Clips January 29, 2004

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips January 29,
2004

ARTICLES

Suit Seeks Benefits for Software Workers
The Trend of Vanishing Tech Jobs
P2P companies say they can't filter
OMB: Agencies are halfway to securing IT systems
Scientists create new form of matter
Man who invented Cntl-Alt-Del key combo retiring

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Associated Press
Suit Seeks Benefits for Software Workers
Wed Jan 28, 6:07 PM ET

NEW YORK - Laid-off programmers have filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S.
Department of Labor of illegally denying them job-training benefits
available to workers in industries where jobs have moved overseas.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed Jan. 2 in the U.S.
Court of International Trade in New York, said Michael G. Smith, attorney
for the plaintiffs. The suit wants a judge to order the Labor Department
(news - web sites) to make laid-off software workers eligible for weekly
cash payments and other benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance
program. 

In recent years, U.S. companies have laid off thousands of software
workers and other high-technology employees. At the same time, companies
are adding technology staff in India and other developing countries where
labor is inexpensive, in what's known as "offshore
outsourcing." 

Some displaced American workers have turned to the Trade Adjustment
Assistance program for help. Begun in the 1960's, TAA was designed to
soften the blow to U.S. workers of increased imports or transfers of jobs
overseas. Traditionally, workers in manufacturing have been eligible for
the benefits, which include vouchers for job-training classes and cash
payments after regular unemployment compensation runs out. 

But over the past two years, the Labor Department has ruled many software
workers ineligible for TAA benefits. The Labor Department has said
software and information-technology services don't qualify as products,
or "articles," under TAA guidelines. Only workers who made more
tangible products, such as clothing and furniture, can get TAA benefits,
the department has ruled. 

The lawsuit claims that about 10,000 software workers in the United
States should be eligible for TAA benefits, but would be ruled ineligible
under current Labor Department practices. Those that have been denied
benefits include former workers at International Business Machines Corp.,
Electronic Data Systems Corp., Nortel Networks Corp. and Motorola Inc.,
according to the lawsuit. 

Labor Department spokeswoman Lorette Post said the department doesn't
comment on pending litigation. Justice Department (news - web sites)
spokesman Charles Miller said the department wouldn't comment because it
hasn't yet filed its response to the trade court.
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New York Times
January 29, 2004
ECONOMIC SCENE 
The Trend of Vanishing Tech Jobs
By VIRGINIA POSTREL

ANY American computer programmers complain that they're losing their jobs
to lower-paid workers in India. The trend toward foreign
"outsourcing" has become a political flashpoint.

But the trend is less frightening and more promising than you'd think
from either the angry talk from unemployed programmers or the scary
estimates from consulting firms, argues Catherine L. Mann, an economist
at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.

First, the end of the technology boom, the general economic slump, and
the downturn in manufacturing - not foreign programming competition -
account for most job losses. Most estimates, Dr. Mann notes, compare the
peak of the business cycle and technology boom with today's sluggish
economy. That's not a valid comparison.

Compared with the end of 1999, which was still a good time for
programmers, December 2003 data show a 14 percent increase in business
and financial occupations, a 6 percent increase in computer and
mathematical jobs, and a 2 percent drop in architecture and engineering
jobs. New programming jobs may be springing up in India, but they aren't
canceling out job growth in the United States.

The problem for white-collar professionals, as for line workers, is that
manufacturing is still in a slump. "When the production floor
doesn't produce any more, the people in the window offices around the
building also start to lose their jobs," Dr. Mann says. 

Over the long run, she argues, the globalization of software and computer
services will enhance American productivity growth and create new
higher-value, higher-paid technical jobs.

What's happening now to software and services has already happened to
hardware, with great economic results.

In the late 1980's, Asian manufacturers began turning out basic memory
chips, undercutting American chip makers' prices and inciting a fierce
policy debate. Many industry leaders argued that the United States would
lose its technological edge unless the government intervened to protect
chip makers.

In a famous 1988 Harvard Business Review article, Charles Ferguson, then
a postdoctoral associate at the Center for Technology Policy and
Industrial Development at M.I.T., summed up the conventional wisdom:
"Most experts believe that without deep changes in both industry
behavior and government policy, U.S. microelectronics will be reduced to
permanent, decisive inferiority within 10 years."

He denounced the "fragmented, chronically entrepreneurial
industry" of Silicon Valley, which was losing market share to
government-aided Asian businesses. "Only economists moved by the
invisible hand," he wrote, "have failed to apprehend the
problem."

Those optimistic economists were right. The dire predictions were wrong.
American semiconductor makers shifted to higher-value microprocessors.
Computer companies bought commodity memory chips and other components,
from keyboards to disk drives, abroad. Businesses and consumers enjoyed
cheaper and cheaper prices.

