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Issue no. 15, 2003 Published: Apr 11, 2003
Piracy threat looms over Windows 2003
Hard work ahead for online rulers
Intel's paper-thin chips boost mobile memory
Fibre loop makes quantum memory
Nanotube web could mimic brain
Sandwich promises cheap storage
Virtual patching offers bandage to IT systems
Nano lasers grown like snowflakes
Glowing beads make tiny bar codes
Software to unzip identity of unknown composers
Flaw opens alien program to invaders

Piracy threat looms over Windows 2003
Just two weeks before the scheduled release of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 an installation key has been leaked onto the internet threatening widespread piracy of the new software. The key appears to be a Volume License Key leaked by a Volume Licence Media user. The Volume License Key is a number that users must enter to be able to use the software. It is similar to the keycode used to activate retail versions of Windows XP desktop, but unlike the Windows XP version, the keycode is not tied to a particular computer and allows the software to run on any system. A Microsoft spokeswoman said every customer receives a unique keycode. Microsoft keeps track of who receives each one, and is working on tracking down the source of the leak. She noted that while the key will allow users to run the software, they will not receive service packs or other updates.
InternetWeek / VNUnet UK Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Hard work ahead for online rulers
The gloss may have fallen off dot.com companies on the stock market, but among governments the web is more popular than ever. The annual survey of e-government by consulting firm Accenture reveals the increasingly sophisticated use many national authorities are making of the net. The 22 governments monitored in the survey are all putting more services online and fine-tuning existing ones to meet the needs of citizens. But the report warns that governments must work harder to ensure that online services are used and that those who need help, get it. The report ranks the governments according to the extent and complexity of their web use. Governments at the bottom of the list have set up websites but list simply information rather than offer any services. Those on the top rung allow citizens to go online and carry out complete transactions and are using the experience of putting services online to transform work methods in government departments. Canada is the only country ranked as reaching this level of complexity, and, for the third year running, it is seen as having the most sophisticated e-government.
BBC News Apr 08, 2003	back to top

Intel's paper-thin chips boost mobile memory
Intel has released a new package for stacking memory chips that will let manufacturers put more memory into mobile phones without increasing the size of the handsets. The new package, called the Ultra-Thin Stacked Chip Scale Package, lets manufacturers stack up to five memory chips on top of each other. Currently, Intel sells memory packages that can stack up to four chips on top of each other. Most mobile phone makers use packaging that holds only one or two chips. With the new package, mobile phone makers will be able to put 512 megabits of flash memory - along with other memory chips - into phones this year, and one gigabit next year without increasing the surface area needed on the board.
Silicon.com Apr 10, 2003	back to top

