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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 05, 2004 Former Student Charged in University Hacking Case MPAA to Begin File-Trading Lawsuits Using Video Games to Improve Athletic Performance IBM Retakes Lead in Supercomputing Speed Race FORMER STUDENT CHARGED IN UNIVERSITY HACKING CASE A former student at the University of Texas (UT) has been indicted on charges of hacking into the university's computer system and accessing sensitive information on more than 37,000 students, faculty, and staff. Christopher Andrew Phillips, who is currently studying computer science at the University of Houston, used an application that randomly entered Social Security numbers into UT's network at the rate of about 72,000 per hour. Although Phillips is not charged with illegally using any of the information he obtained, a federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment against him for fraud and the intent to defraud. UT spent $167,000 dealing with the security breach, and, according to the indictment, UT computer officials had previously had trouble with Phillips. Phillips's attorney described him as "a nice young man" who had no intention of doing anything harmful with the information he accessed. Houston Chronicle, 5 November 2004 http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2885316 MPAA TO BEGIN FILE-TRADING LAWSUITS Executives from the movie industry hope that legal action will curtail illegal movie downloads before they rival illegal music downloads. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the seven largest movie studios, said it will begin filing lawsuits against individuals is accuses of illegally trading movie files. Dan Glickman, president of the MPAA, said members of the movie industry believe that the recording industry waited until the problem had grown excessively large before it began its campaign of lawsuits against individuals. So far, the recording industry has filed more than 6,000 suits, though observers differ in their opinions of whether the strategy has been successful in discouraging illegal music sharing. Current technology does not allow for quick downloading of movies--a typical film can take two hours to download on a fast connection--and the quality of pirated movies is often low. Still, executives said the movie industry will benefit from sending a strong signal now, before the problem is severe, that copyright violations for movies will not be tolerated. New York Times, 5 November 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/business/media/05film.html USING VIDEO GAMES TO IMPROVE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE Athletes at a number of colleges and universities are testing an application called IntelliGym designed to improve athletic performance through video games. Daniel Gopher, the research supervisor at the company that developed IntelliGym, is known for his work in training Israeli fighter pilots in the 1980s with video simulations. Cadets in that program reportedly "performed significantly better" than others who did not train with the computer games, and Gopher has applied the same ideas to sports. Basketball players at the University of Memphis are testing the IntelliGym program, which does not simulate basketball but purportedly develops decision-making and visual skills applicable to the game. IntelliGym endeavors to train players to keep track of several things happening at one time, to discern patterns among moving objects, and to make fast decisions. San Jose Mercury News, 4 November 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10099990.htm IBM RETAKES LEAD IN SUPERCOMPUTING SPEED RACE In the recently heated-up battle for the fastest supercomputer, IBM's Blue Gene/L has set another new mark. The as-yet incomplete system, being installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was able to process 70.72 trillion calculations per second. Next week, a group of university computer scientists that maintains the Top500 project is expected to unveil its list of the 500 fastest computers. For several years, the Earth Simulator in Japan has held the top spot, but that machine's speed has been surpassed several times in recent weeks by supercomputers including a NASA system built by Silicon Graphics and also by an earlier test of the Blue Gene/L machine. Newer supercomputers typically achieve their improved performance with substantially lower energy requirements. When finished, the Blue Gene/L computer will be used by the U.S. Department of Energy to study a range of issues including how nuclear weapons age. Washington Post, 4 November 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26407-2004Nov4.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 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/Edupage/639 ***************************************************** 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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