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Issue no. 22, 2005 Published: Jul 08, 2005
Europe rejects patent proposal
EU seeks pan-European license for online music use
Vienna kicks off open source migration
Microsoft pays out $775m to IBM
Watching TV harms kids' academic success
New wireless broadband 'whispers' below the radar
Special shark senses studied for US Navy
Suicide bombers not easily foiled by technology
Entering a dark age of innovation

Europe rejects patent proposal
The European Parliament has rejected a controversial measure that would have legalised software patents in the European Union. Out of 729 members of the European Parliament 648 voted Wednesday to reject the proposal, called the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, which would have widened the extent to which software could be patented. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, or FFII, described the decision as a 'great victory for those who have campaigned to ensure that European innovation and competitiveness is protected from monopolisation of software functionalities and business methods'. While many software developers have spoken out against the directive from the start, large companies have lobbied in its favour, often via campaign groups such as the Business Software Alliance, CompTIA and the Campaign for Creativity.
CNET News / ZDNet UK Jul 06, 2005	back to top

EU seeks pan-European license for online music use
The European Commission will push for measures to establish a pan-European copyright license for online music use by October to allow EU industry to compete better with the United States, it said Thursday. Right now there are 25 different licensing bodies in the 25-nation EU, and anyone who wants to open an online store for music faces the trouble and expense of approaching the royalty collector in each member state. The Commission is now consulting interested parties about the initiative, which could result in legislation or a set of recommendations. US online music revenue in 2004 came in at EUR 207m compared with EUR 27.2m in Europe. Forecasts for 2005 put the US figure at nearly EUR 500m compared with Europe's EUR 106.4m.
CNET News / Reuters Jul 07, 2005	back to top

Vienna kicks off open source migration
The Austrian capital city of Vienna kicked off its soft migration to open source software on the desktop on Tuesday. Plans for the migration were announced in January. Vienna town councillor Rudi Schicker presented the city's bespoke Linux distribution, known as Wienux, at a press conference. Departments in the city administration will now be given the option to migrate to open source software on the desktop. The city is currently running Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 on its 16,000 desktop PCs but has identified 7,500 that could be migrated to the open source productivity application OpenOffice.org. Of these, 4,800 could also be migrated to the open source operating system Linux.
Silicon.com / ZDNet UK Jul 06, 2005	back to top

Microsoft pays out $775m to IBM
Microsoft is to pay $775m to computer giant IBM to settle an anti-trust claim. Under the settlement, the software maker will also give IBM a $75m credit for its computer programs. The settlement resolves discriminatory pricing and overcharging allegations made by IBM. The action dates back to a 1990s US federal case which found Microsoft had been acting as a monopoly by forcing computer firms to take its software. The $775m payout is the latest in a long line of such payments following the action brought by the US Department of Justice - last year Microsoft agreed to pay $2bn to Sun Microsystems. The case does also not resolve another outstanding claim launched by IBM. The computer group alleges that Microsoft's software dominance damaged its server hardware and software business. However, IBM has said it will not launch any compensation claims in the case for two years - it will also limit such claims to damages suffered after June 2002.
BBC News Jul 01, 2005	back to top

Watching TV harms kids' academic success
Too much time in front of the TV reduces children's learning abilities, academic achievement, and even the likelihood of their graduating from university, suggest three new studies. Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand studied nearly 1,000 children born in 1972 and 1973. Kids who watched the least TV - especially between the ages of 5 and 11 - had the highest probability of graduating from university by the age of 26, regardless of IQ or socioeconomic status. While those who watched the most TV, more than 3 hours per day, had the highest chance of dropping out of school without qualifications. Two other studies found similar results. One proposed mechanism of how TV harms educational achievement is that TV takes time away from creative play, reading or doing homework. But, the editorial notes, research specifically examining this suggests it is especially the content of what is viewed that matters. They suggest that parents should encourage kids to watch quality, educational programming.
New Scientist / Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Jul 04, 2005	back to top

New wireless broadband 'whispers' below the radar
A new communications tool that 'whispers' on busy radio channels could enable broadband internet services for on-the-go wireless devices or hook up homes that cannot yet get fast web access. xMax, developed by XG Technology, is a very quiet radio system that uses radio channels already filled up with noisy pager or TV signals. The system can emit signals that are too weak to be picked up by normal antennas, but that can be 'heard' by special aerials which know where to 'listen', thus enabling dual usage of the same scarce radio spectrum. The technology could interest a telecoms or internet operator with no radio spectrum because it can begin a wireless broadband service with very few base stations and add more stations and increase density as demand rises. It is also appealing for rural areas which operators find too costly to cover with the current third-generation mobile phone networks which need base stations every few miles.
ZDNet Jul 04, 2005	back to top

Special shark senses studied for US Navy
Could technology duplicate the innate ability sharks and stingrays possess to detect electrical fields generated by other creatures in the ocean? RD Instruments, which develops acoustic sensors for detecting the speed of currents for marine safety, is trying to find out as part of a US Navy research project that could lead to new ways for the military to detect enemy submarines or mines at sea. Sharks use their ability to detect electric fields created by other animals moving underwater both for navigation and targeting prey. The firm is studying sharks to gauge the feasibility of duplicating that sensory skill. If feasibility studies are successful and the Navy opts to fund RDI, the company estimates it could take two years to develop a prototype.
Yahoo / AP Jul 06, 2005	back to top

Suicide bombers not easily foiled by technology
When it comes to preventing suicide-bomb attacks technology cannot beat good old-fashioned detective work, a new study suggests. The development of sensitive explosives sensors and scanners have in recent years raised the hope that technology could one day be used to detect suicide bombers. However, widespread deployment in urban areas would still fail to reduce casualties in any meaningful way, according to Edward Kaplan at Yale University, US. Working with Moshe Kress at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, US, he used mathematical models to predict how effective networks of sensors would be in early detection of pedestrian bombers, both in a city grid scenario and an open plaza environment. They found that even if the sensors worked perfectly, to detect more than 80 per cent of all attacks with sufficient time to respond would require between 70 per cent and 80 per cent sensor coverage of the area of a city. Sensors are still likely to be effective in protecting specific target areas, such as government buildings. But many suicide bomb attacks appear to be random and investment in intelligence- gathering to prevent an attack seems a wiser strategy, says Kaplan.
New Scientist / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 04, 2005	back to top

Entering a dark age of innovation
Far from being in technological nirvana, we are fast approaching a new dark age, according to Jonathan Huebner, a physicist working at the US Pentagon's Naval Air Warfare Center. Huebner plotted major innovations and scientific advances over time compared to world population, using the 7200 key innovations listed in the recently published book 'The History of Science and Technology'. Rather than growing exponentially, or even keeping pace with population growth, they peaked in 1873 and have been declining ever since. When he plotted the number of US patents granted per decade divided by the country's population, he found the graph peaked in 1915. The global rate of innovation today, which is running at seven 'important technological developments' per billion people per year, matches the rate in 1600. Despite far higher standards of education and massive R&D funding 'it is more difficult now for people to develop new technology', Huebner says. Extrapolating this curve just two decades into the future, the innovation rate plummets to medieval levels.
New Scientist Jul 02, 2005	back to top