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Issue no. 29, 2005 Published: Oct 07, 2005
EU reveals mobile roaming charges
EU urges industry to do more for robots
EU picks ex-hacker to monitor Microsoft
Microsoft's Linux-related patents rejected
Symantec identifies trojan targeting gaming devices
Scientists create a quantum memory
Satellite set to survey Earth's poles
Red blood cells fitted with artificial tails
Invention: Laptop smokescreen

EU reveals mobile roaming charges
The European Commission has set up a website to help people cut the high cost of using mobile phones abroad. The Commission says the site reveals the tariffs of all mobile operators in the EU's 25 member states. In July, according to the Commission, consumers faced charges ranging from 0.58 euro cents to over 5 euros per minute. According to the website, British tourists in Italy are charged 50 per cent more for mobile calls made and received there than French tourists. By giving consumers more information, the Commission hopes mobile users will change their mobile habits and save money. It suggests people could sign up for cheaper holiday tariffs offered by some operators, change their mobile operator altogether, or buy a foreign 'pay as you go' SIM card to avoid the increased cost of making calls abroad entirely. The website will be updated every six months. As well as sample tariffs it also contains links to the full tariffs of every operator in the EU. http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/roaming/index_en.htm
BBC News Oct 04, 2005	back to top

EU urges industry to do more for robots
European industry needs to do more to turn research on robots into viable products as the region begins to lose pace to Japan in robot manufacturing, the European Commission said on Thursday. The EU is spending around EUR 50m a year on research projects spawning prototype creatures such as 'swarm-bots', based on research into ant behaviour, or the 'hydra', the world's first robot that changes shape. But projects such as these usually take 10 to 15 years to produce a useful robot that can be sold on the market. Robotic research has, so far, been mainly academic research without much industry involvement, the Commission said, warning the EU is losing to Japan because of Japan's higher level of development in their research and innovation. On Friday, the Commission will launch a platform helping the firms to coordinate research in robotics and expand into new markets including security and space.
Yahoo!/ Reuters Oct 06, 2005	back to top

EU picks ex-hacker to monitor Microsoft
The European Commission on Wednesday called on Neil Barrett, a former computer hacker who is now an expert on fraud, to monitor whether Microsoft is complying with orders to change the way it operates in Europe. Barrett, a British author, professor and witness in criminal cases against hackers, was named monitoring trustee to the commission. In the paid position, Barrett is likely to play a role in the enforcement of orders for Microsoft to share source code for its server software with competitors and provide a version of Windows that does not include its Windows Media Player software. As trustee to the European Commission, Barrett will help assess compliance with the commission's 2004 ruling that Microsoft abused its near-monopoly in desktop operating systems to squeeze out rival makers of media players and to prevent competitors from designing software that worked with its servers.
International Herald Tribune Oct 06, 2005	back to top

Microsoft's Linux-related patents rejected
The US Patent Office has rejected two Microsoft patents over the FAT file format. The patent office delivered its ruling late last month but made it public this week. The rejections come after a re-examination of the patents was sought by the Public Patent Foundation, which argued that they were invalid because there was 'prior art', that is, evidence that others had done similar work before Microsoft's patent application. A US Patent Office examiner issued a preliminary rejection of one Microsoft patent in September 2004. Though developed for Windows, the FAT format has become a common means of storing files on all manner of computers, as well as on removable flash memory cards used in digital cameras and other devices. It is also used by the open-source Samba software that lets Linux and Unix computers exchange data with Windows computers, and by Linux itself to read and write files on Windows hard drives.
CNET News Oct 05, 2005	back to top

Symantec identifies trojan targeting gaming devices
Security software experts identified a malicious program targeting Sony Playstation Portable systems that marks the first so-called Trojan found in video game devices, Symantec said on Thursday. Symantic said the Trojan represented a low-level threat, only affecting machines users have modified with their own code. Researchers identified the Trojan when monitoring online chat-rooms used by the gaming community. The discovery is evidence hackers are expanding their targets, according to Symantic.
Reuters Oct 06, 2005	back to top

Scientists create a quantum memory
Physicists of the Laser Physics Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra have slowed a speeding laser pulse and captured it in a crystal, a feat that could be instrumental in creating quantum computers. The scientists slowed the laser light pulse from 300,000 kilometres per second to just several hundred meters per second, allowing them to capture the pulse for about a second. The accomplishment marks a new world record, but the scientists are more thrilled that they were able to store and recall light, an important step toward quantum computing. Slowing down light allows scientists to map information onto it. The information is then transferred from the light to the crystal. Then when the light is released, the information is transferred back onto the beam, effectively creating a 'quantum memory'.
Wired News Oct 04, 2005	back to top

Satellite set to survey Earth's poles
The first satellite to accurately measure how fast the Earth's polar ice caps are shrinking will launch on 8 October. Unlike previous radar satellites, CryoSat carries twin radar antennae that give it three-dimensional vision, so it can see not only how much of the planet's surface is covered with ice, but also how thick the ice is. The satellite should be able to detect changes in thickness of just a few centimetres, and can even see through thick cloud. The result is the most precise radar system ever sent into space. The craft's main goal is to watch floating sea ice around the Arctic. This ice plays an important part in moderating our climate by reflecting the Sun's heat from the Earth. When it melts, this will not only raise sea levels but also expose the darker oceans that greedily soak up the Sun's rays, accelerating ice loss. CryoSat will make a complete survey of the Arctic and Antarctic every month. The satellite will also measure ice thickness on the landmasses of Greenland and Antarctica.
Nature Oct 03, 2005	back to top

Red blood cells fitted with artificial tails
They might look like sperm swimming backwards, but red blood cells have become the first living cells to be fitted with an artificial tail. As the tail whips back and forth, the cell moves tail-first at six micrometres per second - about 10 times as slow as sperm swim. The secret to the cell's motion lies in the composition of the tail - a filament of tiny magnetic beads held rigidly together by strands of DNA. When an oscillating magnetic field is applied to the cells, they move through the fluid as their tails bend to align themselves with the constantly reversing direction of the magnetic field. The microscopic swimmers might one day provide a way to direct medicines through the bloodstream to exactly the right spot, according to its inventors at France's Ecole Supérieure of industrial physics and chemistry in Paris. In theory, the filaments could be attached to any cell.
New Scientist / Nature Oct 05, 2005	back to top

Invention: Laptop smokescreen
It is all too easy for an identity thief to sneak a look at the screen of a laptop or PC. Cumbersome bolt-on filters can restrict the side view, but they are costly and do nothing to protect from over-the- shoulder spying. Now a US researcher has come up with a simple way to make any screen more private, no matter what the angle of snooping. Software artificially narrows the contrast between dark and light within a selected window and overlays the contents with a wash of another colouring. For example, a window displaying black text on a white background might be overlaid with red, making the white background seem light red and black words dark red. Although legible from close up, the words are much harder to read from a distance. Adding a mottling effect makes reading from a distance even harder. The strength of the wash and the size of the mottles could be automatically adjusted to suit the size of the window and of the text font.
New Scientist Oct 04, 2005	back to top