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Issue no. 43, 2002 Published: Nov 22, 2002
Microsoft bug exposes millions to attack
Japanese mobile phone firms to study health risks
2002 will be worst-year ever for high-tech - survey
'New EU antitrust case against Microsoft in the making'
SuSE makes bold move on Linux desktop
Japan studies switch to open-source software
Software aims to put your life on a disk
South Korea addresses internet addiction
One person in 10 expected to be online in 2002
Teenage smoking 'cut by mobile phones'

Microsoft bug exposes millions to attack
A software bug in a common component of Microsoft web servers and Internet Explorer could leave millions of servers and home PCs open to attack, security researchers said Wednesday. The vulnerability could allow an internet attacker to take over a web server, spread an e-mail virus or create a fast-spreading network worm. The flaw, in a component of Windows that allows web servers and browsers to communicate with online databases, could be as widespread as the flaws that allowed the Code Red and Nimda worms to spread. It likely affects the majority of the more than 4.1 million sites hosted on Microsoft's Internet Information Service (IIS) software. In addition, Windows 95, 98, Me and 2000 PCs could also be vulnerable to the bug. Microsoft rated the flaw as critical under its new vulnerability evaluation system that is intended to lessen the number of flaws that receive a 'critical' rating to help administrators identify the most important vulnerabilities to patch.
ZDNet Nov 20, 2002	back to top

Japanese mobile phone firms to study health risks
Japan's four mobile phone companies, responding to growing concerns about cell phone use on health, have agreed to team up to study the possible biological effects of exposure to radio waves. The firms - market leader NTT DoCoMo, J-Phone, KDDI and Tu-ka Cellular Tokyo - said that as a first step they would collaborate on a study to examine the effects of radio waves both at the cell and genetic levels. The research, already being carried out by DoCoMo, is expected to take about four years to produce any conclusive results, DoCoMo said. The actual experiments have been commissioned to Mitsubishi Chemical Safety Institute to ensure objectivity. Explosive growth in global mobile phone use has increased the public debate over possible health risks linked to the devices. Last year an official at the World Health Organisation said a link between mobile phone use and cancer could not be dismissed without further research.
New York Times / Reuters Nov 21, 2002	back to top

2002 will be worst-year ever for high-tech - survey
The bad news: 2002 is expected to be the worst year ever for the worldwide IT industry, which is expected to show a 2.3 per cent slump. The good news, according to a survey by IDC: the worst is over and high-tech industries will grow by more than five per cent in 2003. However, IDC cautioned that the industry is not yet out of the woods and cautioned against unrealistic expectations. It said software spending will remain weak while price competition will inhibit revenue growth in the hardware sector. Beyond 2003, IDC expects growth rates to improve for several years followed by slower growth later in the decade. The hardest-hit segments were the systems market, which slid 9.3 per cent. The worldwide network equipment market experienced a 7.6 per cent decline as sales to telecom service providers dropped sharply. And the services market, which represents more than one-third of total worldwide tech revenues, also underwent a dramatic decline as the average contract value fell to a three-year low, IDC said.
Yahoo / AFP Nov 21, 2002	back to top

'New EU antitrust case against Microsoft in the making'
A new EU antitrust case against Microsoft could be in the making, some sources close to the European Commission have revealed. Microsoft’s leverage in mobile phone software from its dominant market share of PC operating systems would be the basis for the new case. Through this leveraging, Microsoft could make mobile phones mere distribution channels for its software, in a similar way competitors claim it has done with PCs. It is unlikely that the new case would be added to the ongoing investigation. The Commission investigates whether Microsoft has abused its dominant position into the PC Operating Systems market and whether the company illegally bundled its Media Player software into Windows 2000. A preliminary ruling is expected by the end of the year.
Europemedia.net Nov 18, 2002	back to top

