Communications of the ACM articles from August 1999

Communications of the ACM archives from August 1999

NET FRAUD TOPS SCAM LIST.(North American Securities Administrators Association)(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... In its second annual list of the top-10 scams, the North American Securities Administrators Association lists Internet fraud in the top slot. Among the other scams: expensive fraudulent seminars, telemarketing fraud, and affinity group fraud....

THE SUN'S 11-YEAR ITCH.(peak of disruptive phase in Jan to Apr, 2000, could cause communications problems)(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... Just as computers around the world are coping with the Y2K bug, the sun will enter the most violent and disruptive phase of its 11-year cycle, say astronomers, causing disruptions in satellite transmissions and triggering blackouts. According...

SHOW ME THE MONEY.(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... Infrastructure companies, including those in networking, telecommunications, Internet service, and PC manufacturing, rack up average revenue of $308,708 per employee, a University of Texas study finds. By contrast, commerce companies average...

EUROPEAN ONLINE EXPLOSION.(Internet usage)(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... Business use of the Internet in Europe grew by 91% in 1998, with more than 20 million users having Net access at work, according to a report from market research firm Dataquest. Overall online use in Europe grew from 17.7 million in 1997 to...

Net Surveillance Rising.(US corporations monitoring workers' computer usage)(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... U.S. corporations are increasingly keeping an eye on workers' computer usage Percentage of U.S. companies that: 1997 1998 1999 * Store and review email messages 14.9 20.2 27.0 * Store and review computer...

TRACKING MISSING CHILDREN.
August 1, 1999... A system that tracks missing children was invested in and developed by two South Carolina businessmen-grandfathers, designed by the Canadian GPS group, Marconi Co., and is being tested by a juvenile justice agency and the Anderson, S.C.,...

SPAM REPORT.(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... One in three Internet users report getting six to 20 unsolicited bulk email messages a week, reports a survey commissioned by Bright Lights, an email filtering company in San Francisco. And the longer you have an email address, the higher the...

NOT BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.(Federal Drug Enforcement Administration)(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... In an unusual case in Worchester, Mass., a reputed mobster, Vincent Marina, went to court to determine whether the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration had secretly implanted a microchip tracking device during surgery to remove a bullet from...

Y2K COUNTDOWN.
August 1, 1999... Mixed Messages Critics say the government is sending mixed messages and lulling people into a false sense of security by playing down the possible Y2K crisis. "They are erring more on the side of fear," said Liza Christian of the Rogue Valley...

The Folly of Laws Limiting Y2K Liability.(Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
August 1, 1999... QUALITY, CONSISTENCY, AND simplicity are critical attributes in high-tech products. But they are largely lacking in today's software. Change is sorely needed. Software vendors, however, will not change voluntarily. They do not believe it is in...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 1999... IN RICHARD HEEKS' COLUMN, "Software Strategies in Developing Countries," (June 1999, p. 15), strategic positions C and D in the figure were mistakenly reversed. Position C should have been located in the domestic market/packages cell; position...

Buzzwordism and the Epic $150 Million Software Debacle.(Westpac Banking Corp IS project)(Company Operations)
August 1, 1999... "It was a classic example of two common human behaviors; a willingness to abdicate common sense when presented with a sure thing, and a failure to respond when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary." --Chris Craddock, in "The...

Science in the Palms of Their Hands.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... In the beginning, there are children and the learning experiences we want them to have. Now, let's bring in technology as the means for enabling those learning experiences. If we're serious about having children use technology in K-12...

TOWARD AN IMAGE INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM REALITY.(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE SUCH IMAGES SO ACCURATE THEY CAN SUBSTITUTE FOR THE PHYSICAL THINGS THEY SIMULATE? Computer graphics imagery increasingly represents real physical-world scenes, objects, and processes. We see these images not just...

ARTIFICIAL LIFE for Computer Graphics.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... BIOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY MODELS GIVE LIFE TO SELF-ANIMATING GRAPHICAL CHARACTERS WITH BODIES, BRAINS, BEHAVIOR, PERCEPTION, LEARNING, AND COGNITION. Computer graphics modeling for image synthesis, animation, and virtual reality has...

A FRAMEWORK FOR REALISTIC IMAGE SYNTHESIS.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... HOW TO GENERATE SYNTHETIC IMAGES WITH ENOUGH FIDELITY TO BE TRULY ACCURATE REPRESENTATIONS OF REAL-WORLD SCENES. NOT JUST AMAZINGLY APPEALING IMAGERY. Our goal at the Cornell Program of Computer Graphics is to develop physically based...

SAMPLING, SYNTHESIS, AND INPUT DEVICES.(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... NOW INPUT TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS HIGH-FIDELITY SAMPLING OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD, DRAMATICALLY CHANGING THE METHOD AND USER INTERFACE FOR CREATING COMPUTER GRAPHIC IMAGERY. Many efforts in computer graphics focus on mimicking reality to generate...

Animation Control for REAL-TIME VIRTUAL HUMANS.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... WANT TO MAKE VIRTUAL HUMANS MORE HUMAN? LET THEIR FLESH-AND-BLOOD COUNTERPARTS ANIMATE THEIR ACTIONS AND INTENTIONS THROUGH NATURAL-LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONS. The computation speed and control methods needed to portray 3D virtual humans...

Making Graphics PHYSICALLY TANGIBLE.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... COMPUTER CONTROL OF THE FORCES EXERTED ON USERS THROUGH HAPTIC INTERFACES ADDS PHYSICALLY TANGIBLE SENSATIONS TO 3D IMAGERY. Touching a virtual object for the first time can provoke surprise, wonder, delight, even a bit of fear. Not unlike...

Visually Exploring GIGABYTE DATA SETS in REAL TIME.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... HOW TO GET PAST THE NUMBERS AND THE CODE IN LARGE 3D DATA SETS TO PRODUCE VISUALIZATIONS THAT ARE IN TURN RESPONSIVE TO USER CURIOSITY. Very powerful computers are a blessing to many fields of inquiry. They are also a curse; fast...

Web Home Pages as Advertisements.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... Viewing an organization's home page as its most important online advertisement has profound implications for how home pages are designed, tested, and evaluated. If you belong to a commercial enterprise with a Web presence, how do you view...

REALIZING 3D VISUALIZATION USING CROSSED-BEAM VOLUMETRIC DISPLAYS.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... The ability to look into an electronic display from any direction, walk around it, and see real 3D information being displayed is a dream-come-true technology for those who work with volumetric data sets. Since we live in a...

CEO AND CIO Perspectives ON Competitive Intelligence.(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... Nothing is more likely to undermine IT strategic planning than poor knowledge of competitors' computing practices. Competitive intelligence (CI), also known as business intelligence, is both a process and a product. As a process, CI is the...

GROWING SYSTEMS IN EMERGENT ORGANIZATIONS.(Industry Trend or Event)
August 1, 1999... As the new economic realities pressure your organization to change from stable to emergent, new practices for IT support are required. The current frenzied pace of organizational change is being driven by the rapid development of commercial...

Object-Oriented Abstractions for Distributed Programming.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... Going beyond wrapping existing built-in toolkits with 00-like dressing. There are as many definitions of the object-oriented programming paradigm as there is literature trying to define the paradigm. However, if we go back to the roots, to...

The Uses and Abuses of Biometrics.(Technology Information)
August 1, 1999... Biometrics are seductive. Your voiceprint unlocks the door of your house. Your iris scan lets you into the corporate offices. You are your own key. Unfortunately, the reality isn't that simple. Biometrics are the oldest form of identification....