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Issue no. 37, 2004 Published: Nov 05, 2004
US duo in first spam conviction
Japan considers banning pre-paid mobile phones
Study: Linux 'most breached' OS
Organised chaos gets robots going
MIT researchers develop plane guidance system
Inkjet printing promises cheaper circuits
Mobiles double up as bus tickets
Crime scene DNA puts names in the frame

US duo in first spam conviction
A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited email messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk emails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was 'a snake oil salesman in a new format', using the internet to peddle useless wares. A 'Fed-Ex refund processor' was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an 'internet history eraser'. His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said.
BBC News / AP Nov 04, 2004	back to top

Japan considers banning pre-paid mobile phones
The Japanese government is considering banning pre-paid mobile phones in a bid to crack down on scams. The scams involve people using pre-paid phones, that are hard to trace, to make calls pretending to be relatives needing cash. The Japanese media has raised concern about a possible ban, saying it is blaming technology for crime. The move could also affect the profits of mobile operators. Vodafone KK is the operator most likely to be hit by a ban as pre-paid customers account for 10 per cent or around 1.5 million of its customers in Japan. The proposal is informally supported by leading Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo which has just 93,000 pre-paid users from a total customer base of 46 million.
Telecom.Paper / Dow Jones Newswires Oct 29, 2004	back to top

Study: Linux 'most breached' OS
Apple Computer's OS X and the open-source BSD operating system provide the 'world's safest and most secure' computing platforms, according to London-based security firm mi2g. The report also describes Linux as the world's 'most breached' online computing environment, followed by Microsoft's Windows operating system. According to mi2g, the firm's Intelligence Unit study analysed more than 235,000 successful attacks against permanently connected computers worldwide between November 2003 and October 2004. According to the study, computers running Linux accounted for about 65 per cent of all recorded breaches, while Microsoft Windows-based systems accounted for about 25 per cent of such attacks. Successful attacks against OS X and BSD-based online systems accounted for less than five per cent of the worldwide total.
Linux Pipeline Nov 03, 2004	back to top

Organised chaos gets robots going
Standard robots control their leg motion either through complex computer programs or by using so-called genetic algorithms to 'evolve' a successful walking strategy. Both these options are time-consuming and require a lot of computer power. But roboticists at Tokyo University devised a computer simulation of a 12-legged machine in which each leg was controlled by a chaotic mathematical function. The functions were initially fed 12 parameters chosen at random. From then on, sensory information from each limb was fed back into the chaotic function that controlled it. Certain combinations of starting parameters made the robot's limbs rapidly adopt 'walking-on-the-spot' behaviour, but the machine did not get anywhere. However, when they placed a weight at one end of the simulated robot they found that four of the legs seized up, allowing the front and back legs to dominate movement and let the robot scamper along. The robot could also negotiate obstacles in its path. Remarkably, the robot performed these tricks without any conventional programming. And its behaviour emerged far more quickly than with genetic algorithms.
New Scientist Nov 01, 2004	back to top

MIT researchers develop plane guidance system
MIT researchers have found a way to let a pilot in a plane control another, unmanned plane, through voice commands. They describe their aircraft guidance system as an ideal wingman - one willing and able to understand commands, manoeuvre into danger spots and quickly change course when faced with sudden obstacles or revised battle plans. Meanwhile, its human controller flies behind in safer, higher airspace. MIT worked with Teragram to create a natural language interface through which the two aircraft communicate and coordinate actions. The system allows for communications at a high level. As an industry partner in the military-sponsored effort, Boeing provided the avionics platform used to test MIT's guidance system and planes used to demonstrate it. The system was tested in June. A pilot in a manned F-15 fighter issued commands in everyday English to a T-33 trainer plane that served as a substitute for an actual unmanned plane. The plane was controlled entirely by MIT's software, which ran on laptops inside each plane.
ABC News / AP Nov 03, 2004	back to top

Inkjet printing promises cheaper circuits
Electronic devices could be made more cheaply and with less of an impact on the environment using a circuit-making technology based on inkjet printing, says Japanese electronics firm Epson. The technique is based on the method used by inkjet printers to apply ink to paper. Epson's inkjet circuit printer either fires droplets of conducting 'ink' or insulating 'ink' onto a circuit board. By printing multiple layers of conductive and insulating ink, it is possible to make simple electronic components such as transistors. Epson announced that it had used a prototype inkjet device to make a circuit that is 20 millimetres square, 200 microns thick and consists of 20 individually printed layers. Each line printed on this board is just 50 microns wide and 4 microns deep. Epson estimate inkjet-printed circuits should be about half as expensive to make as current circuitry and also less environmentally harmful. The company also aims to commercialise the technology by April 2007.
New Scientist Nov 03, 2004	back to top

Mobiles double up as bus tickets
Swiping a mobile phone on the bus could cut queues Mobiles could soon double up as travel cards, with Nokia planning to try out a wireless ticket system on German buses. Early next year travellers in the city of Hanau, near Frankfurt, will be able to pay for tickets by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the buses. Passengers will need to own a Nokia 3220 handset which will have a special shell attached to it. The system would reduce queues and make travelling easier, said Nokia. The ticketless trial will start early in 2005 and people will also be able to access transport information and timetables via their phones. Nokia has worked with Philips to develop a shell for the mobile phone that will be compatible with Hanau's existing ticketing system.
BBC News Nov 02, 2004	back to top

Crime scene DNA puts names in the frame
Forensic scientists at the UK's Forensic Science Service in Birmingham are developing a method of linking DNA evidence from a crime scene to the surname of the perpetrator. The technique is based on the concept that men should inherit both a Y chromosome and a surname from their father. Broadly speaking, men with matching surnames are also likely to have matching Y chromosomes. Y chromosomes can be compared by matching certain key characteristics, or markers. Typically 20 of these should be good enough to match two chromosomes accurately. The UK's National DNA Database now holds more than one million DNA samples, making it the most comprehensive catalogue of its kind in the world. And data is being added to it at an increasing rate, after the UK government changed the law in 2004 to allow DNA samples to be taken from people who have been arrested as well as those who are charged or convicted with a crime.
New Scientist Nov 04, 2004	back to top