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Issue no. 35, 2002 Published: Sep 27, 2002
MIT offers free access to its knowledge
Noted physicist fired for falsifying information
ICANN given one year to improve
Slapper arrest as new variants spread
Sun donates 'SSL-lite' to open source group
Transparent token is cryptographic key
Motorola unveils tiny GPS chip
Camera makers frame new standard
Mini fuel cells could replace rechargeable batteries
Mozilla launches leaner open-source browser
Google searches for the news
Violent games not bad for kids

MIT offers free access to its knowledge
People will soon be given access to knowledge from one of the world's foremost technology institutes for free over the internet. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's project OpenCourseWare (OCW) aims to stop the trend of commercialising online education. The first group of courses are set to be published on the internet on 30 September, including subjects such as anthropology, biology, chemistry and computer science. Over the next 10 years, MIT will move all its existing coursework on to the internet. There will be no online degrees for sale, however. Instead, the institute will offer thousands of pages of information, available to anyone around the globe at no cost, as well as hours and hours of streaming video lectures, seminars and experiments. MIT staff point out that if this initiative is successful, and other institutions follow, it will put the net back on track towards its original goal of sharing information and knowledge around the world, rather than selling CDs and t-shirts.
BBC News Sep 22, 2002	back to top

Noted physicist fired for falsifying information
An acclaimed physicist at Bell Labs, US, has been fired after a panel found he falsified research that had been hailed as a revolutionary step in the development of powerful molecular-scale computing. The dismissal of Hendrik Schön, 32, marks the first conclusive report of scientific misconduct in the history of Bell Labs. Schön's work on a ground-breaking transistor generated a buzz at research labs around the world. Scientists at rival laboratories, however, had difficulty reproducing the results of Schön's work, thwarting a checks-and-balances process integral to the scientific method. Some noted striking similarities in supposedly random elements of graphs that appeared in his published work. Bell Labs formed a committee to investigate allegations of misconduct. The committee found 'a clear, unambiguous case' of misconduct by Schön in at least 16 cases. Among the findings were that Schön repeatedly falsified information and deleted raw data files from the experiments.
Yahoo / Reuters Sep 25, 2002	back to top

ICANN given one year to improve
The US Commerce Department announced that it would give the group that manages the internet's address system another year to demonstrate it is up to the task, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the way the organisation has handled its responsibilities in the past four years. In a statement announcing the department's decision to extend its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, the department acknowledged its disappointment with ICANN's progress. But it said the one-year extension was justified by the organisation's recent efforts to overhaul its structure and processes. The agreement outlines specific tasks for the group to accomplish in the next year, including improving the openness of its decision-making process to become more responsive to internet users and creating an effective advisory role for national governments. The contract also requires ICANN to submit quarterly updates to the Commerce Department regarding its progress in these and other areas.
New York Times Sep 21, 2002	back to top

Slapper arrest as new variants spread
A 21-year-old man has been arrested in the Ukraine on suspicion of creating the original Slapper worm, which infected more than 6,000 Linux servers earlier this month. The Slapper worm draws infected machines into a network that can be used to attack other computers. However, the arrest seems to have little effect on the spread of two variants which are believed to have been created by someone else. With the appearance of the two new forms, the worm is proving difficult to kill off, say antivirus companies. Several virus vendors reported variants of the original Slapper.worm.A, called Slapper.worm.B, or 'Cinik', and Slapper.worm.C, or 'Unlock', appearing this week. The variants have slight differences to the original worm, but all use basically the same method of propagation.
Yahoo / ZDNet Sep 25, 2002	back to top

Sun donates 'SSL-lite' to open source group
Sun has donated new cryptography technology to an open source project at the heart of many secure transactions on the internet. Sun's 'elliptic curve' technology is involved in the process of using keys to encrypt and decrypt information for electronic transactions. Such encryption lets people buy products online, for example, while shielding their credit card number from prying eyes. Sun donated the technology to the OpenSSL project, a programming group that makes an open source version of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption system. Elliptic curve cryptography will enable secure communications with devices that do not have as much calculating power as most desktop computers such as small gadgets, according to Sun.
Silicon.com Sep 23, 2002	back to top

Transparent token is cryptographic key
Researchers at MIT Media Lab's Center for Bits and Atoms have shown it is possible to use a physical object instead of a mathematical function to generate immensely powerful cryptographic keys. The team created tokens containing hundreds of glass beads, each a few hundred micrometres in diameter, set in a block of epoxy one centimetre square and 2.5 mm thick. These are 'read' by shining a laser beam of a particular wavelength through the token. The beam generates a speckle interference pattern, which is projected onto a two-dimensional grid and then converted into a key 2400 bits long. Changing the position of one of the randomly set beads even by less than a micrometre, changes about half the bits in the key. This sensitivity means that the token could not be duplicated using any existing manufacturing technology. Furthermore, changing the angle at which the laser passes through the token can generate new unique codes.
New Scientist Sep 21, 2002	back to top

