ACM TechNews - Wednesday, September 10, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 543
Date: September 10, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, September 10, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Copyright Directive 'Could Be Europe's DMCA'"
"Security Executive Stresses Trade-Offs"
"New Chemistry Software Automatically Generates Computer Code"
"The Future of Force-Feedback Technology"
"Making a Video Screen Out of Thin Air"
"In Computer Security, a Bigger Reason to Squirm"
"IT Jobs That Belong Overseas"
"Senator Questions RIAA Crusade"
"Wi-Fi and 3G May Come Together"
"Chic Gear to Suit Net Generation"
"Brave New Skies"
"Hard Drive Industry Gets More Respect"
"Paper Trail Not Dead Yet"
"Passwords Multiply as Users' Rage Rises"
"Software Patents: A Clicking Bomb"
"The Once and Future IT"
"Is Small the Next Big Thing?"
"Morphing the Mold"
"What's Next for Technology Policy??"

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

"Copyright Directive 'Could Be Europe's DMCA'"
A Sept. 8 report from England's Foundation for Information Policy
Research (FIPR) warns that the European Union Copyright Directive
(EUCD), whose wording and goals are similar to the United States'
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), has the potential to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item1

"Security Executive Stresses Trade-Offs"
In his book, "Beyond Security," Counterpane Internet Security CTO
Bruce Schneier emphasizes the need to deeply understand security
and acknowledge the associated trade-offs.  He implies that the
U.S. frittered away the international good will that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item2

"New Chemistry Software Automatically Generates Computer Code"
The Tensor Contraction Engine (TCE) promises to relieve chemists,
physicists, and materials scientists of a significant burden by
automatically generating computer code needed to simulate the
structure and interaction of intricate molecules; the tool could ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item3

"The Future of Force-Feedback Technology"
The penetration of force-feedback, or haptics, technology into
the mass market will require a significantly larger
corporate/consumer marketing effort than the industry can support
at its current size, but U.S. universities are making ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item4

"Making a Video Screen Out of Thin Air"
Military training centers, product showrooms, and museums could
be augmented with the advent of walk-through displays that
generate video imagery without requiring a solid surface.  The
Tampere University of Technology's FogScreen, which was showcased ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item5

"In Computer Security, a Bigger Reason to Squirm"
The recent SoBig.F worm outbreak indicates that computer systems
are no more secure than they were three and a half years ago,
when the I Love You worm ran rampant throughout the Internet.
"The whole problem here is not just having antiviral products and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item6

"IT Jobs That Belong Overseas"
With offshore IT outsourcing having become a fact of life,
experts such as Challenger, Gray & Christmas executive VP Rick
Cobb and Deloitte & Touche's Maria Grant observe that some jobs
are well suited for overseas migration while others are not.   ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item7

"Senator Questions RIAA Crusade"
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
said he agreed with many arguments presented by a Verizon lawyer
during a committee hearing on Tuesday, especially that the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) dangerously allows ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item8

"Wi-Fi and 3G May Come Together"
New 802.11b Wi-Fi chips from Broadcom and Royal Philips
Electronics signal a likely complementary convergence of Wi-Fi
and 3G cellular technologies.  Analysts previously forecast the
two technologies would be used together in handheld devices once ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item9

"Chic Gear to Suit Net Generation"
Designers are readying the next generation of wearable computing
fashions, integrating fashion and electronics.  Glasses with
computer displays embedded in the lenses and Bluetooth headsets
that allow people to use their cell phone hands-free are already ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item10

"Brave New Skies"
The Transport Security Administration's (TSA) second-generation
computer-assisted passenger prescreening system (CAPPS II)
promises to protect air travelers from terrorists and reduce the
scrutiny passengers face at airports, but critics charge that it ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item11

"Hard Drive Industry Gets More Respect"
Hard disk drives have long taken a back seat to speedy
processors, memory, and software, but both consumers and
manufacturers of consumer electronics have developed a new
respect for the technology, as evidenced by significantly ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item12

"Paper Trail Not Dead Yet"
Rochester Institute of Technology professor Frank J. Romano told
Seybold conference attendees on Sept. 8 that although today's
office is not paperless, contrary to what outfits such as Wang
Labs predicted long ago, there is a noticeable decline in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item13

"Passwords Multiply as Users' Rage Rises"
As more online services and digital products require passwords
for security, users are beginning to balk.  Password policies
often stipulate the complexity of a password--a minimum number of
characters interspersed with numbers and special symbols, and no ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item14

"Software Patents: A Clicking Bomb"
Controversy is brewing in Europe over a proposed pan-European
directive that covers the issue of software and Internet business
methods patents.  Supporters of such patents claim that they set
up an incentive system that fosters innovation, while opponents ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item15

"The Once and Future IT"
Autonomic software promises to significantly boost labor
efficiency and save users money by automating and speeding up
routine IT tasks such as remedial operations.  Forrester Research
analyst Laura Koetzle projects that average server utilization ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item16

"Is Small the Next Big Thing?"
Tying a company or product to nanotechnology may raise its
esteem, but the sensible approach for investors, government
officials, and venture capitalists is to look beyond the hype and
carefully study the technology's actual value.  Current ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item17

"Morphing the Mold"
The iterative concurrent development approach that has worked so
well for Japanese auto makers can be extended to software
development, in which design decisions are held back as long as
possible in order to maximize the design's robustness and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item18

"What's Next for Technology Policy??"
Lewis Branscomb of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of
Government writes that the formulation of the U.S. Technology
Policy suggested a clear understanding by the White House of the
importance of commercially promising research into high-tech ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0910w.html#item19

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