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Issue no. 46, 2003 Published: Dec 12, 2003
Light 'frozen' in its tracks
EC targets member states over privacy
US Congress OKs anti-spam bill
New wireless technology gets standards approval
Microsoft-Lindows battle expands in Europe
Microsoft wins HTML application patent
Rub out ink 'to cut paper waste'
IBM hails nano chip-making method
'Meta-files' proposed for legal music sharing
New sound-travelling handset unveiled
Mafia muscles in on spam and viruses
KaZaA blocks copycat

Light 'frozen' in its tracks
A pulse of light has been stopped in its tracks with all its photons intact, reveal US physicists at Harvard University in Cambridge. In the past scientists have already managed to slow down light to speeds of a few metres per second. But previous attempts at halting light have all resulted in the loss of the photons in the process. The researchers managed to stop light without this loss by firing a short burst of red laser light into a gas of hot rubidium atoms. This is then 'frozen' with the help of two control beams. The light in the control beams interacts with the rubidium atoms to create layers that alternately transmit and reflect the pulse. As the signal tries to propagate through these layers, the photons bounce backwards and forwards between them. As a result, the pulse makes no forward progress - the light is 'frozen' in place. The pulse is set free when the control beams are turned off. Controlling the movement of photons to store and process data could lead to the development of quantum computers.
New Scientist / Nature / BBC News Dec 10, 2003	back to top

EC targets member states over privacy
The European Commission has announced that it is to launch proceedings against nine member states for failing to implement an on-line privacy directive. The Commission announced that it has opened infringement proceedings against Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Sweden. The countries in question failed to implement the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, otherwise known as the e-Privacy Directive, which was adopted by the European Parliament and Council in July 2002. The Directive sets EU-wide rules for the protection of privacy and personal data in mobile and fixed communications, including the internet. The most highly publicised aspect of the new Directive was a ban on sending spam throughout the EU. The deadline for incorporation into national law was 31 October 2003 at the latest. By that date, only six countries had taken measures to transpose it.
ElectricNews.net Dec 05, 2003	back to top

US Congress OKs anti-spam bill
US Congress approved a bill Monday outlawing some of the most annoying forms of junk e-mail and creating a 'do not spam' registry. The House approved the bill containing jail time and multimillion-dollar fines for online marketers. The measure now goes to the White House where President Bush is expected to sign it into law by the end of the year. The bill will not outlaw all unsolicited commercial e-mail. Businesses can send messages to anyone with an e-mail address as long as they identify themselves clearly and honour consumer requests to opt out. But the bill will ban a variety of spammer tactics, such as using false return addresses. The bill also will authorise the Federal Trade Commission to set up a 'Do Not Spam' registry of internet users who wish to receive no unsolicited e-mail at all.
CNN / Reuters Dec 08, 2003	back to top

New wireless technology gets standards approval
The Near Field Communication (NFC) radio frequency technology jointly developed by Sony and Royal Philips Electronics has received standards approval. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) approved the NFC technology for the ISO/IEC IS 18092 standard. The technology allows portable devices within 20 centimetres of each other to wirelessly transfer data at speeds up to 424 kilobits per second, using the 13.56MHz radio spectrum. Products using NFC technology are expected to be available early next year. The NFC technologies developed separately by Philips and Sony - Mifare and FeliCa contactless integrated-circuit card, respectively - are included under the standard and are compatible. The two companies announced their NFC efforts in September of last year.
CNET News Dec 08, 2003	back to top

Microsoft-Lindows battle expands in Europe
Microsoft has expanded its legal battle with Lindows to Europe, putting pressure on PC makers there and on the company to stop distributing Lindows software. Lawyers representing the software company in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (the Benelux countries) and in Sweden sent letters to Lindows and several PC manufacturers in those countries, saying the use of the Lindows name infringes on Microsoft trademarks in those countries. The letters demand that Lindows and its resellers stop offering the software in those countries immediately or face unspecified 'legal action'. The Benelux lawyer further demands that Lindows make its website inaccessible to residents of the Benelux countries. To help pay legal costs relating to the anticipated new legal cases, Lindows has started its ChoicePC.com project. For $100, subscribers get a lifetime license to run Lindows and access the company's online services. All money raised will be used to support Lindows availability country by country, as lawsuits are launched.
ZDNet Dec 08, 2003	back to top

Microsoft wins HTML application patent
Microsoft on Tuesday won a patent for launching a certain kind of HTML application within Windows. The patent, 'Method and apparatus for writing a Windows application in HTML', describes Microsoft's way of opening up HTML applications in a window free of navigation and other interface elements, known as 'chrome', and security restrictions. One example of an HTML application at work in Windows is the 'Add or Remove Programs' feature in the control panel. Microsoft describes the technique as a way to harness HTML's power while bypassing its network and interface-related restrictions.
CNET News Dec 10, 2003	back to top

