 | Volume 10: No. 04 |
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I'm mailing this issue from the SRI AI Center mailer, but will be moving to ONElist for mailings later this week. ONElist will probably send you two or three "welcome messages" for each digest subscription that I enter. 'Sorry for the redundancy; it's not under my control.
If you have never subscribed to a ONElist list before, one of those messages will ask you to send a confirming reply or visit the ONElist website and register in person. At the website, you can optionally enter your name and various other myProfile demographics, some of which will [optionally] be made public to other Computists on these lists. (I've enabled ONElist's semi-public directory feature, since all but four Computists have been happy to be listed on our own computists.com website.) If you object to ONElist having even your email address, let me know immediately. ONElist promises -- for whatever that's worth -- that it won't sell your name and data to others, although it will expose you to targeted banner ads on their website and on each email message it sends.
If you confirm your registration by email, it is possible that your mailer will choke on an equal sign embedded in the reply address. If so, try putting quotation marks around the name portion of the address: "...your=address"@onelist.com. That works on my ancient Unix-based mailer.
Once you are registered, further list sign-ups
shouldn't require confirmation. You can visit
Let me know if your expected digests don't arrive.
I will be less aware of bounced messages than in the past,
so you may have to visit the archives at
-----
"This statement is in no way to be construed as a disclaimer."
-----
Upcoming NSF deadlines include: Information Technology
Research (ITR), 14Feb00 and 17Apr00; Computation and Social
Systems, (15Feb00); Human Computer Interaction, (15Feb00);
Knowledge and Cognitive Systems, (15Feb00); Robotics and
Human Augmentation, (15Feb00); Information and Data Management,
(15Feb00); Special Projects in Networking, 15Feb00; Visualization
and Graphics Advanced Computational Research Program, 01Mar00;
National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology
Education Digital Library (NSDL) letters of intent, 13Mar00;
Exploratory Research in Model-Based Simulation, 23Mar00;
Terascale Computing System Program, 03Apr00; 2000 Presidential
Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering
Mentoring nominations, 14Apr00; NSDL, 14Apr00; CISE Educational
Innovation, 25Apr00. NSF's Information and Data Management Program
has a proposal submission target date of 15Feb00,
but proposals will be accepted through 28Feb00.
The next target date is 15Sep00. [Maria Zemankova
NSF's Directorate for Geosciences has a program in
Application of Digital Libraries to Undergraduate Earth Systems
Education, which includes innovative tools for handling
archived datasets and real-time data.
NSF's Digital Library for Science, Mathematics, Engineering
and Technology Education (SMETE) solicitation is now available,
at The NSF/CISE Educational Innovation program announcement
is available at -----
"People who have what they want are very fond
of telling people who haven't what they want
that they don't want it." -- Ogden Nash.
-----
Associated Western Universities offers fellowships
to science, math, technology, and engineering faculty,
graduates, and undergraduates -- including computer scientists
-- for hands-on experience at federal laboratories, industry,
and other cooperating facilities. Apply by 22Feb00 (for summer),
20Mar00 (fall), or 20Oct00 (spring) for optimum consideration.
You do not need to be enrolled at an AWU member institution.
FreeScholarships.com will be giving away $10K/day in college
scholarships to US citizens who visit their financial-aid website.
Applicants must give some demographic data. [AP. St. Petersburg
Times, 03Feb00. NewsScan.]
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities
offers a research-and-demonstration National Leadership Grant
for Libraries as well as education and training grants.
The $10M in awards cover leading-edge activities in library
and information science, to build digital library resources
and promote cooperation between libraries and museums. See the
report at Nominations and references for AAAI Fellows are due 15Feb00.
ScienceWise Alert is again free through 31May00
(and then $178/year) if you register by 18Feb00.
It sends email announcements of research and education funding
opportunities that match topic areas you select. They enter
my name in a drawing if you click on -----
"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do
what they want to; all they need is one reason why they can."
-- Willis Whitney.
-----
The Clinton administration is decreasing red tape
and increasing the speed of computers that can be exported
to all countries except Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Cuba,
Sudan, and Syria. [MSNBC, 01Feb00. NewsScan.]
China has decided that all information put on the Web
must first be viewed and approved by national security forces,
including news reports. Chat room operations must also be
approved. Every corporate and individual user of encryption
must turn in a form documenting the techniques used.
