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Issue no. 16, 2001 Published: Nov 30, 2001
Spanish EU presidency to push 'definitive' internet laws
Website silenced over DVD secrets
Microsoft 'give-away' blasted
European satellite system gets green light
France encourages use of open-source software
London police to keep a 'who's-naughty' list
Intel makes new chip breakthrough
First 'digital paper' launched
Dial up to name that tune
Football shirt with on-board computer
Internet 'loners' enjoy social whirl
Google votes to put surfers in charge
Fishy tale of underwater mobile phone booth

Spanish EU presidency to push 'definitive' internet laws
''Definitive'' EU laws governing the internet will be on the agenda when the EU presidency passes to Spain next month. Issues to be resolved include ''unbundling'', or the fair division of services between providers, access, or fair pricing, and privacy issues, including banning of the use of ''cookies'' by e-commerce operators. According to the Spanish agenda, four of the five directives making up the electronic telecommunications package are to be finished. These are the so-called ''framework'' directive, and those on universal service, access and interconnection, and authorisation. The directives on universal service, access and interconnection are intended to increase internet penetration throughout Europe. Specifically a legal context for flat-rate internet pricing will be created. The Commission plans the unbundling of all services which are still dominated by the former telecom monopolies in many member states.
Newsbytes Nov 29, 2001	back to top

Website silenced over DVD secrets
The website banned from revealing the secrets of making unauthorised DVD copies may appeal the US court's decision. The three-judge panel ruled on Wednesday that Eric Corley should not be allowed to post details of, or link to, descrambling software on his 2600 magazine website. The website, which boasts a Hacker's Quarterly guide, had previously posted the details as part of its news section. Special safeguard are embedded in DVDs to prevent piracy. The Decoding Content Scramble System (DeCSS) can be used to unlock this code. A Norwegian teenager, Jon Johansen, and two others developed DeCSS in 1999. It then went on to spread to many other sites. Johansen said he created it to allow people using the Linux operating system to use DVDs. The court ruling marks a victory for the film studios and could have an impact on digital copyright laws of the future.
BBC News Nov 29, 2001	back to top

Microsoft 'give-away' blasted
Microsoft's proposed $1bn settlement in more than 100 private antitrust cases came under fire from the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in a letter to the judge overseeing the case. According to the plan Microsoft will provide schools with free computers and software. ''By allowing Microsoft to flood the education market with free software, at virtually no cost to the company, the court will be virtually assuring that no other competitor will be able to charge for its product,'' CCIA wrote in a letter to US District Judge J. Frederick Motz. In addition to the CCIA, lawyers representing California consumers said they will urge Judge Motz to reject the settlement because it would deny their clients the opportunity to seek as much as $9bn in damages.
VNUnet UK / ZDNet Nov 28, 2001	back to top

European satellite system gets green light
The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to push ahead with the development of a Global Satellite Navigation system following an independent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which confirmed previous estimates of the economic viability of the Galileo network, ESA said. Galileo, which was created to challenge US satellite dominance, will function as Europe's own network. It will consist of 30 satellites in medium Earth orbit supported by a global network of ground control and monitoring stations. Any user will be able to determine their position to within a few metres from signals broadcast by three or four of the satellites. The cost of building Galileo is estimated to be around E3.6bn, with the system scheduled to be up and running by 2008. Europe is set to allocate E1.1bn by the end of the year, with a further E450m to be approved by the European Transport Commission next week.
VNUnet UK Nov 27, 2001	back to top

France encourages use of open-source software
European open-source enthusiasts are welcoming moves by French officials to encourage the use of open standards and open-source software in electronic-government applications. A new agency, ATICA, was created in August with the task of coordinating IT efforts between different government agencies and ensuring that government projects use open standards to reduce costs and redundancy, and to improve inter-operability in government projects. The French government also wants to encourage a decentralised software industry by allowing small companies to work on open-source government projects. Elsewhere in Europe, open-source products are catching on in government circles. Examples include the free cryptographic software Gnu Privacy Guard, which has received development funds from the German Ministry of Economics and Technology and the EU's open-source software portal YIHAW. The German Bundestag is considering replacing Windows with Linux for its own machines.
CNN / IDG Nov 27, 2001	back to top

London police to keep a 'who's-naughty' list
London police are planning to register children who exhibit criminal potential in an effort to prevent them from developing into full-fledged lawbreakers. Kids who tag buildings with graffiti, skip school, or even talk back to adults run the risk of being entered into a database program that will be used to monitor their behaviour as they grow up. Law enforcement officials say the measure is needed to combat rampant juvenile crime. While most crime indicators have dropped in Britain, street crimes committed by children have skyrocketed. However, critics condemn it as an extreme form of police profiling. Teachers, social workers, health care professionals, law enforcement agents and other authorities who have contact with troublemakers will contribute information to the database. Special squads formed by police and community workers will supervise the behaviour of children included in the registry. The system will eventually be implemented nationally.
Wired News Nov 27, 2001	back to top

