some interesting stuff here -- a little whistle-blowing here, a little clipper punching there ... peter ------- Forwarded Message Date: Tue, 8 Jun 93 13:02:07 -0400 From: rweingar@cs.UMD.EDU (Rick Weingarten) Message-Id: <9306081702.AA18515@tove.cs.UMD.EDU> To: adrion@cs.umass.edu, basili@cs.umd.edu, corbato@xx.lcs.mit.edu, patterson@ginger.berkeley.edu, pfreeman@gatech.edu, mrg@research.att.com, cwg@research.nj.nec.com, ashok@almaden.ibm.com, weiser.parc@xerox.com, wulf@virginia.edu, wise@seafox.cs.indiana.edu, tony@ide.com, forsythe@cs.UMD.EDU, jh@cs.cornell.edu, greg@cs.arizona.edu, johnsson@think.com, klawe@cs.ubc.ca, kung@harvard.edu, mji@guardian.cs.psu.edu, lazowska@cs.washington.edu, leveson@ics.uci.edu, steve.muchnick@eng.sun.com, jrr@cs.purdue.edu, ritchie@hplabs.hp.com, jes@cs.brown.edu, denning@cs.georgetown.edu, jwerth@cs.utexas.edu, phayes@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu, policy@cs.UMD.EDU Subject: News Bytes June 8, 1933 Computing Research News Bytes by Juan Antonio Osuna with Rick Weingarten 6/8/93 GAO Criticizes ARPA on Architecture Research The General Accounting Office released a report in May (GAO/IMTEC- 93-24), criticizing the DoD's Advanced Research Projects Agency for its handling of the High Performance Computers and Communications program. Some researchers have criticized ARPA for procuring only Intel and Thinking Machines supercomputers for use by ARPA projects, while ignoring machines manufactured by other companies.. GAO cleared ARPA of the harsher accusations of serious misconduct, but upheld this general criticism, saying that such a narrow focus has inhibited R&D by other supercomputer manufacturers. The report suggested that ARPA should seek advice from a broader range of researchers who do not directly participate in ARPA projects. Finally, GAO said ARPA needs to give more emphasis to software development, which in the past has been given lower priority than hardware. ARPA claims it has already fixed many of these problems.. GAO is now planning a follow-on study looking more broadly at program management and support for high performance architecture research in all agencies.. House Appropriations Subcom Gives NSF an 11% Increase [elided] "Clipper Chip" Proposal Draws Public Criticism The Clinton Administration's recent proposal to implement the Clipper chip as a government encryption standard is receiving a cold welcome from some in the computer community. During a three-day meeting before the Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, dozens of people from academia, industry, and civil liberties groups expressed disapproval for the way the White House is trying to implement its cryptographic policies. Complaints were directed in three directions---to the technology, to the process of selecting the standard, and to the civil liberties implications for Federal wiretapping. The Administration initiated a public review after, rather than before, declaring Clipper as a government standard and ordering thousands of Clipper devices for government use. In light of the negative reaction, the advisory board passed a resolution to extend public review and voted to hold another board meeting in late July. The board also decided to send a letter to the White House to relay public concerns and to suggest tactfully that the president reconsider the Clipper scheme. Amendments to HPCC Act Move Forward [elided] ------- End of Forwarded Message