[WSJ, 27Jan00. Edupage.] (The encryption deadline was widely
ignored. "If everyone ... had complied, about 9M Internet users
would have shown up in one tiny government office to hand-deliver
a form specifying what kind of encryption they used." [NYTimes,
01Feb00. NewsScan.])
A Norwegian teenager and his father have been charged
for publishing their DVD security code crack. [AP. NYT,
26Jan00. NewsScan.]
A programmer in Paris spent four years cracking the 640-bit
encryption key used to verify digital signature on smartcards,
to patent his own version (for sale for $1.5M). Unfortunately,
he demonstrated his homemade card to bank officials by purchasing
Paris Metro tickets. He has been arrested on counterfeiting
and fraud charges, facing a possible 7-year jail term. [MSNBC,
25Jan00. NewsScan.]
Oops! Software used by the month-old X.Com online bank
allowed customers to transfer funds from anyone's US bank account.
All they needed was the account number and bank routing
information, which are printed on physical bank cheques.
(Yes, the British spelling of this word is superior to
the US spelling. Or at least easier to use unambiguously.)
X.Com ads have touted the ease of accessing and moving your money.
[NY Times, 28Jan00. NewsScan.]
NEC has a new encryption technology called Cipherunicorn-A
that uses false keys as decoys for a real key. It also uses
varying key lengths within the encryption sequence. [IBD,
27Jan00. NewsScan.]
A serious security flaw has been discovered in "cross-site
scripting" using code tied to URL links. The code can be hidden
in any website, online document, discussion forum, or email
message -- yes, even spam. Any link that sends you to another
page, or any form that asks for data, can activate unchecked code
or transmit private data invisibly. The threat occurs when
sites fail to verify that hidden code from a user's browser
is safe -- and most sites do not check code. CMU's CERT
Coordination Center "says only a massive effort by Web site
designers can remedy the problem, but in the interim, users
should avoid clicking on Web links from untrusted sources."
[AP. MSNBC Experience with computer problems shows that many are
PEBCAK errors: Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.
[J.D. Stone, NewsScan, 19Jan00.] (But you don't get secure
systems just by educating people, or by yelling at them,
or by asking them to be really, really careful, or even
by hiring smarter people.)
-----
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success;
leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against
the right wall." -- Stephen R. Covey.
-----
Existing companies that move to the Internet typically have
a large base of COBOL applications that support thousands of users
or millions of customers. Integrating that legacy with
Web storefronts is the next hot area for Y2K and mainframe
programmers, as newbie Java programmers able to put up simple
websites really can't cut it. There are still some 200B-5T lines
of COBOL code out there. [Inter@ctive Week, 26Jan00. NewsScan.]
Bill Gates says he is planning "a new generation
of applications that will look better, look different
than the existing applications" over the next three years,
in much the way that Windows differed from DOS. "I think
the evolutionary approach won't get us where we really want
to be." Internet integration and XML semantic tagging
are part of his plans. [Financial Times, 31Jan00. Edupage.]
(Steve Ballmer is now CEO of Microsoft, with Bill Gates
as board chairman and chief software architect.)
A federal judge has reinstated a 1998 preliminary injunction
prohibiting Microsoft from distributing a Java that is
incompatible with Sun's version. [LA Times, 26Jan00. NewsScan.]
Be Inc. will offer its latest operating system free
to individuals for non-commercial use. The company is
still "aggressively pursuing Internet appliance opportunities,"
according to CEO Jean-Louis Gassee. [ZDNN/MSNBC, 18Jan00.
NewsScan.]
Apple has awarded CEO Steve Jobs a $40M Gulfstream V jet plus
options on 10M shares of stock as a bonus for the past 2.5 years.
The company's value has risen from under $2B to about $17B.
[SJM, 20Jan00. NewsScan.] (But he still gets paid only $1/year.)
AT&T will invest $250M in services for businesses that
rent software to others over the Internet. Sun and HP are
also partners in this "Ecosystem for ASPs" venture.
[LA Times, 28Jan00. NewsScan.]
One way to reduce IT costs is to outsource data storage.
StorageNetworks has raised $103M to expand its current 12 US sites
to 60 worldwide. Customers pay about $600K/year, saving 25%-30%
over operating their own disk and tape farms. Data access can be
faster than internal LANs. Storage utilities could handle most
of the world's data management business within 15-20 years.
[WSJ, 27Jan00. Edupage.]
