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Issue no. 17, 2001 Published: Dec 07, 2001
EU ministers sticking to tough spam law
UN copyright treaty for internet gets go-ahead
Plastic screen brings electronic newspapers a step closer
Industry rushes to build 'new internet'
British university to teach cyber crime detection
Number takes prime position
3D brain mappers scan thousands
High hopes for new 256-bit encryption
AMD reveals 3300GHz transistor
IBM loses supercomputer crown
'Mobile phone games may deafen children'
Monkey business on mobile phones
Learning to hack

EU ministers sticking to tough spam law
European Union ministers stuck to a plan on Thursday for a pan-European ban on unsolicited e-mail, fax and text messages, but introduced provisions to ease the restriction in certain circumstances. The planned law will forbid direct marketers from sending unsolicited mail without the customer's prior consent throughout the EU. However, it will allow a business to send e-mails to individuals following a purchase provided that the customer is allowed to opt out at any time. The law risks being rejected by the European Parliament, which wants member states to be free to decide for an opt-in or opt-out approach. Ministers also agreed to back away from an outright prohibition of so-called ''cookies'' as long as internet users were made aware of their presence in electronic systems. This amendment is also at odds with the European Parliament, which wants to eradicate cookies.
Wired News / Reuters Dec 06, 2001	back to top

UN copyright treaty for internet gets go-ahead
A UN treaty that brings world copyright law into the digital age by protecting authors on the internet will come into force in March. Another treaty will be the first global accord to protect the rights of recording artists and producers. Negotiators said the treaties were essential for an age when digital copies of music can be made almost instantaneously anywhere by computer. IFPI, an organisation representing the global recording industry, welcomed the announcement as ''an important milestone'', and said it hoped ratification of the second treaty would follow shortly.
Ananova Dec 06, 2001	back to top

Plastic screen brings electronic newspapers a step closer
Dutch researchers claim they are close to developing a video screen with the properties of a piece of paper. Electronics giant Philips has developed a new type of active matrix display which uses polymer instead of silicon for newspaper-like flexibility. For now, the device is still on glass but Philips claims it has cleared the major hurdles for putting it on a flexible surface. The circuits produce a decent picture: 64 by 64 pixels with 256 shades of grey and the contrast of black ink on paper. Experts say e-paper needs to use very little power to be cost effective. It also needs to offer enough variation in contrast to be effective under different lighting conditions. Until now progress has been impeded by the cost of meeting both criteria. But Philips is optimistic the new method can be an economical solution.
Ananova / AP Dec 05, 2001	back to top

Industry rushes to build 'new internet'
The US government is moving ahead to build a secure, separate internet network, dubbed GovNet, after receiving ''significant industry support''. Government officials said that around 167 high-tech companies have submitted proposals for the network. The industry was asked to propose other ways for the federal government to better secure certain critical classes of internal government communication from external attacks that are common on internet- connected systems. The private network is intended to carry data, voice-over-IP and possibly video and will be secure from outside attacks. It will allow federal agencies to share sensitive information.
VNUnet UK Dec 03, 2001	back to top

British university to teach cyber crime detection
A British university is to begin offering a degree course in cyber crime fighting techniques. Cranfield University in Shrivenham, Wiltshire, hopes to begin its MSc in forensic computing early next year. The course will be aimed at showing police and IT security professionals how to extract evidence from digital communications. Aside from learning the necessary technical skills, students will also get a grounding in criminal psychology and ethics and training in courtroom skills.
Ananova / Silicon.com Dec 03, 2001	back to top

Number takes prime position
The largest prime number yet discovered has been revealed. The new number, expressed as 213,466,917-1, contains 4,053,946 digits and would take the best part of three weeks to write out longhand. The number was discovered by Michael Cameron, a 20-year-old Canadian participant in a computer project known as the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (Gimps). The Gimps project spent 13,000 years of computer time to find the number, which is the fifth one it discovered so far. Mersenne primes are important for the theory of numbers and they may help in developing unbreakable codes and message encryption. A whole number greater than one is called a prime if its only divisors are one and itself. The Fundamental Theory of Arithmetic says that primes are the building blocks of numbers.
BBC News Dec 05, 2001	back to top

3D brain mappers scan thousands
Brain cartographers at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) are creating the most detailed and sophisticated computer atlas of the human brain ever assembled. Brain scans of 7,000 people from nine different countries, representing a cross section of the global population, are being put together. Until now, the map that has served as a model for the billions of brains on the planet has been based on that of one 60-year-old French woman. When finished, scientists and physicians will be able to use the 3D atlas online to compare, or contrast, all sorts of information about the human brain. Speciality maps will also be categorised by age, gender, genetic background and family history.
BBC News Dec 06, 2001	back to top

