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Issue no. 9, 2001 Published: Oct 12, 2001
Microsoft could face EU fine
Open source tool put on red alert
US names cyber-terrorism czar
EU plans to increase Internet safety awareness
Post-Napster file sharing on the rise
So far, IT managers just say no to XP
Nine out of ten schools in the EU have Internet access
Nobel honours work on information's role in economics
Intel unveils chip speed breakthrough
Organic EL displays make many appearances
Software sought to expose terrorist cells
French build supercomputer from bits
Nigeria holds ceremony for first locally-assembled computers
Ebusiness cat-astrophy

Microsoft could face EU fine
EU antitrust enforcers may seek a massive fine from Microsoft and demand that it drop some features from its dominant Windows software, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing a confidential European Commission document outlining its case. According to the report, the commission also alleged that Microsoft misled investigators and sought to obstruct the case. Any fine would be higher than it would have been if Microsoft cooperated, the document states. The commission has authority to impose a fine of as much as 10 per cent of Microsoft's annual revenue, or $2.5bn. The EU investigation alleges that Microsoft illegally used its dominant Windows and Office software to muscle into the fast-growing market for corporate and Internet software. The investigation also alleges that Microsoft illegally sought to dominate Web music and video software.
Yahoo / Reuters / Wall Street Journal Oct 11, 2001	back to top

Open source tool put on red alert
Hundreds of thousands of websites may be at risk after hackers discovered a vulnerability in a popular web server program. Users running PHP Nuke, a free open source tool for database-based websites, were put on red alert on Wednesday when it was discovered that hackers were exploiting a recently discovered flaw in the code to take control of servers. The glitch exists in all versions of PHP Nuke and allows unauthorised users to copy files to and from the web server and possibly gain control of the machine. There are over 22,000 users registered at the program's PHPNuke.org website but it is thought that there may be hundreds of thousands of sites running the vulnerable software.
VNUnet UK Oct 11, 2001	back to top

US names cyber-terrorism czar
The US has heightened security across the nation, and on Tuesday President Bush took steps to heighten security in cyberspace by naming Richard Clarke as special White House advisor for cyberspace security. Mr Clarke has long been involved in counter-terrorism and cyber- security. Most recently he served as national co-ordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counter-terrorism on the National Security Council. For years, he has been warning of a computer-based attack that would cause massive amounts of destruction and loss of life. In a worst-case scenario, such an attack would target power distribution, financial services, emergency call services and air-traffic control systems. ''We as a country are now dependent upon information technology and the networks that we have built,'' Mr Clarke said in an address last year to technology executives. It is this dependence that leads some to believe that terrorists could target computer systems and wreak havoc on the US.
BBC News Oct 11, 2001	back to top

EU plans to increase Internet safety awareness
A Europe-wide awareness day will form two major planks of a strategy to increase European awareness of the need for a safer Internet. Abuse of the Internet has taken on a new dimension since the 11 September terrorist attacks in the USA. There is now a drive to ensure that the publication of inflammatory political and racist material on the Internet is curtailed, in addition to pornographic, paedophile, and other unsuitable sexual content. The EU awareness day, to be held in Luxembourg on 25 and 26 October, will bring together experts in the area to discuss how to raise awareness of Internet safety issues among the European public. It will hear the accounts of invited Canadians who have tackled the issue in their country and will analyse trends and compare progress in various countries. It will also clarify issues relating to a call for proposals to be launched by the European Commission for awareness actions.
EUbusiness / Cordis Oct 08, 2001	back to top

Post-Napster file sharing on the rise
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may have won an empty victory in its court battle to rein in Napster's file-sharing applications. A new survey by Jupiter Media Metrix shows that while unique users of the Napster application plunged by 49 percent between March and August this year, users of file-swapping applications other than Napster increased by 492 per cent. The successful upstarts singled out by Jupiter are led by Morpheus followed by Kazaa Media Desktop, Winmx and Aimster. But that popularity is making them the next targets of the RIAA, which earlier this month filed suit in US federal court against the companies behind Morpheus, Kazaa and another service, Grokster. But curbing their influence will be harder than it was for Napster because the new systems are file neutral and their architecture is more distributed.
InternetWeek Oct 11, 2001	back to top

So far, IT managers just say no to XP
Despite a billion dollar marketing campaign for Windows XP, 52.2 per cent of 200 IT managers have said they do not intend to migrate to the new operating system, while another 25 per cent said they are undecided. IT managers claimed that the main reason for not migrating was that they were still in the process of moving to Windows 2000, according to a survey conducted by trade publication Computerworld. The second and third reasons cited were cost, and the feeling that there was no need for the new features. Mike Silver, an analyst at Gartner, said that for enterprises, Microsoft's main goal at this point is to get everybody off 9x and NT 4. ''So just because people may not roll out hundreds of thousands of copies of Windows XP before the end of the year doesn't mean it is not successful,'' he pointed out.
VNUnet UK Oct 11, 2001	back to top

Nine out of ten schools in the EU have Internet access
Ninety per cent of schools in the EU are now connected to the Internet, according to a European Commission survey. The figure has reached at least 80 per cent in every EU country except three: Greece (45 per cent), Portugal (62 per cent) and Austria (72 per cent). Schools in the EU have an average of 12 pupils sharing one computer, although this varies from just three or fewer sharing in Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg, up to more than 20 in Germany, Greece and Portugal. The discrepancies are even wider for computers connected to the Internet - from three pupils per machine to more than 50 in some countries. The EU average is 24 pupils per computer. The full report is available at: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/news_library/documents/SEC_2001_1583_EN.pdf
EUBusiness Oct 11, 2001	back to top