Motorola unveils tiny GPS chip
Wireless technology giant Motorola unveiled a new chip with location pinpointing technology that is small enough to fit into a wristwatch. Motorola said it expects the chip to be used in portable electronic products such as cameras that location-stamp photos, personal digital assistants with maps and real time navigation, and cell phones that can locate nearby friends, family members, restaurants and shops. Motorola said the chip called Motorola Instant GPS was developed by combining its Global Positioning System design with IBM's silicon germanium chip-making technology. IBM's technology allowed Motorola to combine the function of many chips into one, helping reduce size and power consumption while improving performance.
CNN / Reuters Sep 24, 2002	back to top

Camera makers frame new standard
Camera makers Olympus and Eastman Kodak announced a new standard to ensure that high-end digital cameras can swap lenses. The 4/3 System is aimed at digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, models typically used by professional photographers in which the camera body can be separated from the lens, allowing photographers to swap out lenses. To date, manufacturers have mostly used proprietary lens-mount designs based on their 35mm film cameras, meaning cameras will only accept lenses from the same manufacturer. Kodak and Olympus said in a statement that adoption of an open standard will help drive down equipment costs, allow the creation of smaller lens systems and lead to improvements in image quality. The two companies make up the newly formed Universal Digital Interchangeable Lens System Forum to encourage adoption of the standard, which has already been accepted by Fuji Photo Film.
MSNBC / CNET Sep 24, 2002	back to top

Mini fuel cells could replace rechargeable batteries
US company MTI Micro created a prototype micro fuel cell, which relies on a minute flow of methanol to generate electricity. MTI Micro aims to shrink the prototype and begin selling the product in 2004. The idea is to tap into the ever-expanding personal electronics market and provide a power source for laptops, mobile phones and handhelds. MTI Micro is on of the many companies trying to develop a commercial micro fuel cell. Larger fuel cells tend to rely on propane or natural gas. In MTI Micro's fuel cell methanol is introduced to a catalyst to produce electrons, protons and carbon dioxide. The protons go through a membrane. Electrons, which cannot go through the membrane, instead flow through wires as electricity. The reaction's byproducts are tiny amounts of carbon dioxide and water. Micro fuel cells should last 10 times as long as the current generation of batteries. When a fuel cell runs out of methanol, the fuel cartridge can be simply replaced. Fuel cells can also provide more power.
CNN / AP Sep 22, 2002	back to top

Mozilla launches leaner open-source browser
The Mozilla project released 'Phoenix', a slimmed-down, speedier version of its Mozilla browser. Phoenix was written using the XML user interface language (XUL), which means it can run on a variety of platforms. The Phoenix team ultimately expects the browser to be about a 6 MB download, slightly smaller than the full Mozilla download and much more lightweight than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, for instance. Features include a customisable toolbar; quick-search capabilities for bookmarks and history; tabbed browsing interface; and pop-up ad blocker. The Phoenix team, said an 0.2 release of Phoenix is slated for October 1, with additional features including 'Satchel', a client-side wallet, and new tools for managing plug-ins, browser add-ons and downloads. Phoenix binaries are available for Windows and Linux.
InternetWeek Sep 25, 2002	back to top

Google searches for the news
Google unveiled an expanded test version of its search engine for current events and news. The new version offers new features, such as a continuously updated index of news from 4,000 publications worldwide. The search tool brings the company's highly respected statistical methods for ranking the relevance of information on the web to the specific category of news - an experimental approach compared with traditional methods of news selection, according to Google. The news site combs regional and national papers around the globe. Then it groups articles by topic and ranks top stories based on a combination of three things: freshness, the credibility of the source, and the number of sources publishing a story related to the news.
ZNNet Sep 23, 2002	back to top

Violent games not bad for kids
A group of academics are urging a US appeals court to strike down a law restricting children's access to violent video games. The 33 scholars, from institutions including the MIT, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of London, said the law is misguided. 'Most studies and experiments on video games containing violent content have not found adverse effects,' a brief lodged with the court said. 'Researchers who do report positive results have generally relied on small statistical differences and used dubious "proxies" for aggression, such as recognising "aggressive words" on a computer screen.' The group added: 'Experts on childhood and adolescence have long recognised the importance of violent fantasy play in overcoming anxieties, processing anger, and providing outlets for aggression.' The brief follows a decision by a federal court in Missouri to uphold an ordinance requiring parental consent for minors to purchase video games depicting graphic violence.
VNUnet UK Sep 26, 2002	back to top