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Issue no. 14, 2002 Published: Apr 05, 2002
Global 'flop' of Microsoft Xbox console - CEO resigns
HP refuses to nominate Hewlett heir to board
Studios unite for digital standard
Quantum cloning nears perfection limit
Sneak peek: the computer screen of the future (I)
Sneak peek: the computer screen of the future (II)
Signs of 'Trustworthy Computing'
Web search patterns are evolving - study
Distributed program to translate many languages
Start-up offers intelligence for travellers
Smart glasses order own refills
Technology for perfect-pitch karaoke

Global 'flop' of Microsoft Xbox console - CEO resigns
Microsoft's Xbox games console is thought to have flopped around the world, with sales a poor second to its arch-rival, Sony's Playstation 2. Analysts expect the sales slump will force a cut in the Xbox price within the next couple of months. Microsoft claims there is 'strong demand' in Europe. However, reports from Europe, Japan and the US all suggest the Xbox, launched with a huge marketing push last month, has so far failed to capture the imagination of the gaming public. Meanwhile, Microsoft surprised investors with the shock resignation of Rick Belluzzo, the software giant's president and CEO and most highly ranked executive behind founder Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer. Some observers suggested he had been pushed as punishment for the slow progress of the Xbox. He had spent one year in the job.
The Independent Apr 05, 2002	back to top

HP refuses to nominate Hewlett heir to board
Hewlett-Packard marked the end of an era on Monday by announcing it would not nominate dissident director Walter Hewlett to another term on the board. The new board, which would include several current Compaq Computer directors in the wake of the planned merger, would be the first on which the Hewlett and Packard families were not represented since HP was formed in 1938. Shareholders will vote on the slate of nominees, which includes seven HP and five Compaq representatives, on April 26. HP's board said its decision to exclude Hewlett was 'based on his ongoing adversarial relationship with the company, as evidenced by his recent litigation against HP'. The group also cited other 'concerns'.
Financial Times Apr 02, 2002	back to top

Studios unite for digital standard
In a rare joint venture seven major film studios in the US are to establish technical standards for the development of digital cinema. The aim of the project will be to set the agenda so that rival digital projectors, software and distribution will use a universal language. Goals for the scheme will be to establish minimum standards for picture quality and protecting films from piracy. There are fears that when digital cinema is more widespread, with images being beamed by satellite or internet lines, hackers could break security systems and make perfect copies. Disney, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros will all be paying an equal share to the project.
BBC News Apr 03, 2002	back to top

Quantum cloning nears perfection limit
A new experiment has brought 'quantum cloning' to the edge of its theoretical limit of fidelity. Particles such as photons and electrons have quantum properties that, according to the theory of relativity, can never be copied exactly unless you destroy the original in the process. That is the basis of quantum cryptography - an eavesdropper cannot copy a message without disrupting it and revealing its presence. The theoret- ical accuracy limit of copying quantum information is 83 per cent. Researchers at Oxford University now have successfully copied a photon's quantum state with 81 per cent accuracy by using stimulated emission. The researchers sent single photons into a crystal whose atomic states had been excited by laser pulses. When the original photon enters this environment, its presence stimulates the emission of a clone. However, the original photon also causes the crystal to spontaneously emit light - the noise that prevents achieving 100 per cent fidelity.
New Scientist Mar 30, 2002	back to top

Sneak peek: the computer screen of the future (I)
Light-emitting polymer (LEP) technology is creating a new class of flat-panel displays that are thinner and lighter than ever before. British company Cambridge Display Technology is the inventor of the technology, which might eventually replace the cathode ray tube standard used in television sets and computer monitors, the company claims. In LEP technology, a thin film of light-emitting polymer is applied onto a glass or plastic substrate coated with a transparent electrode. A metal electrode is evaporated on top of the polymer. The polymer emits light when the electric field between the two electrodes is activated. Response time is ultra-fast and is unaffected by temperature. Light emission occurs at low voltage, and it can be fabricated on a single sheet of glass, unlike liquid crystal or plasma displays. Also, because it can be made on flexible plastic substrates, it not only could be extremely difficult to break, but also could be melded into different shapes and contours.
Yahoo / Newsfactor Apr 03, 2002	back to top

Sneak peek: the computer screen of the future (II)
A research team at UCLA recently developed a way to direct the molecular action of crystalline materials that have properties of both liquids and solids. Their work means that in less than 10 years, users might be able to watch images literally leaping from their computer screens. Although this technology is in its infancy, it poses the possibility that information and images revealed by light passing through such crystalline materials could form virtually any shape or series of shapes moving in extremely fast sequences. In a different 3D-development, a small Silicon Valley startup called Canesta is working on giving 3D vision not to the viewer but to the computer. The company said that by combining its chip technology and image-processing software, it can allow a PC to literally 'look' at the world through a small lens and create a 3D image of what it sees.
Yahoo / Newsfactor Apr 03, 2002	back to top

