Issue no. 39, 2002
Published: Oct 25, 2002 |
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 FBI probes powerful attack on key internet computers |
| Italian study raises new concerns about mobile phones |
| IBM builds circuit with carbon monoxide molecules |
| Prototype glass sheet computer unveiled |
| Windows function enables pop-ups and spam |
| Quantum logic: to be, or NOT to be? |
| Voiceprints provide mobile encryption keys |
| New encryption technique to authenticate photos |
| Radioactive battery provides decades of power |
| Second gamer dies after massive binge |
| Airborne computer mouse unveiled |
| Kramnik holds Deep Fritz in chess battle |
| EverQuest economy threatened by counterfeiting scam |
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| FBI probes powerful attack on key internet computers |
The FBI is investigating Monday's coordinated attack on the computer
servers that manage global internet traffic. While unprecedented in its
scope, the attack failed to cripple the internet and most internet users
were not affected. Experts agreed that hackers were most likely to blame
but said it could be very hard to establish that with any certainty.
The attack targeted the thirteen root machines that serve as the master
directory of computers on the internet. All but four of them suffered
some performance degradation or were temporarily unreachable. While
vital for high-level web address look-up functions, the web address
information also is frequently cached on servers that are closer to
internet users. So, even though there was congestion around the root
servers, people were still able to get to the websites they wanted
The root servers were victims of a common type of attack, called
distributed denial of service, in which servers are overwhelmed with too
much traffic, usually coming from drone computers around the internet. |
| CNET / Reuters / Ananova
Oct 23, 2002 |
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| Italian study raises new concerns about mobile phones |
Italian scientists at the National Research Council in Bologna have
raised new health concerns about the safety of using mobile phones, with
research showing radio waves from the handsets makes cancerous cells
grow more aggressively.
When the researchers exposed leukaemia cells in the laboratory to 48
hours of continuous radio waves they initially killed the cancer cells
but then made the surviving tumour cells replicate more rapidly.
The results of the study do not show any direct threat to human health
but they support the belief of some scientists who say radiation can
damage DNA and destroy the cell repair system which can make tumours
more deadly. But recent animal studies have shown that radiation from
mobile phones does not trigger the growth of tumours.
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| Yahoo / Reuters
Oct 23, 2002 |
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| IBM builds circuit with carbon monoxide molecules |
IBM scientists have built the tiniest computer circuit yet using
individual carbon monoxide molecules that move like toppling dominoes
across a flat copper surface. The most complex circuit they built - a
12-by-17-nanometre three-input sorter - is so small that 190 billion
could fit on a standard pencil-top eraser.
The new 'molecule cascade' technique enabled the researchers to make
logic elements 260,000 times smaller than those used in today's most
advanced semi-conductor chips.
The circuits were made by creating a pattern of carbon monoxide
molecules on a copper surface. One molecule was moved to start a
one-directional cascade of molecules, similar to the way dominoes
interact. The circuits do not reset themselves. |
| Yahoo / Reuters
Oct 24, 2002 |
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| Prototype glass sheet computer unveiled |
A transparent computer processor has been printed on to a flat plate of
glass by researchers at Sharp's Japanese laboratory. Their success
suggests ultra-thin computers and televisions could in future be built
entirely on a single sheet of glass. The processor runs at a speed of
2.6 megahertz, making it basic by modern computer standards. But the
prototype shows that complex electronics can be printed straight onto
glass with transparent silicon.
The new 'sheet computer' uses a relatively new material called
continuous grain silicon developed by Sharp and Semiconductor Energy
Laboratory, also in Japan. The crystal structure of this material is
regular, meaning that it conducts electrons up to 600 times faster than
amorphous silicon which is used in liquid crystal displays. This means
complex electronic components can be printed in this material. Sharp
says continuous grain silicon could eventually approach the efficiency
of the single crystal silicon used inside today's computer chips. |
| New Scientist
Oct 22, 2002 |
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|
| Windows function enables pop-ups and spam |
A developer of bulk-mail software has created pop-up spam emails using a
function in the Windows messaging system.
Zoltan Kovacs, founder of the company that makes the Direct Advertiser
package, said that the software can be used to make pop-up messages
appear on recipients' computers in separate windows. A worker does not
even need to have a browser open to suddenly find the screen full of
pop-up ads. Kovacs designed the tool to help systems administrators send
alert notices to network users more efficiently, but acknowledged that
some customers have used it to launch spam attacks.
The software can only send text, not images or clickable links. The
software finds Messenger-enabled computers by running through ranges of
numeric IP addresses used to identify computers on the web. But it may
not work if a computer is behind a firewall, or if multiple computers
share the same numeric address using a traffic router. |
| VNUnet UK
Oct 21, 2002 |
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| Quantum logic: to be, or NOT to be? |
Researchers achieved the almost maximum theoretical fidelity with a
quantum NOT gate they constructed. In conventional electronics, a NOT
gate inverts the value of a bit from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. Such binary
information can also be stored in the horizontal and vertical
polarisation states of photons. But quantum bits (qubits) can exist in a
superposition of the two states, which makes it harder to invert the
value of a qubit and limits the fidelity of a quantum NOT gate to 2/3.
The researchers at the University of Rome and INFM fired a photon into a
crystal of barium borate, and the photon split into two entangled
longer-wavelength photons. A detector measured the polarisation of one
photon while a mirror reflected its partner back into the crystal. When
this photon emerged from the crystal, its polarisation was also measured.
