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Issue no. 36, 2003 Published: Oct 03, 2003
3G mobile signals: health effects
Advanced chip opens could threaten Windows dominance
European Commission adopts a Communication on eGovernment
P2P body draws up users' code of conduct
French home secretary announces chip ID card
Unpatchable IE vulnerability 'in the wild'
Huge computing power goes online
Design enables large neural nets
Magnetic logic devices move closer
Hybrid transistor to speed wireless computing
SMEs are worst software pirates
France's Minitel lives on
E-cards to spy on your lover

3G mobile signals: health effects
Radio signals for the next generation of mobile phone services can cause headaches and nausea, according to a survey commissioned by three Dutch ministries on the impact of tomorrow's data networks on health. The study, conducted by the Dutch technological research institute TNO, tested the impact of radiation from base stations used for the current mobile telephone network, against those for new third generation, or 3G, networks for fast data transfer. The double-blind laboratory tests - meaning no one in the survey knew if a base station was transmitting signals or not - exposed test subjects to levels of radiation average for 3G networks when they become commercial in coming years. People exposed to 3G base stations felt tingling sensations, got headaches and felt nauseous, according to a representative for the Economics Ministry. There was no negative impact from the signals for current mobile networks. However, cognitive functions such as memory and response times were boosted by both 3G signals and the current ones, the study found. People become more alert when they were exposed to both.
Wired News / Reuters Sep 30, 2003	back to top

Advanced chip opens could threaten Windows dominance
A computer chip designed to run more than one operating system at a time could break Microsoft's stranglehold on PC software. Plans for the chip were announced last week by chip maker Intel. Analysts are saying it could be one of the decade's most significant breakthroughs. Due for launch within five years, the chip will allow future machines to run, say, Windows XP together with Linux or MacOS as easily as today's Windows computers run Word and Internet Explorer simultaneously. Two or more operating systems running on the same hardware would inevitably clash, say, when trying to write data at the same time. To get round this, programmers write specialised software that interacts directly with the hardware to create several 'virtual machines', each capable of running its own operating system. The new chip will turn virtualisation software from an unwieldy giant into small and efficient 'hyper-OS'. Such a hyper-OS would allow people using ordinary PCs to try out alternative operating systems, such as Linux, and the applications that run on them, without giving up Windows.
New Scientist Oct 01, 2003	back to top

European Commission adopts a Communication on eGovernment
The European Commission last week published a long-awaited Communication on 'the role of eGovernment for Europe's future', which outlines the importance of e-government for achieving 'world-class public administration, delivering new and better services for citizens and businesses, and providing a major economic boost in Europe'. The Commission calls for the member states to exercise strong political leadership and commitment in order to modernise public administrations through e-government, and to co-operate at the European level to accelerate the take-up and development of e-government services. To this end, the Communication presents a set of 18 actions to speed up the development of e-government. Key actions proposed include: investment in multi-platform approaches (PC, digital TV, mobile terminals, public access points etc.); promotion of trust and confidence through the development of privacy-enhancing technologies and the advancement of authentication and identity management; development of electronic procurement; definition, development, implementation and promotion of pan-European eGovernment services.
IDA eGovernment Observatory Oct 01, 2003	back to top

P2P body draws up users' code of conduct
Developers of peer-to-peer (P2P) software have formed a trade association and drawn up a code of conduct for users of file-swapping sites, in the hope of helping to mollify the US music industry. The association, P2P United, is made up of six P2P companies, including Grokster and Streamcast - but not Sharman Networks, developer of Kazaa. It intends to lobby the US Congress to introduce compulsory licensing, a system similar to the fees that radio stations pay for music. If successful the recording industry, which has so far refused to open up its catalogues of music to P2P sites, would be forced to make its music available, giving P2P providers legitimacy. The code of conduct, according to P2P United, will help encourage responsible behaviour among the millions of users who copy music and other material from each other's hard drives. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it was refreshing that P2P United had acknowledged that its members should more actively educate users about the consequences of rampant illegal file sharing.
VNUnet UK Sep 30, 2003	back to top

French home secretary announces chip ID card
A 'perfectly secure' electronic identity card will be in use in France by 2006, French Home Secretary Nicolas Sarkozy has announced. The card will carry a chip which will combine 'the standard type of personal data you get in this type of document and an electronic certification system'. A digital authentication system with a public key infrastructure (PKI) will be used to guarantee the authenticity of the holder and ensure confidentiality. Citizens will be able to use the card with central government, local authorities as well as businesses. The minister also announced that 'a strategic blueprint for electronic public services from 2003 to 2007' will be published in the coming weeks. 'It's no longer up to the citizens to come to e-government, it's up to e-government go to them', he said
Silicon.com / ZDNet France Oct 01, 2003	back to top

Unpatchable IE vulnerability 'in the wild'
Security experts have warned that a vulnerability that has apparently been left un-patched by Microsoft is being exploited by attackers 'in the wild'. The 'object type' vulnerability, which was first acknowledged publicly by Microsoft on 20 August this year, allows an attacker to take control of a system by embedding malicious code in a webpage. If the webpage is viewed by an Internet Explorer browser - even a fully patched browser - the malicious code embedded in the webpage will execute, experts say. Despite Microsoft acknowledging the patch does not work, it evidently has not yet issued a working fix for the vulnerability. Users are advised to disable ActiveX controls and plug-ins until Microsoft issues a patch that fixes the vulnerability.
Silicon.com / ZDNet Australia Sep 29, 2003	back to top

