Why Software Quality Matters
Talent Leak Drains AT&T Think Tank
The decline of AT&T is reflected by the defection of top talent at the AT&T Labs facility, which was foreshadowed by the corporate downsizing of 200 researchers in 2002. Many former AT&T scientists cite slashed long-range research, travel restrictions, publication of fewer scholarly articles, ...
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Candidates Unclear on Tech Issues
President Bush and his Democratic rival in the 2004 election, John Kerry, have placed little emphasis on technology-related issues in their campaigns apart from an intense debate on offshore outsourcing, which American University adjunct professor David Holtzman is unsure will expand beyond ...
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Time For Games to Reflect Larger World
There is a growing movement to make both computer games and the computer game industry more inclusive: Southern Methodist University students Ryan Champ and Derrick Levy are enrolled in a digital game development graduate program so they can help give minorities better representation in games, as ...
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NASA Develops 'Mind-Reading' System
NASA scientists have developed a software program that can analyze the nerve signals in the mouth and throat to read a person's mind. "Biological signals arise when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement," says Chuck Jorgensen, a neuroengineer at NASA's ...
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Sketchy Information
Graphical search interfaces use data visualization and relationship analysis methods to provide a different view of available Web data than the list of links typical of most search results. Human Factors International director Phil H. Goddard contends that such tools exploit "the effect that ...
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Better Bombing Through Technology
The Pentagon believes more effective warfare could be conducted if the identification of underground enemy facilities is fine-tuned before smart bombs are deployed; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Counter Underground Facilities (CUGF) program seeks to develop ...
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Wireless Alliance Touts 'Magic Touch' RFID Technology
Nokia has joined Sony and Philips in their effort to develop Near Field Communication (NCF) wireless technology, which would enable electronic devices to use radio-frequency identification (RFID) to interact when touched together. Sony and Philips began the NCF initiative in 2002 (and ...
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True Randomness Upon Request
The University of Geneva's Group of Applied Physics and its Computer Science department have partnered with id Quantique, a company spun off from the university, to launch the first Web site where true random numbers can be generated and downloaded on demand. Users could request a specific ...
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Tech Center Converts Research
The Chinese government is counting on academic research and development to serve as a catalyst for the growth of the nation's high-tech sector. The government has partnered with the National Central University through the Institute for Information Industry to provide the support necessary to turn ...
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Cashing in on Virus Infections
Security experts wonder whether the software industry has enough incentive or drive to find new ways to stop malicious software, pointing to the recent rash of nasty computer viruses as an example. Some say the antivirus industry is content with a business model that is hard for users ...
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Vibrating Pedal Says 'Ease Off Gas'
DaimlerChrysler has developed a prototype alert system that produces a vibration in the accelerator to suggest when drivers should ease off the gas, which motorists are more likely to react to faster than dashboard lights. This approach is designed to save fuel and thus money by weaning ...
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Learning Functional Programming Through Multimedia
Haskell is a purely functional programming language and the book, "The Haskell School of _expression_: Learning Functional Programming Through Multimedia," is a great introduction to the platform now being used for cutting-edge programming language research. The Haskell community is still ...
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Experts Publish 'How to' Book for Software Exploits
Leading security researchers have published a book that teaches how to write hacker code exploiting software security holes. "The Shellcoder's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Holes," set for release next week, is intended for network administrators, but includes working examples ...
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IT Phone Home
Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) deployments have been announced by enterprises wishing to connect voice to data, slash costs, and boost efficiency, which represents the technology's first significant step out of limbo. Dan Marmion, CIO of hat manufacturer New Era Cap, elected to ...
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Geek War on Terror
With funding from the CIA, Systems Research and Development founder Jeff Jonas is developing a data-mining system for weeding out terrorists and other criminals without compromising people's personal privacy. The CIA first became interested in the anti-terrorist potential of Jonas' work when ...
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The End of Spectrum Scarcity
A combination of new technologies and regulatory reforms could spell the end of spectrum scarcity and the beginning of spectrum abundance, changing the face of the communications industry. The notion that spectrum is a physically limited resource is false--what is limited is the right to set ...
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Why Software Quality Matters
Software errors that led to the deaths of Panamanian cancer patients from overexposure to radiation--and criminal prosecution against the technicians who used the software--illustrates the vital need to anticipate and remove glitches before they become a problem with potentially fatal consequences. ...
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