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Issue no. 41, 2002 Published: Nov 08, 2002
EU's Microsoft antitrust probe continues despite US settlement
IBM powers up breakthrough transistor
MIT launches online library for digital work
Key internet server relocated
Making microchips takes mountain of materials
Study advises to minimise computer time
Start-up develops new way to send hidden messages
Scientists find something in the way you walk
Microwaves track football
'Possessed' keyboard still has HP worried

EU's Microsoft antitrust probe continues despite US settlement
The European Commission on Monday said its antitrust case against Microsoft is 'quite different' from the US investigation, and declined to say if it would be affected by the settlement of the US case. The EU investigation into Microsoft is continuing and officials have said the Commission will make a preliminary ruling by the end of the year. A US judge last Friday handed a sweeping legal victory to Microsoft that leaves the company's dominance over some global technology markets untouched. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly made only minor changes to Microsoft's settlement with the US government. EU investigators accuse Microsoft of abusing its dominance of the market for PC operating systems to muscle its way into related markets for media and server software. The European Commission thinks Microsoft's monopoly power in one market will help it take over others. In contrast, the US case focused on internet browsers and the company's relationships with hardware makers.
Nando Times / AP Nov 04, 2002	back to top

IBM powers up breakthrough transistor
IBM has unveiled a new transistor design for wireless chips that promises enough power to build future networks that will change the way people use wireless at work and at home. The new transistor design, based on IBM's silicon germanium, or SiGe, chipmaking technology, delivers a threefold increase in speed. The new transistor, which runs at 350GHz, will result in communications chips that run at roughly 150GHz and will be able to send data at rates of hundreds of gigabits per second. That makes it possible to send high- quality video from a set-top to a high-definition screen. These chips will be about four to five times faster in clock speed than today's fastest communications chips used in wireless LANs and home networks and will consume about a 10th of the power, according to IBM. SiGe technology embeds germanium atoms at various places into the silicon crystal that makes up a transistor. The addition of the atoms improves the flow of electricity through a transistor, which increases performance or can be used to decrease power consumption.
ZDNet Nov 04, 2002	back to top

MIT launches online library for digital work
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is adding to its online offerings an electronic library for the already vast and mounting catalogue of scholarly materials born in digital form. The digital library, called DSpace, will be available on the internet and enable data to be stored not just in text but in video and other formats. The system runs on open source software that was developed in conjunction with HP. That means other institutions can use or adapt the program royalty-free to create digital libraries of their own that could easily be linked to the DSpace consortium. Over the next few months, seven other universities will come online. They include UK's Cambridge as well as Columbia, Cornell, Ohio State, and the universities of Rochester, Toronto and Washington state. After an initial testing period of about a year, it is hoped the number of universities involved will expand.
CNN / AP Nov 05, 2002	back to top

Key internet server relocated
Two of the internet's 13 root name servers have been separated to improve the stability and security of the web's address system, following a major attack two weeks ago. Nine of the 13 root Domain Name System (DNS) servers were subjected to a distributed denial of service attack, which could have significantly disrupted internet traffic. The US company Verisign has now separated two of the key servers. Both were hosted for many years in the same building in Virginia, US, but one has now been taken to a new location in the same state. The server was also moved on to a different section of Verisign's network. The move is meant to prevent a power failure or similar technical problem from knocking both servers out simultaneously. It should also make it more difficult for hackers to attack the servers by targeting the same part of the company's network. The last such move to any of the 13 servers occurred in 1997.
New Scientist / AP Nov 07, 2002	back to top

Making microchips takes mountain of materials
A new report indicates that the environmental costs associated with producing microchips are much bigger than their size might suggest. The manufacturing of a typical two-gram chip takes 1.6 kilograms of fossil fuel, 72 grams of chemicals and 32 kilograms of water, the study found. Researchers at the United Nations University studied data collected by the UN Environment Programme, the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, the Environmental Protection Agency and an anonymous electronics firm in order to assess the impact of semiconductor manufacturing. The team found that the materials involved in making a 32MB RAM chip total 630 times the mass of the final product. Because of the purification needed for semiconductor technology, manufacturing microchips requires approximately 160 times the amount of energy needed to make typical silicon. Thousands of potentially toxic chemicals are used. The authors emphasise the need to 'work toward a wider understanding of and response to the industry's environmental issues'.
Scientific American Nov 06, 2002	back to top

