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Issue no. 17, 2005 Published: May 27, 2005
EU to fund global research on open source
EU hits Microsoft with a deadline
IBM enhances support for open-source training
Next-generation phase-change memory project launched
Nanoscale light tricks promise huge DVD storage
Light gun fires photons one by one
Samsung claims Flash breakthrough
Hackers move into information kidnap
Sensor prevents shut-eye in digital snaps

EU to fund global research on open source
The EU is putting money toward research into open-source software and standards across the world. The newly approved funding of EUR 660,000 is for the two-year FLOSSWorld project, Europe's first initiative to support international research and policy development on 'free/libre/open source software'. FLOSSWorld is coordinated by the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. The grant will be shared by countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, India, Malaysia and South Africa. The research will focus on three areas: the impact of free and open-source software on skills development and its ability to affect economics and generate employment; regional differences in software development; and attitudes of governments and public sector organisations to using open source. See: http://flossworld.org
ZDNet / CNET News May 26, 2005	back to top

EU hits Microsoft with a deadline
Microsoft has until the end of May to come to terms with EU authorities over a long-running antitrust dispute, the European Commission has said. The deadline refers to a 2004 judgement, where the Commission found the software firm guilty of abusing its market dominance. Microsoft is supposed to provide details of how it could bring its practices back in line with EU rules. But Brussels has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction at the slow pace. In addition to a EUR 497m fine in March 2004, Brussels ordered Microsoft to open up its core software systems to rivals. Microsoft was also ordered to provide a version of Windows without its own Windows Media Player. Under EU rules Europe could fine Microsoft up to 5 per cent of its daily global turnover for each day that a decision is not applied to its liking.
BBC News May 23, 2005	back to top

IBM enhances support for open-source training
IBM announced this week a clutch of new initiatives to promote open-source technology in academic institutions. IBM said it is teaming up with Red Hat to help academic bodies generate job skills on Linux, as well as training on IBM software and servers. The partnership includes a range of higher education institutions, from large research universities to vocational schools. In a related move, IBM said it would provide curriculum resources and training in open-source technologies at Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. IBM also announced a new course, Services Sciences, Management and Engineering, designed to develop skills required for services-based economies. The course will be offered to different universities under the company's Academic Initiative, which is designed to help educators teach students open standards technology skills.
ZDNet / CNET News May 24, 2005	back to top

Next-generation phase-change memory project launched
Infineon and Macronix have kick-started a joint research initiative aiming to explore the potential of next-generation phase-change computer memory (PCM). The technology stores data by changing the state of a special material from an amorphous to a crystalline structure, rather than as an electrical charge. Although the firms conceded that development is in its early stages, they believe that PCM shows potential for high-speed, high-density storage, while retaining data even when power is turned off. Such attributes could be beneficial in applications ranging from high-performance servers to consumer electronics. IBM will contribute its research on fundamental materials and physics, while Infineon will assess the development and high volume manufacture of PCM chips. Macronix will share its experience in non-volatile memory technologies. The research work will be conducted at IBM's T J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and the IBM Almaden Research Lab in San José, California.
VNUnet UK May 26, 2005	back to top

Nanoscale light tricks promise huge DVD storage
The tantalising prospect of DVDs capable of holding almost a terabyte of data has been presented in a patent issued to US storage company Iomega. The US patent describes a disc that could store 40 to 100 times more information that a conventional DVD, using more nanometre-scale sloped ridges to diffract light. Conventional DVDs store information in the form of ridges and depressions, each several hundred nanometres wide. These correspond to bits of binary data. The data is read from a disc by bouncing laser light off its surface and measuring the angle at which it reflects. According to Iomega's proposed technology, dubbed Articulated Optical Digital Versatile Disc (AO-DVD), sub-wavelength surface bumps on an AO-DVD would slope at slightly different angles - this could be used to encode up to 100 times more information. The angles would be detected by analysing light after it had bounced off several ridges - calculating which combination of slopes would have produced the result.
New Scientist May 26, 2005	back to top

Light gun fires photons one by one
The first photon gun capable of firing single particles of light over optical fibres was unveiled on Tuesday, possibly allowing perfectly secure messages from being sent over standard telephone fibres. Quantum cryptography encrypts data with keys that reveal if they have been intercepted or tampered with. But it works only if the key is sent using individual photons, rather than the pulses of many photons that are used for communication today. In the last year, a number of companies have begun selling quantum encryption kits that create single photons, on average. But there always remains a small probability that any pulse will contain two or more photons. This is a potentially serious weakness because a hacker could intercept the extra photons without the sender and receiver being aware. Now researchers at Toshiba's Cambridge Research Laboratory in the UK have developed a photon gun that emits only one photon at a time. The device should finally close the security loophole in the current quantum encryption techniques.
New Scientist May 24, 2005	back to top

Samsung claims Flash breakthrough
Samsung Electronics says it has developed the first solid state disk (SSD) based on Nand Flash memory technology. The SSD has a power consumption rate less than five per cent of today's hard disk drives (HDDs), enabling next-generation mobile PCs to extend battery life by more than 10 per cent. The Nand-based SSD weighs less than half that of a comparably sized HDD. The electronics giant is marketing the SSD as a low-power, lightweight storage media for notebooks, sub-notebooks and tablet PCs. Using high-density 8Gbit Nand Flash, Samsung said it can build SSDs with a capacity of up to 16GB. The storage disk reads data at 57Mbps and writes it at 32Mbps. Samsung says that these levels of SSD performance exceed those of a comparably sized HDDs by more than 150 per cent. To ensure compatibility, the SSDs have been designed to look like HDDs from the outside.
VNUnet UK May 23, 2005	back to top

Hackers move into information kidnap
Security experts are warning of a new hacking technique that attempts to extort money by encoding files on a victim's PC then demanding payment for a tool to decode the information. In a case highlighted by Websense Security Labs, a user was infected with a virus that used a known vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The virus contacted a website that hosted an application to encode files on the user's hard disk. The process makes the data illegible unless the user breaks the encryption or enters a decryption key. The attackers left a message on the affected system offering to provide a decryption key for $200. The money was to be paid into an online E-Gold account. Cyber-extortion is a well-documented issue for enterprises. Criminals have tried to blackmail companies by threatening to launch a denial of service attack, or by stealing company databases and demanding money to prevent an embarrassing disclosure of the company's lax security. The case highlighted by Websense, however, is the first time that internet criminals have targeted consumers on a wide scale.
VNUnet UK May 25, 2005	back to top

Sensor prevents shut-eye in digital snaps
Digital images featuring someone in mid-blink could be banished forever using an image-analysis system for cameras. Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, developed the system, which can even eliminate blinking from group photographs, they say. Digital cameras can cause people to inadvertently blink at the vital moment by emitting several pre-photo flashes. These are meant to prevent red eye by making the subject's irises contract, but they can also dazzle the target and make them to shut their eyes when the picture is captured. The new system gets around the problem by snapping 15 frames in 0.5 seconds after the shutter button is clicked. A computer then rapidly analyses these image, discarding those in which the subject is blinking, leaving photographer with a better final snap. The researchers say the system can even detect closed eyes within photos of up to 30 people and can automatically pick out an image featuring the least blinkers.
New Scientist May 25, 2005	back to top