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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2004 IBM to Build New Supercomputer for U.S. Military NASA Buys 20 Supercomputers from Silicon Graphics Hackers Attack DoubleClick DHS to Assess Public Safety Wireless Florida County E-Vote Records Lost VA Cancels Hospital Computer System IBM TO BUILD NEW SUPERCOMPUTER FOR U.S. MILITARY The U.S. Department of Defense chose IBM to build the U.S. military's fastest supercomputer, slated to be the fourth fastest in the world. The supercomputer is intended to produce short-term weather forecasts for Navy fleets at sea. According to the Pentagon, the supercomputer will permit military scientists to model atmospheric and ocean dynamics for the entire surface of the earth. Other research projects will include design of airplanes and submarines through analysis of aircraft wing construction material at a molecular level and the flow of water around submarine hulls. Washington Post, 27 July 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16518-2004Jul26.html NASA BUYS 20 SUPERCOMPUTERS FROM SILICON GRAPHICS The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chose Silicon Graphics to supply 20 supercomputers to work in tandem on specific scientific and design problems. Each supercomputer will include 512 Itanium microprocessors from Intel, for a total of 10,240, plus extra hardware that reportedly can store 500 trillion bytes of information. The massive installation goes by the name Project Columbia. NASA already has three machines in place and plans to have all 20 installed later this year. The combined systems will solve problems involving the space shuttle redesign, space exploration, aerospace engineering, and weather prediction. Wall Street Journal, 28 July 2004 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109096974264275696,00.html HACKERS ATTACK DOUBLECLICK A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted Internet advertising firm DoubleClick, reducing the firm's ability to serve ads and severely affecting many of its major customers. Administrators had to prevent DoubleClick's ads from running on their Web sites to keep the sites accessible to users. The attack, evidently launched from a network of zombie PCs compromised by viruses, targeted DoubleClick's domain name servers. The Register, 28 July 2004 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/28/ddosers_attack_doubleclick/ DHS TO ASSESS PUBLIC SAFETY WIRELESS Department of Homeland Security officials plan to solicit bids for a nationwide assessment of public safety wireless communications in an attempt to get diverse first responders to talk to one another. The results will be combined with the short-term requirements for wireless communications released earlier this year to help determine the new technology and policy changes needed. Federal Computer Week, 27 July 2004 http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0726/pol-safecom-07-26-04.asp FLORIDA COUNTY E-VOTE RECORDS LOST Miami-Dade County in Florida lost detailed records from its first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines as the result of computer crashes in May and November 2003. The election records were from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections. In December Florida officials began backing up the data daily to avoid similar data losses. In June state officials said the touchscreen voting systems used by 11 counties had a bug that would prevent a manual recount even if state law were overturned to permit a recount. USA Today, 28 July 2004 http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-07-28-fla-votes_x.htm VA CANCELS HOSPITAL COMPUTER SYSTEM On July 27 the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said that it will cancel a pilot project at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Florida of a computer system called the Core Financial and Logistics System, from computer company BearingPoint. Problems with the system have prompted congressional investigations and the resignation of some top officials. Upon completion of the pilot, which began in fall 2003, the program was to be expanded to the rest of the VA system. Bay Pines, the fifth-busiest hospital in the VA system, will return to its previous computer system in October, and a committee of senior VA officials will recommend next steps for the BearingPoint computer program. According to the VA, hospital employees were not fully trained in using the pilot system, leading to a shortage of surgical supplies, delays for some surgeries, and failure to pay suppliers. Washington Post, 28 July 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19392-2004Jul27.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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