Encryption and other points of interest~

Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 14:24:38 -0700

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT, SECTION 1201(g)
Issue: Encryption/Copyright
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Copyright Office invite interested parties to submit comments on
>Section 1201(g) of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The topics
are encryption research and the development of encryption technology; the adequacy and effectiveness of technological measures designed to protect copyrighted works; and the protection of copyright owners against unauthorized access to their encrypted copyrighted works. The principal question is: "How will the provisions of section 1201(g) of the DMCA affect encryption research?" The Register of Copyrights and the Assistant Secretary of Communications and Information of the Department of Commerce must prepare a report for Congress, examining Section 1201(g) no later than October 28, 1999. Comments by the public must be received by July 26, 1999.
Mail comments to both the Department of Commerce and the Copyright Office addresses: Paula J. Bruening, Office of Chief Counsel, NTIA, Room 4713, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20230 and Jesse M. Feder, Office of Policy and >International Affairs, U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright GC/I&R, P.I. Box 70400, Southwest Station, Washington, DC 20024. Comments sent in electronic form should go to both dmca@ntia.doc.gov and crypto@loc.gov. For details about the format of the submissions, visit the NTIA web site at the url below. [SOURCE: NTIA, AUTHOR: NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress] (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/occ/dmca.htm)

The Cult of the Dead Cow created and released the program Back Orifice last year to the general public at the Las Vegas hacker and security conference DEF CON. The program allows its users to remotely control victims' desktops, potentially undetected.
CNN's article
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9907/07/nthack.idg/index.html

The computer security community has already begun to develop countermeasures to battle Back Orifice 2000, the new hacker tool released over the weekend at the DefCon 7 hacker conference.
(ABC)
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/bo2k990712.html

How Much Fuel Does It Take To Drive Across A Cell? Princeton Study Uses Laser Tweezers To Provide An Answer.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990713074313.htm

Educated people's brains shrink more, but they forget less, study shows

DETROIT (July 12, 1999 5:11 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Older people with lots of education show more brain shrinkage than those who spent less time hitting the books, according to a medical study released Monday. But higher education levels also give the elderly more protection from dementia and memory loss.
"Our brain cells are dying, but if we have educated ourselves, that provides a buffering effect such that our functioning remains intact," said Edward Coffey, chair of the Henry Ford Health System Department of Psychiatry and principal investigator for the study.
The research, published in the July issue of the journal Neurology, examined 320 healthy men and women from 66 to 90 years old. Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers measured brain size by tracking cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the outside of the brain.
The study found that elderly people with 16 years of education had 8 to 10 percent more fluid around their brains than did those who had only gone to school for four years.
Coffey was quick to point out the study did not conclude that lots of education causes smaller brains. In fact, he said everyone's brain starts shrinking beginning at young adulthood. On average, a person's brain will shrink 2.5 percent every 10 years.
Coffey likened the effect of a high amount of schooling on the brain to exercising a muscle to keep it in shape. "Everybody has some shrinkage," Coffey said. "We're able to tolerate it to different extents. If you have more education, the shrinkage causes less problems for you than those with less education." Coffey is the same researcher who published a study in February 1998 that found men's brains shrink faster with age than women's.

Tuesday July 13 12:59 PM ET
U.S. Committee Meets On Controversial Embryo Cells http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990713/sc/cells_ embryo_1.html

A US firm has produced a "feelie" mouse to enable us to "touch" the objects we see on screen before buying them. The "feelie" mouse could be the next big thing to get us to join the e-commerce revolution. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_388000/388928.stm

A television screen you can wear is just one of the bizarre applications possible with a new breed of glowing plastics. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_390000/390220.stm

Barrier-Breaking Microscope
Researchers have discovered a way to dramatically improve the resolution of the fluorescence microscopes often used in biology and chemistry. In the 15 July issue of Optics Letters, they report that a clever combination of two laser beams can overcome the so-called diffraction limit, which these microscopes have so far obeyed, bringing finer detail into view. http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/07121999/grapha.htm

Brain food
New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/cgi-bin/pageserver.cgi?/ns/19990710/newsstory4.h tml

Visit a Scrolling timeline of Cloning
http://library.advanced.org/24355/data/details/timeline.html

Here's a silly little page that has a real player (hillbilly type) Clone song
http://www.countryjoe.com/clone.htm

NASA unveils comet-smashing plan
http://www.usatoday.com/life/science/space/lss286.htm

Genus demos atomic layer deposition
SAN FRANCISCO — Genus Inc., a leader in thin-film deposition techniques, has moved further ahead of the pack with an atomic layer deposition system. The company is currently demonstrating systems that can lay down films as thin as 10 angstroms, which will be critical in the move to implementing copper interconnects.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990713S0015

Physicists will run tests during a total solar eclipse next month, hoping to buttress their decades-old argument debunking one of Einstein's relativity theories. By Kristen Philipkoski. (Wired) http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/20663.html

SAN FRANCISCO — Aluminum interconnects will soon be obsolete. And copper may prove just an interim step. The next big thing in semiconductor interconnect technology may be fiber optics. It could take years to find its footing, but fiber's high bandwidth may prove just as good for moving information within a chip as for linking high-speed networking equipment. http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990713S0009

DNA computers hold promise of massive parallelism ORLANDO, Fla. — Researchers will gather here beginning July 13 to advance the state of DNA computing, a field that holds the promise of ultra-dense systems that pack megabytes of information into devices the size of a silicon transistor. While some researchers suggest DNA computing is an infant discipline looking to find its way into real-world applications, papers presented here at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECC) will describe new techniques and tools for building and using DNA computers.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/technology/advanced/OEG19990709S0016

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
Web:
http://www.nanoindustries.com
E-mail:
nanogirl@halcyon.com
Alternate E-mail
echoz@hotmail.com
"Nanotechnology: solutions for the future."