Huge computing power goes online
The first phase of an ambitious computing network designed to handle huge amounts of data has been launched. The network, dubbed the Grid, has been set up by the Cern labs in Geneva to tap into the processing power of computers in 12 countries. The aim of the project is to handle data from an experiment on how the Universe began. Cern's Grid will initially be used to handle the terabytes of data generated by an upcoming particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is going to test the Big Bang theory by smashing protons together at high energies. The data generated by the experiment are expected to fill the equivalent of more than 20 million CDs a year and some 70,000 computers would be needed to analyse the data. The first phase covers processing resources from research institutes in 12 countries. The final goal of the Grid is to bring together the computing power of scientific centres across the world to create a virtual supercomputer network.
BBC News Oct 02, 2003	back to top

Design enables large neural nets
Electricity and light each have strengths and weaknesses as communications media. Researchers from Carlos III de Madrid University and the MIT have devised a neural network architecture that uses a mix of optics and electronics in order to accommodate large numbers of neurons. The architecture leverages the computational strength of electronics and the fast communications abilities of light. Neural networks have many interconnected elements and learn by assigning weights to the connections between neurons and changing the weights based on use. This allows a specific set of inputs to be associated with a pattern of weighted neural connections. The researchers' system carries out the neural weights assignment electronically, which cuts down on the number of difficult-to-align optical connections compared to previous optoelectronic neural networks. The design makes it possible to scale the system to a very high number of elements, or neurons, and the system's optical interconnects allow for fast communications among neurons.
Technology Review / TRN Sep 30, 2003	back to top

Magnetic logic devices move closer
In most computers bits of data are stored in one place and processed in another. Now physicists at the Paul Drude Institute in Berlin have proposed a new magnetic approach to computing in which the same element can store and process data. The new approach is based on magnetic random access memory (MRAM) elements that contain two magnetic layers separated by a spacer. If the magnetic moments of the two layers are parallel, the electrical resistance of the element is low and this is taken to represent a '1'; the antiparallel, high-resistance state is taken to represent a '0'. The magnetic moments of the layers can be flipped by passing an electric current through an input line to produce a magnetic field. The proposed device is based on a single element that has two independent input lines. This means that four initial states are possible altogether - '00', '01', '10' and '11'. This set-up is enough to provide storage and the AND and OR operations. And by adding a third input line, they can also reproduce the NAND and NOR operations.
Physicsweb Oct 01, 2003	back to top

Hybrid transistor to speed wireless computing
A hybrid transistor design that could mean faster and far less power-hungry wireless devices has been unveiled by researchers from IBM, who claim the transistor could make wireless chips three times faster than current designs while using 80 per cent less power. The researchers applied a technique normally used to make conventional CMOS microprocessor transistors more efficient to bipolar Silicon Germanium (SiGe) transistors. These are used in radio frequency chips, which enable the transmission of data through the air. Bipolar transistors are good at amplifying low power radio signals but are typically much less efficient than ordinary microprocessor transistors. Using a 'silicon-on-insulator' layer to reduce the capacitance of the bipolar transistors, the IBM team improved the speed at which they can switch on and off. IBM says the new transistor design paves the way for placing both SiGe and CMOS transistors on the same silicon-on-insulator wafer, making a faster and more efficient wireless-microprocessor hybrid.
New Scientist Sep 30, 2003	back to top

SMEs are worst software pirates
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) says that the majority of companies caught out for knock-off software are falling into the SME category. The figures show that nine out of ten of the companies who settled with the BSA in 2002/2003 were small or medium-sized companies, with Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec being among the pirates' software of choice. So why are SMEs the most prolific counterfeit software users? The BSA puts the trend down to a lack of awareness - and a lack of cash. Smaller companies tend to lack the same rigorous auditing policies of their bigger counterparts and, with software freely available online, can lose track of who has what installed on their machine, while the days of tightly squeezed budgets can lead to managers getting selective blindness when it comes to the odd knock-off of Windows. BSA's research shows that around 26 per cent of all business software use is illegal - and the figure is up for the first time in seven years.
Silicon.com Oct 01, 2003	back to top

France's Minitel lives on
France's ageing Minitel network may be an ugly duckling, but it was a precocious one when it was officially launched in 1983, intended to save money on telephone directories. While the rest of the world was marvelling at fax machines, the French were using this precursor to the internet to electronically search France Telecom's database of names, addresses and numbers, as well as sending messages to one another. It has taken the internet some time to catch up with Minitel. It was not until last year that the number of French using the net outstripped those using Minitel. Now, France Telecom is now trying to widen Minitel's appeal to a younger audience. It has put together a package of software to make Minitel available on the internet. One service makes websites available as simple text on a Minitel terminal, while another service lets net subscribers visit Minitel sites. This has breathed new life into the ageing piece of technology. Despite reports of its demise, a third of the French still have access to the Minitel network and four million terminals are in daily use.
BBC News Sep 28, 2003	back to top

E-cards to spy on your lover
A company calling itself Lover Spy has begun offering a way for jealous lovers - and anyone else - to spy on the computer activity of their mates by sending an electronic greeting, the equivalent of a thinking-of-you card, that doubles as a bugging device. The e-mail greeting card tries to lure the victim to a website that will download onto the victim's computer a trojan program to be used for spying. The Lover Spy software, sold for $89 for up to five computers, purports to record anything the victim does on the computer, including all keystrokes, passwords, e-mail, chats and screen shots and even turn on the victim's webcam. The spy program discreetly sends the information to the Lover Spy server which then forwards it on to whoever paid for the software, maintaining their anonymity, according to the company website.
CNN / Reuters Sep 30, 2003	back to top