Far from an economic disaster, the result was a productivity boom. As
global manufacturing helped to reduce the price of information technology
sharply, all sorts of businesses, from banks to retailers, found new,
more productive ways to use the technology.

"Globalized production and international trade made I.T. hardware
some 10 to 30 percent less expensive than it otherwise would have
been," Dr. Mann estimates in an institute policy brief. (Her paper,
"Globalization of I.T. Services and White-Collar Jobs: The Next Wave
of Productivity Growth," can be downloaded at iie.com.)

As a result, she estimates, gross domestic product grew about 0.3
percentage point a year faster than it would have otherwise, adding up to
$230 billion over the seven years from 1995 to 2002. "That's real
money," she said in an interview.

By building the components for new integrated software systems
inexpensively, offshore programmers could make information technology
affordable to business sectors that haven't yet joined the productivity
boom: small and medium-size businesses, health care and construction.

"Bringing those sectors up to at least the average will raise U.S.
G.D.P. growth again," Dr. Mann notes. "And that's the second
wave of productivity growth."

In addition to the economic benefits, she argues that improved
information management could significantly improve health care, reducing
paperwork and guarding against treatment mistakes like dangerous drug
interactions.

That doesn't mean your health records will be in India, however. To the
contrary, the health care system is probably too convoluted for someone
far away to understand.

Rather, like hardware, software can be divided into components, basic
building blocks of integrated systems. While those components may be
developed abroad, integrating them into a useful system requires more
specific knowledge of the client organization or its legal
environment.

As with putting together hardware, building software systems is likely to
happen locally. There will be less demand for basic programming and more
demand for higher-value, higher-paid systems integration.

These projections aren't much comfort, of course, to unemployed
programmers. While their skills may be in demand, Dr. Mann explains,
those jobs may be in new industries - a hospital, for instance, rather
than at I.B.M. - and therefore be harder to find. Or programmers may need
new training to move into systems integration jobs.

To encourage companies to invest in such training, Dr. Mann argues for a
"human capital investment tax credit," similar to the credit
for investing in physical equipment. She also believes that the federal
aid given to displaced manufacturing workers should be extended to cover
information industries. And she suggests that information technology
itself may help with job searches, crossing the old boundaries of
classified ads.

But, she argues, acknowledging individual hardships shouldn't detract
from the bigger picture.

"There is no question that the downside anecdote - the well-trained
person losing their job - is a story that people identify with," Dr.
Mann says. "They simply don't identify with the story of the person
who changed their job and does three times better."

"Most of the stories are about downside loss, not about upside
gain," she adds, "and there is a lot of upside 
gain."
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Washington Post
NASA Says It Gathered Little Data on Passengers 
Northwest Airlines' Sharing of Records Is Focus of Suits 

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 29, 2004; Page E04 


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it was able to
extract only a small amount of passenger information from the data that
Northwest Airlines handed over in 2001 as part of a secret aviation
security project.

Northwest acknowledged recently that it gave NASA three months of
passenger records so the agency could test a "data mining"
project. At least two class-action lawsuits have been filed, claiming
that the airline illegally shared the data and violated passengers'
privacy. A privacy rights group has filed a complaint with the Department
of Transportation, alleging that Northwest engaged in "unfair and
deceptive practices" and asking the agency to investigate the
incident.

Northwest has declined to comment on the lawsuits or the
complaint.

NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe told the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee yesterday that NASA analysts were able to
extract only two days of passenger data after a year of effort. He said
Northwest's data-compression technique hindered NASA's 
analysts.

In a Jan. 27 letter responding to questions raised by Sen. Gordon Smith
(R-Ore.), NASA said Northwest Airlines turned over 180 compact discs
containing passengers' phone numbers and credit card numbers. But in his
testimony yesterday, O'Keefe said NASA received 18 CDs.

NASA said it received three months of passenger records in December 2001
and kept the data for 21 months, according to the letter written by D.
Lee Forsgren, NASA's assistant administrator for legislative affairs. The
CDs were locked in a laboratory and office, and the computers used to
store the data were password-protected, the letter said.

NASA worked with Northwest because the airline was "known throughout
the aviation industry as a leader in aviation security," the agency
said. Northwest participated in development of the first Computer
Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS 1.

"By providing the passenger name record data directly to NASA, a
federal agency with its own strict privacy protections, Northwest acted
appropriately and consistent with its own privacy policy and all
applicable federal laws," Northwest said in a prepared
statement.
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CNET News.com
P2P companies say they can't filter
Last modified: January 28, 2004, 5:20 PM PST
By John Borland 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Responding to sharp criticism from legislators, a group of file-swapping
companies told Congress that they have no ability to block copyrighted
files or child pornography from their networks. 

