Issue no. 28, 2004
Published: Aug 20, 2004 |
|
 Microsoft wins again in Eolas patent dispute |
| Global anti-spam taskforce to fight junk email threat |
| Quantum teleportation across the Danube river demonstrated |
| Scientists: Nanotech risks need study |
| Mobile phones 'pose rural risk' |
| Researchers find high cancer rates near AM transmitters |
| Nanotubes may have no 'temperature' |
| Virtual 3D heart to treat babies |
| Quantum dots can print secret codes |
| Handwriting analysis goes 3D |
| DNA technique protects against spam |
| Stealth wallpaper keeps company secrets safe |
| Sun thinking turns to floating chips |
| Wireless net to get speed boost |
| Unpatched PCs down to 20min 'survival time' |
|
| Microsoft wins again in Eolas patent dispute |
The US Patent and Trademark Office has handed Microsoft a second victory
in its dispute with Eolas, rejecting browser patent claims that could
roil the web if upheld. The patent in question, owned by the University
of California and licensed exclusively to its Eolas software spinoff,
describes the way a web browser opens third-party applications, or
'plug-ins', within the browser.
In the second of what are projected to be three opinions, or 'office
actions', on the case, the Patent Office rejected all 10 patent claims
under review, according to a source familiar with the document. The
agency's first office action on the matter came in February.
Eolas and the university still have at least one more chance to argue
their case before the patent examiner in a decision being watched
closely by the software industry. Even if UC and Eolas fail to sway the
patent office and it winds up ruling against them, they have two levels
of appeal, the first to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences
and the second to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington DC. |
| ZDNet / CNET News
Aug 18, 2004 |
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| Global anti-spam taskforce to fight junk email threat |
A global taskforce has been set up to bring together regional efforts at
tackling the growing problem of spam email. The Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes most of the
world's industrialised countries, says the taskforce will marshal
government and business anti-spam initiatives, in one of the most
comprehensive and strategic efforts to date.
Key objectives of the OECD anti-spam group include coordinating
international policy responses in the fight against spam, encouraging
best practices in industry and business, promoting enhanced technical
measures to combat spam along with improved awareness and understanding
among consumers. The OECD says the initiative will also support efforts
to facilitate cross-border law enforcement.
The taskforce has been given two years to develop and promote an
anti-spam 'tool-kit' with practical anti-spam strategies and to devise a
public awareness campaign to support a global crackdown on junk email. |
| Silicon.com
Aug 12, 2004 |
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| Quantum teleportation across the Danube river demonstrated |
Scientists at the Institute for Experimental Physics in Vienna have
successfully teleported photons more than 600 metres across the Danube.
The researchers fired a laser through a barium borate crystal to
generate two pairs of photons. One pair is entangled, which means that
if something disturbs the state of one, the other feels the effects as
well - even when they are not physically connected. By separating the
entangled pair, the scientists successfully transported information
about the state of one photon to the other.
Using fibre-optic cable laid under the water in sewer pipes, together
with microwaves sent across the air above the water, three distinct
states were teleported across the Danube. Over the course of a 28-hour
experimental run, the system was correct 97 per cent of the time.
The results indicate that quantum teleportation is feasible over long
distances and under real-world conditions, the scientists say. |
| Scientific American / Nature
Aug 19, 2004 |
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| Scientists: Nanotech risks need study |
Nanotechnology offers tremendous potential, but regulation is needed to
minimise any future risks, scientists warn. The technology could lead to
more powerful computers, very light but strong materials, and advanced
medical techniques. But a report by Britain's Royal Society, an academy
of leading scientists, and the Royal Academy of Engineering, said more
research is needed to discover any negative effects it may have.
Prophets of doom have painted a nightmare scenario of nanotechnology
leading to self-replicating robots and turning the Earth into a 'gray
goo'. Fears have also been raised that people could breathe in designer
materials so small that they can slip through membranes inside the body.
The report, commissioned by the UK government, suggested that
nanoparticles and nanotubes be treated as new chemicals under European
legislation because they have different properties from the same
chemical in larger form. It also called for exposure limits in the
workplace and said nanoparticles should be approved by an independent
scientific safety committee before they are used in consumer products. |
| ZDNet / Reuters
Jul 29, 2004 |
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| Mobile phones 'pose rural risk' |
People who use mobile phones in remote, rural areas are significantly
more at risk from potentially harmful emissions, according to a Swedish
study. The study found the power required by mobile phones in the
countryside was up to 1,000 times greater than in urban areas because
phone base stations are further away.