Study advises to minimise computer time
The more time an office worker toils in front of a computer, the more likely he or she is to suffer a host of physical, mental and sleep-related ills, according to Japanese researchers. While video display terminal (VDT) use has become commonplace, there is little information on how long a person can safely use a computer each day. Researchers at Chiba University surveyed over 25,000 office workers who responded to three questionnaires between 1995 and 1997. Participants answered questions about the amount of time they spent in front of a VDT, their sleep habits, and physical and mental ailments including headache, low back pain, eyestrain, depression and anxiety. The study found a significant relationship between duration of daily VDT use and physical symptoms, even after adjusting for other factors that could influence the results. Office workers most commonly complained of headache, eyestrain, joint pain and stiff shoulders. Lethargy, anxiety, 'reluctance to go to work' and sleep-related problems were most common among those who spent more than five hours a day in front of a screen.
News24 / Reuters Nov 06, 2002	back to top

Start-up develops new way to send hidden messages
Secret codes, 128-bit encryption, the Enigma machine, invisible ink - all were invented as ways to deliver information without anyone else knowing. And now Intrasonics, a start-up in Cambridge, England, says it can send hidden messages over loudspeakers. The company has devised a method for sending wireless signals over ordinary audio speakers so that humans cannot hear them. The technology revolves around so-called psycho-acoustic masking. Intrasonics digitises recorded messages, and then masks them as nuisance noises. The signals are spread over the audible spectrum and then disguised into the soundtrack. A processor in the receiving unit, equipped with specialised software, reassembles the message and delivers it accordingly. Tests reveal that people do not hear the signals. With this same technology, radio stations can unobtrusively transmit ads, URLs, or information about music and artists to in-car cell phones. A major worldwide carrier will begin trials in the next six months.
ZDNet Nov 07, 2002	back to top

Scientists find something in the way you walk
It may be a swagger, a shuffle or a limp, but experts have found the way a person walks is almost as unique as their fingerprints. A team of American researchers is now developing a security system that can identify people by their gait. Ultimately it is hoped that walk scanning will join other emerging biometric technologies, such as face and eye recognition, which already show promise. While these mostly rely on machine vision, the team studying gait at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta focused on radar as the basis of its system. Radar signals bounced off any object produce a unique signature and the researchers explored the potential of collecting echoes from various parts of the body as a person walked. A computer was programmed to analyse these signals to define a set of unique characteristics for a particular individual and in tests, the researchers were able to correctly to 80-95 per cent of volunteers purely from their walk.
Ananova Nov 03, 2002	back to top

Microwaves track football
A new system to monitor the positions of football players and the ball could make the game a lot less controversial. It can instantly alert referees, fans and coaches to whether a player is offside, or the ball has left the pitch or entered the goal. Credit-card sized microwave transmitters are fitted in players' shin-pads. A peanut-sized transmitter goes inside the ball. Each produces a signature pattern several hundred times a second. Up to 10 antennas around the pitch relay the information to a central computer, which pools the data to reconstruct the game. Within milliseconds referees receive information via a wrist receiver. The computer sounding the alarm also collects statistics for coaches, pundits and fans. It can even recreate the game online, or control television cameras. This winter, a full test will begin at a stadium in Nuremberg, Germany. The makers of the system, Germany-based Cairos Technologies, hope to persuade football's governing body FIFA to use the technology in the next World Cup, to be held in Germany in 2006.
Nature Nov 06, 2002	back to top

'Possessed' keyboard still has HP worried
Hewlett Packard (HP) has said that it is extremely concerned about its wireless keyboard design, after a user's data appeared on a colleague's computer that was located in another building and supposedly out of range. Last week Per Arild Evjeberg and Per Erik Helle hit the headlines on Halloween after their HP keyboards switched on each other's computers in different buildings and started writing on each other's screens. HP replaced the kit, but the problem still exists. HP wants to do an 'on site' test in the area to determine whether there are special circumstances which might influence the reach of the keyboards. One theory is that the keyboard's signal is too powerful, giving users little or no control over who receives typed information. The company is even considering a product recall. More than 65,000 of the keyboards have been sold in Europe alone. The unit is also sold in the US, but in smaller numbers.
VNUnet UK Nov 07, 2002	back to top