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Issue no. 22, 2003 Published: Jun 06, 2003
New system could speed up internet downloads
EU squabble may sink planned cybercrime agency
Europe's satellite navigation system gets final approval
Spot-on navigation comes a step closer
Software piracy on the wane
Web browser war ends in truce
Spam overtakes legitimate e-mail
Video games boost visual skills
Software makes stolen PCs useless
Google could be five times faster
Study shows DNA will fill tubes
Virtual future for ancient relics
Mimicry makes computers the user's friend

New system could speed up internet downloads
Scientists of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena are working on a fast new internet connection system that could enable an entire film to be downloaded in a matter of seconds. The Fast TCP system runs on the same internet infrastructure currently used. Internet traffic is controlled by Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which breaks down files into small packets of about 1500 bytes. The sending computer transmits a packet, waits for a signal from the recipient that acknowledges its safe arrival, and then sends the next packet. But if there is no reply, the packet is sent again and again at successively slower speeds until it arrives. The difference in Fast TCP is in the software and hardware on the sending computer, which continually measures the time it takes for sent packets to arrive and how long acknowledgements take to come back. The Fast TCP reveals the delays and predict the highest data rate the connection can support without losing data. When the researchers tested 10 Fast TCP systems together it boosted the speed to more than 6,000 times the capacity of the ordinary broadband links.
Yahoo / Reuters / New Scientist Jun 04, 2003	back to top

EU squabble may sink planned cybercrime agency
Plans for a European agency to tackle cybercrime such as computer viruses and terror attacks may be scuppered by bureaucracy because governments want to monitor it too tightly, EU officials said. The European Network and Information Security Agency, which would play a key advisory role to the 15 EU governments on how to combat web-related threats, was expected to be up and running by the end of this year. However, member states now say they want to directly appoint members of the management board, which would oversee the work of the agency. They are also seeking to axe a planned advisory panel meant to give voice to the industry. The European Commission is fiercely opposing an overhaul of its planned structure and is threatening to withdraw the proposal. The Commission had wanted the new body to be a slim 30-man operation to rapidly react to virus attacks and other threats. Its other duties would include EU-wide collection of data on cyber attacks, security risk assessments and pan-EU guidelines.
New York Times / Reuters Jun 04, 2003	back to top

Europe's satellite navigation system gets final approval
The member nations of the European Space Agency have finally agreed the plan for the development of the Galileo satellite navigation system. The joint ESA-European Union project will create a civilian rival to the Global Positioning System (GPS) run by the US military. Galileo will consist of a constellation of 30 satellites orbiting 23,600 kilometres above the Earth. It will provide a more precise commercial service than GPS, letting users located themselves to within a metre. The first satellite is scheduled for launch in late 2004 and the fully operational system is scheduled to be available by 2008. Eventually 27 active and three reserve satellites will be positioned in three circular Medium Earth Orbits. Development of the system will now be overseen by the newly created Galileo Joint Undertaking, headquartered in Brussels. The entire project is expected to cost around E3.2bn.
New Scientist May 27, 2003	back to top

Spot-on navigation comes a step closer
Highly-accurate and reliable satellite navigation in Europe is coming a step closer with the inauguration of the first main control centre of a new continent-wide system. The Egnos (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) facility is being inaugurated in Langen, Germany, on Friday. The system should go into full operation in 2004. Egnos works by adding extra information to existing signals from the two military-run services currently in use - the United States' GPS and Russia's Glonass - to provide users with positional data accurate to within two metres. Egnos also provides integrity information, warning users if there is a problem with the GPS system and instructing them not to rely upon it. Egnos is the first stage of a two-stage project to create a European satellite-based navigation system. The second stage is Galileo, an independent network of 30 satellites which is scheduled to begin full operation in 2008. Galileo will provide a service independent of the American and Russian systems but compatible with them.
BBC News Jun 06, 2003	back to top

Software piracy on the wane
Global piracy of business software is down, but the amount it costs software makers is up. According to figures collected by the Business Software Alliance, global piracy rates declined last year to 39 per cent. But the lost revenue this represents to firms making the software being pirated rose 19 per cent to more than $13bn. North America and Western Europe have the lowest global piracy rates. Only 24 per cent of business software in the US is pirated compared to 35 per cent in Europe. The Middle East/Africa has shown the most significant reduction in the amount of pirated software. In 1994 when the BSA began measuring piracy rates, eight out of every 10 business software packages in Middle Eastern and African nations were pirated. Now the rate is 49 per cent. The amount of business software pirated in Asian and Pacific Rim nations is dropping too. But some nations in the region, such as China and Vietnam, remain black spots with piracy rates in excess of 92 per cent.
BBC News Jun 03, 2003	back to top

Web browser war ends in truce
Microsoft will pay AOL Time Warner $750 million and let the media company license its browser software for seven years in a settlement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit against the software giant. The settlement also calls for Microsoft to license its digital media technology to AOL, as well as work with the company to promote digital media initiatives. Microsoft will provide technical information to AOL to ensure that its products run effectively on Windows operating system. The agreement resolves a lawsuit AOL filed against Microsoft in January 2002 on behalf of its subsidiary, Netscape Communications. The complaint was one of several private antitrust lawsuits still pending against Microsoft over anticompetitive behaviour. AOL had alleged in the lawsuit that Microsoft used anticompetitive business practices to ensure the dominance of Internet Explorer over Netscape's Navigator browser.
Yahoo / AP May 29, 2003	back to top

Spam overtakes legitimate e-mail
Spam has officially overtaken legitimate e-mail in the workplace, and there is little relief in sight. The month of May marked the first time that commercial e-mail comprised 51 per cent of all messages received by workers, according to MessageLabs, which analysed 133.9 million messages sent to its global network of business customers. ISPs and lawmakers in recent months have considered a range of measures for reducing spam, including the use of new technology, industry self-regulation and legislation. But those efforts may not pay off for two or three years, executives say. MessageLabs uses a global network of 'control towers' that filter e-mail for viruses and unwanted solicitations. The network - which spans the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong - is centrally managed and scans millions of messages each day.
ZDNet / CNET News Jun 03, 2003	back to top

Video games boost visual skills
Researchers of the University of Rochester in New York found that, compared with non-players, students who have played action games almost daily for at least six months performed far better in certain visual tasks such as identifying the location of a target object on a cluttered computer screen and counting the number of quickly flashed objects. Furthermore, the visual skills of non-gamers improve dramatically after just 10 hours of playing action games. The researchers tested the visual skills of male and female non-gamers before and after gaming one hour per day for 10 days. Nine students who played the action game Medal of Honor more than doubled their skills at some tasks. Eight others played Tetris, which requires players to concentrate on only one object at a time. These students did not get any better at the visual tasks. The researchers suspect that it is the complex demands placed on the visual system by action games that leads to the improvements. But heightened awareness, the sensory overload of sounds, colours and action, or the challenge of beating other players might also play a role.
New Scientist May 28, 2003	back to top

Software makes stolen PCs useless
Phoenix Technologies and Softex are offering software called TheftGuard, which is designed to be anchored in the heart of PCs and automatically disable or track down any stolen machine connected to the internet. TheftGuard is designed to run independently of a computer's operating system. It is installed on Phoenix software called the Core Managed Environment, which resides on the computer's underlying hardware and on part of the machine's hard drive. Phoenix's Core Managed Environment technology is centred on the firm's FirstBIOS. Every time a computer outfitted with TheftGuard connects to the internet, it pings the TheftGuard site. A computer-theft victim can register the machine at the site. If the stolen machine is brought online, the original owner can arrange to have the machine crippled or crippled with all data erased, and can determine the IP address used - which can help in hunting down the thief.
ZDNet / CNET News May 27, 2003	back to top

Google could be five times faster
Researchers at Stanford University have come up with three new techniques based on numerical linear algebra to make popular search engine Google up to five times faster. Google's ranking system relies on a method called PageRank, which calculates the popularity and relevance of websites based on how many other sites link to it. The first method, BlockRank, triples PageRank's speed. On most sites, up to 80 per cent of links point to other pages on the same site. BlockRank processes these links as a unit before moving on to exterior links. The second method uses extrapolation of a site's rank. Compared with PageRank, which only knows a site's rank after exhaustively trawling the web, extrapolation works 50 per cent faster. The third method, Adaptive PageRank, relies on the fact that lower- ranking sites tend to be computed faster than higher-ranking ones. By dropping further processing of such quickly-computed sites, a speed boost of up to 50 per cent can be won, according to the researchers.
ZDNet / CNET Asia May 27, 2003	back to top

Study shows DNA will fill tubes
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany have shown by computer simulation that it is possible to insert DNA into a carbon nanotube. Devices based on the DNA-nanotube combination could eventually be used to make electronics, molecular sensors, devices that sequence DNA electronically, and even gene delivery systems, according to the researchers. The researchers' simulation showed that in a liquid environment, a combination of the van der Waals force and hydrophobic interaction forces would pull a strand of DNA into a nanotube. The van der Waals force is a weak force of attraction between atoms and molecules. It could be possible to use the method to make DNA-modulated electronics in five to ten years, according to the researchers.
Technology Review / TRN Jun 04, 2003	back to top

Virtual future for ancient relics
A 3D scanning technique being tested at the British Museum could pave the way for virtual museum displays. The museum is making digital copies of fragile clay tablets from ancient Iraq using a new laser scanning method. After scanning the object, a 3D image is created, which could be published on a website. The data can also be used to steer robotic machinery to cut out an exact replica of the original. The idea started last year, when museum curators from Iraq requested copies of 1,000 clay tablets to furnish a new exhibition in Mosel. It will be dedicated to King Ashurbanipal, who reigned over the region in seven BCE. The British Museum currently houses thousands of tablets from the king's personal library. They contain tiny millimetre-deep inscriptions written in cuneiform - the oldest type of writing known. Copying this many objects using traditional resin moulds would take several years. But using the new laser scanner, the production time would be cut to weeks.
BBC News Jun 04, 2003	back to top

Mimicry makes computers the user's friend
Imitation is not just the best form of flattery - it is also good interface design. Researchers at ATR Media Information Science Laboratories in Kyoto think that a key component of machine likeability is the ability to mirror the 'music' of a user's speech. When we sense that a person is making an effort to copy the way that we speak, we tend to like that person more. Volunteers worked with an animated computer character that had the linguistic capabilities of a one-year-old child. They had to make toy animals out of blocks on the computer screen and to say the names of these animals to the character, which in return hummed sounds that mimicked the volunteers' speech in rhythm, intonation, loudness and pitch. Afterwards the users were asked to rate the character on attributes such as co-operation, learning ability, task-achievement, comfort, sympathy and friendliness. Results showed that the character scored highest on all counts when it mimicked 80 per cent of a volunteer's voice.
Silicon.com / CNET News/ New Scientist Jun 02, 2003	back to top