The Institute of Environmental Medicine looked at 230,000 hours of phone
calls in four different places - a small village with open countryside,
a small town, a suburb and Stockholm. They found greater number of
signal transmitters in built-up areas meant the power required to get a
signal was significantly lower and concluded this should be taken into
account by people who make a lot of calls in rural areas.
There have been claims that mobile phones can cause cancer and reduce
male fertility but experts have not yet reached any firm conclusions. |
| The Scotsman
Aug 19, 2004 |
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| Researchers find high cancer rates near AM transmitters |
Korean scientists have found that regions near AM radio-broadcasting
towers had 70 per cent more leukaemia deaths than those without. The
study also found that cancer deaths were 29 per cent higher near such
transmitters. Two years ago an Italian study found death rates from
leukaemia increased dramatically for residents living within two miles of
Vatican Radio's powerful array of transmitters in Rome.
The Koreans looked at the death rates in 10 regions with AM radio
transmitting towers broadcasting at more than 100 kilowatts and compared
them with control areas without transmitters. The substantially higher
cancer mortality in those who lived within two kilometres of the towers
led researchers to conclude that more investigation was needed but they
said did it not prove a direct link between cancer and the transmitters.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World
Health Organisation are urging more studies, especially of radio waves
from cell phones. |
| Wired News
Aug 16, 2004 |
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| Nanotubes may have no 'temperature' |
Physicists have made a bizarre discovery: the concept of temperature is
meaningless in some tiny objects. Although the concept of temperature is
known to break down on the scale of individual atoms, research now
suggests that it may also fail to apply in rather larger entities, such
as carbon nanotubes that could be used to make tiny electronic devices.
Researchers from the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK say that if you
took the temperature at one end of a 10-micrometre nanotube, it would
not necessarily have the same temperature as the other end, no matter
how long it was left to reach a thermal equilibrium.
The finding could shock some scientists working on nanoscale devices,
who may not expect temperature to behave in this way. 'If you're down to
a scale where temperature is not relevant, the fluctuations in physical
properties of that system could be unpredictable, and that is
potentially bad for any device,' says Peter Atkins, a physical chemist
at University of Oxford. |
| Nature
Aug 17, 2004 |
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| Virtual 3D heart to treat babies |
Virtual reality techniques are helping Danish doctors diagnose heart
defects in newborn babies. The system turns flat images produced by
conventional MRI body scanners into giant, rounded models of the child's
heart, which surgeons can navigate through and explore from every angle.
Research published in last month's Circulation magazine shows that these
VR heart images can highlight defects that would be easily missed by
doctors studying conventional scans. The system also lets a doctor to
revert to the baby's original, flat MRI scan.
The technique has been developed by the Aarhus University Hospital in
collaboration with the University of Aarhus Centre for Advanced
Visualisation and Interaction. Future developments of the system will
allow surgeons to practise the surgical treatments they are planning to
use on their tiny patients. |
| BBC News
Aug 18, 2004 |
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| Quantum dots can print secret codes |
Researchers from the Canadian National Research Council have devised a
way to use quantum dots to print invisible secret codes onto surfaces
such as documents. The dots measure between 3 and 6 nanometres in
diameter. The method could eventually be used to authenticate valuable
documents such as passports and certificates, the researchers say.
Quantum dots can be made to emit one wavelength of light when hit with a
second wavelength of light. The method uses three quantum dots that emit
three different colours of light. The intensity levels of the three
lightwave peaks represent a three-digit code. The code can be kept
secret because the intensity levels change depending on the colour of
the light source. For example, three single-colour quantum dots can emit
fluorescence corresponding to the code of 2-7-3 when hit with 470nm
light waves, but the code changes to 3-5-3 when hit with 450nm light.
The correct code can be read only by a person who knows the key, which
is the correct wavelength of light for each set of three quantum dots
contained in the cryptograph. |
| Technology Research News
Aug 18, 2004 |
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| Handwriting analysis goes 3D |
A new technique that uses three-dimensional holograms to analyse
handwriting samples exposes writing characteristics that forgers cannot
fake. The method may prove to be the most powerful tool yet in
identifying fraudulent signatures on checks and other legal documents.
Traditionally, forensic handwriting experts have tried to spot forgeries
by analysing the sequence of pen strokes used by the author to create a
word. But experts often have a hard time discerning these 'stroke
dynamics', especially if a skilled forger is at work.
But scientists at the Università degli Studi 'Roma Tre' in Rome used a
hologram generator to create 3D images of writing samples. The device
transforms seemingly flat letters into landscapes of hills and valleys
that reveal the pressure and stroke sequence used to create each word.