As part of a lengthy letter to Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-N.C., the P2P
United trade association said Wednesday that file-swapping companies
should not be held to a standard that is technologically
infeasible.

Lawmakers "have been deliberately misinformed by self-interested
industry about the technological capability of peer-to-peer
services," said Adam Eisgrau, P2P United's executive director.
"It is not that we won't filter out copyrighted material and
inappropriate sexual material. It's that we can't." 

The group's claim, backed up by considerable technical documentation,
comes as calls for filtering of file-swapping networks are rising in
Congress and in courts. 

Graham and a quartet of other legislators sent a letter to P2P United's
member companies last November, asking for assurances that the
file-swapping companies would attempt to stop illegal material from being
traded through their networks. 

Most pointedly, the letter asked that the companies work to create some
kind of filters that could block copyrighted material and pornography.

File-swapping companies have contended that this kind of filter is
impossible in a decentralized system such as Gnutella or Kazaa. 

In older file-swapping services such as the original Napster, in which
searches were routed through a central point, a filtering mechanism was
more feasible. 

But in wholly decentralized networks, in which searches radiate out
through a constantly shifting array of "nodes," or individual
computers, filters are impractical, the group said. Only by forcing the
networks to change into something else--a centralized system, for
example--would effective filters be useful, the group added. 

However, some companies say they have the ability to do some effective
filtering. 

A company called Audible Magic, which installs song-recognition software
inside Internet service provider networks, with the promise of
identifying and blocking trades of copyrighted songs, demonstrated its
software to members of Congress and the press in Washington D.C.

The demonstrations, set up by the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA), were intended to refute the notion that filtering is
impossible on file-swapping networks. 

"Audible Magic proves (filtering) can be done," RIAA Chief
Executive Officer Mitch Bainwol said. "This is not speculation; it's
a real live technology that's on the market today. If the peer-to-peer
community is serious about becoming legitimate, one would think they
would explore this kind of technological tool to help address the piracy
problem." 

P2P United's Eisgrau said that neither the RIAA nor Audible Magic had
contacted the organization or its members with any information about the
technology. He said that the file-swapping members would be happy to do a
live engineering test under the auspices of Congress. 

"If the equivalent of cold fusion has been invented in the software
context, it ought to be a matter of science and engineering to see if it
works," Eisgrau said. 

The two sides may be talking about different types of filters, however.

As currently offered, Audible Magic's technology functions inside
telecommunications or corporate networks, essentially serving as the
equivalent of a roadblock, looking into cars--or in this case, data
packets--as they pass and obstructing unauthorized information. That
could stop file swappers on a given service provider's network, but would
do little to impede swapping overall. 

By contrast, a filter that worked universally throughout a distributed
file-swapping network such as Kazaa would likely have to be integrated
into the software itself. Additionally, unless a gigantic and constantly
changing database of songs, movies and other material were to be included
along with every piece of file-swapping software, it would require the
software filters to check in with a central server each time a trade or
search was initiated. 

Peer-to-peer companies say they don't intend to add those centralization
features to their software and note that a federal judge has said that
decentralized file-swapping network tools such as Gnutella are legal to
distribute. An appeals court in Pasadena, Calif., will re-examine that
ruling next week.
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Government Computer News
OMB: Agencies are halfway to securing IT systems 
By Jason Miller 
1/28/04

The Office of Management and Budget is expecting a little more than 50
percent of all IT systems to be accredited and certified as secure when
it releases its annual report to Congress in early summer, an
administration official said. 

Kamela White, an OMB senior policy analyst, said the patterns and trends
are going in the right direction from what she has seen so far from
agency and inspectors general reports that make up the administration?s
statement to the Hill. 

Agencies fell short of OMB?s deadline of certifying and accrediting 80
percent of all IT systems by December 2003. But the increase to just over
half is a marked improvement from the 30 percent of all systems agencies
certified last year, White said. 

White would not offer further information about the security report
because it has not been finalized. 

To assist agencies in meeting the mark, OMB is finalizing agency guidance
on how to implement the Federal Information Security Management Act.
White said the document should be out by mid-March. OMB will give
agencies about a week to comment on the draft guidance, which will be
released early next month. 

?We are standardizing the guidance,? she said during a conference
yesterday on FISMA sponsored by ICG Government of Reston, Va., and the
Potomac Forum Ltd. of Potomac, Md. ?We want to add the FISMA guidance to
[OMB Circular] A-130 and then we will explore a number of areas in the
circular to reflect FISMA and other security changes.? 

White said the guidance will closely follow the FISMA law, but OMB will
add more specifics when it comes to performance measures and making the
IT security reporting date more consistent with the agency and their
inspectors general. 