SuSE makes bold move on Linux desktop
SuSE plans to announce in January an effort to bring the Linux operating system to desktop computers, an attack on Microsoft that will be bolder than similar initiatives from Red Hat and Sun Microsystems. For its desktop Linux product, SuSE will enlist the aid of CodeWeavers, whose CrossOver Office software lets Microsoft Windows-based programs run on Intel-based Linux computers, SuSE announced. The product also will include Sun's StarOffice package, a competitor to Microsoft Office. Linux's commercial success to date has largely been on servers, on which Linux's parent, Unix, is a comfortable fit. Desktop computers have remained the stronghold of Microsoft, despite ill-fated Linux efforts by some companies. But Linux advocates are starting to get optimistic again, spurred by disgruntlement with Microsoft's license fees, coupled with improvements to Linux and an argument that, through the open-source OS, corporations will be able to save money in tough economic times.
ZDNet Nov 19, 2002	back to top

Japan studies switch to open-source software
Eager to catch up with nations switching to computer systems other than Microsoft's Windows, Japan will study the possibility of using open-source software such as Linux at the government level. The public management ministry is earmarking 50 million yen (€410,000) for a panel of scholars and computer experts, including Microsoft officials, to finish the study by March 2004. Japan lags behind Germany, the US, China and other nations looking into or using open-source software such as Linux, which can be used and modified for free. Although Tokyo does not disclose a breakdown, government computer systems mostly use Microsoft Windows.
Nando Times / AP Nov 20, 2002	back to top

Software aims to put your life on a disk
Engineers are working on software to load every photo you take, every letter you write - in fact your every memory and experience - into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything. Microsoft's MyLifeBits project aims to build multimedia databases that chronicle people's life events and make them searchable. Everything from official documents, letters and photos to home videos and work documents can be posted. All email can be automatically saved on the system, as well as anything that is read or bought online. Phone conversations can be recorded and meetings stored as audio files. Each media file saved in MyLifeBits can be tagged with a written or spoken commentary and linked to other files. The system can also be used to build narratives involving other people, events or places. Searching for the name of a friend would bring together a chronological set of files describing when you both did things together, for instance.
New Scientist Nov 20, 2002	back to top

South Korea addresses internet addiction
South Korea is one of the most wired societies in the world. More than half the population has access to the internet, and there are more than 25,000 cyber cafes which are open 24 hours a day across the country. But the more negative impacts of over-reliance on the web have only been recently acknowledged and are starting to be addressed. An extreme case of internet obsession hit the news headlines last month when a young man died after playing computer games non-stop for 86 hours. In April, the first government-funded organisation - the Centre for Internet Addiction Prevention and Counselling - began operating to try to tackle the growing problem. The centre is carrying out research on cyber addiction. Addicts typically spend more than four hours a day of non-work-related time on the net. But experts say the definition of an addict is more about the central role computers and the internet can play in someone's life. Some symptoms are: Preoccupation with the internet, unable to perform normal tasks, feeling nervous and anxious when offline.
BBC News Nov 22, 2002	back to top

One person in 10 expected to be online in 2002
The number of people using the internet around the world is booming with near 30 per cent growth expected in 2002. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) predicts the number of users will reach 655 million this year, or one-tenth of the world's population, compared to 500 million in 2001. The annual E-Commerce and Development Report estimates trade in goods and services over the internet could reach $2.3bn this year, a 50 per cent jump on last year, and could hit $3.9bn by the end of 2003. The reported is considered a key indicator of the development of e-commerce, which is notoriously difficult to quantify. About a third of new users were from developing countries in 2001 but the percentage of the population using the internet was still far higher in rich nations, the report said. The US had the most users, with nearly 143 million people online, followed by China with some 56.6 million.
BBC News Nov 18, 2002	back to top

Teenage smoking 'cut by mobile phones'
Teenagers are smoking less because mobile phones give them something else to do with their hands, a new report suggests. Researchers believe the popularity of mobile phones with young people could be a factor in the falling number of 15-year-old smokers. The number of 15-year-old boys in the UK who smoke regularly has dropped from 28 per cent in 1996 to 19 per cent, while the number of girls smoking has fallen from a third to a quarter. Over the same period, the number of 15-year-olds owning mobile phones has gone from a handful to 73 per cent.
Ananova / the Times Nov 20, 2002	back to top