Nobel honours work on information's role in economics
An insight into the risks of buying a used car sparked a new field of economic research during the past 30 years and earned a Nobel prize Wednesday for three US economists. George A. Akerlof, a 61-year-old professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, did the original work on how an imbalance in available information can interfere with the smooth functioning of a marketplace, by analysing a used-car lot as an example. A. Michael Spence, an economist and former dean of the Stanford Business School, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University, expanded on his ideas. Not only did their work create a field of information economics, but their ideas also have been applied widely to financial markets, health insurance, and education. ''Their work transformed the way economists think about the functioning of markets,'' the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its statement.
Mercury News Oct 11, 2001	back to top

Intel unveils chip speed breakthrough
Intel said Monday it has developed new semiconductor packaging technology that will allow for microprocessors boasting 1bn transistors and running at 20 gHz in the next six years. The new packaging does away with tiny, solder balls that connect the processor core, or die, to the packaging material, the method used in current chips. These solder balls allow for power to flow to the core and for data to pass among the core and the rest of the computer's motherboard and chipset. Removing the solder balls and placing the die directly into the packaging, eliminates roughly three layers of the six or seven layers of metal that compose a processor. Because the distance the data must travel is shorter, the new packaging helps boost the overall speed and performance of the chip. Intel calls the new technology bumpless build-up layer, or BBUL, packaging. The technology also reduces the thickness of the package and, as such, could cut power-consumption.
CNN / Reuters Oct 09, 2001	back to top

Organic EL displays make many appearances
Organic electroluminescent (EL) displays, which many regard as a next-generation display capable of replacing LCDs, made appearances in several mobile device prototypes at the CEATEC Japan 2001 exhibition. Sanyo Electric, one of the leading developers of the technology, unveiled a prototype portable TV with a 5.5-inch organic EL display and a two-hour battery life. The display has a wide viewing angle, high brightness and high resolution with a fast response to moving images. EL displays consume 50 per cent less power than conventional LCDs with a back light. This is made possible because the organic layer in the display glows itself and no battery-draining backlight is needed. It also means the displays are thinner and lighter, making them ideally suited to mobile devices. Sony attracted attention with a prototype 13-inch, 800 x 600 pixel, SVGA and 10-inch, 864 x 480 pixel, WVGA EL displays, each just 1.4 mm thick. The picture quality of the displays is so high that even engineers from competitor Pioneer, were praising them at Sony's booth.
CNN / IDG Oct 08, 2001	back to top

Software sought to expose terrorist cells
In a move that has some privacy rights advocates concerned, the Pentagon is hoping to track down terrorists with the help of a growing battery of computer software developed to combat consumer and business fraud. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is trying to design its own version of the software to uncover terrorist cells that are posing as legitimate groups and lying about such things as past employment, education and business affiliations. ''What is needed is intelligent agent software that is capable of reviewing websites and identifying implausible or inconsistent information,'' the agency said in a public notice seeking help from businesses or others to create the software. The software would root out suspicious activity such as ''companies who claim contracts incommensurate with their business history or size'', persons who have ''missing periods in their background'' and ''persons whose positions are inconsistent with their experience''.
Mercury News Oct 11, 2001	back to top

French build supercomputer from bits
France's National Institute for Research in Computer Science has put together a supercomputer from off-the-shelf parts. And it has benchmarked its way onto the top 500 list of most powerful computers. Working with HP, INRIA Rhone-Alps managed to put together a supercomputing cluster from 225 off-the-shelf e-PCs, running Mandrake Linux. The resulting I-Cluster is made from default configurations and standard networking hardware. It is capable of providing enough power to become the 385th most powerful supercomputer of the world. All in all, the beast cost $210,000 to build, a far cry from IBM's $110m ASCI White supercomputer currently hogging the number one slot. And the machines themselves are not exactly top of the range, each offering a 733Mhz Pentium III processor with 256Mb of RAM and a 15Gb hard drive. But researchers say the model also shows how unused bandwidth on a corporate network could be used in a similar way, effectively bringing supercomputers to the standard corporate environment.
VNUnet UK Oct 08, 2001	back to top

Nigeria holds ceremony for first locally-assembled computers
Nigeria's first locally-assembled computers were launched with much fanfare at a public ceremony on Tuesday attended by prominent figures including Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Mr Atiku said the desktop, laptop and server computers being produced by Zinox Technologies Limited were a major dividend of the return of democracy to the west African country since May 1999. The project, an initiative of the company, aims to take computers to everybody in the country. Science and Technology Minister Turner Isoun said that Nigeria would need some five million computers in the next five years to achieve the IT policy objective of educating 500,000 scientists, engineers and IT professionals by 2006.
Nando Times / AFP Oct 11, 2001	back to top

Ebusiness cat-astrophy
A precocious British cat took advantage of his supermarket's online shopping system to order himself more than 460 cans of his favourite pet food. Mr Boris, a 12-year-old Siamese cat, managed to change his owner's order for six cans to more than 450 by walking across the keyboard when she was not looking. However, to change the order, the would-be fat cat deleted the original number and added three new ones which would have required him to step forward and backwards. Fur flew because owner Betty Richards only noticed that an error had occurred when her bill came to £500 and she had a shed load of cat food set to be delivered. ''It was a fluke that his paws hit the right keys,'' she said.
VNUnet UK Oct 08, 2001	back to top