Signs of 'Trustworthy Computing'
European consumers will soon get a first taste of what Bill Gates meant by 'Trustworthy Computing'. NEC Computing International has announced a trial program in which Packard Bell PCs will be equipped with keyboards that include secure smart-card readers. The keyboards are designed to hold credit card numbers, PINs and other personal information in encrypted form, without leaking them into the rest of PC where they could be stolen by crackers, malicious programs or other users. Bill Gates launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative earlier this year in a widely distributed e-mail to staff. But developers of secure systems say Microsoft's plans will go nowhere without new hardware that addresses fundamental security problems in the PC's aging architecture, which allows data to travel around inside unencrypted.
Wired news Apr 04, 2002	back to top

Web search patterns are evolving - study
The way people use search engines to navigate the internet is evolving, but according to a new study, a next-generation box of web searching tools is needed. The study, by Pennsylvania State University associate professor Amanda Spink, examined more than 1 million search queries from 200,000 users of the Excite search engine. From 1997 to 2001, there has been 'little change' in search terms per query, queries per user or pages per query. However, a trend noted by the study was a shift in topics people searched for when using the Excite engine. In 1997, the most frequently searched topic category was 'entertainment or recreation', 'Sex and pornography' was second, followed by 'commerce, travel, employment or economy'. Two years later, 'sex and pornography' had dropped to fifth place with 'entertainment or recreation' in sixth. 'Commerce, travel, employment or economy' topped the list in both 1999 and 2001 with 24.5 per cent and 24.7 per cent of searches, respectively.
Newsbytes Apr 02, 2002	back to top

Distributed program to translate many languages
A US software designer plans to harness the brains of the world's computer users to build a multilingual translation database. Brian McConnell believes it could provide a free way to translate the many languages not included in existing online translators. The World Wide Lexicon (WWL) project will need multilingual volunteers to download a software program. This will automatically detect when the computer user is less busy and ask them to translate a word or phrase. McConnell has designed a program that roams the web and selects common words from foreign websites. These will be sent to relevant volunteers for translation. The next stage begins when a sufficiently large word database has been built. Users will then be able to download another client program and search these servers for different words. Words that are not found will be sent to volunteers for translation.
New Scientist Apr 02, 2002	back to top

Start-up offers intelligence for travellers
Thanks to a surge in demand for detailed security information in the wake of September 11, an US start-up now provides more than 350,000 corporate employees and 21,000 travel agents with access to detailed travel intelligence on 156 countries. iJET's operations centre in Annapolis is filled with ex-spies. Most of iJET's 58 employees have some sort of experience with US, Russian, South African, Israeli or British intelligence on their résumés. With the help of computerised filters and knowledge of 17 languages, iJET staffers absorb files from 5,000 sources a day, monitoring conditions in 10 areas of intelligence, including security, health, transportation and environment. When troublesome situations develop, iJET can send real-time intelligence alerts to travellers, via e-mail, phone, fax or pager together with advise on what to do about it.
Newsbytes / Washington Post Apr 04, 2002	back to top

Smart glasses order own refills
Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric has developed drinking glasses which signal when they are almost empty so that table staff know when to bring a refill. The technology is an adaptation of the tagging systems used to try to stop people stealing from shops. The glass' coating conducts electricity and makes it behave like a capacitor, an electrical device which stores charge. As the drinker drinks, less of the glass is in contact with the liquid inside and the capacitance of the glass falls. A microchip in the base of the glass reads this change and uses a coil to signal when the level has fallen far enough to assume that the drinker might be ready for a refill. A code in the chip identifies each individual glass and could be used to signal to mobile devices carried by table staff or a central display behind a bar.
BBC News Apr 04, 2002	back to top

Technology for perfect-pitch karaoke
Some might call it Japan's biggest victory against noise pollution since pop duo Pink Lady split up two decades ago. Karaoke sound systems provider Taito said on Tuesday it had teamed up with a US professor and chipmaker Analog Devices on technology that could give even the most tone-deaf crooner perfect pitch. Using the 'Csound' computer music language pioneered years ago by MIT professor Barry Vercoe, Taito will market a system this summer that adjusts sing-along music automatically to the pitch and tempo best-suited to an individual singer. Eventually, Taito hopes to use the technology to reconfigure a singer's errant tones to the proper pitch, without otherwise altering the sound. That could be good news for the millions of regular patrons at Japan's karaoke bars - both those who dread the inevitable pressure to sing even if they cannot carry a tune, and those who have to listen to them.
Yahoo / Reuters Apr 02, 2002	back to top