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Issue no. 22, 2002 Published: May 31, 2002
Europe votes to end data privacy
KPNQwest may have to shut data network
Microsoft faces Brussels privacy inquiry
Linux vendors join forces in UnitedLinux
New material could form basis for novel electronic devices
MIT researchers develop breakthrough video technology
New 3D video wall aids scientific research
Researchers demonstrate wireless chips
Inkjet technology used to cool hotter chips
IBM: Give hard drives the boot?
Software shows uniqueness of handwriting
Low-tech solution to password problem
Brazil will win World Cup say scientists

Europe votes to end data privacy
European law enforcement agencies were given sweeping powers on Thursday to monitor telephone, internet and email traffic in a move denounced by critics as the biggest threat to data privacy in a generation. Member states will be allowed to ignore data protection regulations for security reasons. According to these rules, records can be kept only for a few months for billing purposes before being destroyed. The new law will give police new powers to store communications for investigation purposes for months or even years. The text of the proposed EU Telecommunications Directive says this must be a 'necessary, appropriate and proportionate measure within a democratic society'. Any data retention must also respect the European Convention of Human Rights. Also, according to the new law companies will need to get prior permission from users before sending unsolicited e-mail. Regarding the use of cookies they need to give users clear, comprehensive information on their purpose in advance, and allow users to refuse them. The law is due to be formally adopted within months and applied by end 2003.
New Scientist / EUbusiness / The Guardian May 30, 2002	back to top

KPNQwest may have to shut data network
KPNQwest on Thursday warned its customers to prepare for the possible shutdown of Europe's biggest data network, as the crisis-torn Dutch communications company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The winding up of KPNQwest's 25,000km network, linking 60 cities in 18 European countries, would be unprecedented. The warning came as the cash-starved alternative telecoms carrier yesterday skirted bankruptcy by announcing that takeover talks were continuing and short-term funding deals were in the pipeline. People close to KPNQwest said AT&T and Verizon, had been joined by an unidentified third suitor discussing the purchase of 'a substantial part' of the business. KPNQwest faced mounting losses and dwindling revenues that left it unable to service about €2bn of debt. Two years ago it had an enterprise value of €41bn. The group's shares, which peaked at €89.40 in February 2000, were worth 30 cents on Thursday.
Financial Times May 30, 2002	back to top

Microsoft faces Brussels privacy inquiry
Microsoft faces an inquiry by the European Commission into a possible breach of European privacy law - the second investigation by the Brussels authorities into the US software giant. The Commission has launched an investigation into whether Microsoft's .NET passport system, which collects personal information when users log on to particular websites, complies with data protection laws. The US group is already being investigated by the Commission for alleged breaches of EU competition law and a decision is expected in the next few months. The Commission can only advise member states on whether a company has broken data privacy law. The final decision, including possible fines for the company, is for the national data protection authorities. As a result, Microsoft could face a number of fines from some of the EU's 15 member states.
Financial Times May 27, 2002	back to top

Linux vendors join forces in UnitedLinux
Four firms selling the Linux computer operating system are banding together to create UnitedLinux. The move seems to address the criticisms of software developers who have to contend with a variety of different versions of the alternative, cooperatively developed system. SuSE, Caldera, Turbolinux and Conectiva say they will release Linux products based on a common core system towards the end of 2002, making life easier not just for developers, but for computer equipment makers who want to have their products certified Linux-compatible. Currently, a program packaged to run on Red Hat Linux, for example, might well fail on, say, SuSE Linux. The UnitedLinux four say they will build a common core system where such irritations are ruled out. Although the group does not include the dominant player in the Linux market, Red Hat, they made clear that Red Hat or any other firm are welcome to join them. Red Hat said it will respond to the invitation over the next few weeks.
BBC News May 30, 2002	back to top

New material could form basis for novel electronic devices
Many feats of engineering boil down to a material's ability to switch between two different states. Transistors rely on switching between conditions with differing electrical conductivity, and photonic devices change the amount of light that can pass through a material. More complex devices can arise if the so-called bi-stable material undergoes changes in more than one physical property as it switches between states. Spintronics, for example, involves simultaneous shifts in both the magnetic and the electrical properties of a material. Now scientists at the University of California have succeeded in making a material that exhibits bi-stability involving three physical properties. The say the new material switches between states, it switches the conductivity, the amount of light transmitted, and the magnetism, making it the first organic compound that combines all three. The material could form the basis for new electronic devices that write, read and transfer information, the researchers say.
Scientific American May 25, 2002	back to top

MIT researchers develop breakthrough video technology
A breakthrough in video technology has given researchers at MIT the power to animate images of real people saying words they have never actually spoken. The researchers have simulated mouth movements that look so real that they convince most viewers of their authenticity. According to the researchers, given a few minutes of footage of any individual, the team can pair virtually any audio to any videotaped face, matching mouth movements to the words. The team's software records facial expressions while a person speaks into a camera, and learns to associate the images with sounds. Using that database, a false image of the person can be synthesised to a soundtrack of new words. The work could improve the man-machine interface by putting a 'real' face on computer avatars, instead of the current unrealistic, cartoon- like images. The method could also be used for redubbing a film from one language to another and could be used in tasks such as eye-tracking, facial expression recognition and visual speech estimation.
VNUnet UK May 25, 2002	back to top

