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Issue no. 11, 2005 Published: Apr 08, 2005
IBM, Nokia, Oracle back EU against Microsoft
EC wants disabled access clauses in IT contracts
Yahoo to support Wikipedia.org
Software helps track child-porn traffickers
'Perpendicular recording' to boost hard drive capacity
US scientists genetically engineer remote controlled fly
Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
Microchips to battle bike thieves
Physicists write microscopic paragraph

IBM, Nokia, Oracle back EU against Microsoft
A lobby group backed by Nokia, Oracle and IBM has asked an EU court for permission to join the European Commission in its antitrust battle with Microsoft, it said on Wednesday. The five-firm European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) said its request demonstrated there was still solid industry backing for the EU executive's crackdown on Microsoft, despite settlements with some opponents. The ECIS technology industry group, which also includes software firms Red Hat and RealNetworks, has asked to intervene on the EU executive's side against Microsoft's appeal at the European Court of First Instance. ECIS said it undermined Microsoft's claims that technology firms did not back the Commission's ruling. Even if the committee is not officially allowed as a party to the action, it could still provide assistance to the Commission, which polices competition in the European Union. ECIS has already been given the right to intervene in the process of implementing and monitoring changes to Microsoft's business practices ordered by the Commission.
MSNBC / Reuters Apr 06, 2005	back to top

EC wants disabled access clauses in IT contracts
Future government IT contracts could be forced to contain clauses that ensure the technology is accessible to elderly and disabled people, according to new proposals by the European Commission (EC). The EC cites support for the proposals by 90 per cent of respondents to a recent online survey it conducted on the need for 'eAccessibility' measures. The study also found demand for some kind of product certification or 'labelling' scheme with 74 per cent of respondents saying IT goods and services need to be made more fully interoperable and that technical requirements should be harmonised within and beyond the EU. The 500 respondents came from a wide range of public agencies, IT suppliers, universities, business associations and user groups - and 88 per cent said EU institutions should take the lead on forcing the issue of accessibility. The EC said the need for a new approach stems from 'lacklustre' deployment of previous EU policy initiatives including those on the accessibility of public websites across the EU.
Silicon.com Apr 04, 2005	back to top

Yahoo to support Wikipedia.org
Yahoo's search engine division will supply hardware and other resources to the Wikimedia Foundation to support that nonprofit organisation's free Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Yahoo Search's contribution is the most significant received by Wikimedia from a corporate sponsor to date, the two organisations said in a joint statement. Yahoo Search also will feature abstracts of Wikipedia content at the top of relevant search results in the form of 'shortcuts', which are either factual information or links to factual information. Yahoo's shortcuts are intended to give users the answer they are looking for right on the search results page, so users do not have to browse away to other websites and scour them for the desired information. The hardware support will bolster Wikimedia's technical infrastructure, while the shortcuts inclusion will increase its exposure worldwide, the organisations said. Wikipedia's content is available for free and anyone can add and edit content. It receives about 50 million hits every day and its English-language version now has more than half a million articles.
The Industry Standard Apr 07, 2005	back to top

Software helps track child-porn traffickers
Microsoft and Canadian authorities this week launched a software program designed to help police worldwide hunt down child-porn traffickers by enabling authorities for the first time to link information such as credit-card purchases, internet chat-room messages and arrest records. Microsoft said the Child Exploitation Tracking System is the first software designed specifically to capture pornographers who prey on children and sell their images via the internet. It will allow police departments worldwide to share and track previously unlinked information on investigations and suspects. The open-source program was developed by Microsoft Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Toronto police, with the help of the US Department of Homeland Security, Scotland Yard and Interpol. Microsoft says it has committed $4m toward the program and that the software would be available to any police force at no cost.
The Seattle Times / AP Apr 08, 2005	back to top

'Perpendicular recording' to boost hard drive capacity
The next generation of PCs and portable music players could hold 10 times more information than current models, thanks to a different way of writing magnetic data to a hard disc. Japanese electronics company Hitachi announced on Monday that it had begun testing the experimental technology, known as 'perpendicular recording'. The company aims to offer drives incorporating it to the public towards the end of 2005. Hard drives store information by magnetising sectors of a disc in a specific direction, which then correspond to either a '1' or a '0'. This is done by passing magnetic heads over the disc surface which magnetises the sectors in a direction parallel to its surface - so-called 'longitudinal recording'. Perpendicular recording uses different-shaped heads to magnetise disc sectors so that the polarity points either up or down - at 90° to the disc’s surface. Data can still be retrieved from the disc in the traditional way, using another head to detect the magnetic charge.
New Scientist Apr 04, 2005	back to top

US scientists genetically engineer remote controlled fly
Scientists from Yale University have genetically engineered remote- controlled flies that can be made to jump and beat their wings with pulses of laser light. Light-sensitive triggers in the flies' brains and nervous systems allow the insects' actions to be directed by shining a laser beam at them. The researchers genetically engineered fruit flies with special 'receivers' embedded in specific nerve cells. The receivers consist of ion channels - proteins that act as gateways for electrically charged particles. A small molecule called ATP, injected into the flies, unlocks the ion channel gate. But the ATP is trapped in a chemical 'cage' that can only be opened by stimulation with laser light. When millisecond pulses of UV laser light were shone at the flies, the ATP was freed to activate the ion channels, which in turn affected the flies' behaviour. The technique opens up new avenues for studying neural circuits without using brain implants. Ultimately, it could lead to new ways of restoring body functions lost through injury and disease, say the researchers.
The Scotsman Apr 08, 2005	back to top

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
Imagine movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That is the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony. The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive and would be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells. However, Sony's patent describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating 'sensory experiences' ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.
New Scientist Apr 07, 2005	back to top

Microchips to battle bike thieves
Ten thousand second-hand bicycles are to be fitted with microchips in Amsterdam during the coming months as part of a trial programme to cut the huge number of bicycle thefts in the city. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 150,000 bicycles are stolen in the Dutch capital annually. Only about 7,000 bicycle thefts are reported to police. Amsterdam City Council hopes that the microchip — which contains a unique code identifying the true owner of the bike — will help cut the number of thefts and encourage more people to go to police when their bike is taken. Officers will run a scanner over a bike they suspect might be stolen. If the bike contains a chip, the identity of the true owner can quickly be established. Authorities hope that the use of the chip will increase the chance that the bike, if found, can be re-united with its owner. On average, only 1 per cent of stolen bikes are returned to the owner. If successful, the project will be implemented nation-wide.
Expatica News / Het Parool Mar 31, 2005	back to top

Physicists write microscopic paragraph
Physicists in Spain are celebrating the 400th anniversary of publication of 'Don Quixote' in a very small way: they wrote the first paragraph on a silicon chip in letters so tiny the whole 1,000-page book would fit on the tips of six human hairs. The feat shows off a data-storage technique developed years ago by the Microelectronics Institute of Madrid, part of the government's top scientific research agency. It uses a device called an atomic force microscope, which runs a ceramic or semiconductor tip over a silicon surface in much the same way as a phonograph needle scans a record. Using water vapour in the atmosphere and an electric charge, that tip basically etches out tiny letters on the surface. The technique can be used to make computer chips and so-called electronic paper, thin flexible sheets that can store and erase information.
MSNBC / AP / El Pais Apr 07, 2005	back to top