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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 587
Date: December 24, 2003
Top Stories for Wednesday, December 24, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Creator of Linux Defends Its Originality"
"U.N. Summit Asks How to Globalize Internet"
"United States, Russia, China Link Up First Global-Ring Network"
"The Internet Is a Very Sick Place"
"Invasion of the Centibots"
"Open-Source Battle Is Heating Up"
"Software Glitch Brings Y2K Deja Vu"
"Digital Defense"
"Where the Net Is Heading in 2004"
"What's Next?"
"Accessibility Opens Up"
"The Allure of Low Technology"
"Here's a New Spin (Cycle) on Small Tech: Smart Appliances"
"Morpheus Falling?"
"An IQ Injection for the Internet"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Creator of Linux Defends Its Originality"
Linux operating system inventor Linus Torvalds yesterday refuted SCO
Group's contention that large sections of code embedded in Linux were
baldly copied from the SCO-owned Unix operating system, in violation of SCO
licensing terms and copyright. This claim is at the crux of SCO's suit ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item1
"U.N. Summit Asks How to Globalize Internet"
An issue raised at the recent U.S. World Summit on the Information Society
was the prevailing Western influence on Internet content, in terms of
language and cultural values. This trend is very problematic for
developing countries, many of which still lack Internet access. Summit ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item2
"United States, Russia, China Link Up First Global-Ring Network"
U.S., Russian, and Chinese academics have set up a high-speed Internet link
to span the entire globe. The ring connects North American, European,
Russian, and incipient Chinese research networks and will foster greater
scientific collaboration between the countries. Among the activities ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item3
"The Internet Is a Very Sick Place"
Malware authors did not exhibit much innovation this year, but that is
small comfort to the many people whose computers were hijacked or networks
compromised by record worm and virus attacks. F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen
notes that the most widespread of this year's worms, such as Slammer and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item4
"Invasion of the Centibots"
The Centibots project is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA)-funded joint venture between SRI International, Stanford
University, the University of Washington, and ActivMedia to develop a
network of autonomous robots that can be deployed by the military to map ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item5
"Open-Source Battle Is Heating Up"
The Massachusetts state legislature is debating a proposition that the
state give preference to open-source software products for its own use.
The controversy started in September with a leaked memo from Massachusetts
finance and administration secretary Eric Kriss, and has been joined by a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item6
"Software Glitch Brings Y2K Deja Vu"
Echoes of the Y2K bug are reverberating as software maker PTC attempts to
correct a date-related glitch that threatens to render software on
thousands of computers around the world inoperative after Jan. 10. PTC's
Joe Gavaghan reports that PTC programmers had to set a date for infinity so ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item7
"Digital Defense"
Hackers and malware authors may currently have the upper hand thanks to the
growing number of vulnerabilities stemming from increasing software
complexity, a rise in computer connectivity, and the emergence of
sophisticated and simple-to-use digital weapons. But computer security ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item8
"Where the Net Is Heading in 2004"
Alex Salkever makes a number of predictions for the Internet in 2004, and
though none of these forecasts are written in stone, he is quite certain
that the Internet will undergo many more changes next year than in the last
several years. He writes that competition against leading search ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item9
"What's Next?"
Change is par for the course at Apple, but though the company keeps quiet
about future products until they are ready for their market debut, the
chips Apple uses in its PCs--those from IBM in particular--can shed light
about upcoming releases. IBM is reportedly ready to introduce its PowerPC ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item10
"Accessibility Opens Up"
The development and rollout of computer hardware and software tools that
disabled people can use is accelerating, and cost is not necessarily a
factor. Expensive customized devices may not have to be provided when
adaptable ergonomic products available in any office supply catalog may ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item11
"The Allure of Low Technology"
China's dedication to turn itself into a technology giant through
pride-boosting accomplishments such as October's space mission, strong
electronics exports, a low-wage tech workforce, abundant foreign
intellectual property, and rising research spending, is not in doubt--but ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item12
"Here's a New Spin (Cycle) on Small Tech: Smart Appliances"
Microscale sensors and actuators are expected to raise the intelligence of
household appliances and relieve people of various inconveniences in the
kitchen, laundry room, and elsewhere in the next few years, if the hype is
to be believed. Though some modern washing machines come equipped with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item13
"Morpheus Falling?"
Either the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress will have to resolve legal issues
surrounding second-generation file-sharing software, particularly revising
technology and copyright precedents set in the Sony Betamax case of 1984.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that VCR makers could not be held ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item14
"An IQ Injection for the Internet"
MIT senior research scientist David Clark envisions a cognitive Internet
that can identify network problems, fix them, and learn from its
experiences more effectively than human network administrators; his
Knowledge Plane (KP) project aims to accomplish this goal in about a decade ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/1224w.html#item15
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