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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 538
Date: August 27, 2003
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Top Stories for Wednesday, August 27, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Coalition Questions Passenger Screening Plan"
"DVD-Copying Code Loses Free Speech Shield"
"Sleuths Try to Stay Ahead of Online Worms"
"Welter of Viruses Is a Wake-Up Call for Software Industry"
"Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is"
"Can the Tech-Job Drain Be Stopped?"
"Smarter Grid Could Warn of Impending Blackouts"
"New Telecommunication Tools May Emerge From the Deep"
"Tiny Technology Hasn't Hit the Big Time--Yet"
"A Vote of No Confidence"
"New Wireless Data Standard Threatens 3G"
"Fear, Uncertainty and Linux"
"New Navigation Tool Offers a Virtual World for the Blind"
"RSA Seeks to Fix RFID Worries"
"3 IT Projects Among NIST Grants"
"Preparing Generation Z"
"U.S. Computer Insecurity Redux"
"Darwin in a Box"
"Being Invisible"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Coalition Questions Passenger Screening Plan"
The ACLU used an Aug. 25 press conference to question the
Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) proposed Computer
Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), which is
still a magnet for criticism despite revisions added by the TSA ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item1
"DVD-Copying Code Loses Free Speech Shield"
An Aug. 25 decision by the California Supreme Court is considered
to be a clear triumph for the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD
CCA), because the ruling overturns an earlier court decision that
allowed DVD decryption software to be published under the claim ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item2
"Sleuths Try to Stay Ahead of Online Worms"
The extent of the damage caused by the SoBig.F computer worm was
limited somewhat thanks to the efforts of security researchers
such as F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen, who helped dissect the worm
and warned authorities about network weaknesses that could aid ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item3
"Welter of Viruses Is a Wake-Up Call for Software Industry"
The rapid spread of computer viruses such as SoBig and Blaster in
recent weeks sends a clear message that commercial software
makers must design more secure products. Although the damage
caused by such viruses has been minor so far, Watts Humphrey of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item4
"Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is"
Sandia National Laboratory cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe
is leading an effort to create "synthetic human" technology,
which would allow computers to learn and store information about
people in order to better interact with them. Forsythe began his ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item5
"Can the Tech-Job Drain Be Stopped?"
Although the outsourcing of high-tech jobs to cheaper overseas
labor is attractive to U.S. businesses from a financial point of
view, opponents argue that cost-benefit studies often overlook
important variables. Marcus Courtney of the Communication ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item6
"Smarter Grid Could Warn of Impending Blackouts"
A team of Purdue University engineers believes that the
incorporation of an Internet-based monitoring system into the
North American electric power grid could have forestalled the
massive blackout that struck on Aug. 14. The system would gather ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item7
"New Telecommunication Tools May Emerge From the Deep"
Researchers at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs facility are
looking to the natural world to develop processes that would
improve the fabrication and capabilities of their parent
company's products. The latest example is the Venus' flower ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item8
"Tiny Technology Hasn't Hit the Big Time--Yet"
Samuel Madden and Wei Hong of the University of California at
Berkeley are working on TinyDB software used by a network of
minuscule sensors or "motes." The researchers think wireless
sensor networks have near-infinite applications, ranging from ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item9
"A Vote of No Confidence"
Johns Hopkins computer security expert Avi Rubin ignited a
firestorm of publicity regarding electronic voting systems when
he leaked the findings of his voting machine security study:
Although prominent computer scientists such as Stanford ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item10
"New Wireless Data Standard Threatens 3G"
New IEEE 802.20 technology promises to replace carriers'
still-nascent 3G rollouts, though groups with heavy investments
in 3G cellular technology are likely to resist a quick adoption.
The new standard is still being developed and leadership of the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item11
"Fear, Uncertainty and Linux"
Even if SCO's multibillion dollar lawsuit against IBM for
allegedly shunting copyrighted Unix code into Linux is dismissed,
vendors and open-source advocates are worried that the action
will breed enough fear and uncertainty within the marketplace to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item12
"New Navigation Tool Offers a Virtual World for the Blind"
The Navigational Assistance for the Visually Impaired (NAVI)
system developed by University of Rochester researchers uses
radio and passive transponders to help guide blind people, though
its potential applications could extend beyond this primary ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item13
"RSA Seeks to Fix RFID Worries"
RSA Security researchers claim they can allay consumers and
enterprises' privacy concerns about the use of radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags with an inexpensive solution designed
to convince RFID readers that all possible tags are present at ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item14
"Three IT Projects Among NIST Grants"
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
recently awarded funding to three advanced IT projects out of a
total of 16 qualifying for the Advanced Technology Program. One
recipient is InRAD of Knoxville, Tenn., which is developing the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item15
"Preparing Generation Z"
Colleges and universities are changing their computer science and
IT programs in order to graduate workers that better fit the
needs of industry. During the dot-com boom, employers often
signed students before their graduation, but today many demand ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item16
"U.S. Computer Insecurity Redux"
Peter G. Neumann of SRI International's Computer Science
Laboratory writes that the poor state of computer security in the
United States is exacerbated by growing reliance on computers,
the proliferation of the Internet, the buildup of popular ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item17
"Darwin in a Box"
Programmers are employing genetic algorithms that follow a
Darwinian pattern so that computer programs can evolve to carry
out a specific operation or action by passing on their most
advantageous traits to subsequent generations. Oxford researcher ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item18
"Being Invisible"
Technology for rendering people invisible is within the realm of
physical possibility, though the power and hardware requirements
will be formidable, writes aerospace engineer Wil McCarthy. For
an invisibility cloak to be truly effective, it will need to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.html#item19
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