Intel makes new chip breakthrough
Chip giant Intel has made another design breakthrough in the quest to make cheaper and faster processors and designed a new style of transistor that is much smaller and uses less power. It also operates at higher speeds than present chips on the market. The innovation is called the TeraHertz transistor as it switches on and off one trillion times a second. It could lead to faster, smaller devices with longer battery life. The company said the development removes technical barriers that the semiconductor industry has only recently begun to identify. Intel said there are still fundamental problems in power consumption, heat and current leakage to conquer, but the company expects to eventually produce chips that have 25 times the number of transistors of today's microprocessors, at ten times the speed with no increase in power consumption.
VNUnet Nov 26, 2001	back to top

First 'digital paper' launched
French paper manufacturer Hamelin says it has launched the first ''digital paper'' using technology that makes it possible to send e-mail written by hand on special paper. The technology, developed by Swedish-based Anoto, uses a pen containing an infrared minicomputer-camera in its tip that tracks its own movement against an almost invisible grid of 0,3 mm dots printed on the paper. In this way, whatever is written down can be transferred wirelessly via Bluetooth technology to a computer, PDA, printer or even a mobile phone. The pen, which is still a bit bulky, should slim down quickly, says Anoto. The company hopes to sell 100 million units over the next five years. That volume would enable Anoto to cut the price in half, from its current 200-euro price tag to 100 euros.
IFRA Trend Report / AFP Nov 29, 2001	back to top

Dial up to name that tune
Ever heard a great song on the radio but failed to catch the name of the tune or artist? Then scientists at the Philips research labs have come up with a solution using a process called hashing. Hashing is a cryptographic technique used by computers to check they have safely received a message. It works by comparing chunks of data and then creating codes unique to that message. The codes from the sent and received messages are checked to make sure they are identical. Researchers have adapted the technique to create a unique code for each song. On hearing the song, you would dial a service provider and hold your mobile phone by the speaker for a few seconds. The computer system at the other end would then ''hash'' the music and compare the code generated with its database of tracks. Once it has found a match, a text message would be sent with the song's title and artist. Philips is aiming to set up a central database of hash codes, covering 100,000 commercially available songs.
BBC News Nov 29, 2001	back to top

Football shirt with on-board computer
Football shirts with an on-board computer are being developed, which will be able to track the pace and acceleration of the wearer. The three-year project is a pan-European academic venture of universities in Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands. With computer-carrying shirts, which send back data through a radio network, the performance of players in a live match can be recorded with great accuracy. This will help analyse aspects of players' games such as speed - which can usually only be explored in a laboratory setting. Such a computerised football would also mean that goal-line disputes could be resolved with mathematical precision. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have so far produced a prototype of a computer integrated with a sports shirt, which has a monitoring and transmitting system inside a tabard-style attachment.
BBC News Nov 27, 2001	back to top

Internet 'loners' enjoy social whirl
People who use the internet at home, far from being the isolated, geeky nerds that they are popularly painted to be, are in fact highly social animals, according the latest British Social Attitudes Survey, an annual large-scale snapshot of British attitudes and behaviour. The study found that internet users attend church more, join voluntary organisations more, are more likely to have friends they can rely on in times of troubles, read more books, and are not less trusting of other people. In contrast, they spend more than an hour a day less watching television than those who do not use the internet. The study confirmed a wide digital divide. If you have a university degree you are eight times more likely to use the web than somebody without any educational qualifications. Those earning E51,500 a year or more are five times more likely to use it than those on E16,000 a year.
Financial Times Nov 26, 2001	back to top

Google votes to put surfers in charge
The arms race between search engines and traffic-hungry websites may be headed to a new level. Battles have seesawed for years between search engines intent on providing relevant, unbiased listings and companies seeking top placement in results. Now Google, one of the web's most successful search services, is engaged in a controversial experiment aimed at giving its users a say in ranking the sites - a move that could help the company cement its lead in the competitive web-search market, or could potentially weaken its position. Two weeks ago, Google began quietly testing a web page voting system that could eventually let web surfers help determine the popularity of sites ranked by the company's search engine. It uses secret mathematical formulas to automatically rank websites by their page content, link structure and importance relative to other sites. If successful, the tool would add a more democratic voice to Google's search technology.
ZDNet Nov 27, 2001	back to top

Fishy tale of underwater mobile phone booth
For those who often find themselves having to take a call in strange places, France Telecom has invented a phone booth that works underwater. The system comprises a buoy fitted with a GSM phone relay that connects to an underwater phone booth. The terminal is connected to the buoy by a wire, and is equipped with a telephone keyboard. A special mouthpiece prevents the user from drowning while using the phone. The caller has to bite on the mouthpiece and push a button, and sound vibrations are resonated off the diver's skull which acts as a resonance chamber. The product is pitched at ''professionals working underwater''. While many would have considered the technology of limited use, France Telecom is planning to roll out the system in 2002. The company is investigating a cordless version of the technology that dispenses with the phone box and uses ultrasound or weak electrical currents.
VNUnet UK Nov 26, 2001	back to top