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Issue no. 21, 2002 Published: May 24, 2002
Bertelsmann finally bags Napster
Yahoo! to stop most European auctions
Kazaa creators say lawsuits too costly to continue
Bells Labs researcher under investigation
Nanotube transistor 'outperforms' silicon
Consciousness based on wireless?
Internet data speed record will benefit scientists
Toshiba announces 'super-slim,' flexible LCD technology
'Copy-proof' CDs cracked with marker pen
Fingerprints are surprisingly easy to fake
Netscape 7.0 beta fuels browser war
Transform your laptop into a robot

Bertelsmann finally bags Napster
Bertelsmann executives have expressed their delight at finally taking over Napster. The German media company completed the deal late last week, ending an impasse with some of Napster's founders. The deal means German chief executive Konrad Hilbers will stay on alongside American creator Shawn Fanning. The two resigned last week after it seemed a deal would not be struck. Bertelsmann chairman Joel Klein greeted the $8 million buy-out by reaffirming Napster's aim to return as a subscription service.
Ananova May 20, 2002	back to top

Yahoo! to stop most European auctions
Yahoo! said Thursday that in six weeks, it will shut down auction services on five of its European websites: Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. And, under a marketing deal with eBay, Yahoo said it will feature advertisements touting eBay as the preferred online auction service in those countries. Financial details of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed. Yahoo! decided to close the auctions in Europe, where it is typically a distant third-place player, after conducting a review late last year of its business. Yahoo! says it is looking at businesses where it can grow and be most profitable. In Europe, that means resources will be shifted to commerce initiatives such as Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Travel.
Nando Times / AP May 24, 2002	back to top

Kazaa creators say lawsuits too costly to continue
The company that created the file-sharing program known as Kazaa says it does not have enough money to continue battling copyright-infringement lawsuits in the US. Complaining that record companies and motion picture studios have engaged in 'Rambo-style litigation' that has terminated its financial resources, lawyers for Kazaa BV told a US District Court in California last week that the Netherlands-based company is about to cry uncle in copyright-infringement lawsuits it has been fighting for nearly eight months.
Newsbytes May 23, 2002	back to top

Bells Labs researcher under investigation
Prestigious technology research house Bells Labs has appointed an independent panel to investigate allegations that one of its scientists manipulated data related to molecule-sized electronics. The controversy relates to five articles published in scientific journals which raised the suspicions of other experts in the industry. Bells Labs, part of Lucent Technologies, said that the accusations had come from scientists not connected to the research. It is the first time in the group's 77-year history that it has had to take such drastic steps to look into accusations of misconduct by its own staff. All the articles in question relate to Bells Labs researcher Dr Hendrik Schön, who published a piece in US magazine Nature claiming to have developed a transistor with an electronic switch just one molecule thick. The graphs relating to the research stunned other scientists as they appeared to defy typical electronic behaviour.
VNUnet UK May 23, 2002	back to top

Nanotube transistor 'outperforms' silicon
Researchers at IBM have fabricated a carbon nanotube transistor that mimics the design of modern silicon transistors but performs much better. Transistors are the 'switches' in electronic circuits, controlling the current that represents digital information. The new transistor differs from previous designs. Its gate, which controls the current, is on top of a nanotube and separated from the channel by a layer of silicon dioxide, rather than being shared between a number of transistors. This makes it possible to control each transistor individually. Moreover, the gate can control the current better. This means larger currents can be used, boosting the transistor's speed. The transistor's novel design also means the researchers were able to fabricate transistors with different polarity. This is a crucial property of complementary metal oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits, which are also very common.
New Scientist May 21, 2002	back to top

Consciousness based on wireless?
Human consciousness is actually wireless communication between the cells of your brain, according to Johnjoe McFadden, professor of molecular genetics at UK's University of Surrey. If proven correct, McFadden's theory could turn philosophy on its head, revolutionise neuroscience, and bring us a step closer to creating lifelike artificial intelligence. McFadden argues that human consciousness is actually the brain's electromagnetic field interacting with its circuitry. Nerve cells firing simultaneously create powerful waves in the field, which in turn cause other neurons to spark. In this way, the electromagnetic field works as a sort of wireless processor, combining the most important information from the hard wiring of the brain into a wireless signal, which is then transmitted back to the brain as conscious thought. This 'field effect', McFadden says, is the piece of the puzzle AI experts have missed. He acknowledges that his theory is far from proven but he argues that it is certainly a legitimate line of scientific inquiry.
Wired News May 21, 2002	back to top