This process was repeated many times. It emerged that the polarisations
of the output photons were opposite to those of the input photons 63.0%
of the time, compared with the maximum theoretical value of 66.7%. |
| PhysicsWeb
Oct 23, 2002 |
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| Voiceprints provide mobile encryption keys |
The uniqueness of everyone's voice can now be used to lock up data extra
securely on mobile phones and portable computers, rendering stolen
devices useless. The new system combines a spoken password and the
voiceprint of the speaker to generate a cryptographic key. This is then
used to encrypt data automatically.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Bell Labs have built a
prototype of the system. To access the device, the user speaks the
password. This allows the computer to take the word and voice data,
combine it with the previously stored key, and unlock the data. The
researchers say it could eventually generate cryptographic keys as
strong as those used to keep files on desktop computers secure.
Turning a voiceprint into an encryption key requires significant
computational effort. Each time a person speaks, their vocalisations are
slightly different, but the key must be reproduced perfectly. Therefore,
algorithms were developed to detect and correct for these deviations. |
| New Scientist
Oct 19, 2002 |
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| New encryption technique to authenticate photos |
Researchers from Xerox and the University of Rochester have created a
new way to encrypt information in a digital image and extract it later
without any distortion or loss of information. The scientists said that
the technique, called reversible data hiding, could be used in
situations that require proof that an image has not been altered.
Concerns about the authenticity of web-based tickets, receipts and
signed contracts have hampered the development of some e-commerce
applications. While digital watermarking offers protection against
tampering in most situations, it can also irreversibly change the
quality of an image. The new technique allows authorised viewers to
extract the embedded authentication message while also removing any
distortions created by the embedded information, the researchers said.
Uses for the technology could range from sensitive military and medical
diagnostic images to legal documents and photographs of crime scenes.
The technique could also be used to encode information within the image
itself for cataloguing and retrieving from databases. |
| MSNBC / CNET
Oct 23, 2002 |
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| Radioactive battery provides decades of power |
Tiny batteries that draw energy from radioactive isotopes could provide
50 years of power for micro-devices and electronics, according to
researchers at Cornell University, New York.
The battery consists of a thin piece of copper suspended above a layer
of nickel-63. As the nickel isotope decays, it fires out beta particles,
i.e. electrons. These give the copper strip a negative charge. The loss
of electrons causes the nickel layer to become positively charged, so
the copper layer bends until contact is made. At this point, electrons
flow from the copper to the nickel layer, equalising the charge, and the
process begins all over again. This mechanical energy could be used to
generate electricity or power a small mechanical device.
The researchers have so far developed a prototype that has a volume of
just five cubic millimetres. This produces only a few milliwatts of
power, but could last for decades. Nickel-63 has a half-life of 100
years and useful power could be generated for at least half this time. |
| New Scientist
Oct 22, 2002 |
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| Second gamer dies after massive binge |
Just days after the first 'internet overdose', another addict has died
after a marathon games binge. The 27 year-old Taiwanese man collapsed
after playing computer games for 32 hours non-stop.
Lien Wen-cheng was found on the floor foaming at the mouth and bleeding
from the nose and died on the way to the hospital. Doctors believe he
died from exhaustion, having remained in the same position for too long.
The death highlights the danger of such intensive game-playing.
Less than 10 days ago, a 24 year-old South Korean man died after playing
continuously for 86 hours.
A psychologist explained that playing games over prolonged periods
without sleep places the body under considerable stress as the brain is
receiving the impression that it is constantly under attack. |
| VNUnet UK
Oct 22, 2002 |
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| Airborne computer mouse unveiled |
US company Gyration has developed a mouse which uses gyroscopic sensors
to control the cursor movement as you move it through the air.
When it is sitting on a surface, the Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse
functions like most other opticals, with left-click, scroll and
right-click buttons. But when you lift it, the gyroscopes take over when
you depress a big button on the underside.
The device could help those suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury
(RSI) as the cursor can easily be controlled by moving the whole arm, or,
with the mouse held in both hands, the whole torso. |
| CNN / AP
Oct 22, 2002 |
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| Kramnik holds Deep Fritz in chess battle |
The chess match between world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the computer
challenger Deep Fritz ended in a draw on Saturday. The match has shown
that human ingenuity can still compete with the massive number-crunching
power of computers.
Whereas a human player combines pattern matching and intuition with
positional calculations to play chess, the strongest computer chess
programs rely largely on calculating as many moves ahead as possible.
Deep Fritz represents a shift away from brute computing force towards
smarter software. It has algorithms that cut down the number of dead-end
searches performed.
Kramnik sought to reduce complexity in many of his matches with Deep
Fritz by removing powerful pieces in early forced swaps. Kramnik's
simplifying strategy gave him an initial advantage. But Fritz clawed its
way back, partly because, unlike its opponent, it did not grow tired. |
| New Scientist
Oct 21, 2002 |
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| EverQuest economy threatened by counterfeiting scam |
The long-running online game EverQuest is suffering from a spate of
counterfeiting. The huge amount of virtual money being pumped into the
game is threatening to bring its economy to its knees, prompting hyper-
inflation and making it impossible for new players to get established.
Most characters that inhabit EverQuest's world pursue a profession. Over
time players can improve the expertise and power of their character to
become capable of creating ever more powerful items that can be used or
sold in the game world. But some users have discovered an easy way to
carry out these time-consuming tasks. Using macros they turn small cash
piles into slightly larger ones, and they have set up huge counterfeiting
organisations with dedicated computers that do nothing but run the
macro. The cash piles can be sold it for real money on auction boards.
Verant, the company behind EverQuest, has now started to crack down on
people using the money-making macro, and is suspending accounts and
confiscating items from users it catches exploiting the loophole. |
| VNUnet UK / BBC News
Oct 22, 2002 |
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