The researchers tested their system by comparing writing samples made
with various combinations of pen and paper types. They found that the
holographic image indicated the proper stroke order in almost 90 per
cent of cases. |
| Science Now
Aug 18, 2004 |
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| DNA technique protects against spam |
A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest
weapon in the war against spam. The algorithm named Chung-Kwei is based
on the Teiresias algorithm, designed to search different DNA and amino
acid sequences for recurring patterns.
Instead of chains of characters representing DNA sequences, the research
group fed the algorithm 65,000 examples of known spam. Each email was
treated as a long, DNA-like chain of characters. Teiresias identified
six million recurring patterns in this collection. Each pattern
represented a common sequence of letters and numbers that had appeared
in more than one unsolicited message. The researchers then ran a
collection of known non-spam through the same process, and removed the
patterns that occurred in both groups.
Incoming email was given a score based on how many spam patterns it had.
The Chung-Kwei correctly identified 64,665 of 66,697 test messages as
being spam or 96.56 per cent. More importantly, its rate of
misidentifying genuine email as spam was just 1 in 6,000 messages. |
| New Scientist
Aug 19, 2004 |
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| Stealth wallpaper keeps company secrets safe |
A type of wallpaper that prevents Wi-Fi signals escaping from a building
without blocking mobile phone signals has been developed by a British
defence contractor.
BAE Systems, formerly British Aerospace, has developed anti-Wi-Fi
wallpaper, made from a 0.1-millimetre-thick sheet of kapton, the same
plastic used to make flexible printed circuit boards in lightweight
portable gadgets like camcorders. The kapton is coated on each side with
a thin film of copper.
On one side most of the copper is removed, leaving a grid of copper
crosses. On the other side, matching crosses, turned through 45 degrees,
are etched away leaving a film of copper with a grid of cross-shaped
holes. By carefully changing the size of the crosses and their spacing,
the sheet can pass precisely defined frequencies, while blocking all
others. BAE is now working on a transparent version to cover windows. |
| New Scientist
Aug 04, 2004 |
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| Sun thinking turns to floating chips |
In the future, chips might just loosely float around in some oil-like
substance instead of being stuck to a circuit board, if researchers at
Sun Microsystems are right.
Sun's 'proximity communications' technology will eliminate the need for
a chip to have a physical connection to the motherboard and other chips
within a system, resulting in a dramatic speed increase while delivering
a fivefold power reduction. Instead of being connected with physical
wires, chips will float on top of each other divided by a space just a
few microns wide. This effectively creates a capacitor, allowing the
chips to communicate without physically touching.
A new technology, yet to be developed, will hold the chips in place and
aligned to each other, as well as correct for the chips if they become
misaligned. Scientists involved with the technology said that, at the
current pace, they did not expect any real applications before 2009. |
| VNUnet UK
Jul 30, 2004 |
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| Wireless net to get speed boost |
Wi-fi is set to accelerate Wireless networks could soon be running 10
times faster than they do now. Competing technology groups are proposing
different ways to speed up the data rates of wi-fi.
The battling technologies, called WWise and TGn Sync, are being assessed
by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
which rubber stamps improvements to wireless technology. Both proposals
to speed up wi-fi exist largely on paper and could take years to find
their way into hardware. The IEEE oversees developments to wi-fi
technology, the most well known of which is 802.11. Currently the
fastest 802.11 technology works at speeds of 54mbps.
By fiddling with the way wi-fi transmits data the WWise group claims it
can reach speeds of 540mbps. Using a more standard approach the group
believes it can boost speeds to 135mbps. Details about TGn Sync are
sketchy but it too is aiming for speeds in excess of 500mbps. Final
decisions on the 802.11n standard are not expected before 2007. |
| BBC News
Aug 15, 2004 |
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| Unpatched PCs down to 20min 'survival time' |
An unpatched Windows PC connected to the internet will last for only
around 20 minutes before it is compromised by malware, according to
security experts - down from 40 minutes in 2003. The Internet Storm
Centre calculated the 20-minute 'survival time' by listening on vacant
IP addresses and timing the frequency of reports received there.
The drop from 40 minutes to 20 minutes is worrying because it means the
average 'survival time' is not long enough for a user to download the
very patches that would protect a PC from internet threats.
In a guide to patching a new Windows system, the Internet Storm Centre
recommends that users turn off Windows file sharing and enable the
Internet Connection Firewall. Microsoft's latest security update,
Windows XP Service Pack 2, will set such a configuration, but users will
have to go online to get the update, opening themselves up to attack. |
| Silicon.com / CNET News
Aug 18, 2004 |
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