?We see some common problems between the agency and IG reports,? White
said. ?They define terms differently, for instance.?
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MSNBC Online
Scientists create new form of matter
Fermionic condensate could have practical applications
By Maggie Fox
Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Scientists say they have created a new form of matter and
predict it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for
use in power distribution, more efficient trains and countless other
applications.

The new matter form is called a fermionic condensate, and it is the sixth
known form of matter  after gases, solids, liquids, plasma and
Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995.

?What we?ve done is create this new exotic form of matter,? said Deborah
Jin, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology?s
joint lab with the University of Colorado, who led the study.

?It is a scientific breakthrough in providing a new type of quantum
mechanical behavior,? Jin added during a news conference.

A superconductor, sort of
The cloud of supercooled potassium atoms brings Jin and fellow
researchers one step closer to an everyday, usable superconductor  a
material that conducts electricity without losing any of its
energy.

?It is related to a Bose-Einstein condensate,? Jin said. ?It?s not a
superconductor, but it is really something in between these two that may
help us in science link these two interesting behaviors.?

And other researchers may find practical applications.

?If you had a superconductor, you could transmit electricity with no
losses,? Jin said. ?Right now something like 10 percent of all
electricity we produce in the United States is lost. It heats up wires.
It doesn?t do anybody any good.?

Superconductors also could allow for the invention of magnetically
levitated trains, she added. Free of friction, they could glide along at
high speeds using a fraction of the energy trains now use.

Better than a boson
Jin, a recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation ?genius grant,? was
building on the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate by her
colleagues Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman. They won the 2001 Nobel Prize in
Physics for the discovery.

Bose-Einstein condensates are collections of thousands of ultracold
particles that occupy a single quantum state. They all essentially behave
like a single, huge superatom. But Jin said these Bose-Einstein
condensates are made with bosons, which like to act in unison.

?Bosons are copycats. They basically want to do what everyone else is
doing,? she said.

Her team?s new form of matter uses fermions  the everyday building
blocks of matter that include protons, electrons and neutrons.

?They are not copycats,? Jin said. ?Fermions are your independent
thinkers  they don?t copy their neighbors.?

Jin?s team coaxed them into doing just that.

They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero,
or minus-459 degrees Fahrenheit  which is the point at which matter
stops moving. They confined that supercooled gas in a vacuum chamber,
then used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium
atoms into pairing up.

?This is very similar to what happens to electrons in a superconductor,?
Jin said.

Practical application
This is more likely to provide applications in the practical world than a
Bose-Einstein condensate, she said, because fermions are what make up
solid matter.

Bosons, in contrast, are seen in photons, and subatomic particles called
W and Z particles.

Jin stressed that her team worked with a supercooled gas, which provides
little opportunity for everyday application. But the way the potassium
atoms acted suggested there should be a way to translate the behavior
into a room-temperature solid.

?Our atoms are more strongly attracted to one another than in normal
superconductors,? she said. 

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the
prior written consent of Reuters.
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USA Today
Man who invented Cntl-Alt-Del key combo retiring
1/29/04

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (AP)  David Bradley spent five minutes
writing the computer code that has bailed out the world's PC users ever
since. 

The result was one of the most well-known key combinations around:
Ctrl+Alt+Delete. It forces obstinate computers to restart when they will
no longer follow other commands. 

Bradley, 55, is getting a new start of his own. He's retiring Friday
after 28 1/2 years with IBM. 

Bradley joined the company in June 1975 as an engineer in Boca Raton,
Fla. By September 1980, he was one of 12 working to create the IBM PC. He
now works at IBM's facility in Research Triangle Park. 

The engineers knew they had to design a simple way to restart the
computer should it fail. Bradley wrote the code to make it work.

"I didn't know it was going to be a cultural icon," Bradley
said. "I did a lot of other things than Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but I'm
famous for that one." 

His fame depends on others' failures. 

At a 20-year celebration for the IBM PC, Bradley was on a panel with
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other tech icons. The discussion turned
to the keys. 

"I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley
said. 

Gates didn't laugh. The key combination also is used when software, such
as Microsoft's Windows operating system, fails. 

Bradley, whose name was once mentioned as a clue in the final round of
the TV game show Jeopardy, will continue teaching at N.C. State
University after retirement. 

His office is filled with memories of his time at IBM and the keys that
brought him fame in the tech world. He says he has almost every cartoon
that featured Ctrl+Alt+Delete. There are video clips of the Jeopardy show
and the panel with Gates. 

"After having been the answer on final Jeopardy, if I can be a clue
in the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, I will have met all my
life's goals," Bradley said.
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