New 3D video wall aids scientific research
Researchers at Boston University recently opened a new front in the techno revolution: creating oversized and extremely detailed 3D images out of reams of data and mathematical models to better study phenomena such as solar wind, electrical pulses or particle interaction. The 2.3-by-3-metre Deep Vision Display Wall allows researchers to generate larger-than-life simulations of DNA strands or chemical reactions. The screen is powered by an IBM supercomputer capable of performing 500 billion calculations per second. About 700 BU researchers in various disciplines will be able to use the Deep Vision Display. The university will soon increase the size of the display to 4.5 by 2.5 metre and increase the number of projectors from eight to 24. The extra projectors will boost image resolution to 18 mega pixels, allowing even more granular detail. But the most daunting task will be adding features that allow researchers to manipulate their experiments on the fly, essentially changing the experiment from within.
ZDnet May 25, 2002	back to top

Researchers demonstrate wireless chips
The silicon chip may soon join the growing list of devices to go wireless, a development that could speed computers and lead to a new breed of useful products. Researchers at the University of Florida have demonstrated the first wireless communication system built entirely on a computer chip. Composed of a miniature radio transmitter and antenna, the tiny system broadcasts information across a fingernail-sized chip. As chips increase in size and complexity, transmitting information to all parts of the chip simultaneously through the many tiny wires embedded in the silicon platform becomes more difficult. Chip-based wireless radios could bypass these wires, ensuring continued performance improvements in the larger chips. These tiny radios-on-a-chip also could make possible tiny, inexpensive microphones, motion detectors and other devices, according to the researchers.
Techreview / AScribe News May 29, 2002	back to top

Inkjet technology used to cool hotter chips
Computers generate a lot of excess heat. To reduce the problem at its source, researchers at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories are using the company's inkjet printer technology in a novel application: spraying cooling streams of liquid onto the surface of semiconductor chips. The experimental technique is meant to reduce the heat thrown off by semiconductor circuitry, a growing problem throughout computing as each new generation of chips crams more transistors onto stamp-size silicon dies. Power densities, which are now 60 watts per square centimetre, are expected to reach 200 watts by 2003, increasing the heat. The researchers are experimenting with microscopic inkjet nozzles to aim streams of fluids such as Fluorinert, a noncorrosive coolant that does not conduct electricity. An array of the jets could be turned on and off precisely to cool particular hot spots on a chip efficiently. The group is planning to package the new cooling system in snap-on devices that would replace the currently used passive air-cooling metal fins.
New York Times May 27, 2002	back to top

IBM: Give hard drives the boot?
IBM this week announced iBoot, a storage technology that lets PCs and servers use computer networking to designate remote disk drives as their primary repository for data, instead of relying on internal hard drives. Aside from allowing access to greater storage capacity, IBM researchers say using centralised storage instead of internal drives can help companies cut PC maintenance costs, saving on procedures such as software upgrades for PCs. And iBoot could eventually boost server performance by letting manufacturers build thinner, diskless servers that can be stacked more closely together in a rack. iBoot uses the new iSCSI networking standard, which takes advantage of standard Internet Protocol, to create a link between the PC and the remote disk drive. The PC then uses the remote drive to store all of its data, instead of storing on its own internal drive. Each PC continues to use its own processor and other hardware, avoiding competition with other machines for shared processing power on a mainframe.
ZDNet May 30, 2002	back to top

Software shows uniqueness of handwriting
A new study using handwriting recognition software claims to show that everyone's handwriting is unique and that using such evidence in court is therefore scientifically justifiable. Handwriting experts have had a tough time in US courts since the supreme court in 1993 decided that expert testimony can only be admitted if it is based on scientific methods published in peer-review journals. Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo have used software to show that handwriting samples collected from a representative group of 1500 people were all unique. The study is the most comprehensive peer-reviewed attempt to show that handwriting is unique. The software characterises people's handwriting using 11 features, including letter size, swirls and pen pressure. These are a subset of the features used by handwriting experts. The software is not as good at matching samples as human experts, but it is good at processing the huge numbers of samples needed for valid statistical studies.
New Scientist May 30, 2002	back to top

Low-tech solution to password problem
A British inventor has come up with a low-tech answer to the problem of having a secure password. Martin Wren-Hilton has designed a simple card that could be issued to employees as a second line of defence against hackers. The card resembles a pre-paid top-up voucher for mobile phones and has a list of words and numbers. When users log on to their PC, the system recognises them as a cardholder and asks them to enter the number that corresponds to one of the words. Each card is unique. But if it is mislaid, it is of no use to a potential hacker because the information only works in conjunction with a user's password. Wren-Hilton has filed an international patent on the idea and has already been approached by companies which offer authentication services.
BBC News May 30, 2002	back to top

Brazil will win World Cup say scientists
Researchers at the University of Ulster are predicting that Brazil will win the World Cup. They have made the claim after carrying out analysis of every match taking place in Japan and South Korea. The scientists used a computer to simulate the World Cup ties and based its results on FIFA world rankings and the distance teams had to travel to compete. It also looked at the effect of switching between South Korea and Japan for games and rest periods between matches. The simulation was run 2,000 times and predicted that Brazil would beat Italy in the final and lift the trophy for the fifth time. Argentina took third place followed by Spain. It said England and Ireland would finish runners-up in the their qualifying groups but would lose to France and Spain respectively in the first knock-out stage. After the tournament the researchers intend to write a research paper on the relative merits of qualitative versus quantitative methods.
Ananova May 28, 2002	back to top