ACM TechNews - Friday, September 12, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 544
Date: September 12, 2003

Top Stories for Friday, September 12, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Feds Search for Cybersecurity Solutions"
"IT Workers: Fewer Jobs, Mo' Money"
"Hackers Threaten Power Grid"
"Beyond Voice Recognition, to a Computer That Reads Lips"
"Nanotech Forum Reflects on Technology's Mission"
"E-Voting Critics Point to Security Hole"
"Smart Software Makes Sense of Rough Sketches"
"Beyond Biometrics: New Strategies for Security"
"Getting More From a PC's Spare Time"
"Say Goodbye to Your Mouse, Keyboard and Phone Number--Voice
 Control Is Finally Taking Over"
"Vint Cerf Hears VoIP Calling"
"Just Say No to Viruses and Worms"
"Display Brighter Than Film"
"Has Linux Eclipsed Open Source?"
"Battle for the Big Screen"
"The Underground Internet"
"Hack in Progress"
"Voices"
"'Who's Who' in High Performance Computing: TOP500 Celebrates
 10th Anniversary"

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

"Feds Search for Cybersecurity Solutions"
A dozen witnesses testified on cybersecurity solutions at a
hearing before the House Government Reform Committee's
Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental
Relations, and the Census on Sept. 10, but only three alluded to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item1

"IT Workers: Fewer Jobs, Mo' Money"
The average information technology worker earned $65,000 in 2002,
or about 8% more than in 2001, according to the
Sage/SANS/BigAdmin Annual Salary Survey.  "The solid growth
exceeded my expectations, because my expectations were low," says ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item2

"Hackers Threaten Power Grid"
Eric Byres, a computer security researcher at the British
Columbia Institute of Technology, warns that hackers are probing
weaknesses in the computer-security protections of power plants
and said electricity infrastructure is an attractive target for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item3

"Beyond Voice Recognition, to a Computer That Reads Lips"
Enabling a computer to read lip movements could significantly
improve the accuracy of automatic speech recognition even in
noisy environments, and researchers at IBM, Intel, and elsewhere
are working on such a capability.  IBM's Chalapathy Neti says a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item4

"Nanotech Forum Reflects on Technology's Mission"
Former Israeli prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize honoree
Shimon Peres told attendees at the recent World Nano-Economic
Conference in Washington, D.C., that science and
technology--nanotechnology in particular--could be used to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item5

"E-Voting Critics Point to Security Hole"
Fueling critics' allegations that electronic voting systems are
vulnerable to tampering and abuse is a March 2002 primary in San
Luis Obispo County, Calif., in which the results of absentee
votes were apparently posted on a Web site operated by voting ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item6

"Smart Software Makes Sense of Rough Sketches"
MIT researchers are developing intelligent software that can
interpret what rough, unpolished sketches represent using
Bayesian analysis techniques.  The software is designed to
recognize hand-drawn objects that correlate with the user's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item7

"Beyond Biometrics: New Strategies for Security"
Security experts predict new biometric security applications will
be necessary in the future to secure e-commerce and prevent
identity theft.  AMS vice president Jeffrey Z. Johnson says the
industry has so far done a poor job of selling the concept of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item8

"Getting More From a PC's Spare Time"
Millions of computer users are putting the time they spend away
from their PCs to more productive use by volunteering to
participate in distributed computing projects, in which idle
processing power is collectively tapped to generate simulations ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item9

"Say Goodbye to Your Mouse, Keyboard and Phone Number--Voice
 Control Is Finally Taking Over"
In an overview of speech technology, Lawrence R. Rabiner of
Rutgers University's Center for Advanced Information Processing
predicts that speech recognition and voice control technology
will render keyboards, remote controls, and phone numbers archaic ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item10

"Vint Cerf Hears VoIP Calling"
Internet pioneer Vint Cerf is reluctant to predict the next
radical shift in the Internet itself, but he says that voice over
IP (VoIP) is an evolutionary Internet application that will
transform telecommunications.  Cerf currently serves as MCI's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item11

"Just Say No to Viruses and Worms"
Lawmakers this week convened computer security experts to discuss
ways to better secure the nation's IT infrastructure.  The
technology subcommittee of the House Committee on Government
Reform listened to testimony from law enforcement, security ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item12

"Display Brighter Than Film"
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in computer screens usually boast
a dynamic brightness range between 300 to 1 and 800 to 1,
compared to the 10 million to 1 range of the human eye.  However,
researchers at Canada's York University, the University of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item13

"Has Linux Eclipsed Open Source?"
The prevalence of the Linux operating system seems to contradict
the spirit of the open-source movement, which is designed not to
favor any one OS.  Open Source Development Lab director Tim
Witham notes that more people are using Linux than the other ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item14

"Battle for the Big Screen"
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma panels are poised to
battle over the large-screen market, and the possibility exists
for LCDs to dominate thanks to their continuously evolving
technology.  LCDs are currently the screen of choice for consumer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item15

"The Underground Internet"
With the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and
copyright holders threatening to go after file-swappers that make
unauthorized copies of digital content, many traders are going to
underground "darknets" in the hopes of keeping their activities ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item16

"Hack in Progress"
Ethical hackers such as Ryan Breed of Unisys function as security
consultants, and they use a variety of tools--many of them freely
available online--to test the cyber-defenses of the companies
that hire them.  Such tools include Ethereal, a network protocol ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item17

"Voices"
Former White House Cybersecurity Adviser Richard Clarke says the
Homeland Security Department has fallen short in its effort to
fortify the computerized infrastructure of the U.S., and
cites its failure to establish a national cyberspace security ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item18

"'Who's Who' in High Performance Computing: TOP500 Celebrates
 10th Anniversary"
The TOP500 list does more than just rank the world's fastest
supercomputers:  It outlines high-performance computing (HPC)
trends characterized by rapidly changing computer architectures
and steady, predictable growth in performance levels; the biggest ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0912f.html#item19


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