Internet data speed record will benefit scientists
A new trans-continental internet data transfer record has been set by researchers at the University of Alaska and the University of Amsterdam. The record was set using cutting edge network infrastructure that is being developed as part of a project known as Internet2. This project involves universities as well as government and industry research teams. The goal is to develop an internet backbone capable of carrying vast amounts of data between computers. It is hoped this will drive forward new internet technologies that require high data transfer speeds, such as tele-immersion and virtual reality. This backbone could also give researchers in many scientific disciplines access to massive amounts of data and computing power at other universities across the planet. The record-breaking feat involved sending a CD's worth of data - almost a gigabyte - a quarter of the way around the world in just 13 seconds. Data transfer speeds peaked at 401 megabits per second in transit over the 12,272 kilometres of network between the two institutions. This is hundreds of times faster than most broadband home internet services.
New Scientist May 23, 2002	back to top

Toshiba announces 'super-slim,' flexible LCD technology
Toshiba announced that it has developed a large flexible liquid crystal display that will pave the way to the display of images on curved screens and, eventually, foldable LCDs. The new display is a full colour, 8.4-inch, low-temperature polysilicon active-matrix TFT LCD supporting SVGA resolution. The flexible LCD brings new potentialities to design, while its super-slim profile (less than 0.4 millimetres) is a quarter to a fifth that of present low temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs, according to Toshiba. The flexibility of the screen also increases its resistance to shock, the company said. The basis of the flexible LCD is a thin glass substrate, the layer on which TFTs are formed, attached to a flexible sheet. Displays using this technology can be manufactured at the normal process temperature. The new display can be flexed in all directions and bent to form a curve with a radius of curvature as high as 20 centimetres, Toshiba says.
Yahoo May 21, 2002	back to top

'Copy-proof' CDs cracked with marker pen
Technology buffs have cracked Sony Music's elaborate disc copy- protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker. Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week. Major music labels have begun selling the 'copy-proof' discs as a means of tackling the rampant spread of music piracy. However, newsgroup postings claim that when the edge of the shiny side of the disc is blackened out with a felt tip marker, the marked-up CD can be played and copied to the computer's hard drive without a hitch. Also tape or even a sticky note can reportedly be used to cover the security track, typically located on the outer rim of the disc. Sony's technology works by adding a track to the disc that contains bogus data. Because computers are programmed to read data files first, they will continuously try to play the bogus track first and never gets to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc.
CNN / Reuters May 21, 2002	back to top

Fingerprints are surprisingly easy to fake
Fake fingers made out of common household ingredients can fool security systems that use fingerprints to identify people. The work was done by researchers at the Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences at the University of Yokohama. The first set of experiments used fake fingers formed when gelatine was poured into a mould created by pushing a finger into a malleable plastic more often used by model makers. The fingers created this way fooled the fingerprint readers 80 per cent of the time. The researchers also developed a way to create fake fingers using prints left on glass. First, the latent print was hardened with glue. This improved print was photographed and enhanced using Adobe Photoshop software to emphasise the difference between its ridges and gaps. The image was transferred to a photosensitive sheet, etched into copper to turn it from a flat image into a three-dimensional print, and then used to create another mould. Again the fake fingers fooled the biometric readers 80 per cent of the time.
BBC News May 18, 2002	back to top

Netscape 7.0 beta fuels browser war
Netscape is stepping up its bid for the corporate market with its release of Netscape 7.0. The new browser comes at a time when analysts believe the company, with the backing of its AOL Time Warner parent, is set to challenge Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer browser. The beta of the new browser was released on Wednesday, with plans for a full release in the summer. The new 7.0 release has a number of features specifically aimed at winning greater support for the browser in the enterprise. These include S/Mime to enable secure encrypted email as well as full Ldap support and the ability to share mail folders using the Internet Message Access Protocol (Imap).
VNUnet UK May 23, 2002	back to top

Transform your laptop into a robot
US company Evolution Robotics unveiled a series of 'personal robot systems' that can transform an average laptop PC into an intelligent robot. The basic kit includes a rolling platform to mount the laptop on, a Webcam for capturing visual data and software to run on the laptop. The company says the real breakthrough with its software is real-time processing of visual data. The Evolution software can interpret images at a rate of five frames per second, matching data captured by the camera with a library of visual references. Instead of executing pre-determined routines, as most robots do, the Evolution system can respond to its environment almost instantly. The company says the robot could be a useful companion for a blind person, or a sophisticated security camera. The Evolution software is based on an open programming interface, and the company expects numerous amateur developers to create and share applications for the system.
ZDNet May 23, 2002	back to top