High hopes for new 256-bit encryption
The US government has updated its encryption standard for computer transmissions, replacing an ageing standard first put in place in 1977. The new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) should significantly strengthen the privacy and security of a wide variety of computer transactions, from cash-machine withdrawals to internet shopping. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tested various mathematical formulas for four years before settling on one developed by two Belgian scientists. The formula, 'Rijndael, scrambles communications by generating random key numbers 128, 192 or 256 digits long. A 128-bit key size can create 340 undecillion different possible combinations, or 340 followed by 36 zeros. A 256-key size allows for a total combination set of 11 followed by 76 zeros. By comparison, the old Data Encryption Standard, or DES, used keys that were 56 digits long, allowing for a total combination set of 72 followed by 15 zeros.
ZDNet / Reuters Dec 05, 2001	back to top

AMD reveals 3300GHz transistor
AMD revealed on Tuesday it has developed a transistor that runs at more than 3.33THz (3300GHz). The report comes just a week after Intel said it had manufactured a transistor capable of speeds of over 1THz. AMD's experimental transistor, whose gate length measures just 15nm across, is more than six times smaller than transistors in today's commercial processors, which have a gate length of around 100nm. Having a transistor this small means that a processor could fit up to twenty times the number of transistors than at present, increasing the performance of the chip by ten times. AMD's 15nm device is a prototype that is key to the development of its 30nm process generation, which the company plans to have in production by approximately 2009. The transistor is a CMOS based, 0.8V device, designed to handle switching speeds of 3.33 trillion switches per second.
VNUnet UK Dec 04, 2001	back to top

IBM loses supercomputer crown
IBM has lost the supercomputer crown to Compaq after holding the top slot for the last three years. The new chart topper is a 3,024- processor Compaq machine called Terascale based at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Centre. The Terascale can perform six trillion calculations per second, the equivalent of 10,000 desktop PCs. It relegated IBM's Asci White into second place following a chart shake-up based on a more sophisticated way of ranking of supercomputers. Experts say the new list compiled by research firm IDC better represents real-world performance. Previous lists were based on the Linpack measurement, which measures how well processors work but excludes other factors, such as how fast data can be transferred from one part of the system to another. The new rating system tests also the processor's mathematical abilities, how fast the computer can transfer data to memory and the total number of processors combined with the memory transfer capacity.
BBC News Dec 03, 2001	back to top

'Mobile phone games may deafen children'
German scientists are warning mobile phone games could deafen children. They found that some games are louder when held to the ear than if the person was standing next to a jet plane's engines. German Computerbild magazine had the safety of 16 mobile phone games tested by independent experts and only one passed government guidelines. The loudest game measured at 133 decibels. This is well over the pain barrier of 120 decibels and louder than a jet at a distance of 15 metres or a whistle being blown at a distance of one metre. Children are particularly at risk from the phones says Professor Hans-Peter Zenners, director of the Tuebingen University ear nose and throat clinic. He explains that 85 decibels is already enough to cause damage to hearing.
Ananova Dec 03, 2001	back to top

Monkey business on mobile phones
Anthropologists at the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) in Oxford, UK, say chatting on the phone is the human equivalent of social grooming among chimpanzees and gorillas. They claim it helps build relationships, solve conflicts, teach social skills and make friends. The SIRC report, commissioned by BT Cellnet, includes results from a series of focus groups and a survey of 1,000 mobile-phone users. A third of those surveyed said they gossiped on their mobiles daily, and said the activity could act as a valuable ''social lifeline''. Dr Kate Fox, co-author of the report, said: ''Language evolved at least partly to allow us to gossip, which is the human of equivalent of 'social grooming' among our primate cousins. Mobiles have increased and enhanced this vital therapeutic activity, allowing us to gossip any time, any place, anywhere.''
BBC News Dec 05, 2001	back to top

Learning to hack
In an unremarkable alleyway in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, a strange, graffiti-sprayed building hides what could be a world first. This is Zi Hackademy, France's newly-opened school for computer hackers. Inside, in a cramped classroom, rows of would-be cyber pirates learn the art of computer hacking. Among them are businessmen, a grandmother - even a policeman. Those willing to speak say they have come to learn how to protect themselves and their websites from other hackers. All of the students have paid 450 francs, about E70, for a course of nine lessons. The Paris police say they are watching the school with interest, but have not yet made any moves to close it down. A final word of advice to anyone planning to enrol in the school - which has already had enquiries from abroad - if you want to pay by credit card, do it over the phone. As the school's website says, paying over the internet is not secure.
BBC News Dec 03, 2001	back to top