Rub out ink 'to cut paper waste'
Tonnes of wasted printed paper could get a new lease of life with 'erasable ink' technology. Toshiba has come up with a carbon-free ink that can be rubbed out with heat from a portable eraser machine. The so-called 'e-blue' technology works on documents that have been printed using the special ink or toner, which appears in a blue colour to distinguish it from normal toner or ink. The ink loses its colour when it is treated in the special erasing machine, which exposes the ink to temperatures of about 140ºC. At that temperature, the chemical bonding of the dye in the ink is broken down, making it invisible. The erasing machine can handle about 400 to 500 A4 sheets of paper or 200 to 250 A3 sheets in under three hours. The paper can then be used over and over again until it falls apart. Toshiba says it is also developing a photocopier which will be able to use the technology.
BBC News Dec 11, 2003	back to top

IBM hails nano chip-making method
IBM has trumpeted a nanotech method for making microchip components which it says should enable electronic devices to continue to get smaller and faster. Current techniques use light to help etch tiny circuitry on a chip, but IBM is now using molecules that assemble themselves into even smaller patterns. Because the technology is compatible with existing manufacturing tools, it should be inexpensive to introduce. IBM says it hopes to pilot the nanotech process in about three to five years. IBM researchers used the novel approach to make part of a device that acts as a type of flash memory, which retains recent information when an electronic gadget is turned off. IBM said the critical features of the semiconductor device were created using polymer molecules that quite naturally arranged themselves into hexagonal patterns that were 'smaller, denser, more precise, and more uniform than can be achieved using conventional methods like lithography'.
BBC News Dec 08, 2003	back to top

'Meta-files' proposed for legal music sharing
A new file-sharing standard designed to distribute copyrighted music and movies legitimately has been developed by a technology consortium. The system could deliver any content format to any computer, and users might even earn rewards points for sharing the files. The Content Reference Forum (CRF), founded by Universal Music Group and backed by technology companies including Microsoft, released the first specifications for the standard this week. Using the new standard, computer users could share small files containing information about music, video or other data, but not the content itself. Someone downloading the file would then use it to retrieve the actual content from a 'Content Reference Server'. The content would be in a copy-protected format, designed not be shareable. Each CRF file would contain metadata about a song or film, rules concerning its use and perhaps information about the person who sent it. The CRF is hoping the sharing file standard will be adopted by technology companies and incorporated into software music players.
New Scientist Dec 11, 2003	back to top

New sound-travelling handset unveiled
Talking on the phone even in crowded, noisy places will be made easy with a new handset in Japan that sends vibrations through the human skull to relay sound. The phone, manufactured by Sanyo Electric, works as a regular cell phone when the folding handset is opened, but users can also use it when it is closed by putting it next to their faces. The tiny vibrations from the phone travel through bones in the face to the ear — even if the phone is not placed next to the ear. This is not the only bone-rattling phone in the works. Japan's leading mobile carrier, NTT DoCoMo, has an experimental model called Finger Whisper that is merely a wristband with a microphone and earphone in it. Users talk into the wristband while sticking a finger in their ears, sending it vibrations that the ear and the brain convert to sound.
GlobeTechnology Dec 11, 2003	back to top

Mafia muscles in on spam and viruses
Organised crime is moving online into spam and virus writing - which means attacks may become less common but more dangerous, a Russian antivirus expert has warned. As criminal gangs get involved, the 'independent' operators that currently dominate the spam and virus market will be squeezed out, reducing the total number of attacks. The latest MiMail worms were the first in a new type of attack aimed at deriving financial profit from viruses and malware, according to Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab and head of its antivirus research. Recent MiMail variants collected and forwarded PayPal account details to the worms' creators. Although overall virus attacks might decline, targeted viruses could be used to steal commercial valuable secrets or bring down networks, Kaspersky said. To combat these kinds of threats a new set of internet protocols would need to be designed with security in mind.
VNUnet UK Dec 09, 2003	back to top

KaZaA blocks copycat
Sharman Networks, the company behind the world's most popular download service KaZaA, has begun a mass campaign to close rival program KaZaA Lite K++ on the grounds of copyright infringement. This weekend thousands of KaZaA Lite K++ users found almost every download site that uses the application had vanished, after Sharman Networks contacted hundreds of ISPs threatening them with legal action under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) if they failed to remove the program from their websites. Despite its name, KaZaA Lite K++ has no connection to the real KaZaA program, instead it represents just one of the many light packages of the file-sharing applications on the market. Light versions were set up to allow users to avoid controversial spyware and adware, which are installed on Sharman's KaZaA service and, most importantly, to offer a free alternative.
The Standard / PCAdvisor Dec 11, 2003	back to top