Task Force Pushes for Early Warning System
Bill to Curb Online Piracy Is Challenged As Too Broad
The "induce bill" introduced in the Senate this week is chiefly targeted at providers of file-trading software, but critics such as Verizon Communications associate general counsel Sarah Deutsch are alleging that the legislation is too broad, and "can be used to threaten and intimidate ...
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Army Sets Up Video-Game Studio
Encouraged by the success of its "America's Army" video game, the U.S. Army has established a video-game studio whose purpose is to produce software for armed forces and government training simulations. The North Carolina-based America's Army Government Applications office opened its ...
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First Online Privacy Law Looms
July 1 marks the enactment of the Online Privacy Act of 2003 in California, which is the first online privacy law in the United States. The law requires any online business that collects personally identifiable information from Californians to prominently post its privacy policies on ...
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House Committee Approves Spyware Bill
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed a revised version of the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT) on June 24 with only four dissenting votes from representatives who were concerned that legitimate software could suffer if the bill is ratified. "I feel ...
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Text Mining Tools Take on Unstructured Data
Companies are increasing their use of unstructured data mining tools, despite the specialized skills required to integrate the systems and interpret the results. Organizations' knowledge stores usually contain 85 percent unstructured data, most of that in form of text files. Dow ...
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Marburger Says Nano Regulators Ensure Health, Safety
During a June 16 roundtable discussion with journalists on nanotechnology policy, Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Marburger expressed confidence that federal regulators can keep up with nanotech advances so that public health and safety are assured. In response to a ...
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Tech Heavies Support Challenge to Copyright Law
The political battle between content providers demanding all-encompassing copyright protection and hardware and telecommunications firms opposed to anti-copying legislation perceived as a threat to fair use has reached an impasse. Tech heavyweights such as Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Verizon ...
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Mission Linguistic: Interactive Technologies to Teach GIs Arabic Language and Culture
University of Southern California (USC) computer science students have developed a virtual language-training program that uses video game techniques to teach Arabic language and culture. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research, the ...
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Digital Preservation Program Launches Research Grants Initiative
The Library of Congress and National Science Foundation (NSF) have joined forces to preserve the nation's digital materials for future generations, and are preparing to award roughly $2 million in initial research grants. The NSF will manage the research program, but work closely with the Library ...
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Remote-Controlled Throwable Robot Developed by Carnegie Mellon with Marines Sent to Iraq for Testing
Remote-controlled prototype robots developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers for the purpose of urban surveillance are being sent to Iraq to undergo testing. The Dragon Runner robot has been under development for over two years as part of a project funded and coordinated by the Marine ...
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IT and End Users Differ on Spam Severity
Spam in the workplace is a greater source of concern among IT managers than end users, according to a study performed by Insight Express for the information security firm Symantec. Around 50 percent of polled end users say junk email is not a problem in the office, while 79.1 percent of IT ...
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Elizabethtown College to Sponsor Information Technology in Education Conference
Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania has invited several distinguished speakers to the Information Technology in Education conference scheduled for Sept. 18. The event is a multidisciplinary forum encompassing the latest theory, research, development, and practice on IT in education and ...
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Selling Girl Scouts on Science
A partnership between the Girl Scouts and corporate and government agencies aims to get girls more interested and skilled in technology to reverse the shortage of female researchers and engineers in the U.S. workforce. "There has always been an interest at the Girl Scouts in making sure that girls ...
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VTT Introduces Unique, Human Voice-Based Guidance System for Mobile Phones
A voice-based guidance system for mobile phones that can be useful for both visually impaired and clear-visioned consumers has been developed by Finland's VTT Technical Research Center. The system remains in continuous contact with public and real-time databases containing information that is ...
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Going, Going, Gone
Congress started raising application fees for H-1B visas in 1998 in order to fund initiatives to improve the skills of U.S. workers and reduce American companies' reliance on foreign labor. However, this cash flow has been running dry since fees dropped sharply when the H-1B cap reverted to ...
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Sand Trap
The goal of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Grand Challenge is the development of autonomous robot vehicles that can successfully traverse the uneven desert terrain of a 320-kilometer course without human guidance; the various teams that put together such vehicles ...
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The Realities of Dealing with Wireless Mesh Networks
Though mesh-network wireless sensor systems can ease the implementation of nodes in numerous physical environments, certain subtleties of their operations should be weighed before opting for such a scheme. Most wireless networking schemes appear to employ the star topology, and link ...
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Better Decision Making: From Who's Right to What's Right
The heavy reliance on argumentative decision making by debate, a model that spans the executive level across all business and government sectors worldwide, is flawed because it is ruled by the human instinct to first form an opinion about what strategy to follow and then justify it without ...
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Task Force Pushes for Early Warning System
The Cyber Security Early Warning task force, formed at last year's National Cyber Security Summit, has issued recommendations for the first time, including one for the creation of an Early Warning Alert Network (EWAN) to work with existing public-private information-sharing organizations. The ...
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