When startup eToys couldn't buy the www.etoy.com domain
from a long-established European group of "hacker artists"
for about $500K (in cash and stock), it tried to take the domain
by legal action -- making false claims to a judge and to Internet
domain registrars, according to opponents. 1400 "Toywar soldiers"
supporting etoy joined an online campaign against eToys,
creating an amazing amount of publicity. Now eToys has backed off
and is paying court costs, and the negative PR may pop up
any time shoppers do a search for the eToys name. There is
even talk of a lawsuit against eToys managers for mismanaging
investors' money, with lost stock value of 70% and perhaps $4B.
That's what you get when you go to war with an art group
"best known for a piece called the Digital Hijack, which made
sophisticated use of technology to playfully attack users'
browsers." "The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End Of Business As Usual"
(Perseus, 190 pp., $23) is a new book by Rick Levine,
Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger.
It was developed around the original 95-point Cluetrain Manifesto
-- available online -- about the Internet's influence on
the world of business. -----
"Invisibility is freedom. At first it feels awful
that no one can see you, that nobody's paying attention.
Darn! But you get used to it. We've had two hundred years
to get used to it. Then one day you find yourself on
network, networking, and it dawns on you that it's like
walking through walls. Wow! Like some comic-book-mystic
Ninja warrior! That's pretty cool. You can get away
with saying things you could never say if anyone took you
seriously. Dilbert is just a comic strip. Ha-hah.
Beavis and Butthead is just a cartoon. Heh-heh.
And if anyone comes sniffing around and wonders if this
Internet stuff could be maybe dangerous, culturally
subversive, it's 'Oh, hey, never mind us. We're just
goofing off here on the Web. No threat. Carry on.
As you were.' But we aren't just goofing off.
We're organizing: building and extending the Net itself,
crafting tools and communities, new ways of speaking,
new ways of working, new ways of having fun. And all this
is happening, has happened so far, without rules and laws,
without managers and managed. It's self-organizing.
People by the millions are discovering how to negotiate,
cooperate, collaborate -- to create, to explore, to enjoy
ourselves." -- Christopher Locke, "The Cluetrain Manifesto:
The End of business As Usual," Yale is planning a $500M expansion, to include chemistry,
biology, environmental science, forestry, and general engineering.
[Otis Port, BW, 07Feb00, p. 103.]
Internet start-up EduPoint.com is offering about 1.5M courses
from 3K public and private North American educational
institutions. The institutions pay 6%-12% of course fees
to EduPoint in return for the marketing help and course-provider
tools. [Interactive Week, 24Jan00. Edupage.]
Georgetown U. is auctioning off three of the 16 seats
in a multimedia-immersion certificate course. The other
students will pay $10K -- a typical price for business courses --
but future course fees may be influenced by the auction results.
[Chronicle of Higher Ed., 21Jan00. NewsScan.] (This auction
is by ReverseAuction.com. The popularity of auction bidding
among Internet users is interesting, given that they are
designed to bring in the highest price -- not the lowest.)
-----
"I believe I'm a Bayesian, but as I accumulate
more data, that could change."
[Simon P. Blomberg The American Assoc. of University Professors has formed
a group to review intellectual property issues such as the sale
of class notes. Universities have traditionally given faculty
members the intellectual property rights to their own work,
although the lectures themselves are owned by the academic
institutions. (Fair use laws allow student note-taking.)
Internet profit opportunities have raised questions about
ownership and control of articles, books, and other materials.
[IP Law Weekly Online, 28Jan00. Edupage.]
The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
(ALPSP) has hammered out a model 'Grant of Licence' form
for journal articles that allows authors to retain copyright,
self-archive their papers -- in final form, not just preprint form
-- and make derivative uses so long as the original publication
is cited. Software is available to help groups of researchers publish
their own niche journals online. BioMed Central is sponsoring
a new, free, peer-reviewed BMC archive for biomedical papers -- to
launch in May00 -- based on NIH's PubMed Central research archive.
Several Web sites help professors identify plagiarized
content. Plagiarism.org compares student papers with those
available from free online cheating sites, plus papers from
past semesters and from other schools. Suspicious phrases
are flagged for scrutiny. Essay Verification Engine
even checks for paraphrasing. Fees usually start at about
$20/year for a 30-student class. [NY Times, 20Jan00. Edupage.]
-- Ken