increase hard disk capacity by
more than a thousandfold.  According to the scientists, thin ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0808f.html#item18

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0806w.html

-- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to:
http://www.acm.org/technews/

-- To unsubscribe from the ACM TechNews Early Alert Service:
Please send a separate email to listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the line

signoff technews

in the body of your message.

-- Please note that replying directly to this message does not
automatically unsubscribe you from the TechNews list.

-- To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact:
technews@xxxxxxxxxx

-- ACM may have a different email address on file for you,
so if you're unable to "unsubscribe" yourself, please direct
your request to: technews-request@xxxxxxx

We will remove your name from the TechNews list on
your behalf.

-- For help with technical problems, including problems with
leaving the list, please write to:  technews-request@xxxxxxx

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -
Site Sponsored by IBM (<http://www.ibm.com>)

IBM is Serving Up Savings.
IBM offers ACM members discounts on products for
the home and office including NetVista(TM) and
ThinkCentre(TM) PCs, ThinkPad(R) notebooks, servers,
monitors, and more.  Call 800-426-7235 ext. 3559 or visit
IBM online at www.ibm.com/businesscenter/acm .
Plus, be  sure to ask about data recovery software and
other security solutions that can help protect your critical
data.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -