ACM TechNews - Friday, August 29, 2003

[technews <technews@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the August 29, 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 539
Date: August 29, 2003

Top Stories for Friday, August 29, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Fight Against Viruses May Move to Servers"
"Software Patent Protest Moves From Street to Internet"
"Data Mining Proponents Mull Commercial Apps"
"Off to College to Major in...Video Games?"
"No Consensus on Voting Machines"
"Cyborgs Unite!"
"Quantum Leap Tests Network Warfare"
"Software Self-Defense"
"Strike Up the Band: An Electronic Accompanist Jumps In"
"Software Speeds Modeling"
"What's in Your Technology Survival Kit?"
"Dumb Software For Dumb People"
"Lab Soups Up Linux Supercomputer"
"Upgrade and Archive: The Ongoing Threat of Data Extinction"
"Decoding Terror"
"Gap Analysis"
"The Power of IT"
"Teachable Robots"
"Saving Private E-mail"

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

"Fight Against Viruses May Move to Servers"
Many security experts contend that desktop anti-virus software
and firewalls may soon not be enough to thwart increasingly
crafty and sophisticated computer viruses, and they expect the
server to become the new front line of defense.  "[Virus writers] ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item1

"Software Patent Protest Moves From Street to Internet"
A Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FIFF) protest
expected to take place on Aug. 27 will involve demonstrations in
the streets of Brussels and the shuttering of over 600 Web sites
that advocate the FIFF's opposition to a proposed European ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item2

"Data Mining Proponents Mull Commercial Apps"
Data mining technologies have harbored a bad reputation bred out
of fears that such tools would be used for intrusive Orwellian
surveillance, but private-sector researchers are working to
change that perception by touting data mining's potential value ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item3

"Off to College to Major in...Video Games?"
Praise and scorn is being heaped upon the incorporation of video
games into the curricula of universities such as MIT and the
Georgia Institute of Technology, which use creative terms such as
"digital arts" or "interactive media" to describe the field of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item4

"No Consensus on Voting Machines"
Opinion was divided among approximately 6,000 California citizens
responding to a July public inquiry from Secretary of State Kevin
Shelley about whether electronic voting machines should be
equipped to print out a paper trail.  Political activists and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item5

"Cyborgs Unite!"
University of Toronto electrical engineering professor and cyborg
rights activist Steve Mann continues to probe the societal impact
of cyborg technologies and is presently preparing a pair of
events featuring music controlled by participants' brain waves.   ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item6

"Quantum Leap Tests Network Warfare"
Quantum Leap is the code name for an Aug. 27 Defense Department
test of network-centric warfare operations involving the rapid
distribution of intelligence among warfighters.  A dozen
horizontal fusion concepts and technologies planned for 2004 will ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item7

"Software Self-Defense"
Computer security experts say that users are the weakest link in
the defense against computer viruses and worms, and that
automated security updates and PC scanning are needed to fill the
gap.  The SoBig virus, which has infected over 100,000 PCs since ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item8

"Strike Up the Band: An Electronic Accompanist Jumps In"
The Continuator is a prototype software program developed by
Francois Pachet of Sony's Computer Science Laboratory that can
act as an electronic accompanist capable of riffing with a
musician with virtually no discernible pauses.  The program, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item9

"Software Speeds Modeling"
University researchers in Europe and America have collaborated to
create new architectural modeling software that automates complex
design tasks for individual buildings and even entire cityscapes.
The software uses shape grammars to allow fluid manipulation of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item10

"What's in Your Technology Survival Kit?"
The University at Buffalo provides students with Tech Tools, a CD
that contains all of the software they will need in the course of
their studies.  Faculty and staff also receive Tech Tools, while
those who own past editions can access updates and downloads at ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item11

"Dumb Software For Dumb People"
Experts argue that computer viruses, particularly those that have
wrought mischief in the last month, throw into sharp relief
Microsoft's flawed software development model, which focuses on
adding needless complexity to systems, integrating applications ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item12

"Lab Soups Up Linux Supercomputer"
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has announced
its ownership of the world's fastest Linux supercomputer, a
2,000-chip Intel Itanium 2 system built at a cost of $24.5
million.  The 3,000-square-foot supercomputer, which will be used ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item13

"Upgrade and Archive: The Ongoing Threat of Data Extinction"
Unlike printed documents and microfilm records, electronic
records cannot be preserved without the maintenance of all the
distributed data and metadata, explains Andrew Lawrence of
Eastman Kodak's commercial imaging group.  Paper and microfilm ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item14

"Decoding Terror"
The National Security Agency (NSA) has been struggling to keep up
with encryption and scrambling technology since the end of the
Cold War.  The improvement of code-maker technology requires
code-breakers to race even further technologically, since ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item15

"Gap Analysis"
Approximately 50 percent of the federal government's IT
workforce, as well as a significant portion of state government
IT professionals, will reach retirement age in a few years, which
has sparked both negative and positive outlooks on how this ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item16

"The Power of IT"
Ohio-based FirstEnergy and other power companies are undertaking
IT projects that aim to close information gaps about electric
grid problems that led to the recent U.S. blackout in the hopes
of avoiding a recurrence.  FirstEnergy, which may be the massive ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item17

"Teachable Robots"
Juyang Weng of Michigan State University has sought to imbue
robots with "real-time, online, on the fly" learning
capabilities.  One of his creations, SAIL (Self-Organizing
Autonomous Incremental Learner), is designed to exhibit curiosity ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item18

"Saving Private E-mail"
Winning the war against spam requires eliminating--or at least
dramatically reducing--the likelihood of false positives, which
no automatic filtering or blacklisting technique currently in use
is able to do.  However, some programmers are hoping that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0829f.html#item19


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

-- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0827w.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.
<http://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.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -