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Issue no. 24, 2003 Published: Jun 20, 2003
Italian piracy ring smashed
SCO terminates IBM's AIX licence
Microsoft takes spam fight to court
No more IE for the Mac, says Microsoft
Destroy 'pirate' PCs, says politician
Nanotech breakthrough jogs memory
Nano rapid prototyping advances
Practical nanotube fibre near
Microchip promises smart artificial arms
Philips unveils Mirror TV
Europe's largest Wi-Fi hotspot goes live
Software aims to 'cut the bull'
Energy firm denies link to powergenitalia site

Italian piracy ring smashed
One of Europe's largest net piracy rings has been shut down by Italian police. More than 180 people have been charged in connection with piracy and another 10,000 are still being investigated. The Italian police seized more than €118m of illegal software in raids to break up the pirate ring. The raids were carried out in more than 30 regions across Italy as police uncovered the scale of the counterfeiting organisation. Italy's Guardia di Finanza staged 'Operation Mouse' over the last six months to smash the sophisticated counterfeiting and sales organisation. The huge network was uncovered by investigators following up a tip off about a single e-mail address. Now the Guardia has evidence of more than 95,000 suspect e-mail addresses and a net-based sales network that was capable, it is estimated, of an annual turnover of €2bn.
BBC News Jun 17, 2003	back to top

SCO terminates IBM's AIX licence
The SCO Group has terminated IBM's right to sell its AIX operating system and is seeking billions worth of damages from Big Blue. SCO has filed a permanent injunction that requires IBM to 'cease and desist all use and distribution of AIX', and to return all copies of Unix source code to SCO. SCO's lawsuit claims that IBM broke its contract with SCO by allowing parts of SCO's Unix V source code, licensed to IBM for use in AIX, to be used in the rival Linux operating system kernel. SCO gave IBM a 100-day period before its licence to sell AIX systems was withdrawn, which ended at midnight, Friday 13 June. Having failed to reach an agreement, termination of IBM's contract was automatic, said SCO. SCO's amended filing seeks $3bn from IBM's multibillion-dollar AIX-related businesses. According to SCO, these damages began to accrue since last Friday's deadline and cover all IBM's AIX-related business, including services, hardware and software.
VNUnet UK Jun 18, 2003	back to top

Microsoft takes spam fight to court
Intensifying its campaign against spammers, Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has taken legal action in the US and in the UK. Microsoft said it filed 13 civil suits against US defendants, accusing them of spamming Microsoft customers with deceptive e-mail. It also filed two suits in the UK, where the defendants are accused of illegally harvesting Microsoft e-mail addresses for use in building spam mailing lists. Microsoft accused the defendants in the 15 suits of being collectively responsible for sending the company's customers more than 2 billion unsolicited commercial messages. Microsoft singled out a number of specific e-mail sending practices in its suits, including those that use deceptive and fraudulent messages, unsolicited pornographic messages and ads for sexual services, and false virus warnings. Another spam practice targeted in the suits is the 'spoofing' of the sender's e-mail address. Spammers falsely make it appear that the messages are coming from users of Hotmail.
ZDNet / CNET News Jun 17, 2003	back to top

No more IE for the Mac, says Microsoft
Microsoft is halting development of future Macintosh versions of Internet Explorer (IE) browser. Although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates, no major new releases are planned. With the emergence of Apple's Safari browser, Microsoft says that customers are better served by using Apple's browser, noting that Microsoft does not have the access to the Macintosh operating system that it would need to compete. Microsoft's decision creates a conundrum for Mac users seeking maximum compatibility. Many websites are designed to work best or, in some cases, only with IE. Although Apple has worked hard to gain compatibility with the vast majority of sites, it is not clear what the effect will be from the most commonly used browser abandoning the Mac market.
Silicon.com / CNET News Jun 15, 2003	back to top

Destroy 'pirate' PCs, says politician
A US senator wants to develop new technology which would remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music tracks. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican representing Utah, asked technology chiefs at a hearing in Washington about whether they could develop ways to damage or destroy the computers. Legal experts have said any attack on people's computers would contravene the US's anti-hacking laws. But Hatch said damaging computers 'may be the only way you can teach someone about copyright'. He said if a few hundred thousand people suffered damage to their computers, the online community would realise the clampdown was serious. Hatch advocated sending two warnings to computer users about illegal downloads. On the third transgression, their computer would be destroyed or damaged.
BBC News Jun 18, 2003	back to top

Nanotech breakthrough jogs memory
The first 10GB nanotechnology memory (NRAM) device has been built in the laboratories of US company Nantero. Using carbon nanotubes a billionth of a metre in diameter sprinkled onto a silicon wafer, the device has been made using mostly standard chip production techniques. Nantero claims that the technology can combine the speed and price of dynamic memory with the non-volatility of flash, making it a strong candidate for the eagerly awaited universal memory devices that the industry hopes will replace all other types - DRAM, flash memory and hard disks in a wide variety of digital devices. NRAM works by balancing the nanotubes on ridges of silicon. Under differing electrical charges, the tubes can be physically swung into one of two positions representing one and zero. Because the tubes are so small this movement is very fast and needs very little power, and because the tubes are a thousand times as conductive as copper it is very easy to sense their position to read back the data. Once in position, the tubes stay there until a signal resets them.
ZDNet Jun 13, 2003	back to top

Nano rapid prototyping advances
Rapid prototyping - using lasers to harden liquid plastic into three- dimensional shapes - has been around for some decades, but lately researchers have been working to scale the process down to the realm of nanotechnology. Researchers from University College London and the University of Cambridge in England, and Superior Technical Institute in Portugal have found a way to use near-field light to make features as small as 160 nanometres. A near-field light source can focus narrowly, hardening minuscule amounts of plastic, because it resides closer to a surface than the span of the wavelength of light it uses. The researchers exposed portions of a soluble polymer to ultraviolet light to make those portions insoluble, and dissolved the remaining polymer to leave tiny patterns. The method could eventually be used to make rapid prototypes of nanoscale photonics devices that guide lightwaves, light sources smaller than a red blood cell, and plastic electronics that store data and compute.
Technology Research News Jun 18, 2003	back to top

Practical nanotube fibre near
Spider silk, a product of 400 million years of evolution, stops insects on the wing because it is five times tougher than steel. Scientists working with carbon nanotubes are looking to surpass the strength of spider line. Nanotubes also have useful electrical properties. Researchers of the University of Texas in Dallas have taken a step toward making carbon nanotube fibres manufacturable by speeding up a nanotube fibre-making method 100-fold to produce 70 centimetres of nanotube fibre per minute. The researchers' 100-metre long fibres are four times tougher than spider silk, and 17 times tougher than the Kevlar fibre used to make bulletproof vests. The researchers made the fibres by mixing single-walled nanotubes into a rotating solution of polyvinyl alcohol to produce gel fibres, then washing away the polyvinyl alcohol. They also formed super capacitors, which store energy, by coating the fibres with an electrolyte. Antenna, batteries and electromagnetic shields could eventually be made from the fibres, according to the researchers.
Technology Review / TRN Jun 17, 2003	back to top

Microchip promises smart artificial arms
Computer technology could soon transform the lives of people with artificial arms. British scientists are developing a microchip which gives people with prosthetic arms greater control over these limbs. The technology works by turning thought processes in the brain into actual physical movements. Many people who have lost their arms still have some movement in the surrounding muscles. They can flex these muscles as if they were trying to move their arms. Many people already have high-tech prosthetic arms which can read this flexing, enabling them to open or close their hand. But scientists at Advanced Control Research in Plymouth have developed a new microchip which can read more of these signals and enable users to move their artificial arms much more freely. The microchip, which is placed inside the prosthesis, can read up to four different signals at any one time. This enables users to not only open or close their hand but also to move their wrist and elbow.
BBC News Jun 15, 2003	back to top

Philips unveils Mirror TV
Electronics giant Philips has introduced a new television that enables you to brush your teeth and watch TV at the same time. The Mirror TV is a LCD display integrated into a mirror. Designed to be initially used in hotels, the Mirror TV uses a unique polarised mirror technology, which transfers close to 100 per cent of the light through the reflective surface. This means that when the LCD is activated, you can see the display, when it is turned off, you see your reflection. The device can also double as a monitor. Users can link their lap-tops or home PC to the Mirror TV with a special connector. Philips is also testing more advanced versions of the product that could connect users wirelessly to the mirror. Possible uses for this could include displaying individual's health data or showing a cartoon that encourages children to brush their teeth more effectively.
Yahoo / ENN Jun 12, 2003	back to top

Europe's largest Wi-Fi hotspot goes live
The largest wireless computer hotspot in Europe has gone live at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, allowing cable-free internet access to staff and students anywhere on campus. The 140-hectare campus is peppered with 650 individual wireless network access points, with each point having a range of about 100 metres. Students with laptops and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) cards can access the university's network and the internet from any building, the campus park and even from the university's pool - without cumbersome cabling. The wireless network consists mainly of access points that use the 802.11b wireless networking standard. This means a data transfer speed of 11 megabits per second for most users. But in some of the buildings hardware using the newly-approved 802.11g standard is already available. This provides data at speeds up to 56 megabits per second, but will still work with 802.11b hardware. Eventually, the University hopes to upgrade the entire network to run using 802.11g.
New Scientist Jun 16, 2003	back to top

Software aims to 'cut the bull'
A new software program sends a clear message to corporate America: Cut the bull. Deloitte Consulting admits it helped foster confusing, indecipherable words like 'synergy', 'paradigm' and 'extensible repository'. But now it has decided enough is enough. On Tuesday, it released 'Bullfighter' to help writers of business documents avoid jargon and use clear language. Bullfighter could potentially help investors spot troubled companies. Used to test language used by now-bankrupt energy trader Enron from 1999 through 2001, the program found that 'it got progressively more obscure as they got deeper and deeper into trouble', according to Deloitte Consulting partner Brian Fugere. The final version of Bullfighter has a dictionary of 350 words and gives people the ability to add more. The program, which can be downloaded for free, was tested on statements by 30 big US companies. Retail giant Home Depot was first for clarity on the 'Bull Index', while computer hardware and software companies suffered the lowest scores for readability.
Silicon.com / Reuters Jun 18, 2003	back to top

Energy firm denies link to powergenitalia site
Energy giant Powergen says it has no connection to the unfortunately named Italian website www.powergenitalia.com. Rumours have been sweeping the internet that the website for Powergen Italia is part of the empire of the British firm. But Powergen Italia is actually an Italian battery firm, which was unaware running its name together in its URL would prove amusing to English speakers. A spokesman for Powergen said: 'This site has nothing to do with us at all. We don't even have an Italian division.'
Ananova Jun 19, 2003	back to top