Fibre loop makes quantum memory
A relatively simple device that sends individual photons cycling through a fibre-optic loop could provide the memory needed to make ultra powerful computers that use the quantum states of light as bits. Quantum computers are potentially powerful enough to solve problems that are beyond the most powerful classical computers, including cracking the strongest secret codes and quickly searching huge databases. Several research teams have shown that it is possible to carry out logic operations using the traits of individual photons as quantum bits that represent the 1s and 0s of computing. Computers must also be able to briefly store the outcomes of logic operations. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have come up with a method for capturing photonic qubits for tiny fractions of a second, which enables them to briefly store information about the state of a quantum particle. The memory device consists of a storage loop and a switch that directs photons into and out of the loop.
Technology Review / TRN Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Nanotube web could mimic brain
Researchers from NASA Ames Research Center have found a way to grow minuscule webs of connected carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are rolled-up sheets of carbon atoms that appear naturally in soot, and are central to many nanotechnology projects. Nanotube networks could herald a new type of electronics that have huge numbers of random connections, a setup similar to a brain's synapses. Such networks could also form sensors, parts for conventional electronics, or templates for assembling materials molecule-by-molecule. To provide a place for nanotubes to grow and connect, the researchers collapsed microscopic spheres of polystyrene suffused with a catalyst. The microspheres were 500 to 2,000 nanometres across and several to several hundred nanometres apart. The researchers burned away the polystyrene, leaving smaller spheres of the catalyst. The researchers were able to control the number of nanotubes and connections that grew on each sphere by varying the solution mix and microsphere size. Nanotubes can be a small as one nanometre.
Technology Review / TRN Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Sandwich promises cheap storage
University of California at Los Angeles researchers have used a simple, inexpensive manufacturing technique to fabricate tiny switches. The simple manufacturing process is in contrast to today's silicon-based electronics, which require expensive facilities such as cleanrooms. The devices leverage a recently discovered phenomenon. An ultrathin metal layer embedded between two organic layers has two states - a high-conductance state that lets electricity flow easily, and a low-conductance state. The device can be switched from one state to the other via a pulse of electricity. The states are stable, and can represent the 1s and 0s of computer information. The areas that undergo switching are about 10 nanometres in diameter. The researchers are still determining how closely the switches can be packed, but estimate that they will be able to store information in areas as small as those in current storage devices. They hope the method could yield cheap, practical storage media in two years.
Technology Review / TRN Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Virtual patching offers bandage to IT systems
A new 'virtual patching' tool will give administrators more time to react to hacking attacks by protecting vulnerable systems until they can be patched. In its latest version of Real Secure Protection (RSP) system, a network security and monitoring system, Internet Security Systems (ISS) has introduced Fusion 2.0 and Internet Scanner 7.0. Internet Scanner 7.0 is designed to map networks and assess vulnerabilities, identifying flaws in patching. If unpatched hardware is discovered, Internet Scanner works out what suspicious traffic would look like, blocking if it occurs but otherwise leaving the hardware operational. Fusion 2.0 contains a protocol analysis module (Pam), which identifies signatures of hacking activity. This analyses network activity from sensors on both the PC and server to look for suspicious activity such as the sharp rise in network traffic caused by a worm attack. Administrators can roll out threat sensors incrementally to monitor key systems, and there is immediate reporting in either HTML or PDF format.
VNUnet UK Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Nano lasers grown like snowflakes
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created the world's smallest lasers using the principles of snowflake growth. They are evenly spaced branches on needles made of the semiconductor zinc oxide. Rows of such 'nanowire lasers' could make light-based information technology faster and more compact, according to the researchers. Currently, the lasers that send information-laden light pulses down fibre-optic networks are about 1,000 times bigger than the nanowires, and are therefore too cumbersome to fit onto silicon chips. Lasers made from individual nanowires have been made before, but they had to be built individually. Making a whole bank would be a fiddly business. The new nanowire array assembles itself by a phenomenon called dendritic growth, in which small bumps that appear by chance on the sides of a growing needle-shaped crystal blossom into full-blown side-branches. These branches, each ten millionths of a millimetre across, are spaced a roughly equal distance apart and are remarkably smooth, straight and regular. Shining bright light onto them turns them into lasers.
Nature Apr 04, 2003	back to top

Glowing beads make tiny bar codes
Corning researchers have found a way to form tiny, barcoded beads that are small enough to be embedded in ink and attached to DNA molecules. The beads measure 100 by 20 by 20 microns, which is just at the edge of invisible. A micron is one thousandth of a millimetre. The researchers made the coded beads by fusing together glass mixed with lanthanide metal oxide ions, drawing the mixture into a fibre, etching the fibre with a laser, than breaking the beads along the cuts by putting them in an ultrasonic water bath. The metal oxides glow at certain wavelengths under ultraviolet light; stripes of oxide that glow different colours can be used to make more than 100 billion unique barcodes. The microbeads could be embedded in inks to tag currency and other documents. They can also be added to substances such as automobile paint and explosives. The beads can also be used to tag different types of DNA or other molecules in drug discovery experiments.
Technology Review / TRN Apr 04, 2003	back to top

Software to unzip identity of unknown composers
A standard PC file-compression program can tell the difference between classical music, jazz and rock, all without playing a single note. This new-found ability could help scholars identify the composers of music that until now has remained anonymous. The technique exploits the ability of 'zip' data-compression software which has already been successfully used to detect the language a piece of text is written in. Researchers of the Dutch National Research Institute in Amsterdam used this compression technique on digital files of various pieces, including some from Beethoven, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. They subtracted any data unrelated to the actual music to create a data string representing only the rhythm and melody. Using Bzip2 software they measured how similar each piece was to every other. The results were plotted in a tree-shaped pattern, in which similar pieces cluster together on the same branch. In a test with 12 each of jazz, classical and rock pieces, ten of the jazz, nine of the rock and most of the classical pieces ended up in three distinct branches of the tree.
New Scientist Apr 09, 2003	back to top

Flaw opens alien program to invaders
A security bug has been discovered in the screensaver software used by millions of people to search for alien messages in radio telescope signals. The bug could be used to invade computer systems worldwide. A Dutch computer student at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands found that a sending a specially crafted update to the SETI@home program installed on a user's computer forces it to run unauthorised code. This could be exploited to gain control of the machine. SETI@home's coordinators, at the University of California Berkeley, have now released a software patch that fixes the flaw. They also say an attacker would have to use other tricks to impersonate the SETI@home central server in order to make use of the bug.
New Scientist Apr 07, 2003	back to top